Am I Rubbish?

[u8dmtm]

To me it seems like no one up the top in Education (Ministerial level and a few floors downward) has an understanding of how things have changed, expectations or how to get the job done. I think it's us folk on the ground who now need to be sending the message up that to give schools proper ICT and proper ICT support is a whole new ball game nowadays.

 

I think the emergence of Managed Service Providers goes some way to addressing this and moves on from the single-horse town approach of the past.

[GrumbleDook]

Each school will have their own problems and some take more radical fixes than others. If we take one solution .. the unmovable MSP. They would come in, force all jobs to be logged via the helpdesk only, will not accept additional work unless it is definitely needed, will only do the stuff they are contracted to do and then grind down anyone wanting to make changes until they get into a steady state.

 

Then we take the other extreme ... the school that will get in 2 more staff. 1 will end up doing the website stuff and the other will become the audio-visual specialist. The existing techie starts up routine maintenance and you concentrate on keeping servers running. Between the 4 of you there is time to tackle the backlog of tickets and then you reach steady state.

 

The reality is that the unmovable MSP will lower the IT facilities as part of the fix to the problem and the extra techies will have more work thrown at them so you don't get a chance on the backlog.

 

If you can go away for a day with you, your techie and a switched on member of senior leadership.

 

Look at how you prioritise your activities. Look at common and recurring issues. Look at how it is decided what IT facilities are needed.

 

When you have your priorities then decide how they will be communicated to staff. Look at the procedures you use for prioritisation. Remember that an incident does not always have to be fixed first time. If you need to put something to one side then do so, but you have to remember consistency.

 

When you are identifying common or recurring issues look for ways of reducing them. Is it that staff need training? Do you need to change the type of hardware you are buying? Do you need to change the type of technology in use?

 

Set some short targets that are achievable. If someone books a camera out and needs support downloading pictures of it then set the target of creating a FAQ to remove that requirement. If you need to set up projectors (because you are using mobile projectors) then look at the long term plans to get more projectors and ceiling mount them (or wall mount some ultra-short-throw projectors).

 

Most of it is common sense stuff that you have the answers to already but don't have the time to plan for. The key thing is having Senior Leadership support. If you can also get a teacher involved in this planning who can be turned into a supporter then do so ... you then also have your change management group who can help and be the control group for major changes over the coming years, helping to tie it in with the school development plan.

 

Try not to work on your own with this ... it may save some of the pain to start with but will mean longer problems long term.

 

And don't be scared to stop working at home. Take the time to tell the member from SLT how much you do and that you have to stop. Use it to explain that some things will just not get done.

 

Chin up ... have a chilled weekend and smile as you walk in the door on Monday morning.

[Zorba]

Thanks Grumbledook for taking the time to write such a long post. You are absolutely right, however with BSF around the corner I do not expect SLT to do much to address the problem and much as it pains me I think I may start looking for work elsewhere.

[GrumbleDook]

If BSF is a prospect then you need to train the SLT in how to deal with MSP bidders and the LA to get the best for the school. They need to adapt to a single point of contact, no control over priorities apart from those already agreed (or those from further negotiation), no educational input ...

 

Get them to visit a few BSF schools outside of your LA to get feedback from others.

[IanT]

At my last place it was just me.........I looked after........

 

850 Users (Students\Staff)

10 Servers

Phone System

General Support

Network

Plasma Systems

Web Site

 

It was hard work but I enjoyed it, I did get stressed.

 

I know how you feel.