Help! overworked teacher/sysadmin

[johnnyreb]

Hi,

sorry for the melodramatic title!

i am a former sysadmin in a private company (9 years) turned teacher. I took over the school network in my primary school when i started teaching 5 years ago.

I basically set about implementing best practices with standard images, server, AD, security etc. We have about 50 computers - 18 teacher laptops (win7) for IWBs, 20 old PCs (XP) in classrooms, 2 old xp pcs in the secretary's office. I have one Windows 2008 R2 server, about 2 years old now. We will be getting a trolley with 30 laptops in a few months. I am a complete one man band, no other outside IT support, i fix everything! crazy! and teach! I have everything locked down except some of the older classroom pcs that are not even joined to the domain. Teachers don't have local admin rights on their laptops. I try to roll out software using AD but as we all know most software doesn't come with msi, especially educational software! I had plenty of time in my old job to spend on repackaging/testing but not now.I am a teacher in the school and spend many hours outside of school troubleshooting, installing software, changing projector lamps, and all the usual things that an IT dept would do. It is reaching a point now where i don't really have the time for a lot of the work. I was considering giving the teachers local admin rights to their laptops. The thinking is that at least i wouldn't have to visit them to install software. I know the risks that come with this. I have symantec antivirus and firewall that can be locked down separately and controlled centrally and i can still control a lot with GPO. I could use the school AUP to warn them of the dangers of installing software etc. and maybe warn them that if i have to spend anymore than 30 mins fixing their laptop, i will reimage it and they will have to install anything else themselves.

Another thought i had was something like specops which allegedly allows for easy installation of legacy apps. I'm seeing the laptop trolley with the extra 30 machines coming soon and this will increase my workload. i'm sure situations will arise where software will need to be installed on these machines and i won't have the time to do 30 after school!

Your thoughts are appreciated fellow sysadmins :-)

thanks in advance.

john

[plexer]

I would say the school needs to invest in more IT support or someone to take over from you so that you can get back to teaching.

 

Ben

[aerospacemango]

I cannot condone giving teachers local admin rights on their laptops. The inherent risks in this far outweigh the benefits.

 

In my experience, once a teacher has rights, they'll start putting stuff all over it, and before you know it, you're re-imaging it anyway.

 

It may well be worth speaking to your HT about the situation, and how swamped you are/have been. The school NEEDS to invest in its IT department, and either pay you more, and take away the teaching, or get you an assistant/ junior techie.

 

In your current state, if you are happy giving them local admin, then do it, as you sound as if you're aware of the risks, anyway.

 

Good luck, fella......You need any advice, keep popping your head in!

[TechSupp]

Hey, I'm glad I'm not the only one, thought you were describing my job! I'm in the same position here although I work in two schools doing the same thing. Just remember there are only so may hours in a day and so many of them are yours and yours only! They have to recognise time off schedule for 'techy' bits is a necessity not something that you will just manage to fit in.

[johnnyreb]

Thanks Ben. Good point. I suppose I quite enjoy the work to a point.

Now it's getting too much though.

I would say the school needs to invest in more IT support or someone to take over from you so that you can get back to teaching.

 

Ben

[johnnyreb]

A day a week sounds good. As long as he did things the way I wanted them shouldn't be a problem.

just as Ben said. A day a week Tech should be able to look after all that and leave you to be able to Teach.

[johnnyreb]

In an ideal world you are right but in reality I may just do it. In a lot of schools i go into they dont even use user accounts!Appreciate the advice and support Thanks.

I cannot condone giving teachers local admin rights on their laptops. The inherent risks in this far outweigh the benefits.

 

In my experience, once a teacher has rights, they'll start putting stuff all over it, and before you know it, you're re-imaging it anyway.

 

It may well be worth speaking to your HT about the situation, and how swamped you are/have been. The school NEEDS to invest in its IT department, and either pay you more, and take away the teaching, or get you an assistant/ junior techie.

 

In your current state, if you are happy giving them local admin, then do it, as you sound as if you're aware of the risks, anyway.

 

Good luck, fella......You need any advice, keep popping your head in!

[johnnyreb]

Thanks for reply. Do the school give you time off for IT stuff? How does it work for you. I got one hour a week last year which was so small, I could hardly get a thing done. They can't really pay me as it's a conflict of interest. I have the ICT post in the school which carries a very small extra payment but to be honest the ICT post holder is not meant to be the sysadmin and support.

Hey, I'm glad I'm not the only one, thought you were describing my job! I'm in the same position here although I work in two schools doing the same thing. Just remember there are only so may hours in a day and so many of them are yours and yours only! They have to recognise time off schedule for 'techy' bits is a necessity not something that you will just manage to fit in.

[mavhc]

What we need is more people to update the wiki with packaging instructions, upload WIX files etc

[Sam_Brown]

A day a week sounds good. As long as he did things the way I wanted them shouldn't be a problem.

 

Heh that's always the problem isn't it! Moan about too much work but then when you delegate you end up having to double check everything is done to your standards anyway.

[witch]

Why can't they pay you? I have a friend who is ICT co-ord in a first school, she teaches all the IT and then does all the techy stuff in the afternoons, and is paid for both jobs. As for what you might need, I would suggest someone to do a couple of hours a day rather than one day a week- I used to do that in a first school and it was enough to keep on top of things and it meant that I could do the firefighting and take the weight off the ICT co-ord. TBH, at least around here, techs are paid so little that it really wouldnt be much out of the school's budget.

[penfold]

My first question would be are you employed to look after the network side of things? If so then how were you duties split when you started? If it was that the IT support side was only minor thing in your job which has grown over time, maybe now is a good time to point out that you no longer have the time to do that AND your teaching.

 

It sounds to me like you have too much work and too little time so I would guess you only options are to reduce the hours in one area you work in. Either way requires additional staffing. The problem with providing staff with the ability to do more is it can cause more problems if they do not know what they are doing. It's not such a bad thing if you have the support that can cope with any additional problems, but in your case I think you could create long term problems trying to fix a short term solution.

[penfold]

Thanks for reply. Do the school give you time off for IT stuff? How does it work for you. I got one hour a week last year which was so small, I could hardly get a thing done. They can't really pay me as it's a conflict of interest. I have the ICT post in the school which carries a very small extra payment but to be honest the ICT post holder is not meant to be the sysadmin and support.

 

And 1 hour a week is not enough to do tech support. You need a dedicated person employed to do that. But remember if your employment changes to PT Teacher/PT Tech then you should be paid seperately for each role and the tech position will probably be on a lot less scale.

[dhicks]

I try to roll out software using AD but as we all know most software doesn't come with msi, especially educational software!

 

Instead, simply have an install script that runs after the reimage operation to automatically install everything. Once you have it sorted you can generally image and install a new / faulty machine in a couple of hours. Every software installation operation becomes a reimage-and-run-the-installer operation, but that shouldn't really matter too much.

 

--

David Hicks

[johnnyreb]

Thanks to everyone for your replies, was feeling a bit unloved (typical sysadmin feeling!)

We only have 18 teachers in our school of 500 pupils, none of them have admin access to their pcs. I am the only one installing software. Does anyone in this situation just give them install access along with a strong AUP warning them of the implications of installing software and asking them to look for approval first? i know it goes against best practice but if you don't have more IT staff then it might make sense. Otherwise you have to pay someone to come in and do it. I know a lot can be done with scripts and repackaging etc. but when you are a teacher and have a family you can't spend hours messing about with that stuff. I am worried about buying something like specops deploy as it may not work for all installs and because i might not have the time to set up the packages etc. I'm thinking it might be just better all round for me to take a step back and do what an ICT Post holder should do - like drive ICT in Education issues in the school and not be the IT guy/dogsbody. Outsource the support to an outside company. what do you guys think?thanks again.john

[penfold]

Personally I think it is better to hand it over to someone else. You can then get on with what you should be doing knowing you are doing a good job rather than doing 2 jobs half as good as it should be done.

 

As for letting users install their own software, you will need to look at how good your staff are using computers and taking responsibility for their own equipment. If it is still only you on site who deals with the IT you will still be called when any problems occur. This could increase if users install random software which causes machines to run slow/crash, but if they are careful could allow you more time to get on with your teaching role. But I still think you would be better with a dedicated person looking after the computers while you were able to get on with teaching. I think the school would be getting better value for money having you do your job well with a Tech(part time if need be) maintaining the equipment used through the school.

[dhicks]

Does anyone in this situation just give them install access along with a strong AUP warning them of the implications of installing software and asking them to look for approval first?

 

No, they won't take it in properly and will wind up installing all sorts of random stuff that will just make for more maintainence. This is a problem that has a solution already sorted out: simply have an imaging system set up that also installs all your software. We use Fog with a post-imaging install script, lots of people here seem to like WPKG. It does take a bit of time to set up, so in your case hiring someone to come in and sort it out might be a good idea, although I'd go for making that a one-off cost for someone to come in, install apropriate systems and explain how it's all set up to you, then leave you to it rather than you having to pay a periodic maintainence fee. This might also need a bit of an initial cash outlay - there's no point trying to mess around with individual OEM-licensed machines if you want Windows on all your workstations, for instance, you're best off simply coughing up for the appropriate site-licensed software and getting on with it.

[plexer]

Settings up a remote software installation environment is all well and good but they want to install their home printer, scanner and any other old toot they can download from the interwebs on to their laptops.

 

Ben

[jcollings]

We give our teaching staff local admin rights on their laptops and (touch wood) it causes very few issues here. Staff tend to ask before they install software and play the game. They see the benefits outweigh not having that access so tend to be very sensible.

 

On another note it may be work approaching your local secondary school. We provide IT support for a number of primary schools which involved us visiting their site for a number of hours a week. Because we are not running it as a profit making venture we tend to be pretty cheap and impartial when offering purchasing advice. May be worth investigating in your area.

[GrumbleDook]

A couple of things to deal with here ...

 

Although the unions go ape at the idea of a teacher doing work that is not directly linked to T&L, and we have the 24 tasks to cater for this, the reality is that within many schools you will find staff do technical and administrative tasks. The idea is to keep this as minimal / efficient as possible so that they can get on with doing the job they are paid for and good at (not that I am saying some teaching staff in schools aren't good at being SysAdmins but ...)

 

An ICT Co-ordinator does just that ... makes sure that the right kit, with the right software, is available to be used by staff and students ... makes sure that the kit can and will work and be looked after ... makes sure that other staff know how to make the most of it and gives hands-on support for the latter.

 

This shouldn't stop them exploring and looking for new ideas, working closely and managing those providing support and, should they wish it themselves, getting their hands dirty looking after things as well.

 

It is a leadership / management role (note that I didn't use manglement!) and so you need to think about how to make the best use of your time.

 

It has already been suggested about getting additional support.

 

I would suggest that you work on a routine maintenance schedule so that the simple things are covered (patches, AV updates, keyboard cleaning) and plan who will do each piece of work, that you sort out a process (with approx times) for deploying software to staff and pupil machines, that you have a refresh policy so you know when you are likely to need to replace equipment and software so that the time for this can be planned, and that you segregate the roles of developing / find new tools / resources and rolling them out to others (including training, etc).

[johnnyreb]

thanks Penfold,you make a lot of sense, feel like I'm not doing either job to my best ability.

QUOTE=penfold;732287]Personally I think it is better to hand it over to someone else. You can then get on with what you should be doing knowing you are doing a good job rather than doing 2 jobs half as good as it should be done.

 

As for letting users install their own software, you will need to look at how good your staff are using computers and taking responsibility for their own equipment. If it is still only you on site who deals with the IT you will still be called when any problems occur. This could increase if users install random software which causes machines to run slow/crash, but if they are careful could allow you more time to get on with your teaching role. But I still think you would be better with a dedicated person looking after the computers while you were able to get on with teaching. I think the school would be getting better value for money having you do your job well with a Tech(part time if need be) maintaining the equipment used through the school.

[johnnyreb]

dead right plexer,there is always software that you can't plan for and that it will be awkward to install.

Settings up a remote software installation environment is all well and good but they want to install their home printer, scanner and any other old toot they can download from the interwebs on to their laptops.

 

Ben

[johnnyreb]

thanks David, I tried out wpkgbefore and had problems getting it working, was quicker to install the software rather than waste time and hope I would get it working.

No, they won't take it in properly and will wind up installing all sorts of random stuff that will just make for more maintainence. This is a problem that has a solution already sorted out: simply have an imaging system set up that also installs all your software. We use Fog with a post-imaging install script, lots of people here seem to like WPKG. It does take a bit of time to set up, so in your case hiring someone to come in and sort it out might be a good idea, although I'd go for making that a one-off cost for someone to come in, install apropriate systems and explain how it's all set up to you, then leave you to it rather than you having to pay a periodic maintainence fee. This might also need a bit of an initial cash outlay - there's no point trying to mess around with individual OEM-licensed machines if you want Windows on all your workstations, for instance, you're best off simply coughing up for the appropriate site-licensed software and getting on with it.

[johnnyreb]

thanks grumbledook,I would prefer to be doing more strategic work. I have a lot of thinking to do...

A couple of things to deal with here ...

 

Although the unions go ape at the idea of a teacher doing work that is not directly linked to T&L, and we have the 24 tasks to cater for this, the reality is that within many schools you will find staff do technical and administrative tasks. The idea is to keep this as minimal / efficient as possible so that they can get on with doing the job they are paid for and good at (not that I am saying some teaching staff in schools aren't good at being SysAdmins but ...)

 

An ICT Co-ordinator does just that ... makes sure that the right kit, with the right software, is available to be used by staff and students ... makes sure that the kit can and will work and be looked after ... makes sure that other staff know how to make the most of it and gives hands-on support for the latter.

 

This shouldn't stop them exploring and looking for new ideas, working closely and managing those providing support and, should they wish it themselves, getting their hands dirty looking after things as well.

 

It is a leadership / management role (note that I didn't use manglement!) and so you need to think about how to make the best use of your time.

 

It has already been suggested about getting additional support.

 

I would suggest that you work on a routine maintenance schedule so that the simple things are covered (patches, AV updates, keyboard cleaning) and plan who will do each piece of work, that you sort out a process (with approx times) for deploying software to staff and pupil machines, that you have a refresh policy so you know when you are likely to need to replace equipment and software so that the time for this can be planned, and that you segregate the roles of developing / find new tools / resources and rolling them out to others (including training, etc).

[GrumbleDook]

thanks grumbledook,I would prefer to be doing more strategic work. I have a lot of thinking to do...

 

If you fancy a chat with a few others in similar positions I can point you to a few folk on twitter.