Halfmad

I'll continue it for schools... 30. Don't use e-mail or that new easy to use electronic mail form thats on the screen the instant you open internet explorer, we prefer to find random bits of paper with vague details on them shoved under our doors. Alternatively stop us in the corridor and say one the immortal phrases "Whilst your here" or "whilst I remember.." Heck if you can't remember then I won't and whilst I'm here? were you going to wait until I left to talk to me? neat trick. 31. Keep using your projector, that garbled warning message about temperature and lamp life isn't for you, it must have been that last powerpoint that someone else displayed and now it's stuck in the projectors memory. 32. Save those documents to your desktop, it saves space on the server and means we don't wear out the backup tapes as quickly. 33. Save the school money by bringing in your nephews old 60Mhz pentium that he stopped using when he went to university in 1996, we can always do with a new door stop. anyone got more?

Yup instant I read: 21. When you find an I.T. person on the phone, sit uninvited on the corner of his desk and stare at him until he hangs up. I thought "good god that happens here far too often!!"

Yeah true outside of education I doubt that SM/NM are anything alike. I know in my next job the SM and NM are in the same departments, same level but different teams.

Lee I always saw it as the other way around: Network Manager > Systems manager > technicians. I'm a network manager with budgetary control etc.

I prefer kapernasky to NOD32 but it is better than the Mcafee suite we currently use

Nothing wrong with being paid a decent salary! 25 - 32K is what I personally think the NM post should be in most secondary school or where you have multiple primaries to care for. If you were in my council you're grade would now be capped at £24 and you'd be frozen for 4 years before dropping to the top of that scale. Previously my scale was similar to yours with me able to advance a few more points before hitting the roof.

I hate to say it but if I were management in such a large scheme I'd have my excuses covered for 99% of the appeals that were put in. I could have appealed, but decided to move job, ultimately both win - I get better paid and the council get ot pay less for someone new, only the school could potentially lose.

This is one of the reasons I'm leaving, we had it in our authority - "single status". Essentially all of the grades have been messed up. Technicians - now have a marginally lower top grade. Senior Techs - Lower top grade. Network managers - lower bottom and top grade, great if you were at the bottom as you've got a pay rise, but you can't rise as far as before. Analysts - Now have a lower grade than network managers but up to the same maximum salary. I worked out that it'd take me 7years to have my pay increase by £1 on what it currently is. 4 year pay freeze, drop of about £1100 then 3 years of it increasing by cost of living.. such a moral booster - hence my signature. It sounds like you chaps are in the same boat, sadly all it means it staff leaving and with my job it becoming a stepping stone to other things as the grading is now so small (£21.5K - £24K).

That's been my experience too Pete, you give a little and they start asking for more, more, more and before you know it you've gained duties you shouldn't have. I've tried to cut back on these recently, partly because I don't want the next person in this post to have to deal with "well Phil use to do it" mentality. Essentially i'll let him/her fill out what duties they do or do not want to undertake in addition to basic ICT support and training.

Even that's useless, I don't know anyone with an iPod

Teachers aren't overpaid, I heard it on the radio that they're suffering from "underfunded salaries". Laughed when I heard it too :-P

This is such a subjective issue. It very much depends on the size of your school and a host of other things. Secondary schools are more like business where everyone has a job and that is what they do. You would no more expect the IT Technician to teach than you would expect an Insurance Company's Systems Programmer to do a shift in the post room. In the Primary School sector, the schools are much smaller and staff tend to muck in and help out as needed. They've often got more than one job title and many are informal. The difficult bit is setting the boundaries between helping out when a problem occurs and having something permanently added to your job description. Most of us probably have some sort of "any other tasks as required by the head" clause in our contracts. Me; I'm formally ICT Technician, Librarian and Publicity Assistant. I was ICT supply teacher on Thursday morning, Playground Supervisor for 20 minutes on Wednesday lunchtime and dresser for the nativity play on Monday when a teacher was ill. The important part is that you must be consulted about any change to your job description and if something starts to become a regular part of your job when it isn't what you are paid for, you need to make it clear (in writing) that you wish to renegotiate your job description. That's very true, I spent a lot of time in primary schools helping out and tended to do a bit more than normal and would say I was far more flexible, partly down to have more time but also down to the attitude of staff. I think in secondary schools staff on the whole can be less flexible and this does rub off on IT and support staff, who stick more rigidly to their job descriptions

On the ICT side of things we shouldn't be teaching them anything, the teachers should be! We should prove the staff training and equipment to allow them to do so, nothing more.

people are entitled to their opinion and that's what you're getting here, if you dont' like it then in all honesty - tough. I don't particularly like or dislike the iPhone, I don't see the point in a touch screen that has no feedback, it's like using a cheap ATM. I also see no reason to upgrade from my ancient SE W810i, which says it all really!

Where's the tactile feedback on the iPhone? I hate touch screens but would consider getting one of they did something like that. I don't see a problem with buttons though..

Well I'm leaving a weeks time but in the new school whoever takes over from me will have a 30m2 office (albeit triangular!) and a 25m2 server room all to themselves, although I have strongly recommended adding a technician as there's simply too much work here for someone to do when they're also meant to be developing ICT use in the school..

ex-Nildram customer here, use to be the best ISP hands down I recently moved from Tiscali to IDNET, best move I ever made, downloading at almost 4x the speed and my gaming ping to servers is absolutely obscene now speed test at 6.5meg down, 0.5meg up and pinging sub 25 to games. On a line Tiscali said couldn't take more than 1meg down.

I'd give two iPhones for my mates N95, god damn that's a sexy mobile

Health and safety. You should have a place to work at (desk) and somewhere to repair equipment at - workstation/workshop style furniture. They are actually legally obliged to do this, it's not optional. Either call your local authority's health and safety people to get your workplace inspected or mention it to your managers, it's shocking that you're having to work like that. If you're a member of a union it's time to call them in.

Pete I think you really need to put your foot down or this will get out of control, you're not a teacher, if they can't teach what they're employed to teach they need to be trained. It's not even a resources issue, if your school is inspected and they saw you - experiences but ultimately unqualified teacher in charge of a class, even with a teacher present do you think they'd be happy? I don't even think that parents would be happy, I wouldn't be.

I dont drink coffee. Maybe i went a bit postal and exaggerated a bit, but i'm here to run the network, and offer training support and guidance on the use of ICT, not be classroom assistant or prepare materials for teachers. Surely you understand my point? yup I do, it's a fine line we have to tread, we are staff, we are here ultimately to help educate the pupils but it is indirect, we don't teach but we facilitate the teaching by supporting the ICT. Personally I think the OP is being asked to step too far from ICT and into teaching staff responsibilities. Absolutely he should be there to answer questions, offer guidance and training on ICT issues but not actually planning it, not deciding what's taught, when and what resources are to be used. He can tell them if they can do it with the existing equipment, tell them what they'd need if they cant and ensure it's all ready to go. However he shouldn't be doing their job for them. We're not trained in planning a curriculum or in teaching, that's pretty much the end of it. As someone else already said it sounds like a staff training issues which needs to be addessed or at the very least a meeting that has to happen. Teacher draws up the plan Teacher meets with ICT to discuss it Teacher alters plans to suit what the ICT is capable off, or ICT reconfigures/installs the necessary hardware and software to meet the requirements.

Lee_K_81 - lay off that coffee mate :-D Pallen - Totally agree with you, good points made.

Yeah, if you get anyone who seen you with it back your story up

dhicks I agree with you that setting up computers to look after themselves is what I aim for, but the time that's freed up by this is simply used up in other areas. I am available to give advice more often but the bulk of it goes into developing future plans and improving ICT, attending departmental meetings and trying to improve the used of ICT in the school. I'll train staff and I'll help pupils when they ask but it's a waste of my time to be in class a lot, I'm not a classroom assistant and frankly that's what they're employed to do. ICT is part of school life now, we're here to keep it working and improve it, we're not here to do other peoples jobs for them. Teachers are there to teach, students are there to learn, you're employed to keep the ICT infrastructure working and help people use it. You're not there to assist in teaching directly, which is how you see to view your post. ICT in business doesn't work like that, you don't see ICT for accountacy firms sitting showing the accountants how to fill in forms, planning accountants diaries etc.

What is it you're trying to do? chances are someones already found a way of doing it