Halfmad

ICT Co-ordinator - over all plans of teaching for that term using ICT. Teachers - plan the leasons according to the plan drawn up by the ICT co-ordinator. I'm sorry but it's not up to ICT support staff to tell teachers how to teach or how to use the equipment in their lessons. You can help them, assist and even improve the use of the equipment but how they actually use it to teach is entirely up to them. You're not teaching staff so how on earth are you meant to plan lessons ? Helping plan is very vague, personally I'd say to staff that if they want to know how to do X then they can come and ask but as for finding ways of including ICT, that in my opinion would be up to teaching staff. Bear in mind you're not a class room assistant.

Duty of care isn't as clear cut as some of you seem to think, this is one of the reasons I'm glad to be leaving the school IT sector shortly. You don't have a duty to check drives, however if you have checked it and find something you can't ignore it. Likewise as you've been asked or have to find the owner of it, checking it really opens up a real can of worms. I think if I'm ever in that situation it'd perhaps be best simply not to check the drives at all, hand them to the school office and wait for someone claim it!

I've no idea where you've got this personal safety issue from Nick! You have a duty of care to pupils and staff, if a kid has something on a drive which passes through your hands, which you've opened in order to discover the owner and later turns out to cause harm then YES parents will point the finger at you and ask what the hell you were thinking. You're living in la-la land if you don't think that'd happen, we're not talking about logic here mate, we're talking about the typical knee jerk reaction that people have to IT. Nobody mentioned it making sense or you actually have a legal duty to check EVERYTHING but we all know what the public can be like and frankly yes they'd come after any IT staff that had passed the drive on without looking at it and ensuring the data and contents were safe.

This is my post which I vacate on the 14th: Location: Armadale Academy Ref. Code: 245.15 Salary: £21,023 - £24,364 Relevant experience in an IT technical support environment, you will have practical experience of medium to large scale Windows and MacIntosh network systems and their associated technologies and protocols. Able to work with members of staff and pupils, you will have excellent interpersonal skills and have a strong customer focus. Experience of the implementation and use of ICT in relation to teaching and learning is essential and experience of working within a learning environment is desirable. Either a degree or an HNC in a relevant subject is essential for this post and a strong general knowledge of IT is essential. More information and to apply: http://www.westlothian.gov.uk/sitecontent/1783820/jobvacancies

IDE USB generally takes power from the USB bus sometimes via one or two USB cables, my new external USB HDD drives are all like this, older ones had an AC adaptor for power.

Nick are you software restriction policies so accurate that they could block out documents that contained personal information about other kids? pictures of other kids etc? Blocking programs and have AV isn't enough, you have to keep your eyes open and yes that means checking any USB drives that are left lying around, not only for bad content but also to find out who owns them. If something was on that drive that you didn't find and was later used for something illegal, questions could be asked as to why you returned it to the owner without checking.

Nick I think the point is that that had to look at it to find out who's it was, they didn't find anything so they started asking around. The instant it's plugged in or used on the school network as far as I'm concerned it's accessable by me and i'll check it for anything I want.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmwqpHsMExg I have two cats, it's like this every single morning...

It might be worthwhile taking the filenames and running searches of pupil data on the server to see if anyone has them in their folders, unlikely but it is possible.

try restoring any deleted files on the memory stick? even if it fails it should indicate dates that they were last used etc. I get modified dates when I change anything and transfer dates when they're just copied. However if I copy an old file to my drive I get different modified, accessed and created dates.

I was sent this via e-mail a few days ago, as I live in Glasgow (although I'm not from there) I feel I have half a right to post it As you may know, the East End of Glasgow will be hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2014. What you may not know, is that many aspects of the games have been especially altered to embrace the culture of the area. A copy of these changes has been leaked in a memo which a friend of mine has seen and is reproduced below. OPENING CEREMONY The flame will be ignited by a petrol bomb thrown by a native of the city. The flame will be contained in a large, overturned police van situated on the roof of the stadium. THE EVENTS In previous Commonwealth games Glaswegian competitors have not been particularly successful. In order to redress the balance some of the events have been altered slightly to the advantage of local athletes. 100 Metres Sprint - Competitors will have to hold a DVD player and microwave oven (one under each arm) and on the sound of the starting pistol a police dog will be released from a cage 10 yards behind the athletes. 110 Metres hurdles - As above, but with added obstacles (car bonnets, hedges, garden fences, walls, etc). Hammer - Competitors may choose the type of hammer they wish to use (claw, sledge, etc). The winner will be the one who can cause the most physical damage within three attempts. Fencing - Entrants will be asked to dispose of as many stolen goods as possible in 5 minutes. Shooting - A strong challenge is expected from local men in this event. The first target will be a moving police van. In the second round competitors will aim at a Securicor officer. The traditional .22 rifle has been replaced in this event by a choice of either a Browning automatic pistol, or a sawn-off 12 bore shotgun. Cycling Time Trials - Competitors will be asked to break in to the University bike shed and take an expensive mountain bike owned by some mummy's boy on his first trip away from home, all against the clock. Cycling pursuit - As above, but the bike will be owned by a visiting member of the Fiji rugby sevens team, who will witness the theft. Modern Pentathlon - Amended to include mugging, breaking and entering, flashing, joyriding and arson. Swimming Events - All waterways are currently being tested for toxicity levels. Once one is found that can support human life, swimming events will be organised. Please note that the synchronised swimming event for this year will comprise of dropping acid and watching all the funky ripples on the pool. The Marathon - A safe route has yet to be found. Men's 50km Walk - Unfortunately, this event will have to be cancelled as the police cannot guarantee the safety of anyone walking the streets of Dalmarnock, especially anyone who appears to be mincing. THE CLOSING CEREMONY Entertainment will include formation rave dancing by members of Calton Health in the Community anti-drug campaign, synchronised rock throwing and music by The Bridgeton Community Choir. The flame will be extinguished by riot police water cannon following the inevitable pitch invasion by confused Celtic supporters. The stadium itself will then be boarded up before the local athletes break in and remove all the copper piping and the central heating boiler. To guarantee the entry of any athletes from the local area at all, drug testing has been waived for the duration of the games.

VNC or if you want to have a much cheaper version of a similar software to NSS then Classroom spy will do SOME of what NSS does. http://www.classroomspy.com/

anything I did that had a knock on affect on the kids education would just be plain wrong so obviously I wont' do anything like that. In all honesty I'm proud of what I've managed to do here, just rather upset that its turned to sour grapes. I didn't ask for a pay freeze and having to wait up to 7 years before earning even £1 more than I am - that's the councils fault and the only reason I'm leaving.

Cheers all, I'll try and stick it out and may have words with them if it continues. I'd never do anything purposely to affect the network etc but I must admit it is making me rather bitter! I'll try not to burn bridges but at the moment they seem to be setting them alight without my help

General bitching, usually wouldn't get to me but it's happening from most of the senior staff who see me quite obviously as a traitor. There are no other members of IT here I work entirely on my own so I feel extremely isolated, I'm even at the opposite end of the building from all of the other non-teaching staff. I wouldn't mind, but up until I handed by notice in they were all friendly and I really don't understand the sudden shift in attitude. After my meeting on friday, which the school were notified of well in advance I've recieved an email from my boss asking if I'd "had a relapse" as he couldn't find me in the school. I doubt he looked very hard as he apparently didn't check the notice in the staff room saying I would be at the councils I.T. department. It's one of dozens of small things that are really starting p!ss me off.

As I work in a local council I'm wondering if you good people can give me any advice, I've two weeks left to work of my notice but the place I'm working in has become awful since I handed in my notice, it's actually got to the stage now where I dread coming to work, I'm late, I'm unmotivated and I dread dealing with most of the staff, who seem petty and frankly childish in their attitude. Is it possible to leave immediately? The situation was made worse by my being ill for 3 days last week with flu, coming back and having meetings to go to. I know most of them think I simply don't give a damn but I am trying to encourage GOOD staff to apply but at the same time I'm trying to organise things so that the interim period between myself leaving and another person filling the post goes as smoothly as possible (hence the meetings!). One of my friends mentioned "buying out my contract" I'm not entirely sure what that'd mean though. I am due 7 days leave but agreed to work it rather than shortening my leave period but now i'm regretting this greatly!

Hate to say it but the touch screen doesn't appeal to me at all, got annoyed with it after a little while, needs tactile feedback on it.

Hate to say this but this is one of the best games I've played on any console! Took the Wii away for the weekend to a cottage with 9 friends, had utter mayhem thanks to this game, as of today I know two of those people are now hunting for a Wii having had an obscene amount of fun. Sadly our arms are killing us, the controls don't half tire you out - especially after a few drinks

A few months ago I was starting at 7 and finishing at about 4:30 due to the amount of work I had to do. Now my resignation is in I'm keeping to my hours and break/lunch times. Sod it, told them we need someone in to give me a hand!

Our images are kept on DVD or USB drives so storage on the local HDD isn't necessary, as far as storing video files. They shouldn't actually be doing it on the local HDD, I try to discourage that as much as possible. They should burn them to DVD or we'll get them an external drive with some form of backup rather than on a laptop HDD. Bear in mind this laptop will be handed around the department and used by pupils, I'll be shocked if it's not dropped in the first year!

Energystar GPO is handy but getting teachers to turn off computers at the wall and preferably with a master trunking switch is usually best. We don't currently turn off the network but the teachers have been told to turn off projectors etc at the wall each night. Problem is we have teachers who leave their computers on over the summer holiday, fact is they just don't give a damn.

They are obviously "trying it on" when someone questions the £Bill of £4500 for the four hi-spec laptops after you have left they will say it was your recommendation! ouch… 8O I think you're probably right, partly because I hold the budget for IT I think they're assuming I'll not give a damn what I spend it on now. Fact is, most of the money has been spent recently so there is none to fritter away on overspec'd computers for staff who don't know how to use it.

since I resigned, nothing I say is considered correct Kev

That's purely shared memory, the laptop I've spec'd (D630) has 2Gb of RAM They're moaning about only have a 80Gb hard disk but frankly they should be burning the movies to DVD, which means it's more than enough.

I'm in a "discussion" now with a few members of staff about a laptop for video editing, they're claiming they need the school to buy an all singing, all dancing laptop with 256Mb dedicated graphics card, 4GB + and an enormous HDD. I'm saying they can have a Dell D630 that has 256Mb shared memory on board graphics, 2Gb RAM and a 130Gb HDD, which if they need to can later have an external USB HDD added to it. Surely there's no need for a powerful dedicated graphics card for video editing, we're not talking about gaming or rendering, we're talking more along the lines of Pinnacle studio (god forbid) and Windows movie maker! Anyone actually agree with me or am I having a bad I.T. day? 8O