daveyboy

@googlemad Are you using ZenWorks?

At the end of term we move them all to a portable drive & a copy goes onto a spare hard drive that we put in the school safe. We will keep these hard drives for as long as we can, but after 4-5 years we tend to get rid of them.

My 2 pence worth.... No roaming profiles, re-directed My Docs, Pics, Music, Videos and Favorites. No Desktops for anyone - Not even me! All apps have there preferences set in the Default User Profile (this includes toolbars, open/save dialog boxes, addin's for excel and no setups for office, etc, etc. Logon times - between 10 and 15 seconds. Dynamic Local User - creates profile on login and destroys it on logout. Nice and clean.......... And a consistant user interface across the board.

@torledo Just so as I've got this straight - What you are saying is that teachers should learn how to use to the software, (part of their CPD) and therefore my concerns would not be an issue ? Right, so even more money spent on CPD, cover teachers and training then?

@ torledo I think you are missing the point. Take a look at this What Salary? Then you would realize that most of us dont do it for the money. Schools have a limited budget and for the main - can see that the BSF etc, etc will be a very expensive waste. Money that could be spent elsewhere to give our students a better school life. We can all see most of the problems coming - not just about the infrastucture / standardisation. We see the day to day issues that for the main - others are ignoring. Who is going to look after the 'not so computer savy' teachers? or are you going to ignore that and therefore in turn, will the lessons suffer? What would you say when a school has simply no more money to spend on other areas - because it now spends alot more on support - to our children when part of the school is falling to bits, or drama productions cannot get funding, etc, etc. This is happening to me - I am a ETTA level 2 qualified Table Tennis coach. For me to take a couple of school teams forward - to teach a healthy sport, to give some students a sense of something in their school career, challenge other schools, etc, etc - I need a table, nets, bats and balls. I cannot get funding for this - Why? because the money is going on other more 'important' things. With less money in the pot (and more spent on IT support) how many other extra curricular things will go by the wayside? I agree that the best way forward is clear guidelines (nationally) from our LEA's - the Uber consultant - which we as technicians and NM's can fall back on for backup to win the case. Best value will become a thing of the past - and if you think it wont - WAKE UP! Will our teachers and students get 'Best value' ? Dream On. That for me is the issue (well - apart from my my job! )

I wonder - if the powers that be decided on a 'standard' whitelist / blacklist for every school that took the flexibility away............

Call to say....... "The photocopier wont copy, can you take a look?" - you know that cute female thingy voice they do? I can smell burnt plastic No paper jams anywhere No plastic on the glass Photocopier reports no problems No tea etc, etc spillages. Plugged in, lights on - good to go. "I just put more paper in, because it had run out" was the answer to my question. You will never guess...............................

Just a mention really.......... I'm using BackupAssist as front to NTbackup. SQL, Exchange & open file add-ons. Cheap and Simple - Great product.

You sure you havent been a tech in a previous life?

@ the_apprentice Just as there are teachers that 'go the extra mile' for their students (and some that dont) there are technicians that do too (and some that dont). Bear in mind that - just as you get the 'same silly questions' from your students day after day, we get the 'same silly questions' from teachers - day after day. Most - probably all of us, do not have 'a budget' for training and therefore will never get any. Most of us - are using our own time to keep our skills updated. There are no managment points and no ladder to climb. Me - I have been working six days a week in this summer break 8 - 6 and on the odd occasion till 9. As of monday my day starts at 7:30 and will end around 5:30 ish. Then its time to read, learn and study. The school website I also update in my own time............ Lunch? When do you think teaching staff have the time to come and see us about a problem they have....... I'm b**dy lucky. most of the staff in my school appreciate what me and my team do for them and July & Christmas sees a few bottles of wine come our way. As technicians we forget that as we have to update our skills, so do the staff members. You will see on this board questions about the latest versions of MS Office and various software packages. We all forget that as we are pushed to install (mostly by teachers who think they need the lastest and greatest package) the most up to date piece of software that there are other staff members struggling to keep up too. There is only one thing I would change though.... Often we try to give a training session for staff on the basics. Most staff do not have the time / cant be bothered. Yet when it doesnt work in the the way they think it should, they will spend enough time moaning about it! To sum up:- 1) It's tough at the top - yeah, well its just as tough at the bottom cos the sh*t falls farther. 2) Smile and say 'hello' from time to time - we are not second class citizens and like you we have good / bad / and bl**dy frustrating days too! 3) Jaffa cakes - 'nuff said 4) We like teachers too - and yes we will go that 'extra mile' to help - but not if you look down your nose! 5) It would be nice for you to come and say 'hello' from time to time without the next line starting with 'It doesnt work' or 'My home computer' or 'When can you do' 6) If the technical team offer some training take it - its okay to say 'nope, I dont get it. can we do that again - this time in short simple words?' 7) When It does work, TELL US!!! we like to hear of the good bits as well as the bad. Lastly MOST IMPORTANT - over the next few days do not ask blindly if your support team had a good holiday....... That really p*sses us off.

Start from the begining - Netware or Linux ? version + sp? SLED, 98, 2000 or XP OS? Service pack? sp1 sp2? Zen 7 sp1?

Logo competition entry.......

Thanx AlexB - Ive PM'ed you.

Has anybody got any laying around they can send me? Putting up a bit of a display - thought this might be good to include. I'll PM an address...... Thanks Dave

Done. See you there!

Dook - was you drinking last night / this morning?

No – and its not going too. First I’m going to talk generally here – this is not about individuals or any one school, it’s about the main, the most, the largest percentage. Before the ‘digital revolution’ our teachers took the learning materials into the classroom. Our students had nothing else but what was in front of them to learn. They only needed to be able to read, write and add up to learn something. Today we have computers and the internet. A couple of Billion web pages. At the click of a button, students can access most of these – and for the main - all more interesting than the lesson being taught to them. We ask them for a document – their work – That is basically half of what they have to learn, and the other what they have found by searching the internet. Time is spent on finding pretty pictures, the layout and selecting fonts, rather than learning. Our world is now about MONEY, results, schemes of work, targets and reports. Teachers who live ‘in the now’ are teaching students to pass the exams – not teaching them their subject. Students only need to learn Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V (and where the DEL key is – just in case) and how to search the web. LEA’s, SMT, and the movers and shakers in education have moved the goal posts. Mistakenly, we all think it’s about T&L – it’s not, it’s about money. When was the last time you had any training on software? When was the last time you taught a member of staff something that wasn’t done in a rush / needed for the next lesson / for the tenth time in two days? When was the last time you taught the less than confident members of staff how to surf the web? When was the last time you were involved with any other staff training? Because it costs time and money, something which schools and teachers do not have much of. They have been sold the idea that the VLE/MLE is great, it will save time, save on support costs, make teaching easier, etc, etc. I’m afraid the skies get bluer the further up the chain you go. Now its ‘student blogs’– who is going to police them, who is going to make sure that the wrong things are not being said, or that cyber bulling isn’t going on? We try to stop messaging (MSN etc, etc) yet we are looking at just another way to do this. Some teachers think it’s a great idea – live on the web too. Yet we are all up in arms about Bebo and such. What makes this any different? Mobile phones are another. Let’s give our students the power to take live video with sound and than upload it to any site they wish. How long is it going to be before a child uploads something to the local or national news? I hear the BBC now accepts phone video. Our students can do this right now on Bebo & Youtube. When is it going to happen to YOU? How long is it going to be before a student makes a complaint AND has video evidence too? School managment is changing too, And I think that most are still in the dark ages. But thats another issue. Until business stops seeing education as easy money & teachers get the time, training and are able to focus on teaching – not paperwork and admin; Until managment changes, and becomes 'Staff & Student focused' and not pondering to all and sundry - it will never work.

Craig, I asked this a while ago and I didnt get a reply / No One knew / No Idea's. If you get any further I would be more than interested. Possibly one for BarrieCole ? Dave

Year of entry - first four of surname - first two of firstname 04SmitAl 04SmitJo 04SmitPa Triplets, you know. (We have 3 sets of 'em!)

@Russ.. I'm in, not RM - not even Microsoft. But a chance to talk cannot be missed.

For those that do not know (and I didnt until 5 mins ago) Facility Support Portal

We use custom desktops - Staff, Students, support and Admins - all designed by our students. Great competition every so often! We also use a custom login screen - changed every week or so, with messages, deadlines, comic strips - basically anything that we can get in a bitmap. (BTW christmas is great - seeing staff members photos photoshoppped within an inch of being well........ Its Bl**dy hysterical) Anyways we are going to run a new comic strip for next year - competition opens Monday........... not quite BOFH but who knows? could be BSFH........or BTFH !

50p to change a forgotten password? For god's sake dont tell our students - there will be a bl**dy riot if they find out that everywhere else isnt £1.50 and that they are not getting it cheap at £1...............

Fraser Island Paradise

Have a beer for me @ Mount Coot-tha. Good Luck.............................