Pete10141748

Thats actually what the guys from this company did, although they used a Linksys WAP not a a Cisco one (they claimed the Cisco WAP they are recommending is about 3x more powerful than the one they brought in). Signal coverage was not a problem, and never has been here - all walls are plasterboard and signal penetration is very high. The problem is capacity. Now, they claim that 1 of these cisco routers will easily handle upward of 90 laptops, and with the signal coverage combined they can be spread out over quite a large area. Obviously, the concern is that the WAP won't do this. Once the quote comes back, I'm going to ask that they come back in with the actual WAP they are recommending, and we'll get as many laptops as we can to log in using it. I reckon that 1 WAP for 6 classes is to little (even though the classes are a "cluster" all within approx.30meters of a central location where the WAP would sit) - 1 per 3 classes would be OK, so long as the kit holds up to what they are saying it can do. This is exactly what we are trying to avoid given this solution, the idea being that there arn't enough WAPs to conflict with each other. I totally agree. The technology just isn't around (or affordable) to allow something like this to operate smoothly. Unfortunately, it's what our Head wants, and despite spending the last 12 months trying to convince her of the issues, problems, costs etc. she is still determined that this is where the school should go, and so that's what is going to happen, one way or the other. I guess the real proof will be in the pudding, as they say. Once we choose a solution (whatever we decide to go for) and get it in and working, we'll see just how much it is used. TBH, I don't see staff making the use of it that the Head invisiges. Currently, we have around 20 laptops for pupils, all with completely dead batteries, dodgy wireless cards, crap processors and low RAM. Pointless to upgrade, and currently, pointeless to replace. No teacher uses then, as they know that even when the batteries were OK, what a P.I.T.A. they are. Now everyone goes to the ICT Suite, and they think it is so much better. Which I agree with.

First and foremost, I love the sense of freedom in my job. As others have said, there's no-one breathing down your neck all the time, or looking over your shoulder complaining about Targets and Goals; anyone who's had a job where there was a big-headed a$$ of a Manager who did this all day every day wil know what I mean, and how crappy it makes you feel. The non-professional approach. I think it'll depend on the school, but certianly here our IT department and other Staff don't interact in the "Professional" way you would expect in a business of some sort; everyone and everything is very casual, and pressure only ever comes from ourselves giving deadlines to things we need to do. Only we can do the job. It's a nice feeling to know that, aside from other members of the IT department, no-one else in the school has any clue about 95% of what we do. If a teacher is off, another teacher can cover. If we are off, they are screwed if anything goes wrong with the IT. OK, that's a big-headed statement, but it's true. Variation I can't think of anywhere outside of an eduation environment where I could have access to, learn about, maintain and give training on; Many makes and models of Projector Interactive Whiteboards PCs of many different specs and OS's Laptops / Notebooks of many different specs and OS's Many makes and models of Printer SO much software it's not even funny Server 2003 Server 2008 Vista XP Linux distro's Any other OS I care to download and play with PC/laptop/projector repair Policy writing Management meetings Virtual Learning Platform maintenance / design / content Website maintenance / design / content Network infrastructure Wireless network planning and implementation Wired network planning and implementation Scripting / programming as and when I want to use it Active Directory and all its componants Daily troubleshooting for staff PDA's and other mini-devices such as the eeePC Being the guy to go to for advice on anything Providing training for staff on any and all of the above! Helping the children to learn Helping the staff to learn Lesson assistance / planning assistance / resource creatio Touch-screen and Digital Sinage software Backup planning and Implementation and there's probably a lot more than that as well. The gratitude that (most) people display, even for the things that are (to you) simple. The holidays (being term-time only). OK, so there hasn't been a holiday yet where I didn't go in and do a few days work (and we all know how much better a days' work is when there's no other staff around) but it's nice having a week's break every 6 or 7 throughout the year. Lastly, when you get a slow day (i.e. hardly anyone comes in for help, such as an INSET day) and you get the whole day to do whatever the hell you want, with the knowledge that you are getting paid for it When I started at the school, and there wasn't anything much in the way ICT, I figured I'd be there for a year, get bored, and generally treat it as a stepping stone to a bigger better job. 18 months in, never have a boring day, never hate having to get up and go to work, and can't imagine doing anything else right now.

Enjoy your 6 months C_M!

This happened to us here a while back. Google integrated this "enter a code to continue" when search criteria was very similiar to what spambots, spyware and other potentially dangerous search criteria or results were entered/gained from a Google search. I had heard that so many people complained that they withdrew the system within a very short time of it being up, but then today I've had 1 or 2 of these CODE pages happen again. Maybe they just downed the level of strictness on their filters?

I have the 701 4GB webcam white model, had it for a while now, hardly used it. It was good for when I went on holiday to Brighton a few weeks ago as I could pick up a wireless network from within the place I waas staying, and I've taken it to the pub a few times where they have free wireless Clouds, but on a day to day basis I wouldn't want to use it. Still, it's a nice little gadget that I like having on my shelf to occasionaly use and get lots of "ooh" and "ahh" comments from kids and other drunks in the pub

Xbox 360 store has had this for a while now, though the both the HD and regular format movies for rental only, you can't actually "buy" them. I have an additional external fan system on my 360 which ups the noise by quite a bit more, but I've gotten so used to it now that I don't notice. Maybe it's from working 3 feet away from 5 servers all day long? As for DVD playback, I tend to use my 360 but get a bit concerned after a few hours having already suffered 1 RROD (thanks to playing endless hours of Assassin's Creed ) I've thought about getting the HD-drive for the 360 or a PS3 for blu-ray, not made up my mind yet but leaning towards to the PS3, especially as I already have a PSP to go with it

Ours is provided by a combination of our LEA and ISP, I think the actual platform comes from Editure - Home It's OK, most of the staff don't use it, despite me and the Head really pushing it. After almost 10 months of it being up and running, a handful of staff use it for email, that's it. The notice board, calendar, file storage, no-one is interested in it as me and the techie set up network shared areas way before the VLP came into play, and everyone is happily using the network shares

Some of the staff here use Myst (and URU: Ages beyond myst too) to teach some literacy, I have to say at first I was skeptical about how a game could be used to teach english, but they do some good things with so fair play to them!

I would only replace a board if it is broken, same with other equipment, why throw out working kit just because it has reached X years old?

Exactly. I've always considered them this way; Science - the search for fact, truth RE/RS - learning what people believe You can't *believe* in a fact - it is either true, or not.

We have the same set up as Plexer as well, never had any issues with use outside of school reported.

My driver doesn't put the radio on. I think it might annoy the other passengers on the bus God bless fruit-name-inspired-company portable music devices!

No training here, first job I've ever had where I haven't had to sit through the nightmare of the "first day training form signing / video watching" As for the caretaker not helping others life things.....here, I get asked to help HIM move things!

Dell Vostro 200 w/ 1.8 Dual Core, 2Gigs of RAM and 300Gb HDD + 19" widescreen monitor Walkie Talkie (no mobile!) Landline phone (when it works! dodgy system ) PDA (mine but kept in school for work) eeePC (mine but kept in school for work)

+1 to that! 90% of the work we tech's/managing tech's do is unknown to anyone non-tech, so don't worry too much! On a more serious note, initial things to consider; Inventory of hardware Inventory of software Inventory of licences (got and needed) Spend time sorting out what hub cabinets / cabling goes where and why Also, it might be worth sitting in some ICT lessons (and regular lessons too) to see how staff and pupils currently use the ICT for teaching and learning, which in turn can give you good ideas on what works and what could be improved. I can tell you, from (poor) personal experience, that changing things early on is NOT going to make you popular. Me and the tech made some quite major changes, all for the better I hasten to add, but it did not go down well with most of the staff, who were mostly set in their ways, and its taken a lot of hard work over the better part of the last 12 months to get everyone almost back on "our side"!

One year has indeed past by, 12 months of being employed in this job for me and the techie! In the year, we have taken the school from having no real ICT in use at all, other than crappy old laptops running local accounts and a dis-used ICT suite full of WinSuite computers, to having a site-wide wireless network, full roaming profiles for everyone with mandatory for pupils, every teacher having a laptop, every pupil having access to a PC or laptop when needed, installation of servers for profiles, work, applications, SIMS/FMS, printing, WSUS etc., strategic placement of printers to cut costs, input into lesson planning to improve ICT teaching, a projector and SMART board in every class, school ICT policies in place, DNS/DHCP fallover redundancy, anti-virus package site-wide, admin and reception moved location and SIMS/FMS migration from old server to new one, replaced a whole lot of laptops and some PCs in various locations in the school, additional wiring put in, WAPs re-placed to increase coverage...... you get the idea It's been a busy year!

Yeah, I don't get this either. When the teachers went on strike recently, I asked them if I could have their laptops for that day to do some maintenance on them. Answer was "NO! we have lots of work to do at home that day!" erm..... arn't you supposed to be on strike? If you're still working during that day, don't be so damn lazy and just GO TO WORK!

I suspect it's something to with the astounding lack of computer literate people employed in schools.

yeah same here, a server 2008 + 11 laptops to set up, an ICT Suite to re-image, licencing issues to sort out, various other jobs, cabling installs happeneing, projector installs and so on. yup, I agree, I'm paid term-time only, as is the techie, so when we come in during holidays to do work it is totally off our own back to do; personally I take a hit of about-£2k from not working during the Summer holiday. Still, I'd rather spend a few days in voluntarily to save weeks' worth of headaches from staff complaining that the Servers / Network is down due to maintenance during term time Plus it'll be nice to set the Suite to defrag and spend the 45 minutes it takes playing my Wii on the projector screen

I'd put off going for an iPod for ages, always going for a memory-stick style player instead. I finally decided to go for an iPod after one of the teachers here got an iPod shuffle, and the techie has a iPod Nano v2, both of which I liked. So I went and got a Nano v3, and so far I think it's brilliant. Plays music and videos, screen is clear, can upload playlists to it from iTunes, can add album art and scroll through albums on the player, and more. iTunes is an OK bit of software, and will convert all of the music you have regardless of where it came from too. Its cool

Again, I agree, and I'm not arguing here, but in my experience even the simplest things make heads spin; even something simple like "we have a server so you can stream applications to your laptop with needing to have the software installed" makes eyes glaze over, as more than anything else, people don't care WHY or HOW you do something, only that it works the way they want it to - if it doesn't, well, that's why YOU (as in us techie's) are there - to make it work again. This ain't limited to school staff either, I know for a fact that if our financial staff gave a presentation on how they use FMS to keep track of the schools' purchases and balances, I would be asleep with my eyes open in seconds. Its just the way it is, most people are only interested in the things that they do, not what others do. Or am I being cynical here?

While I agree with that in theory, in practice the whole reason WE do our job is exactly because of that fact; they haven't got a clue what it's all about. therefore, keeping out anything "technical" is actually going to mean not mentioning most of what is done, surely!

I was nearly on the floor with this one!

We do the same here. Fn + F? to change the screen displays is just part of having a laptop and projector, so they'd better get used to it.

Ive not used REALvnc, but with Ultravnc you have to register the VNC server as a System Service for you to access the machine without it being logged in. So I'd check and see if the machines you can get to without them being logged in have it registered as a service, and if the others are just set to run on Startup (i.e. login).