Well this is my first post on this site i just joined today.
like many of you im looking at the begining stages of the BSF project and i have been to a few talks at the BETT show and an ICT Technicians conference and its all the same you try to talk to someone off the record as it were and it all gets abit vage when it comes to what will happen apart from the fact that lots of money will be invested into our ICT.
When it comes to exsisting equipment and techinical staff well the most common reply i get is the technical staff that are just technical will be tuped over and those who work with the pupils will be more than likely given another position in the school.
Now i have read all the posts on this forum and some good some bad but also alot of here say......
The conference i went to yesterday suggested that there are 3 options for the ICT procurment process.
1. a totally managed system
2. a partly managed system
3. The school full manages the system
Now like many of you i buy the equipment according to what the school requires to serve the pupils needs and as a special needs school that can vary alot from an standard school but BSF are still very cloke and dagger about everything except they believe they will drag our schools into the future and turn our ICT into the best thing since sliced bread.
Now i fairly sure like the rest of you have, i have worked hard to update the schools ICT with a limited budget and only myself to do everything and although the ICT still needs more work as budget becomes avalible i will be very upset if someone comes in removes everything and tells me all my hard work was a waste of time.
At the moment im keeping an open mind about it all but at the same time im planning for the future, i have very little IT qualifications im mostly self taught esspecially as IT course cost the earth and trying to get a school to pay for it out of a tight budget well we all know about that.
so i teach myself from books and Internet sites and i have done for nearly 11 years now, i started out fixing printers, then became a mobile engineer and finally ending up in a school, so im getting all the training i can get and if so i will be tuped over get any benefits i can ie training etc and then when the time is right leave for another IT job.
I feel really sorry for my school they were desperate to get me to come work for them and they have worked so hard with me to help achive so much, the staff are great and the pupils treat you with respect and all i can see is that BSF maybe wont change the over all school i believe the support for ICT will be majorly effected and as such frustrate staff and pupils and if you have every had to deal with a special needs pupils who has to have a solution then and there or all hell breaks loose will know what effect an ICT technician who has his hands tied will bring, mainly disruption to that lesson and major possability of damage to the IT equipment.
these are my views i do not speak for anyone else, make up your own minds but just have a full back position when the stuff hits the fan.
