DrBeaker

Interestingly though surely some support staff (IT are a prime example here) too there - working all hours for things. Having to use our own equipment sometimes for things in our own time? Especially with lockdown being a recent example. So if they come down too draconian that would be the end of it from teaching and support I'd think. Guess it depends. e.g. I use some videos on Youtube for testing things, speakers etc. I might have to leave them running whilst I go off and do something else and especially during the holidays might not be back for a couple of hours. I use the BBC news site to make sure the internet works. I used eBay today to look at some fuses we need for something.

I think I've already gone mad doing IT support [emoji23]

Ok I need the opinion of the hive mind here to make sure I'm not going or already gone mad lol with covid lol. We purchased a bunch of identical USB powered visualisers for the school to standardise on the make and model. Instead of them being put into every classroom like I wanted to, they're now being issued to staff directly. Who have to carry them from room to room throughout be the day, due to the bubbles in the schools. The visualisers also includes a heavy base for it to sit in on the desk. They're not carrying their own keyboard and mouse with them everytime to lessons so to me, they just wipe then down - so this makes no sense to me Or is it just me? [emoji33][emoji848]

I was thinking this too. As long as you can get the data in/out, what they do with it is up to the service owner e.g. CPOMs is safeguarding etc.

This seems a bit suss. All of our internet and filtering is monitored as standard for staff, students, SLT and myself alike. I had to get Facebook unblocked for certain staff including IT at first, so SLT could do the social media stuff for the school. I had to get eBay unblocked for certain people so we could look at options for buying things from there and pricing things up. BBC news I'd imagine most staff read at lunchtime I know I do - I might leave a tab open after lunch for example and forget about it as I have multiple Chrome windows with multiple tabs. Sometimes I've got some music playing whilst I do other tasks etc. None of that means work isn't being done however. All needs to be taken in context as it can easily be misconstrued. e.g. I walked past a room today they'd logged on and seemed to have it streaming the BBC news/a live video probably for the kids during lunch. However if they start strictly monitoring staff's web usage, I can imagine a backlash from staff who will do ONLY what they need to do on the school "work" computers and will not use their own personal computers at all.

F A N T A S T I C. Nice one there Capita. Thanks for the heads-up though

What's the feature set like in the newer versions of SMART Notebook? We're on 11.4 with a load of smartboards still. Can't see any justification for moving to subscription software just to be able to write on boards which don't get used as interactive ones most of the time.

No I mean we can't keep up with the constant small changes of a cloud platform and it's not our sole/primary jobs, so it's best they get someone who trains people and IT can also sit in on the training too. e.g. I've had to send out something today but the screenshots taken in March during lockdown no longer reflect the current GUI. But no-way do I have time to update it.

Yeah I've given up on stuff like that to be honest. Sorry but as IT don't get any training on the stuff we're expected to troubleshoot and support. So an external trainer it is the best option.

I put mine in a few weeks ago and still haven't been sent anything! Are you sending out in batches etc?

I think the advice has changed multiple times over the years. Statics are OK until you've got a fleet of devices e.g. printers and have to manually update them, enter the info etc. Best advice I read was to put statics on things like switches etc and in the event of DHCP issues you know you can still get to them. Whereas with a printer it wouldn't matter so much.

Maybe we need the tube announcement bloke doing store announcements.. "Mind the gap".

Huh. I emailed them at the start of this week to to say is there anything we can do from an IT perspective to be proactive/is there anything we can do now to prep in the event of a second lockdown given there were cases in schools close by us. I got a sarcastic snotty reply back saying SLT are dealing with it. Really? Because as of Friday closing, no updates or requests being sent my way to update me - I'm only the one IT person after all. I assume then they already prepped with laptops standing by, all charged, all prepped ready to be collected by key staff then. Oh the IT person (me) still doesn't have a work laptop they were informed. Then they wonder why IT people are the way they are sometimes.

https://www.officestationery.co.uk/product/nobo-quantum-overhead-projector-2511-acco1900560/ How about something like that? If the old school technology still works, use that. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

I've got to look at that very problem myself when I get chance.

Our INSET day was staff in Covid bubbles, with someone from SLT logged into Teams in rooms with a computer. Then they were broadcast the same meeting to them. They used the Office 365 features we already had. I was impressed to be honest. Even though they tried to play a video through Teams. Bandwidth people! I think they did it via meetings/scheduled Teams things. Will keep an eye out for any issues though. Make sure they're on a decent PC connected to Ethernet not wireless too.

I'm amazed at how cheap some of these NICS at 10Gbps for PCs seem to be these days. There are still some 10/100 Mbps hubs around in some areas. Apparently 2.5Gbps and 5Gbps is going to hit the home market sooner than 10Gbps is. 4x port NIC teamed at 5Gbps each for 20Gbps on a home network would be impressive.

One of ours was a 3-4x year programme of switch replacements due to the sheer cost which wasn't cheap. I think there was an awful lot of noughts in the final bill.

I am honoured. I wasn't paying attention at first and had to rewatch and think what is @LeMarchand on about. Then I figured it out How dare you sir? How dare you? https://screenrant.com/star-trek-ds9-costumes-details/ - fact number 5 - O'Brien's Uniform Was Custom I relate to O'Brien's character traits though - real solutions that actually work, but sometimes you have to bodge it. The meme is just for fun

We export ours to Excel and stick it on our staff portal. All staff users can see this then and verify usernames etc.

Unite were absolutely useless and very unhelpful when I needed them as a member. No support at all. Empty promises.

I think this is a great idea and a good initiative. Trying to see all sides - Cynically perhaps we know some teachers might say "huh, not my job to do that" despite your clear attempt to improve things for them? I think some will see what you're trying to do though and improve things!

Funny I get the exact opposite! How freaky! But it could be that does suggest more serious morale-type problems within the org though, if he thinks people aren't reading his emails surely? Funny as I do exactly that. I can easily be sent 100-300x emails a day. No idea how I'm supposed to read them all and take them in. Could they not do a summary in the staff meeting etc?

Out of interest whats the reason behind this, do you mind me asking? Reading an email isn't the same as absorbing and comprehending the information within the email though? Sometimes I have to go back and read the emails a couple of times to comprehend it.

This was to solve a problem with no freeze function on these particular TVs. To be fair I got the idea from another poster on here in the last couple of years. Tried getting staff to do Windows Key and P, got so many issues with it (staff forgetting, supply staff not knowing how to do it etc) I got fed up and trialled this setup out. Uses the hardware solution instead of software which from my experience is more reliable.