Tuxguy

Senior Project Engineer – Academy Corporate Services (Folkestone All Age Academy, Spires Academy & Marlowe Academy) 52 weeks per year, 37 hours per week Salary from £30,521 per annum Travel will be required across all Academies when required and the post may be based at Folkestone, Spires or Ramsgate for longer periods during special projects. About Us Our Academies are supported by a shared Corporate Services group. This group works across all sites, supporting the individual needs of each academy. The Academies have a total of over 2500 students and over 500 staff. The role will include supporting diverse IT networks at each of the academies including Apple Macs, PCs, iPads and laptops, running on separate Windows-based networks with a mixture of Windows XP, Windows 7 and Mac OSX. Sites have wireless network coverage, high-speed broadband connectivity and a high level of audio-visual equipment. About the Job To support our vision of academic excellence, we are seeking a professional and innovative ICT Engineer to provide a comprehensive support service to the Academies. Key deliverables will include: Supporting and developing the Academies ICT systems Moving our IT into future territories Providing Level 3/4 support for the existing systems Responsibility for ICT system design, performance and change management Maintaining and updating ICT security Helping to develop standard support procedures Assisting with purchase arrangements Responsibility for system documentation and configuration management About You Applicants will have previous experience of working as an ICT/Project Engineer. You will have in-depth infrastructure knowledge and experience, plus some software coding skills to help with small application development. You will have a sound understanding of ITIL methodology. You will have the ability to successfully manage change, and possess exceptional time management skills. You will have excellent communication skills, and a high standard of written English. Experience of the secondary education IT environment would be beneficial. You will be educated to at least A-Level standard, with good grades in English and Mathematics GCSE, and will possess IT qualification to at least MTA level. You will possess a driving licence, and access to a car will be a necessary requirement. You will be committed to personal learning and development, and have a sincere commitment to sharing our long-term aims and drive for continuous improvement. In return, we will offer you a professional and supportive team, a state of the art working environment and a genuine opportunity to develop. If you are an enthusiastic and committed professional, and want to work in a fast paced, dynamic environment, then we welcome your application. To apply, please visit any of our websites http://www.marloweacademy.co.uk, http://www.spiresacademy.com or http://www.folkestoneacademy.com and click on one of our recruitment sections. Please complete and return the application form electronically to [email protected], alongside a covering letter stating why you think you are suitable for this position. Please note cv’s in isolation will not be accepted for this position. If you have any difficulty in obtaining an application form from the website, or have any questions, please contact Clare Smith, Group Recruitment Manager by email [email protected] Closing date: 12 noon Tuesday 12th February 2013 We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of young people and expect all staff to share this commitment. The successful applicant will be subject to appropriate child protection screening including checks with previous employers and the Criminal Records Bureau. Vacancy Closing Date: 12/02/2013 Link: http://www.folkestoneacademy.com/secondary/215/vacancies/vacancy/33/senior-project-engineer

Thanks, Dave. Yes, been there, too - in fact nowadays we plan for that scenario and have a few sensible 'wants' in our back pocket just in case! Cheers, Ian

Dave, Thanks! Lots of good advice there, stuff to make you think before jumping in. And what I know about I agree with. Just a little clarification please: "Purchasing huge amounts of kit to reduce balances..." - do you mean costs? Cheers, Ian

bclarke - spot on! Got my iPad in school and I love it, as does everyone else who tries it (except the usual Apple nay-sayers, of course)! RDP onto the servers anytime anyplace (password controlled, of course), network analyse whenever and where-ever using apps, great cheap apps for most things that I can download in school, instant on, battery lasts forever, access to the server file-system via FileBrowser, use Dropbox to move files around, email on Exchange works a treat anywhere, no (not many) moving parts to break/go wrong, use in meetings to sketch ideas I can then mail out, and it goes on... With voicemail sent to my email I can pick that up anywhere, the educational apps are engaging, hooks into the vle ok. And the teachers are seeing possibilities, too, especially SEN. The school's broadband filter does its job, too. I can see this revolutionizing education and engaging the students like nothing else. It'll need one per student as it can't (yet) have multi-profiles, and it'll cost a fortune, so probably won't happen for a while, but it is the future and we should all take it on-board or be considered Luddites by our employers!

I'm a network manager, so it's in an attempt to help the teachers control the rampant plagiarism. I’m not holding out much hope as one of the basic premises of the internet is the sharing of information, and cut and paste is so much a part of the OS anyway, but I said I’d ask around on the off-chance that there may be a way to stop text selection in a browser. I suppose as Firefox is open-source I may be able to find a way to create a special educational ‘no text copy’ version, but that’s not my preferred path as I don’t have those skills! Thanks, TG

Hi, I've done a search and (surprisingly) dug nothing up about preventing students from copying text off a website, pasting it into a document and claiming it as their own. I can see how to disable right-clicking, but we need something more, and specifically just to stop text being copied (images are accepatable). Does anyone have any ideas how I can do this?? Thanks, TG

OK, but aren't all suppliers developing their systems, even the big ones? And I would have thought it'd be better to buy from an experienced company off-the-shelf, rather than from one that is still scratching its head. I'd rather buy a sorted car from Ford than an unknown car from Joe Bloggs who is still working out what works ok, but has quoted me a low price. But maybe I'm just old, boring and prudent. Still, the deal's done so let's see what happens (in 2009). Interesting times ahead! I've no axe to grind either way, but I do like to see good decisions made (but perhaps I'm in the wrong business for that!).

We had a visit from RM yesterday and they were astonished not to get the BSF deal in Kent. Now I've read this thread I have the feeling that Northgate are now going to look and learn what schools really need and then probably re-invent the same wheel and end up with what RM do already! Where's the product? The remote centralised control aspect is interesting and I believe is used down in the SW (Exeter area?) already, but at the moment I am a fan of in-school high calibre ICT support staff helping each school do things the way it feels is best as quickly as possible. I'm not sure SLTs will want to be dictated to about what ICT they get, but are they prepared to pay for local high quality ICT help? I don't know, I just feel that the decision may have been based on cost and a glossy brochure - why else spend more than a year designing the systems? Why do I feel this is based on good words rather than good product? Sorry, going down with a cold and feeling grumpy.... and I'm not even involved in the BSF 'thing', just have an opinion.

Hey, I really hope bossman is speaking with his tongue firmly in his cheek! At first I thought he was a troll and I was prepared to dismiss his statement, but now I'm not so sure... The closer I get to the higher levels of authority the more I fear that sort of attitude. It really is naive to think that those in positions of significant authority are totally flawless or have no personal interests and would not use any handy technology to enhance their influence and power. I have a minority hobby and I'm having my rights gradually eroded by laws passed by people who have no interest or very little knowledge of my interests. Would I then let them track me and listen in to all I say so that I can be further oppressed? Oh, but of course, I'm not being oppressed, just constrained 'for my own good'. I don't think so... Woo, this is not education tech related is it? Sorry. Ian R

For which you're now charging at the appropriate rate, I presume? Ian R

For a quick job of about 10 images (it crashes if it has to do too many, but I'm sure it'll get better) try this one - PLiska Image Resizer, from here PLISKA. I like the ease of use. Ian R

No, not blistering, but fine for a home network. Of course, if you're home is gigabit wired and all your PCs are moving Gb of data around it's not going to hack it, but as a general purpose box it fits the bill! Here's a website running on a slug: Byte Red - these things are great value for money and as simple or as complex as you want - great developer community, too! That's more than enough evangelising from me for now

It'll run at least 2 HDD and more is apparently possible, with backup between them as an option if you're paranoid about HDD failure (and we all should be!). 8)

A quick search says it's done ok with OpenSlug. There are a few different versions of Linux to choose from to make it what you want. I prefer the KISS approach, but admire those who make the slug do tricks you wouldn't believe!

I used to run a RedHat based network (mixed Linux/Windows clients), but the server motherboard went pop, so I've taken the opportunity to reduce energy usage (it was a regular PC box on 24/7) by buying a Slug (a Linksys NSLU2). It's a quiet, small, cheap, linux box serving out data to the home network. Soon I'll be making it unslung and making it my home web server, and anything else that takes my fancy. I think it's cool! Not a hyper machine, but it suits the home well. NSLU2 Linux Cost? Hardware £50 plus HDD(s), software £0 Fun? 100% Downside? No big box to show off and we have to use the central heating...

Not sure if this is exactly the same issue, but when I was wanting to host a Moodle service outside the school I was told not to as it would mean some student info would be going off-site, and that was a no-no. Fair enough, I suppose. So I now have the Moodle server on our school network ok and accessible from the internet. However, and this is the point of interest to me, I do note that the external access part our Kaleidos system seems to be hosted somewhere off-site, so what's the deal there? Anyone understand the Kaleidos system well enough to know if there is student data being held externally?

You've got an office? We dream of that! We work in a rusty tin can in the middle of the road. One hour after sunset we clean the road with our tongues, eat a handful of cold gravel and then work 20 hours at the mill with no pay! When we get home, our dad cuts us up with a dull gensu knife and uses us for cheese fondue. But you tell that to the boss today and she simply doesn’t believe you... (Sorry, coudn't resist it!!)

Strange, I'm getting exactly the same problem here, but only on one PC so far. Anybody else bumped into this (Excel, no cell colours, but screen ok and prints ok) and have any ideas as to the cause? Not much useful found on the web so far. Thought it may be the page setup print only B&W option, but that's not it. Cheers, Ian

Found an answer on the Jivesoft website forum - you have to set the Automatic Discovery option to "off" and specify the server to use - all from the Advanced settings button on the Login box. That at least halves the startup time. Still not lightning fast though... Ian

Doh - been trying to get Wildfire to use LDAP/AD only to find, much to my surprise, that the server Wildfire is on is not Active Directory enabled! I guess as a web server no one thought that AD would be important there. No wonder I couldn't get it to work. Now I have a choice - move Wildfire to an AD enabled server, or enable AD on the existing Wildfire server, or just stick to manual account creation? Think I'll stick to the latter solution and maintain control by hand - it'll probably be easier and quicker, at least for now. Anyone noticed that the Spark client application takes a while to start up - like over a minute? Ian

I'd rather have a crumble in the jungle, actually! (Sorry, missing my lunch - thunderstorm has kept me in...)

Looks like the Wildfire site has a good and active community that would be worth tapping into. For example, here's a typical thread. About to dive into the LDAP/AD thing myself.... gulp - wish me luck, Carruthers... :? Ian

Hi Michael, From what I've seen and understood so far I believe either system will leave a message on your screen after they have logged off, so, from that point of view, I think they are the sort of thing you are looking for. However, unless you have a wireless link direct from the school or are running a VPN then you won't be on the same domain, so I don't think they'll be able to contact you directly. I'm looking at these solutions as being in-house only to avoid the need for external links and to keep things reasonably secure. In your case would email not be good enough? Or a dedicated MSN-type channel? Cheers, Ian

Hey, that is a neat in-house IM solution - works a treat! If I can just integrate it into the RM LDAP/AD system and restrict usage to staff only then could be on to a winner here. Only downside could be that the pop-ups are not as 'in yer face' as is necessary sometimes, but early days yet. Thanks for putting me on to this, Ben. :thumbright: Cheers, Ian

Hey, plexer, that Wildfire looks really cool 8) and useful! If the Spark client can do pop-ups then we may be on to something there. I'll run it up tomorrow and have a look see. Don't you just love open source??! Geoff, I think VOIP, as wonderful as it is, is not really suited to this sort of thing, especially in a classroom where confidentiality is important (many teachers don't have a separate office either). Also bit of a drag unless we get the pukka handsets as well. Thanks for the suggestion anyway. Cheers, Ian