grumpy_git

I'm definitely not an advocate of sitting at home and living off the taxpayer - however, if someone is genuinely unemployed and is trying to work (by going round, applying for jobs etc) then all credit to them. I'm currently studying at uni and work part time around this. I could, like some do, sit at home all day when I'm not at uni, but I don't want to. For starters I can't stand sitting at home for more than about a week - it drives me nuts. It is a bugger, because I don't drive and public transport is appallingly restrictive and costly. Some mornings it's 2 hours to get to work and the same in the evening, and once at work about 2.5 hours until I'm earning money for myself, not paying off train/bus fare. I'd love to be able to be more flexible, and I'd also love to earn more than the cleaners and dinnerladies, but I still manage to drag myself into work in the morning. I do however know many people who will complain about being "skint" and then go and throw money down the drain at unnecessary things. I probably don't need to work and could live off my student loan if I tightened up quite a bit, however, I want to.

It might solve the issue of not having a sign with you when you notice a dodgy computer. Many times I have identified a dud machine, but have had to either go to the nearest cupboard to get a laminated sign or scribble something on a bit of file paper (which looks naff). I do agree with the 'psychological' thing, though, in that if a computer is "on" the users think that means it's "theirs". Hence pulling the power lead out is useful - but sod's law this is the one time they actually check that it's plugged in, instead of calling IT...

True, however there becomes a point surely where the NM can't do the NM role effectively, as he's spending all the time trying to do day-to-day stuff? Of course, filling in from time to time is one thing (say if a technician is off ill, or it's the first day of term and everything is manic), but being forced to spend time away from your real duties doing another job for half the time isn't ideal. @browolf : I agree that with some subtle education of staff you can go a long way. I was forever getting calls from our librarians, for simple things like paper filling, computers unplugged etc. After some hair-pulling, I sat down with them for half an hour or so on an INSET day and went through some basic troubleshooting - how to check that it's plugged in, switched on, mouse / keyboard plugged in, how to fill a printer with paper. As such the Library causes far less aggro now than it used to. There is also the issue we occasionally get where staff "don't want to report things that are urgent because we know you're busy..." - far better to learn about it when it's not urgent than when it's "needed urgently for a lesson in 5 minutes".

Know the feeling. I live in a block of flats and so we have a buzzer entry system. Stayed in all day, around 6pm went out round to the chippy, and stuck in the door was a "you were out" card dated about midday. Errrrr I was in the whole time and that buzzer did not go off! So I had the fun of an expensive call to get the delivery rearranged, followed by a trip to the parcel centre - fortunately it's relatively easy to get to (the one back home was in the middle of an industrial estate completely inaccessible unless you drove - which I don't). However, after a snotty letter, I got a fiver back from them covering the cost of calls and bus fares.

I wonder how many schools have anything like this? Based upon our 1.25ish technicians, we have one tech per 434 machines! Although, our NM tends to get involved with the day-to-day stuff simply because of the understaffing (even though the day-to-day running/support/answering the phone is technically outwith his remit).

They seem to drag this one out every 6 months or so on a slow news day. Ironically, one of the SMT asked me the other day how to ensure there was nothing on his hard disk off a recently replaced computer. After explaining how you would need to run a program to fill the disk with random data etc he asked if there wasn't a quicker way, to which I replied "get a sledgehammer?". Skeptically he went through and asked the NM who gave exactly the same answer ;D.

Immediately staff leave we put them in a "leavers" folder and disable the account. We send out a memo a few weeks before they leave asking them to give files to successors etc. After a while and a backup we delete them. The exception is if they aren't really leaving - a couple of retired teachers do supply work, as does one of the office ladies. Students, we're very often not told about (despite the introduction of a ticklist for HOYs to use) until they have been gone some time. I try to do a termly comparison of a list of users against a copy of the school roll. Year 11s/13s we get rid of if they don't come back in September. Keeping all accounts frozen until Christmas and disposing around then (which reminds me I've not done it this year yet!).

Urrrrg. We had two trolleys, one based down in the science/humanities building and one in the library/maths area. Both of these had staff to look over them and keep a day-to-day view - the science technicians for the former and the librarians for the latter. They make sure that the trolleys are at the rooms booked, make sure the laptops are on charge, and report any faults to us. We allow booking for all periods and I've never heard complaints about lateness (generally classes don't use them first thing in a lesson so we're ok). Booking is done via the admin office who deal with all 'bookable' things in our school (halls, VCRs, rooms, laptop trolleys etc). They unfortunately get a lot of hammer and cause an awful lot of trouble. I was hopeful we'd see the back of them soon - as the library one has fallen into near disuse since the library itself was tarted up with new desktops. Sadly I've heard that one of our departments is demanding 2/3 trolleys as part of their specialism spending .

Simple things like mice/keyboard unplugged are a big irritant - doubly so when on an RM One (don't even go there!!) and you're trying to get one swapped out, get the back off, oh bugger it's one where the screws gone - etc. Or anything in our admin office - which is a nightmare of wires here there and everywhere, wires diving behind cupboards and up walls... nobody really knows what's where!

Since we fill the printers in the IT rooms I generally go through twice a day through all 3 IT rooms and the library area, and it's usually obvious if a machine is poorly, or a keyboard broken or such. Computers in other classrooms we only get to see if we're called out to fix them (or something in the vicinity and notice it in passing). We had a room with an IWB, and the computer linked to it was replaced, but I was distracted halfway through and had to leave the job of installing the drivers and connecting the VGA lead, until later. This was in September - it was the following July until someone reported it, and then "I've GOT to have it for this lesson! I use it all the time!". So, er, you use it all the time yet we never actually plugged it in? And it's been like this for almost a year and you've not reported it? One of those moments where I just say nothing and walk away to avoid saying something I'll later regret!

We've recently increased the number of "open access" terminals - there's now a room full of them. It's mainly used by 6th form, but other students use it especially at break, lunch and after school. As for access to them, at lunchtime there's a room full of open access machines (58), plus 24 in the library, and 80 in three IT rooms which are opened. That's 162 machines, for about 1,200 students, never had any problems with access other than on coursework deadline day - we liase with departments and open up extra rooms at this time anyway.

I do; but I'm cheating a wee bit as I'm halfway through a degree at the moment . Err, I'm a chap, and when techie-ing I spend a lot of time on the helldesk. I could have used a couple of other usernames, but prefer a tiny bit of anonymity .

We have a store room in which all kit is dumped when taken off service - some gets put back into use (eg a load of decent CRTs came back recently when a suite was upgraded - sent them out to replace some of the grotty old ones). We tend to offer staff any keyboards, mice or monitors they may want to acquire for home use, then every so often have a big sort out and all the stuff with no possible future use to us is picked up by a reuse/recycling firm; we're on good terms with them so don't get charged!

I would agree with those who say give it a week or two to see how things all work, what procedures are etc before going in and making changes. And, if at all possible, discuss it with the others before insisting upon it. As a tech I'd prefer to be asked "I'm thinking of changing the procedure to *this*, what do you think?" rather than told "We're doing it this way". Personally I won't get snotty if I'm told what to do - ultimately the NM is my line manager and if he makes a reasonable request, I'm pretty much obliged to do it. Of course, if the NM does ask me to do such a job, and there's a good reason - eg there's something else which needs to be done urgently, or I'm halfway through a job, I'll explain this and usually continue and do it later. But, ultimately, since the NM is in charge of the "team" it's for him to decide who does what - if this ends up upsetting teachers then so be it.

Thanks for the replies . The problem mainly occurs with this one department, who indeed send the difficult kids along! Other staff are far better at it, and will insist on the class waiting outside before bringing them in - or meeting the class at the usual teaching room before taking them accross. Locking the rooms would be great, but there are a couple of staff offices off them, as well as ours which people need to get to. Think I'll just have to keep on badgering SMT about it when it happens in the hope that they'll get sick of it and do something! However the subject area is getting improved computing facilities in its rooms, so that may help somewhat. Cheers for the replies again!

Hi all This one has reared its head recently. Basically, school policy is such that students up to yr11 aren't allowed in any 'specialist' room unsupervised - including IT rooms as well as CDT workshops, science labs etc. Generally kids and students alike adhere to this - whilst they're not a difficult bunch, it's far better for them to be supervised. There are some areas where there are computers for "ad hoc" usage - eg the library - but that is supervised by librarians and there's always a duty member of teaching staff. Now the problem occurs with a specific department who book an IT room for a coursework lesson and proceed to work in their normal room, but send about 2/3rds of the kids to the booked IT room to do "individual research" etc. Several times I've walked in and they've been messing around, came across one kid who was swinging a hockey stick round his head not far from a brand new (and very expensive) projector . Of late, I've taken to informing the SMT member who oversees IT by email each time it happens, who persistently badgers to the HoD over it. Really, I shouldn't be bothered - if something happened to the kids whilst they were in a room unsupervised, the teacher who sent them there would be the one getting a rollocking, so it's not that I'm concerned to cover my own back or anything; but I don't see why kids (and staff!) should be allowed to break the rules in such an obvious fashion. The room is noticably in a worse state after they've finished with it (we have it well drilled into the staff to not let a class leave without tidying stools up, clearing waste paper etc off the benches), and with no supervision only a matter of time before some kit gets damaged? What is everyone else's policy - can kids go in IT rooms unsupervised, do they have to have a teacher there, am I making a mountain out of a molehill...?!

Hi all, I've been a member here for a few days - only contributed to a few threads, but read lots more and found a lot of useful stuff! Whilst preferring to retain some anonymity I'm a part time technician based somewhere 'up north'. The reason I'm part time is that I'm studying computer science at uni; and do the techie-ing outwith term times. Spend quite a bit of time manning our 'helpdesk' - which isn't too bad as usually there's something to be getting on with in the office, whilst being about for phone calls / visitors. Still, I get to do a fair bit of higher level stuff. I like the fact that I usually control most of my workload - get given jobs to add to the list by the NM or other technicians but most of the time prioritise things myself. Pet hate... teachers who report a projector/computer/laptop/network point as being faulty 5 minutes before a lesson when "I *must* have it to teach with!"; upon investigation it wasn't working 3 days ago, but "I didn't need it then so I didn't report it". Or the ones who think that stopping you in a corridor and blurting something about a faulty projector is "reporting" it - by the time I'm back in the office I've forgotten what you've said! Ah well; better money than I'd get elsewhere, for the time being anyway, and arguably I've learned as much here as I have from uni; network cabling, DIY(!) etc.

For ours, when our walls start to look bland we have a word with a couple of the ICT teachers who normally get the kids to print off some suitibly colourful stuff that they've been doing for us to pin up.

Second the decent headphones - it's probably worth paying more especially if you have the cash to do it with! I find myself frequently replacing ours, which are pretty flimsy. Presumably also decent microphones - though whether they'd be better integrated with the headphones I'm not sure. Depending on the usage of the room, it may be a good idea to arrange it so the whiteboard/smartboard is visible from each workstation. One of the criticisms of some of our rooms is that in order for the class as a whole to get a good view of the board, they need to leave the computers and come and sit around at the front.

We have a small pool of laptops which aren't currently in use as LfTs, which we use if we need one (presentations in the hall, going around taking serial numbers etc). Desktops seem fine and if I do anything from home I use my own machine.

We have approx 600 machines, another 100 or so thin clients, oodles of switches and cabling, about 60 printers of varying types (though a lot are unused or under-used), 70 projectors, 5 photocopiers, CCTV etc. 1 NM, 1 full time technician, 1 part time (0.25) technician. Hopefully adding another person soon, but pigs can fly too... Spend an awful lot of time with a huge backlog, it's almost impossible to do anything proactive or development wise as the time is taken sorting out the day-to-day stuff. Senior staff are quick to moan when stuff doesn't get done on time, but then bleat on about budget pressures when its pointed out that extra staffing is required. (Of course its fine to hire extra bean-counters, or give teachers fancy titles and huge pay rises for doing very little).

We give them a varying amount depending on the year they're in - starting with 250 b&w pages in year 7 up to 400 in 6th form. A colour print classes as 2 pages. If they run out, they have to pay for any more, at 3p per page. Coursework hand-in days inevitably have a long queue of people proffering cash...

Hi all - I'm new here, but thought I'd add my perspective. If we ban someone, they can still log on - but get a lovely bright yellow screen once they log on saying that they're banned, and all they can do is click a button to log off. However, there's another option which a staff member can click, enter their username & password and allow the student on for a specified period. The staff are told to keep an eye on anyone they let on in such a way. Hence we can ban people, yet don't get "I can't do my coursework!" complaints. When they get banned an automated memo goes out to the relevant tutor and head of years so that they are informed. Each student has an AUP which they have to sign, get parents to countersign and return before their account is enabled, and once their ban period is expired they've got to sign countersign and return another before they're back on. As to why they get banned, there's a roughly half an half split. Often we get emails from staff saying that a kid was playing games during their lesson and can they be banned. Random VNC-ing when there's something suspicious going on is helpful sometimes. I can relate 100% to the "doc1" thing, very satisfying to make it "disappear" and show the game when the staff's standing right behind them. We're lucky to have SMT support and the bottom line is that use of the system is a privilege - which can be withdrawn if it's misused. A couple of head of years are more militant and will kick up that "jonny can't do his homework now" - tough! Issues like messing about in class and being disruptive, well they're a classroom problem not an IT one so it's the class teacher's responsibility to follow up. The ones who do 'physical' vandalism like breaking chairs, swapping keyboard characters over and pratting around with mice (though this isn't so much a problem now as most of our mice are optical) get to spend a lunchtime with the Head of IT cleaning keyboards, mending stools etc. Which I love, because it saves me a job!