School I.T Technicians

MarcLister said:
instead of Excel or Access, just a generic spreadsheet or database program could suffice. Aren't the principles the same?
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That is the general idea. Teach capability and not the software, although, it isn't as easy as that sometimes. The national curriculum specifies certain IT skills and not the programs, but then its the schools that decide how to teach them and with microsoft with their finger in every pie, its no wonder the majority are ms based.
 
Wow, perhapse a job in a hospital as a brain surgeon would be better, and before you start I have used a knife and saw ok.

Serious, I hope the OP knows what he's getting into and the whole schools network rests on his shoulders and if it all goes **** up.... Owe!

I did a A+, N+, MCSA and MCSE a few years ago and so far never used them ;)

Computers at home do my head in and dont need more stress.

But the best of luck to him in his new job.
 
monkeysmith said:
That is the general idea. Teach capability and not the software, although, it isn't as easy as that sometimes. The national curriculum specifies certain IT skills and not the programs, but then its the schools that decide how to teach them and with microsoft with their finger in every pie, its no wonder the majority are ms based.
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Yep. But MS get everywhere and almost force schools to run their stuff when they ought to allow a free market to emerge.
 
Doorman80, what school?

Im an IT techie at the Nottingham Girls High School and we have a new techie starting tomorrow funnily enough lol dont suppose it's you is it? :)
 
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>:|sh4d0w|:< said:
Dont forget the stealing of mouse balls if your computers arent on opticals yet.
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We had mega problems as a result of mice using balls. Not a problem with them getting nicked but with the balls getting stuck because of dirt inside on the trackers. Considering how many optical mice we would have needed for all the PCs plus some spares the cheapo Microsoft optical mouse would have been quite a cheap and reasonable investment I thought.
 
MarcLister said:
We had mega problems as a result of mice using balls. Not a problem with them getting nicked but with the balls getting stuck because of dirt inside on the trackers. Considering how many optical mice we would have needed for all the PCs plus some spares the cheapo Microsoft optical mouse would have been quite a cheap and reasonable investment I thought.
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Back on the CD drives thing, I remember some people used to nick the rubber bands connecting the two wheels that helped the drive door open.
 
Diddyman said:
It wasn't the fact she was qualified, or knew anything about hardware of software (she have never installed an O/S or would know how to, her hardware experience is about as much as plugging in an iPod! ) but the people at the school know less than her, so she got the role!

Thats seems how it works in schools
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Exactly the same here, and it annoys the hell out of me. So long as you can find resources made by others you'll be fine... that's all ours does. :mad:

Don't get me wrong, I love working there, but the head of ICT is about the only person I don't like - she's just completely incompetent, and totally focussed on doing nothing but promoting the school's facilities. I mean how many other schools have bought an entire year group PDAs? Why? What's the point? Their uses are limited enough as it is, but she bought them thinking it would show the school off nicely, then thought 'ooooh, what can we do with these?'. The kids use them for looking at the internet at breaks and playing bubble-breaker.

Grr.

Sorry. Bit of a rant there. Got carried away.

Schools will be looking at more and more open source stuff now that eLearning Credits have gone (particularly the small schools in rural areas) - unless the government come up with extra funds, and I can pretty much guarantee that our LEA will just pocket it for its restructuring to 2-tier at the moment.
 
>:|sh4d0w|:< said:
Back on the CD drives thing, I remember some people used to nick the rubber bands connecting the two wheels that helped the drive door open.
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Our lot were never that adventurous. Well apart from the moron who changed all the icons on the desktop of one PC so that when you clicked the Excel icon Windows Explorer opened and IE's logo ran Word. :rolleyes:

this_is_gav said:
Don't get me wrong
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Someone get you wrong?! :eek: Impossible n'est pas? :p

this_is_gav said:
I mean how many other schools have bought an entire year group PDAs? Why? What's the point? Their uses are limited enough as it is, but she bought them thinking it would show the school off nicely, then thought 'ooooh, what can we do with these?'. The kids use them for looking at the internet at breaks and playing bubble-breaker.

Grr.

Sorry. Bit of a rant there. Got carried away.
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LOL. :D What a complete and utter waste of money.
 
MarcLister said:
Aren't the principles the same?
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I think you're giving people too much credit - the majority will rote-learn office and not understand why they're doing something, just that they have to in order to get something done.

I fully agree that teaching people the principles of a spreadsheet app is more useful to them than teaching them Excel, but we've seen the quality of IT techs that are being employed by schools, I think most IT teachers would struggle with anything that isn't Office on Windows.
 
Caged said:
I think you're giving people too much credit - the majority will rote-learn office and not understand why they're doing something, just that they have to in order to get something done.
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I'm not sure how I'm giving people too much credit? I agree with you that most students just see Office as a tool to get their work done and not as something to be understood.

Caged said:
I fully agree that teaching people the principles of a spreadsheet app is more useful to them than teaching them Excel, but we've seen the quality of IT techs that are being employed by schools, I think most IT teachers would struggle with anything that isn't Office on Windows.
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If IT teachers struggle then something is wrong. Other teachers perhaps as they are just used to Windows and its the only OS they know of.
 
Doorman80 said:
I was wondering if anyone could give me some advise. I'm starting a new job next week as a I.T Technican but dont really know what software i will be using. If there is someone out there that already does this role could you tell me what software i should be reading up on and common problems that you face on a daily basis so I can go in knowing what to expect. I've never had to deal with severs before so i'm a little worried!


Thanks
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My advice to you would be too learn what you can and move on asap, treat it as job experience as youll find much better positions within the industry, although i haven't worked within the educational sector as a technician i have done enough work with schools and colleges to learn that the environment is often political, partly managed by several different vendors and leaves little room to maneuver.

I would image that they use a standardised application suite much like MS office, internet services would most likely be outsourced along with server management.
 
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