IT in Education

So let's get started to the real IT part:


What is it like to work in education?
What are the challenges?
What's the day to day work like?
Do we control everything?


Working in Education
When you start working in education, the general attitude is of hope every time some one comes to you with a problem.  You can fix any problem, quickly and effectively.  You will hold all the keys, hold all the knowledge and there is nothing out of your power.


Sadly this is not the case.


You will manage the servers, the networking, classroom IT while performing day to day simple tasks.


So I have gone through the ranks of IT from trainee technician, to network manager.  An IT technician will generally involve fixing any day to day simple tasks.  These can be failing PCs, damaged cables, bulb replacements to password reseting.  If I listed every type of tasks it would take many many pages to cover it all and even after 15 Years I can still add to that list.


The rewards are there though, I can walk to a classroom and see what we have done.  A full IT setup with a PC, monitor, projector, smart board, speakers and all setup tidy.  All working, all professionally done.


What are the challenges


The challenge is making things work quickly, so they do not happen again for at least a long time.  On top of that you may not have access to the classroom nor any cabling, after all every classroom is generally in use.


Budgets are another challenge.  If you rely on 100 PCs, 10 Projectors, 10 Smart Boards and 10 Speakers.  You have to remember that they will not last forever.  The recommended replacement age of IT or any electrical equipment used all day is 5 Years, this tends to be stretched to 7 perhaps 8.  That means 15% of all that equipment should be replaced in 7/8 Years, how much money is it just for that small amount?


Depending on the costs of what you purchase, PCs can be from £200 to £500 based on spec/brand.  Projectors can be roughly £400, Smart Boards around £1000 and Speakers £50.  And you wouldn't replace it all every 7/8 Years you would do it in small batches every Year.  12 PCs, 1.5 Projectors etc.
That comes to around £5000 average.


What if you have 1000 PCs, 100 Projectors, 100 Smartboards and 100 Speakers.  Not forgetting a system that size will most likely have a dozen servers, three dozen network switches and endless of cables.  Do Schools budget £50,000 a Year on IT?  No.


We IT people are the ones who keep all that working with a budget of £20,000 to £30,000 dedicated of Hardware replacements.


A good quality switch for 48 PCs can cost around £1000+
A good quality server can cost £10,000+


Still, working in education is a great challenge.  You can pickup endless amount of skills and experience and at a start of your career it is a mountain but a worth climbing.


What's the day to day work like


Most days start off with any morning rushers, Students forgetting passwords, assigning any equipment.  So what typical tasks do we perform?

• Setting up any e.g. daily assemblies, weekly School events or Skype sessions.
• Password resetting for multiple accounts.
• Repairing any damaged equipment e.g. cables, pcs or IWBs.
• Reimaging equipment.
• Installing software.
• Solving any software problems.
• Managing any server changes.
• Printer maintenance, toner replacements.
• Bulb replacements, projector filter cleaning.
• Reconnecting any unplug equipment.
• Increasing funds, drive spaces and alerting users to high usage.
• Checking IT suites for full compliment of keyboards, mice, cables and all working.
• Cleaning equipment.
• Printing issues due to limits.
• Teaching Students how to use IT.
• Smartboard problems.
• PC failures.
• Audit updating.

The above doesn't cover everything but it covers the majority of day to day technician duties.


The next steps would involve:

• Budget planning for 3 Years.
• Planning next roll out of PCs, projectors etc.
• Future planning.
• Cutting down costs/doing things different.
• New cable installations.
• Network/Server upgrades.
• Server installations, virtualisation.
• Improved logging of usage, from printing to saving files and emails etc.
• Documentation of everything.
• Working with Suppliers to cost fight.
• Classroom alterations and improvements.
• Managing audit system to be fully up-to-date.
• Improving professionalism of IT Support.
• Working with Depts to improve IT generally.
• Training Staff for better utilisation of IT.

Again, this doesn't cover everything but you get the basics.

Do we control everything


This is a simple answer, No.  A good example would be, Schools have question three major factors in the last 10 Years.

1. VLEs - There are a ton of terms, portals, platforms but they are all expected to be the same.
2. Cloud - No not those things in the sky, Cloud saving work.  Externally located facilities instead of "On Site".
3. BYOD - Essentially a mobile device, tablets or netbooks.

The majority of the above will not be decided by IT, instead it will be a Teacher who uses one of them and likes it.  At least you hope they like it?


There is a lot of factors why some one may push the above:

• Cost cutting
• Improved reliability
• Improved functions and services
• Any where access
• Self ambition

I am going to jump straight in to that last part, many people will not like that term but it's true.  Teachers these days are becoming more apart of the Young Generation of ambition over productivity.  I have known people who cared more about "Looking good" in the eyes of management over what's best for children.  This is not a majority but it does exist - even in my own profession of IT.


Cost cutting, for this it's simple.  Go to a free Cloud system for online storage which can also be accessible any where.  There are pros and cons to this system though.  Not every cloud solution offers you the School/IT control.  Not every cloud system offers the ability to restore any deleted work.  We all know what kids are like, they can accidently delete their own data or little Johnny's friend may do it.  School IT Support tends to take backups daily as a matter of urgency/emergencies but these systems do get over used in daily restorations for Students and Staff.
Internal Storage solutions that offer plenty of space, reliability and redundancy are not cheap.
You also have to remember when using Cloud services you are relying on your bandwidth, regardless of what some may say, not every School has a good broadband connection.  I work in a School which has 100MB and we are hitting a good 2/3 and no not for Windows Updates or simple things but generally for usage.  Can you imagine downloading a 100MB file for 20 kids from their Cloud?  what about Media, Art who can be opening/saving larger files.  You have to take in to consideration that if you go Cloud, it's not so easy and simple to switch back.


Reliability, this is a big one.  With limited budgets IT Support are simply not able to make it all work.  I've walked in to a new job, seen a mess and listened to people claim "Changing to Macs/PCs/Clouds" will make things work.  Unfortunately no that's not the issue, if you have a 12 Year old PC that will not compete with any new type of equipment.  There is also this fake comparison to home equipment to work equipment.


A little tip for those who don't know, if your home tablet, pc, laptop or MacBook didn't have the internet you will simply lose access to some apps, emails and the internet.  At work, if you have no network this can effectively shutdown 99% of everything.  No one can logon, no one can access software and no one can work.  I would compare this to you losing electricity at home.
Why does a School have a different network?  Students/Staff are permissioned to get what they need and not have access to confidential information.  A PC can do 3000 things when it logs on.  Your home equipment may only do 100 things.  When a Student logs on, they get printers, start menu items, security settings for everything, mapped drives and every step effectively has a hundred settings tied to it.


Any where access, this is an important one that I have pushed for.  From the moment I first got emails on my phone a long time ago.  I've simply not been away from them for very long.  It's avoided spending 2 hours every work morning on my them.  What about data?  what about software?  And that is just for me.  In my view every Student and Staff member should be able to work at home or abroad and have access to everything.  That's lesson plans, registers, software to work, data saved and all be quickly accessible.  Staff should be able to easily send to them all work materials needed, it should be only a few clicks away.
This was the original idea of VLEs but many Schools didn't understand why and what.  Strangely enough those Schools that view them selves more like a University have adopted it much better.  After all, Universities have the IT budgets, Staff to effectively create a VLE.  Not every Uni has this but some have a system that can logon, access email, work and course materials.  Everything is there for when the Student needs it.


So although this has been a bit lengthy I hope the above gives a some what idea of the challenges and the rewards you get.


Don't agree? Suffer the same? don't be afraid to comment!