Support

Today I helped one of our technicians update some laptops. We don’t have a push server, so it’s a manual job - each laptop for 25 minutes. 

I have spoken about the importance of support before, and I suppose I just wanted to say it again. Technology is more than equipment and blinking lights (to be sure, that’s the fun part for me).  However, without technical, and in-class support for the teachers, it really won’t shine.

On 11 March 2008, Sean Owen inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

You are right about support being an afterthought in most K-12 situations. Also, getting in-district IT support out of the mindset of doing things the same way year after year helps too…

I typically show school districts how to use Ghost Enterprise installed on a laptop, a switch, and a wireless router to do that process in under 10 minutes for a whole lab… That enables many people to be able to update mobile or stationary labs…

Still doesn’t solve the support quandary, but highlights that streamlining the time spent by district technicians is one part of the solution. Just my opinion…

On 11 March 2008, Bill MacKenty inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

Sean, nice to meet you, and excellent point! I see effective (read: efficient and smart) system administration as critical to the success of technology in schools.

Thanks for your comment!