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Warning, this is a rant. (A real entry is waiting on my Psion, but I can't transfer it at school.)
Just came out of an ICT prefect meeting. What's our IT department's solution to the way the network is going to hell in a handbasket? *Posters*. Lots of *posters*. No-one ever takes the slightest bit of notice of posters.
And what's the biggest issue? Is it that after reading the GNVQ IT syllabus, the IT department is afraid that bags are deadly to computers and hence should not be allowed in a 5-mile radius of them, hence causing untold misery for pupils and staff alike with an endless fight about where bags should be left? Is it that there's no storage for bags upstairs at all, and it takes about 5mins to get back to the nearest place to store bags from the computer room? No, it's people printing out slightly too much junk. Which apparently should be solved by locking up all the paper and making people collect it at certain times, and no simultaneous printing. At least we managed to talk her out of that for now - one issue on which I'm glad the fallback answer is just nice, harmless posters.
Anyone know any way of implementing a 'printer credits' system (one user can only print out a certain number of pages before having to ask for more credits) under a basic WinNT network without using a dedicated print server (which Dr Stallard is against because it provides a single point of faliure, whereas atm although about three-quarters of the printers are dead at any one time there's likely to be a working printer somewhere in school)?
And what's the money being spent on, as the network falls apart? Laptops. Laptops that we're not even going to be allowed to take on school trips, bought for a really *dumb* reason - Dr Stallard believes that they'll magically make Y13 more willing to print out their own UCAS forms, despite the fact it's the balky printers and general lack of computer literacy/confidence that's to blame, neither of which the laptops will help solve (in fact they'll make the first one worse, 'cos we won't be able to buy any new printers).
As Vicki and I exclaimed to each other about as we came away from the meeting, it doesn't look like we're going to be listened to. (She didn't even *mention* the virus checker issue (that none of our virus software has been updated *ever*) that I raised ages ago...)
Just came out of an ICT prefect meeting. What's our IT department's solution to the way the network is going to hell in a handbasket? *Posters*. Lots of *posters*. No-one ever takes the slightest bit of notice of posters.
And what's the biggest issue? Is it that after reading the GNVQ IT syllabus, the IT department is afraid that bags are deadly to computers and hence should not be allowed in a 5-mile radius of them, hence causing untold misery for pupils and staff alike with an endless fight about where bags should be left? Is it that there's no storage for bags upstairs at all, and it takes about 5mins to get back to the nearest place to store bags from the computer room? No, it's people printing out slightly too much junk. Which apparently should be solved by locking up all the paper and making people collect it at certain times, and no simultaneous printing. At least we managed to talk her out of that for now - one issue on which I'm glad the fallback answer is just nice, harmless posters.
Anyone know any way of implementing a 'printer credits' system (one user can only print out a certain number of pages before having to ask for more credits) under a basic WinNT network without using a dedicated print server (which Dr Stallard is against because it provides a single point of faliure, whereas atm although about three-quarters of the printers are dead at any one time there's likely to be a working printer somewhere in school)?
And what's the money being spent on, as the network falls apart? Laptops. Laptops that we're not even going to be allowed to take on school trips, bought for a really *dumb* reason - Dr Stallard believes that they'll magically make Y13 more willing to print out their own UCAS forms, despite the fact it's the balky printers and general lack of computer literacy/confidence that's to blame, neither of which the laptops will help solve (in fact they'll make the first one worse, 'cos we won't be able to buy any new printers).
As Vicki and I exclaimed to each other about as we came away from the meeting, it doesn't look like we're going to be listened to. (She didn't even *mention* the virus checker issue (that none of our virus software has been updated *ever*) that I raised ages ago...)
