School Names In Profiles

[casper]

I had initially intended this site to be geared towards ICT technicians, but have received a few PMs to say that it may also be of help to teachers and maybe even students. While I have absolutely no objections to this I would be concerned about some teaching staff reading any of the comments posted in the 'General Discussion' section.



I'd be afraid of some teachers maybe taking it 'thick' at some of the comments there so to protect the identities of the members I'm going to recommend one of two things either



 - removing the school name from members profile

 - creating a private section where only technicians can access



I've created a poll so let me know what you think

[bahhumbug]

Hi casper,



One option you missed was "Remove school info" AND "Create private area"  



But I think you've got a point.  It won't only be techies accessing this.  Any C2k manager/Administrator will find this useful and if they ain't techies they may not understand our basic need to have a moan every now and then.  



The other point is of course that you yourself need to be careful about what you allow to be posted.  It could conceivably get you into bother.



SO, I'd ask all posters to bear in mind the fact that this is accessible to anybody who knows or finds the site and what might seem like a pretty harmless whinge from one of us could have further consequences.

[Paul]

bother makes my job interesting, :wink:

[bahhumbug]

I see we have 40 registered users but only 7 have bothered to vote.



Another consideration, as has been mentioned elsewhere, is that a private area would allow us to swap tips etc that we may not necessarily want pupils for instance to know about.

[casper]

I think I'll make the Management Console area a private area, but the problem arises when it comes to who gets in. I think the only way to do that is for anyone looking access to it to pm me their contacts details and then I can phone and verify that they are indeed the ICT technician. What do you think?

[blondnotstupid]

Was wondering whether a teacher area would eventually cut out the need for the middle man -the techie?  Not to mention those who will inevitably say that we have too much time on our hands if we can contribute to a forum on an almost daily basis.  (Paranoia?)



As legacy networks die and are replaced by c2k machines techies are going to need to be more c2k involved.  Just a thought - sorry if it is unpleasant. :cry:

[Ray]

As legacy networks die and are replaced by c2k machines techies are going to need to be more c2k involved.  Just a thought - sorry if it is unpleasant. :cry:

Well when you have teachers calling us down and saying "My printer will not print!!!!" and you realise that they have unplugged it to plug in their radio, I think our jobs are safe for a while yet! (P.S this same teacher called me down 3 times over 2 months to solve the same problem! And she is one of the more computer literate)

[blondnotstupid]

Fair point Ray

[blondnotstupid]

Has anyone logged into the Learning NI discussion pages?  I've tried with no success.  Is this, I wonder, because I am a member of the Admin Group and not the Teacher Group?  

[Kev]

Just to pick up on a point that blondnotstupid made...

Do u guys really think C2K will "kill off" legacy networks?

There are several things that C2K wont permit on their system (like web

hosting for example) that are vital for the future teaching of IT. In my mind

Legacy will out live C2K, but time will tell.

[blondnotstupid]

I think you'll find that anything that is required to teach ICT will become available through C2k.  Don't forget that under the new academic structures ICT is going to be a core subject.  So C2k will have to provide for us the way they have to for the rest of the curriculum.

[Kev]

unfortunately in my experience C2k tend to lag behind with their provision.

As a result of this we (and 2 other schools I am aware of) had to upgrade

our legacy system as we couldnt depend on C2K to provide for certain

components we needed. Thankfully we made the right move

as C2k have not delivered these components. So it would have been ok for us to go

with the C2k solution if we were happy to go with the flow so to speak. But we need

web server provision, SQL server access, no limit on user disk space as well as a complex

user monitoring system... none of these things C2K were willing to assist us with.

As ICT progresses, C2k will need to become more proactive if they wish to hang onto the

secondry and grammar schools. But this is only my humble opinion (and nothing to do with this particular

thread   )

[Angela]

Agree with you there Kev  



We also upgraded our legacy suite last year.  It is mainly used for business studies and media and a few one off projects.

[Bluesky]

i would go with the private area for technicians.

[Stephen]

Interesting that you post on a two year old thread. There is now a private technician area.