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Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Can't Kick IT
Old habits die hard. Today, especially, I've reverted to my tech-head mentality. As I look around my school and think of ways to improve it, my mind immediately turns to IT solutions.

We have a computer lab with identical computers - we should have a standard image so that the computers can be cleaned and reloaded quickly and efficiently. We should lock down the computers so students can't install crap. And we should have a file server so they can save and edit documents as needed.

The staff and teachers could also use a file server (or a network share or an intranet) so they can save and share resources. It might also be nice to create an intranet web site for the students, where we can post activities and additional materials for them. Perhaps we could even link to employment sites and businesses where they could apply online, since our ultimate goal is job placement.

We currently use Skype so the students can call PC-to-PC and simulate customer service and technical support calls. But going across the public Internet is slow here. We could set up a local VOIP / Chat server for this purpose instead. It would surely be faster to host something on our LAN.

I'm almost ready to approach the owner and offer my services as the school's IT guy. But I need to flesh out these ideas a bit more first. Plus, I'm not really sure I want to get back into that type of work. I mean, I came here to do something different, didn't I? Do I really want the headaches that come with tech support again?

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1 Comments:
Blogger misterorange said...
As geeks we can't help ourselves. Basically I think it's a question of risk vs. reward and/or effort vs. reward. As you make things better, you are also responsible for the change.

Change is uncomfortable and usually painful. And you'll be in the thick of it.

However, as we've been dorks for awhile, we know the trouble we're getting ourselves into when trying to create "solutions." For me, it's redesigning a database schema with 200,000+ records to reorganize. For yourself, it's making that school lab better.

Choose your battles, but when you do, don't stop kicking ass until it's done.