A BIG BIG thank you to everyone who's replied to me so far ...and also to those still pondering my request for help but not yet got around to responding -- do please keep those replies coming. I so much appreciate the support I'm getting, which once again demonstrates the Open Source / Linux / Flossie community really is 'a community' in the truest sense of this word. :-) Here's a some background on me and my involvement in education to date: I've been working with PC-based IT systems all my working life (at 51 I'm no spring chicken <VBG>). My my skill base ranges from database programming in the early days (BASIC and 6502 assembler for the Apple II - I burnt myself out doing that!); through network installations (early 3Com and MS Lan Manager); systems design; and management consulting (both general business and IT integration). I'm also disabled; not physically but with some neurological issues including Tourette Syndrome (no I don't swear ...except when I'm really really cross!!!). Now I've had these conditions since early childhood, however I didn't know this until just nine years ago when I stumbled across a description of their symptoms while surfing the web, and realised "That's me!". This got me involved in supporting others coping with this and similar issues, especially families whose children have these conditions and all too often have a really difficult time in school as a consequence. Now this fired my interest in education, but not just from the point of view of supporting individual children with neurological issues. I'm also fascinated by how schools work from a 'management systems' perspective. Here I'm referring not just to 'IT systems', but to 'systems' within their wider context. At that time I was also looking for new challenge, preferably outside the world of commerce where I'd been working for so long. So where better place to focus on 'career-wise' than education and schools management in particular. Big mistake. ...well actually I'm still reserving judgement on this. But I can't hold off for much longer, as seven years later I still haven't found an appropriate niche for myself within this field -- at least not one that's open to people who come in from outside the teaching profession. Yes I've done a small amount of consulting with some DfES backed initiatives. However it seems schools operate as a strictly 'closed shop' at any level above 'technician'. As far as management work is concerned this is strictly closed to anyone who's not already a 'qualified teacher' with years clocked up at the chalk-face. Not one to be put off I spent a whole year, back in 2000, on an initial teacher-training course. However I soon discovered people with disabilities are generally not at all welcome within the profession. Indeed I was routinely subject to the most blatant discrimination that seems to stem from a deeply embedded cultural prejudice. This probably explains why people who have disabilities of any kind are so grossly underrepresented within teaching ...much like the Metropolitan Police and recruitment from ethnic minorities prior to the Lawrence Report. As for when I was working in the world of commerce, well this was never an issue. Now I'm no quitter. Indeed while many people with a background in IT often talk about wanting to work with schools, I've actually set out to do this. Furthermore I've been plugging away at finding a way in for well over half a decade now. But I'm running out of options and soon I'll have no choice but to admit opportunities for outsiders wanting to work in schools above poorly paid 'technician' or 'Teaching Assistant' grades are virtually non-existent ...not unless you can afford to do this for free as a School Governor. I'd hate have to admit that all along I've been backing the wrong horse in a fixed race! Not that I'd mind so much if school management systems were on the whole well designed and appropriate to the needs of the students and staff they are meant to serve. Alas I've discovered this is all too often not the case. From a management perspective too many schools seem to operate in a time-warp, one that's about 30 years behind the times compared with the world of commerce where to date I've spent most of my working life. Here's an IT related example: Within both schools where I did my teaching practice it took more than ten days for someone to set me up with an account on the school network. This required lots of shuffling bits of paper in and out of various pigeonholes in the staff-room. Not that this account was much use to me in one school, as their network promptly went down ...for a whole month! ...I kid you not!!! Worse still, this took down every PC within the school as well. Plus this school also suffered massive data-loss, including much of their assessed GCSE and GNVQ student course-work -- here I'm talking about a large secondary school with around 1,500 students. All my offers of assistance were turned down. Why? Because I didn't have "the appropriate qualifications"(?) to work on their system whatever these might be. They simply weren't interested, not unless I could produce a piece of paper that proved I'd been on "the right networking course". As for all the years I'd spent running my own successful network installation business? Well this counted for absolutely nothing as in their eyes as to them I was just 'a rookie trainee teacher'. Are network crashes on this scale one-offs? Unfortunately not. At an even bigger school where I also did teaching practice (with approximately 2,500 students), I learned that sometime afterwards they suffered a similar period of network downtime ...once again taking down all their PCs in the process. Seems like this is not unusual. So what's the point of this post? Well as I said earlier I'm not a quitter and I've still not lost all hope of finding my niche in 'Teacheland' or at least within some organisation that works closely with schools. So once again can you help me? ...or failing this can you point me in the direction of a man or woman who can? David Bowles PS: At the school with the sloooooow RM based system, I'm there as an unpaid part-time volunteer TA (Teaching Assistant). The great thing about this is from a systems perspective I get to experience first-hand how schools work 'from the inside'. Mostly I just help out in the Learning Support Department. However some senior managers are beginning to accept that I actually know a thing or two about computers. PPS: By '...a sloooooow RM based system', I mean really slow. Like the other morning it took me 14 minutes to get from pushing the power button of a PC in the ICT suite, through logging in and navigating to a small text file on the curriculum server, to loading and displaying this in Windows 'Notepad'. To date my record to get from 'power on' to a usable Windows 'Start Menu' is 35 minutes!!! :-( ...hence my strong interest in 'log in' times.
Can you help?
I'm working with a secondary school whose principal ICT infrastructure comprises some 200 networked workstations talking to three Xenon based servers.
Unfortunately this also runs RM's CC3 (Community-Connect Three)...