Improving Technical Support

Don in his blog today announced that the council is to employ more IT support officers in order to gain the best benefit from the councils increased investment in ICT over the next few years which is a great forward looking move.

There are, however, other options that could be also considered. Many local councils have anticipated the future need for increased technical support by training existing technical support staff in schools to assist in the day to day administration of IT systems. Support staff in many local authorities process new hardware coming into schools and after ensuring its electrical safety record it on the schools inventory. Day to day updating of software and showing staff how to get the best of their IT equipment is also an element of their duties.

For example, I was chatting to Ollie Bray who is an acting depute Head Teacher at Musselburgh Grammar the other day and he said that he spent quite a bit of time handing out passwords etc to the new staff at the school. That’s exactly the type of task that should be carried out by technical support staff and it would free up the time of senior management.

For this to happen in East Lothian the whole system would have to be reviewed. Technicians job descriptions and contracts are nearly twenty years old and would have to be updated to take the new technology into account. The correct training would need to be identified and better links between the IT officers and technical support staff fostered.

It’s all eminently achievable in East Lothian, and the local authorities that have instigated such initiatives are currently reaping educational, economical and logistical rewards

In my next entry I will explain how some local authorities have modernised their technical support service to enable staff to support the modern curriculum and its changing needs and demands.