In 1998 when the ICT Services Department was formed there were less than 50 student machines in 2 labs, and a single staff laptop—the headmaster's. There were 2 servers and a handful of digital still cameras. Students were allocated 20MB of network storage space, and there were 2 staff in the department.
The new Fine Arts and Technology Building was opened in 2002. By that time all the academic staff had a laptop, there were over 100 student machines and the servers had been moved from their basement cupboard and installed into the new purpose built server room. The number of servers had risen to 5.
In 2007 we have over 220 student machines, 16 servers and close to 90 staff machines. Each student is allowed 5GB of network storage and can use computers in a variety of different places around the school. A large number of digital still cameras and digital movie cameras are available from the Library and are used regularly in student work.
Every day the school receives and processes around 30,000 emails (25,000 of which are spam and are rejected). There is about 36 kilometres of network cable in the Fine Arts building alone, and all the cabling installed around the campus would total hundreds of kilometres.
No wonder we are such a bunch of raving nutters.
ICT Technician/Help Desk
James staffs the ICT helpdesk, including our email help queues. He also fixes machines and liaises with repair centres, manages the staff laptops, looks after software licencing, and takes care of the maintenance and general well-being of the computer installations. He also manages staff and student user accounts, including new accounts and password resets.
James is the first point of contact for any ICT issues.
Director of e-Learning
Paul is responsible for overseeing ICT integration at College, allocation of resources and funding, assisting departments in the development of long-term ICT plans, and helping teachers integrate ICT into their classroom teaching.
Paul is the person to see if you need to discuss funding, want assistance in developing your ICT department plans, or would like assistance with ICT use in the classroom.
e-Learning Advisor/Information Systems Manager
Karl develops and delivers training for staff, teaches the senior Digital Media course, develops online learning materials, and is responsible with Paul for assisting departments with their ICT development plans. Karl also looks after eMinerva, College's student management system.
Karl is the person to see if you know the result you want but are unsure how achieve it, if you experience technical problems with eMinerva, if you need some training on specific software, or help with managing school data. Also book a session with Karl if you'd like help planning lessons that include ICT.
System Administrator
James is responsible for the technical management of the College network, including network design and configuration, the servers and their services, client software configuration, and printing and internet services. James also writes software to support the College's ICT and school operations, and assists with some helpdesk enquiries.
James is the person to see if you need network changes made, new software installed in the computer rooms, if you'd like to discuss custom software development, or if you need technical support.