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Here's what i think my job is about.
There are two components to my work - both are necessary, neither is sufficient alone.
First People:
You can have the most powerful machine in
the world and it wonÕt do a lick of good without someone who
wants to use it, has something to
use it for, and has learned enough to know how to learn more. Otherwise
they will not use the
technology well enough to help students learn with it.
Part of my job is helping people learn how to use the computer and in a general way the software they are to use. I find that once they begin down the road of using the computer there will be one or another software package that they will use a great deal in their class - and soon they will know more about the specific program than i will. From then on the kinds of things i tend to know more about are when things go wrong or relationships with other computers or programs. Otherwise i learn from them specific tricks about the software which i can help others to learn. I have seen this happen already with Hyperstudio, ClarisWorks, Web Whacker... even writing html code!
As i've told many people - a computer guru isn't someone who knows all the answers - it's someone who doesn't mind looking them up or messing around to figure it out. Some people donÕt have the inclination or the time to search out the answers but if you do, once you start down that road you do indeed learn some tricks. As a technical support person i tend to have more time to keep up with the answers, but i still encourage people to learn - no one knows everything!
So to help people i have to meet them where they are at in comfort and understanding of computers. From them i can find out what they need to be able to do, and where they are at in that process. From me they can learn some specific steps and a mind set that a computer is a tool, not a magic box. When you use a tool you find that certain things tend to be in certain places, certain things tend to happen certain ways. And when you are done using a tool you judge the work - is it what you wanted? You don't generally have to take what a computer gives you. It has limits but successful software these days often gives you many options though you will have to learn how to use them.
Second Computers:
You can have the most creative person on the planet who will be utterly frustrated at computers. This requires education on how computers work. Initially a person may be only capable of doing something in a very step-by-step method - if anything deveates from the step by step process then they are stumped. Among the more successful training the Tech Dept. has done is to de-mystify the computer. At it's core it is just a box. We show them how to plug everything in. We show them things they can and should do like cleaning the case, screen, and mouse. People worry about viruses too. We tell them what is safe. We show them how to read their computer box to learn what model computer it is, and how the computer reports ram and hard drive space. We show them how to start and shut down a computer, and what to do when it freezes. And there are utilities they can run safely to check how things work, like Disk First Aid for the Macintosh.
Part of my job is keeping computers working. There is a scale of how
good technical support is - fixing emergencies and outsourcing new
projects (like setting up labs of computers). Above fixing emergencies
you have priorities which are not emergencies. Near the highest levels
of support is called "just-in-time" support. Rather link proactively
seaking to be where a problem comes next or wandering hallways so that
teachers can call you. Innovation and adapting the technology to new
uses. However this depends absolutely on the resources that are devoted
to technical support. I have a web page
detailing the issues and numbers above but here's the summary. The most
valuable component of technical support is the technician - this means
trained minds and hands. In the business world the most common (median)
ratio is one tech support person per 60 computers. The average is one
per 75 computers. No one i have found does better than 1 computer tech
to 275 computers. Obviously there are other issues at hand to account
for the range of ratios. But the common link here is that they all have
a down time of hours to a day. In school systems the ratio is commonly
1 tech for every 5 or 600 computers - and down time is much more common
- perhaps days to weeks. After technicians the most important component
of technical support is the training of the users which i spoke about
above. Then the next important factors are platform and using a network
intelligently to support workstations. These factors alone are enought
to turn ratios of 1 to 75 into 1 to 150 - a hefty improvement. This is
about the size of computer installations in smaller schools.
With a properly functioning computer and a
trained (always learning)
creative person we can unleash the capabilites of people in an age
filled with ever more
wonders!
Third, a System.
With an increasing base of computers to maintain it is simply
unthinkable that everything an individual can do and keep up with to
their own tastes will work in large scale across a whole school or
school system or beyond. Some things need to be handled, even if that
handling is just training (see above.) Democracy is approved of by much
of modern society and even a few religions. As such a system like this
should have some mechanisms for feedback and fairness. There are the
beurocratic issues of mixed or overlapping or simply interacting
responsabilities but beyond that there is the population all this is
supposed to server - they need a presence and a voice. More about this
later.
While viruses and trojans aren't common or very effective on the Mac
(here in 2006) it is wise to start taking them seriously into account.
At the very least they are a nusance and a source of re-infection of
Windows computers. At most there are a few viruses that can do more
than just replicate for the Macs. Here's a page about a systematic approach to
handling a mass installation of an antivirus software.