To add to my earlier post, that is exactly why I work for the school district. I am a one-man IT shop for 1300 students, 200 faculty, 6 buildings. The diversity in my day is unmatched in any other environment. I rarely have two days that are the same. At times, that can be very frustrating, and it's difficult to feel as though we're ever moving forward, but I have undertaken numerous large projects in the district, so on the whole, we are moving forward. I have had numerous opportunities to accept other positions for a company, and each time I've contemplated the opportunity, it always comes down to whether I feel I can be comfortable doing the exact same thing day in and day out. For example, I'm somewhat decent programmer, but do I feel as though I would enjoy programming on a daily basis? Not even close. I'd rather program on a limited basis, as necessary. This can also be a detriment as well, because I wouldn't consider myself an "expert" in any one area of the field, so if I were ever in a position to be considered for an "expert" position, I probably wouldn't cut the mustard. I do always feel that I'm in the mix for any position that needs a diversified individual capable of handling many unrelated events.
I'll agree that you're accurate on some of what you've said, but personally I'll take issue with your assessment of my skills as the technology director for a school district. I'll match my skills with yours any day of the week. Now, maybe I'm the exception in that area. I have made an incredible push in my district this year, to the tune of converting all of our Windows-based labs to thin-client machines running off LTSP servers. you are correct in your assessment that teachers are resistant to this idea, due to their lack of technology skills. In the interim, we are still allowing the thin-clients to connect to Windows 2003 terminal servers so they can have their precious Word,Excel and Photoshop, etc. Bottom line is this--we went from the projection of spending 40,000 for a new lab, versus about $5000 for two brand-new shiny dual opteron systems, one for ltsp, the other for the windows terminal server. Since we already owned the licensing for most of our programs, our licensing cos for terminal server CALs was roughly $700 for 30 licenses(educational pricing) The biggest hurdle to overcome in this area is the teacher's fear of the unknown. The best way, in my view, to clear this hurdle, is to put the kids on Linux first, let them preach to the teachers how cool it is, and eventually the teachers will have no choice but to come around. In our district, I am forcing this to happen through a re-evaluation of our current purchasing practices. Within 5 years, we have stated that we will not be purchasing closed-source sofware for use within the classrooom, so get yourself up to speed in the next five years.
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To add to my earlier post, that is exactly why I work for the school district. I am a one-man IT shop for 1300 students, 200 faculty, 6 buildings. The diversity in my day is unmatched in any other environment. I rarely have two days that are the same. At times, that can be very frustrating, and it's difficult to feel as though we're ever moving forward, but I have undertaken numerous large projects in the district, so on the whole, we are moving forward. I have had numerous opportunities to accept other positions for a company, and each time I've contemplated the opportunity, it always comes down to whether I feel I can be comfortable doing the exact same thing day in and day out. For example, I'm somewhat decent programmer, but do I feel as though I would enjoy programming on a daily basis? Not even close. I'd rather program on a limited basis, as necessary. This can also be a detriment as well, because I wouldn't consider myself an "expert" in any one area of the field, so if I were ever in a position to be considered for an "expert" position, I probably wouldn't cut the mustard. I do always feel that I'm in the mix for any position that needs a diversified individual capable of handling many unrelated events.
I'll agree that you're accurate on some of what you've said, but personally I'll take issue with your assessment of my skills as the technology director for a school district. I'll match my skills with yours any day of the week. Now, maybe I'm the exception in that area. I have made an incredible push in my district this year, to the tune of converting all of our Windows-based labs to thin-client machines running off LTSP servers. you are correct in your assessment that teachers are resistant to this idea, due to their lack of technology skills. In the interim, we are still allowing the thin-clients to connect to Windows 2003 terminal servers so they can have their precious Word,Excel and Photoshop, etc. Bottom line is this--we went from the projection of spending 40,000 for a new lab, versus about $5000 for two brand-new shiny dual opteron systems, one for ltsp, the other for the windows terminal server. Since we already owned the licensing for most of our programs, our licensing cos for terminal server CALs was roughly $700 for 30 licenses(educational pricing) The biggest hurdle to overcome in this area is the teacher's fear of the unknown. The best way, in my view, to clear this hurdle, is to put the kids on Linux first, let them preach to the teachers how cool it is, and eventually the teachers will have no choice but to come around. In our district, I am forcing this to happen through a re-evaluation of our current purchasing practices. Within 5 years, we have stated that we will not be purchasing closed-source sofware for use within the classrooom, so get yourself up to speed in the next five years.