Being stategic in tech support

When you’re up to your ass in alligators, it’s easy to forget you came to drain the swamp.

Today is the first day of school - for our staff. About 900 are coming back, many, many to new buildings or classrooms or offices. We have a lot of newly constructed classrooms and offices, some not yet networked. We have a lot of new programs to get to place nicely with our legacy systems. We just distributed about 2400 Chromebooks to high school kids. We have professional development - a lot.

We have a building tech support staff of 10.

The math is pretty easy and a little frightening - you may well in number 89 in line for tech support this week if you need help. This is the tech support equivilant of Friday afternoon rush hour. Before a holiday. When there is construction. During a downpour.

Our tech staff has the reputation of being very efficient and effective. We would like to retain that aura.

So this means that over the next couple weeks we will need to also be strategic in how we prioritize our work.

Here is the message I sent out our techs this morning

Looking forward to an exciting school year. I think we all know, however, over the next couple weeks a lot people will be wanting a lot of service from our department. I am probably telling you stuff you already know, but to make the most of our time let's...

1. Minimize travel between buildings. I would let my principals know a schedule of when you will be at their building this week - and then stick to it - regardless of sad stories. Give people an hour to solve their own problems and it's amazing to find what they can do. Require a helpdesk ticket.
2. Get the easy stuff done first. Please make your priority just getting as many teachers' phones and computers working as possible. Any issue that looks like it will take a long time or need special trips for equipment or materials or will not impact classroom instruction, postpone until all teachers are good to go online. Don't worry about printers or Smartboards at this time.
3. Please refer people to me if they are upset or unreasonable. I will be happy to visit with them.
4. If you can work longer hours this week, keep track, and you will be comped. We can do some adjusting so comped hours can be taken later in the year if you'd like.

Good luck out there. I have never worked with a better, more skilled, or more professional group. I am very proud of our service and dedication!

All the best,

Doug

What am I missing? What have you, my readers discovered about dealing with technology rush hour?

Comments

[Kenn Gorman]

Great quote - I might make that my theme for the school year. I have been in our new building for less than a week, and we (as expected) have the issues a new building would have. It is in no way a swamp, but some of the ideas I have and curriculum I want to implement is very uncomfortable for some of the alligators. I think we will attempt to drain the swamp slower than expected, and make sure we have plenty of marshmallows to feed to gators..

[son ju]

nice one http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/