Well today is my last day at Rancho Elementary (my last day working, I will be back for the staff party). It's been a relatively quick 18 months since I started working here and it's been both fun and extremely educational. When I came to the school I had a basic understanding of technology, though I was a bit more knowledgeable with software than hardware, and I have come out with enough knowledge that I could perform low level IT (such as that at Rancho) with relative ease. I've put together computers, learned how to add them to a doman, and I even learned better ways to troubleshoot than I had known previously.
I've also improved my understanding of how one acts with other people in the workplace. The little hints of whether you should back down or not, the understanding of how much a little help goes to improving your public image, and manners while conversing with colleagues and superiors. Regardless of whatever job I take next this is probably the most important skill I will take away from all this, I've earned the respect of the teachers here and have even earned the favor of some to the point where they went out and bought me cards for my departure from Rancho.
My stay here will probably be one of the most memorable periods of time in my life and definitely one of the most important as I now have valuable life skills that will serve me well for years to come.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
Week 32
Well things are finally back to normal though the workload is still bit heavier than normal since the end of the year is drawing near. Today Ms. Dee's class was dressing up as historical figures and pretending to be wax figures that came to life and listed off their accomplishments if a button was pressed in a "live wax museum." I was asked to take pictures of this and ended up with nearly a hundred or so that I uploaded onto the Ms. Dee's computer for her to use.
Afterwards I set up two new dells in her class (after installing word since I had not done anything since the computers were formatted). Because she already had so many computers we needed a power strip, because we no longer had any spares all the IMacs in the lab had to be unplugged to retrieve one. Once she had her computer Ms. Womack needed one as well, at first it seemed as if I would be unable to get it up and running since there were no visible ethernet sockets that were open, then I realized there was one behind a box (I felt a bit idiotic then).
The last activity was one that wasn't really something that ITs are obligated to handle, one of the teacher claimed that you could not hear anything once you picked up the phone. As it turned out the volume of the phone was just very, very low. It's understandable that she did not realize this as most phones do not have a button that allows you to raise and lower volume as you please.
Afterwards I set up two new dells in her class (after installing word since I had not done anything since the computers were formatted). Because she already had so many computers we needed a power strip, because we no longer had any spares all the IMacs in the lab had to be unplugged to retrieve one. Once she had her computer Ms. Womack needed one as well, at first it seemed as if I would be unable to get it up and running since there were no visible ethernet sockets that were open, then I realized there was one behind a box (I felt a bit idiotic then).
The last activity was one that wasn't really something that ITs are obligated to handle, one of the teacher claimed that you could not hear anything once you picked up the phone. As it turned out the volume of the phone was just very, very low. It's understandable that she did not realize this as most phones do not have a button that allows you to raise and lower volume as you please.
Last Two Weeks (30 & 31)
I suppose I was a bit overwhelmed by covering the work that's supposed to take place over weeks in a couple days so I have not written in my blog for a fair bit, now that things are back to normal I'm going to go back and recount some of the duties performed in the past two weeks.
I had to install OSX on 6 different IMacs and hook up some PC's to the domain one week which took a great deal of time when you consider all the classes coming in and out. The PCs, like the ones from the week before were a mess but I was able to get a few of them up and running with XP Pro.
During the second week there was not so much to do intially so I went around to each classroom asking if anyone had any computer problems. The result was that I spent the day fixing minor problems throughout the school. The most common problem was that someone had changed the default printer of the classrooms and so they were unable to print.
There were also a few computers missing the necessary programs for AR, the reason is still unknown and it's a bit odd as the computers had been able to run AR before. For whatever reason it was nigh impossible to install these programs, simply downloading the compacted version took an absurd amount of time. In the end I went back to the lab, downloaded the programs on a newer computer, placed them on a flash drive, took that to the classrooms, and installed the programs.
I had to install OSX on 6 different IMacs and hook up some PC's to the domain one week which took a great deal of time when you consider all the classes coming in and out. The PCs, like the ones from the week before were a mess but I was able to get a few of them up and running with XP Pro.
During the second week there was not so much to do intially so I went around to each classroom asking if anyone had any computer problems. The result was that I spent the day fixing minor problems throughout the school. The most common problem was that someone had changed the default printer of the classrooms and so they were unable to print.
There were also a few computers missing the necessary programs for AR, the reason is still unknown and it's a bit odd as the computers had been able to run AR before. For whatever reason it was nigh impossible to install these programs, simply downloading the compacted version took an absurd amount of time. In the end I went back to the lab, downloaded the programs on a newer computer, placed them on a flash drive, took that to the classrooms, and installed the programs.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Week 29 (late)
Well this is late for a couple reasons, blogger acting buggy, internet going down, etc.
Last Friday was the first day this year where I have been at Rancho alone (so to speak, I am the only IT there but by no means the only person). I took a look at the list of things to do and started by trying to fix four computers, a dell optiplex, a pentium 2, and pentium 3, and and an e-machine (with a pentium 4 processor). To set these all up I had to run an ethernet cord through the ceiling down to a table in the center of the lab.
As it turned out the e-machine was completely fried (when you plugged it in you could smell that there was a problem, I mean that literally). The P2 and P3 would start up and however I could not find a way to get a display on the monitors, I looked up the BIOS beep code and and found that for both of them the video card was either mis-adjusted or not plugged in correctly. The P3 was easy to fix you merely had to adjust the placement of the video card and then tighten the screws to make sure that it would not go out of place. The P2 on the other hand seemed to be warped in some way (indicating a problem with the motherboard). Since fixing the P2 was beyond me and it was a poor computer to start I abandoned it.
As for the Dell Optiplex, I didn't have time to go more in-depth however it appears that the cd-drive is not working properly as OS disks that work fine with other computers are unable to install on it.
Last Friday was the first day this year where I have been at Rancho alone (so to speak, I am the only IT there but by no means the only person). I took a look at the list of things to do and started by trying to fix four computers, a dell optiplex, a pentium 2, and pentium 3, and and an e-machine (with a pentium 4 processor). To set these all up I had to run an ethernet cord through the ceiling down to a table in the center of the lab.
As it turned out the e-machine was completely fried (when you plugged it in you could smell that there was a problem, I mean that literally). The P2 and P3 would start up and however I could not find a way to get a display on the monitors, I looked up the BIOS beep code and and found that for both of them the video card was either mis-adjusted or not plugged in correctly. The P3 was easy to fix you merely had to adjust the placement of the video card and then tighten the screws to make sure that it would not go out of place. The P2 on the other hand seemed to be warped in some way (indicating a problem with the motherboard). Since fixing the P2 was beyond me and it was a poor computer to start I abandoned it.
As for the Dell Optiplex, I didn't have time to go more in-depth however it appears that the cd-drive is not working properly as OS disks that work fine with other computers are unable to install on it.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Week 28
Well this was my Superior's last day before a three week hiatus (during which I will be working overtime) so we had a bit of work to do. First off we had to change the permissions of a program called fortress that allows us to have administration powers on a normal account by pressing ctrl shift f and then entering a password in a window that pops up. This permanently set the permissions of students so that they were able to move files into their own folders which they needed as they were moving pictures of themselves into their accounts.
We also had to change the shortcut to GIMP that was on the the desktop as it did not allow access to the program on any accounts besides those of administrators. To do this we simply went to the all users folder and then into the the desktop folder therein, we then deleted the GIMP shortcut. We kept that window open and pressed start. went to programs, moused over print, right clicked, pressed copy, and finally pasted the shortcut into the desktop file. To make sure everything was in working order we logged onto rastudent (the general login) to make sure that it worked on all accounts.
Lastly we had two computers that we apparently forgot to upgrade after the summer which had begun to crash. Windows made it so that if you did not have a particular download from them (which we had not gotten since the computers had been off between June and September) the computer would regularly crash when trying to update. We originally believed that we had updated all the computers and that their crashing was due to something else however when we double checked that turned out to not be the case so we went to Windows' website and downloaded the necessary files.
We also had to change the shortcut to GIMP that was on the the desktop as it did not allow access to the program on any accounts besides those of administrators. To do this we simply went to the all users folder and then into the the desktop folder therein, we then deleted the GIMP shortcut. We kept that window open and pressed start. went to programs, moused over print, right clicked, pressed copy, and finally pasted the shortcut into the desktop file. To make sure everything was in working order we logged onto rastudent (the general login) to make sure that it worked on all accounts.
Lastly we had two computers that we apparently forgot to upgrade after the summer which had begun to crash. Windows made it so that if you did not have a particular download from them (which we had not gotten since the computers had been off between June and September) the computer would regularly crash when trying to update. We originally believed that we had updated all the computers and that their crashing was due to something else however when we double checked that turned out to not be the case so we went to Windows' website and downloaded the necessary files.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Week 26
Today we decided that after constantly having kids pushing and shoving to get to the printer we would make half the computers print to the other printer in the room. One of the ITs hired by the district told us that all we had to do was to log into said computer as an administrator and delete all printers besides the one we wanted the computers to print to. Unfortunately all this managed to do was make it so that no one else who logged on to the computers would be able to print.
The problem we ran into then was getting the printer on to each account individually; not only would we need to log on to each student from 4th and 5th grade to the computers they sit at (and mind you we don't have a list), start up a program that takes a long time to load, and then go through the tedious process of hooking it up to the printer. Since this wasn't really viable we searched for a way to make all the accounts recognize the printer without us logging on to each one multiple times as varying people; unfortunately the only thing we were able to find was a program for Vista (we run on XP).
Ultimately we decided to wait for information from the people from the district office to contact us, and had the classes that arrived log on as rastudent (the only account that was hooked up to a printer). We had kids playing Type to Learn and Oregon Trail all morning and then had some lunch. Perhaps because today is the last day before spring break no teachers came in after lunch and we had little to do but sit around until it was time to leave.
The problem we ran into then was getting the printer on to each account individually; not only would we need to log on to each student from 4th and 5th grade to the computers they sit at (and mind you we don't have a list), start up a program that takes a long time to load, and then go through the tedious process of hooking it up to the printer. Since this wasn't really viable we searched for a way to make all the accounts recognize the printer without us logging on to each one multiple times as varying people; unfortunately the only thing we were able to find was a program for Vista (we run on XP).
Ultimately we decided to wait for information from the people from the district office to contact us, and had the classes that arrived log on as rastudent (the only account that was hooked up to a printer). We had kids playing Type to Learn and Oregon Trail all morning and then had some lunch. Perhaps because today is the last day before spring break no teachers came in after lunch and we had little to do but sit around until it was time to leave.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Week 22
The first half of my morning was spent going around the lab correcting the grammar and spelling of various children, a very tedious task to be sure. Once the children had left Sue Spry asked us for a new computer, so we loaded up a cart with a monitor, computer, and a variety of other odds and ends and rolled it over to the classroom. While doing this we realized that there was a good chance that we would soon run out of ethernet cords, something we had not expected when we made our first order of the things however we are down to just two or three.
Once the computer was set up Sue Spry also told us that she would need Microsoft Word installed on several computers. This was a problem as it would cost several hundred dollars, an expense we are unable to afford at the moment because of the incompetency of the government. However it was soon realized that if we were to simply install Star Office, an opensource word processor, we would allow her to have a word processing program on each computer without spending large amounts of money. While, unfortunately, we did not have enough time to install it today it is something we hope to accomplish next week.
During the last stretch of school miss Levinson came in and had her kids type about what they were passionate about. I went around with her and helped to correct kids' papers. One of them accidentally deleted his text while attempting to change the font and had done so much to try and fix it that simply trying to undo was no longer enough. I volunteered to sit down and type for him, however since the class had so little time left he had to go before it was done, so I finished it up, typed it out, and brought it over to the class. Thus ended my day at Rancho Elementary.
Once the computer was set up Sue Spry also told us that she would need Microsoft Word installed on several computers. This was a problem as it would cost several hundred dollars, an expense we are unable to afford at the moment because of the incompetency of the government. However it was soon realized that if we were to simply install Star Office, an opensource word processor, we would allow her to have a word processing program on each computer without spending large amounts of money. While, unfortunately, we did not have enough time to install it today it is something we hope to accomplish next week.
During the last stretch of school miss Levinson came in and had her kids type about what they were passionate about. I went around with her and helped to correct kids' papers. One of them accidentally deleted his text while attempting to change the font and had done so much to try and fix it that simply trying to undo was no longer enough. I volunteered to sit down and type for him, however since the class had so little time left he had to go before it was done, so I finished it up, typed it out, and brought it over to the class. Thus ended my day at Rancho Elementary.
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