Network Managers in Education ... you should be ashamed:

Three souls, three different situations yet I see the same repeating story ... network managers (and their like under different job titles) within education should be forced to try and teach the subjects they attempt to circumvent.

Again, time again, and often again, I encounter teachers, lecturers and academics who:
  • Cannot teach a subject because a network manager lacks the skills/understanding to give them the support
  • Endure unreasonable restrictions around curriculum mandated subjects in computing/IT as the mythical notion of security (and their misunderstanding) prevents any advancement
  • Find their network support are unwilling to install software, often taking months.
  • Discover that the network team prevent pointless features on a network, yet leave glaring gaps in their systems
  • Endure the network bods, challenging the teaching based on some seriously dated ideas
Yet with no experience of the curriculum, the network managers know best. While I am an ardent critic of teachers who cannot teach computing and wish them to be damned. I am also a advocate for those who are willing to try, yet are thwarted by fools. Where there are many who are no greater fools than those managing educational systems.

So ... dear Network Managers, we have a national curriculum, a demand for rising standards and a view that some of you may be in the way. We have many well informed friends, who like us probably know considerably more than you in curriculum and technological terms.

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