Over the last five years, I have been developing into a different type of system administrator. I used to believe in the "protect at all costs" and "reign from above doling out favors to the surfs". I felt that as the Technology Coordinator I was the keeper of the information and the protector of the network and all peripherals there attached. Now, not so much.
Since becoming the tech guy here at Eagle Grove, I have learned some very valuable lessons. First, I need to let go of my need for control or I will go crazy, and second, that we have hired responsible professionals in our district. I am not in any way saying that we have hired IT geniuses, myself included, but we have hired professionals and they deserve to be treated as such.
I made the figurative jump this summer and allowed, no, respected the teachers enough to make them administrators of their own machines. I have not given them the computer admin account user name and password, rather I have made their network account an admin on their individual machine. This move will make them responsible for adding their own software titles and making sure that they are licensed. It does open the opportunity to install such apps as Limewire or other file sharing titles, but I will respect that teachers are honest enough to not do so. And we will be monitoring the computers with a new piece of software that allows us to quickly see what is installed on which machine.
A second and probably larger benefit of this action is that I anticipate less trouble tickets. Before, the user could not even adjust the time on their machine or set certain preferences. Now they no longer need me to do these things and I free my time up for instruction on more technology integration.
In the end I hope I have not shot myself in the foot, but I have faith in our staff to be professional and respectful. If all else fails, I will simply wipe the machines clean and re-image them.