Regarding who provides technical support, the generic answer at our college
might be, Anybody who can.
I would say we have roughly three levels of support here:
1) The techies who try to fix problems at the level of servers, .ini and
.sys files, test for hardware and software glitches beyond the ken of 98%
of the rest of computer users . . . if this is what you mean by "technical
support, then we have three more or less full-time angels supporting our
college systems, helping develop files and systems to keep things running,
installing new hardware and software. When not busy with these high-tech
problems, they also teach workshops and classes, attend meetings, help
others, and give us logical reasons why we can't get our computers to do
what we need them to do.
2) The occasional technologically proficient individuals -- I'd say about
10% of faculty, and one-third of students and staff, who are familiar with
ongoing problems that can be solved by regular access to Windows 95, such
as reconfiguring a printer, sending a file to a remote location, etc.
3) The typical end-user, who knows those functions they "need to know" to
get day-to-day business done -- about half our faculty and most of the rest
of our students and staff. Most of them will willingly share with a
"newbie" who is having troubles making sense out of the technology . . .
The rest: mostly "Newbies" trying to learn. Most of the small core of
about a half dozen faculty members who for some reason successfully avoided
learning how the "new" technology works, have retired. I don't know how
typical our college is in that respect.
Neal Steiger
NH Community Technical College
379 New Prescott Hill Road
Laconia NH 03246
phone: 603-524-3207 fax: 603-524-8084
"Even a planarian worm can learn." --Eunice Cornish
