Beyond the Fixing

EdTech People | With Matt Setchell & Jack Marshall

What happens when you suddenly find yourself responsible for an entire school's IT? And how do you go from being the person who fixes everything to the person who leads it?

This fortnight, Matt and Jack have actual listener emails (yes, really!), including a question from someone who's unexpectedly stepped into an IT management role and wants to know how to survive it.

We explore the realities of IT leadership, from managing expectations and communicating with senior leaders to knowing when to stand your ground, when to ask for help, and why you don't need to have all the answers.

We also get into some serious safeguarding questions. Are schools really understanding the difference between filtering and monitoring? Are the checks being carried out actually proving that systems are working? And is enough being done to safeguard pupils using AI tools?

Along the way, there's a discussion about cloud versus on-premises reliability, Jack's ongoing battle with printers, Matt's electric car problems, and a slightly excessive number of sound effects.

In this episode:

• Moving from technician to IT manager — what changes?

• Why communication and relationships matter as much as technical knowledge.

• The non-negotiables of IT leadership, including cybersecurity and safeguarding.

• Why temporary fixes often become permanent problems.

• Training, qualifications and the surprising usefulness of PRINCE2.

• Filtering versus monitoring — and the safeguarding gaps schools may be missing.

• Testing and evidencing filtering and monitoring with tools like testfiltering.com and Filter Sentinel.

• Cloud versus on-premises infrastructure — which is more reliable?

• Intune, printer deployment and the challenges of managing change.

• Electric cars, technology adoption and why sometimes things just stop working.

Get involved!

We've had emails, but we're still waiting for your comments!

Have a question, a challenge or a story from your own EdTech experience? We'd love to hear from you, whether you're a technician, network manager, school leader or anyone working in education.

Email us at mail@edtechpeople.co.uk, leave a comment on Spotify or find us on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Don't forget to follow, subscribe and share EdTech People.

Real conversations about technology, education and the people behind it.