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New to technical support in the Arts - looking for good practice

10th October 2017 16:03 by Anonymous (not verified)

10

Hi,

I'm fairly new to Technical Support (Faculty of Arts & Humanities, Manchester Metropolitan University) in the Arts and would like to visit some other University workshops, studios and galleries to get advice and inspiration!  If anyone is happy for me to pay them a visit to have a look round their facilities and to discuss how they approach technical support, drop me a line.

Thanks,

Mark

 

Mark McDonagh |Technical Services Manager | Faculty of Arts and Humanities

Manchester Metropolitan University|Chatham Building | Cavendish Street

Manchester |M15 6BR |0161 247 5425 |m.mcdonagh@mmu.ac.uk

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Subject(s)Creative arts and media
AgeFE/HE
Comments10

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rwood_2

HI Mark,

 by all means get in contact i am sure we can make some arrangements.

 

richard.wood@plymouth.ac.uk

regards

 

Rich..

daniel.jagger@a... (not verified)

Hi Mark,

 

I’m also happy to arrange a visit to us at CSA. My email is Daniel.jagger@anglia.ac.uk

 

best, Dan

Fergus Conolly (not verified)

Hi Mark

Happy to meet with you at The University of Sheffield

f.conolly@sheffield.ac.uk

Lawrence Woolston (not verified)

Hello Mark,

happy meet up, just get in touch. l.woolston2@uos.ac.uk University of Suffolk

By the looks of things you might be going on a grand tour of Britain....

thanks,

Lawrence

 

Holdaway (not verified)

Hi,

More than happy for you to come a visit the new multi million pound ADH complex at DeMontfort University in Leicester.

 

holdaway@dmu.ac.uk

 

All the best

 

kevin

rwood_2

That is going to a very long road trip Mark! Hopefully inspires withe the number of responses.

 Do you have any particualr questions in the area of technical support?  We work with curriculum to support learning , in workshops mostly, so lots of skills transitioning, but looking after technicians is critical,  very busy induction periods are intense and stressful for staff, but staff development are current talking points too. I try to ensure no one person is taking the brunt  of workload, with regualr techincal meetings where technicians report their workload for the next week or so. And then ensure the discussion is kept up over trainiing opportunites. There are many other points of discussion of course, but that might ring a bell. 

M.McDonagh (not verified)

Wow, I wasn't expecting such a wide range of responses and invites, thank you so much.  I think I might have to focus on visting the closest to me first and then hopefully continue the tour of the UK later on!

In terms of particular questions I guess I'm most interested in how people manage the volume of student inductions, what level of input the academic staff have to practical work, what contingencies you have when the one expert from a workshop is away for an extended period and how safety is managed for hazardous processes.

John Ayers (not verified)

HI Mark,

Welcome!

Feel free to come up to Glasgow School of Art for a look round and a chat. I'm sure you will find that we all share common issues around capacity and engagement with academic colleagues. 

 

The volume of inductions is always problematic. Balancing access to facilities with the demand for training new users is tricky. We've introduced a two pronged approach this year combining safety info in a lecture format followed up with a practical session the next day. This reduced our induction period by a week and helped keep student engaged in the process.

We're looking to revise it further for next year. I know some institutions are looking at online resources and even augmented reality approaches and I'd be happy to discuss different ideas here or in person. 

All the best,

 

john

 

freyamoses (not verified)

Hey Mark!

More than happy for you to visit us down here in (sometimes) sunny Falmouth! 

Freya

HeidiCrabbe

hi Mark,

happy to visit us in Stoke! 

h.s.crabbe@staffs.ac.uk

cheers, 

Heidi