Support from afar [2015-04-03]

One of the key challenges for organizations like Reneal IEO is providing on-going tech support when we’re on one continent and our partners are on another.  Each year we learn a bit more about how to make this more effective, and each year technology advances overseas help us connect more easily with our colleagues in the Philippines and Tanzania.  One recent evening, I had the indescribable joy of chatting simultaneously on Facebook with someone in Tanzania and someone in the Philippines!  The technology is cool, but it’s really about the wonderful feeling of connection that we can have with our partners in other countries, even when we’re not there.

One extremely important tool that we have for schools with internet is a VPN connection from Neal’s computer here in California to the main servers in the schools.  That helps him work with the IT teachers overseas to troubleshoot problems.  However three of the 2015 schools in the Philippines weren’t connecting for some reason.  We coordinated with Jade this week so Jade could make the rounds of these schools and help us get the VPN configuration corrected.  With a combination of Skype, Facebook chat, and Jade’s camera, it was a success!  Neal now is connected with Labogon NHS, Arecelo Memorial NHS, and Tayud NHS! 

We also had a long FB chat session last week with Mr. Bakari at Ilkiding’a Secondary School to remove the student folders from last year.  Ilkiding’a SS doesn’t have internet, so we don’t have the VPN connection to make things easier.   We are so grateful to have partners like Mr. Bakari who have the patience to work with us across thousands of kilometers for the benefit of the students and teachers!

On the remote support front, Neal is currently pouring more of his system knowledge into an updated version of the systemCheck program.  This program is designed to detect problems in the Reneal IEO system, correct some of them, and report to the IT teacher what might need to be done to fix others.  His latest effort is to turn systemCheck from a command line program to an application that can be run from the menu, with a user-friendly GUI and generation of a log file summary.  As with other “Sir Neal” programming tasks, he only stops for food and (occasional) sleep!  He is on track to finish it before we return to Cebu, so we can put it on all the systems there. 

We’re also using a Facebook group to communicate with the IT teachers, which allows us to share files directly or via Dropbox.  In addition we have the Reneal IEO Facebook page as a place to share news with partners and donors.  We just finished a series of FB posts recognizing and thanking Reneal IEO Team Philippines members!

For organizations like Reneal IEO, the support can never really stop if we are to succeed in our mission.  Thanks to technology and effort and our partners overseas, we can make sure students and teachers continue to be served by the system!