Tell us about BSF

[vikasattri]

thanks everyone for their input

[Pottsey]

Joanne said “The managed service idea is that there will be one network throughout the LEA district and that you can access your work from any computer in the district from your single sign in.”
Isn’t that covered by the learning platform? The ELP has the advantage of letting them access the work at home. You don’t need a managed network for that.

I can see a managed network being a nightmare for some SEN schools.

[localzuk]

Joanne said “The managed service idea is that there will be one network throughout the LEA district and that you can access your work from any computer in the district from your single sign in.”
Isn’t that covered by the learning platform? The ELP has the advantage of letting them access the work at home. You don’t need a managed network for that.

I can see a managed network being a nightmare for some SEN schools.

A learning platform only covers a few aspects of computer use at the moment - ie. file storage, vle access and similar. It doesn't cover access to actual tools such as a word processor, non-web based applications etc... So the pupil would end up having to log in to a computer, then log in to the learning platform. A single sign on, area wide, would eliminate that need - in a way.

[danrhodes]

Well Said Gromit!

[Pottsey]

I see it as fixing a problem that’s not there. At least for us and I assume some other schools. Our children are not going to be going to other schools and they will not be needing to access work there.

The problem many SEN schools will face is a single logon between a LEA district means unique usernames that are impossible for most of the children to remember. Among all the other problems a manage system might have.

How often do children in mainstream go to other schools and need to access your schools work there?

[localzuk]

Our children *do* collaborate with other schools. As do our teachers. We have pupils coming and going all year round from different schools.

It might not be a regular thing, but it does happen. The idea is that schools have this system in place, and then more collaboration will happen - much like having a universal VLE has done for Somerset (we have multiple cross-school collaborative rooms now on there).

Also, our school has soft federated, which means we are involved more in the schools we are linked with - being able to just send a teacher over and have them be able to log in and get everything they need without any worry beforehand would be brilliant.

[Face-Man]

With 14-19 all school will have to collaborate as they can offer all the diplomas available but legally can't prevent a student from taking one.

SEN is high up in PFS agenda for BSF and will probably mean main stream school supporting the wider community of users. See Building Schools for the Future - AbilityNet for an informed outline.

As for single sign on its a great idea. However with the Government losing data right left and centre the current Becta recommendations for Data security will mean big changes for Teacher access to ICT. see Becta Schools - Leadership and Management - Data protection - Data handling security guidance for schools and the only solution for remote access will be be via RBC's Sibobboleth