layout etc

[beeswax]

..really smiling now. RM uploaded the tests to our server by 1400 today. tried out the practise test but didn't manage to complete the first section. staff and pupils are going to have to be sat down and walked through this. we might grumble at M$, but RM have come up with a generic web browser, email client etc which occasionally bears a passing resemblance to what they've been using for the past few years.
I'm still nnnggghh smiling

beeswax

[broc]

Wait until you get to the part in the test where you need three 'windows' open at once....... yawn....

[beeswax]

I tried the example "You have mail" test, opened that, took me a while to find the attachement, opened that, running out of elbow room here methinks, then opened the web page. no minimize button that I could see. eventually twigged that I could use the toolbar down the right of the screen to swap between windows. and then there's all the kerfuffle of having 2 windows open side by side. who on earth dreamed that up? By the time I'd changed the first bullet point my "15" minutes was up. It was like doing needle point in welder's gloves. did anybody find a format painter in the word program?
now this may sound silly, and I don't care how small the writing is, but just as in the end credits of modern day moving pictures where even the teaboy gets a mention, I think each and every one of us who have helped deploy this "product" should get a namecheck. In fact, we should have an edugeek panel, with a floating membership (i.e. whoever wants to be in on a particular session adds their name) offering, for a fee, to try out software in an environment akin to that of a school, not some sparkling lab coated perfect setup. Give them our feedback, and hope that they can incorporate some of our experience of working in schools into revisions of their software. I know we (some of you, anyway) are trialling/reviewing software/hardware for the benefit of edugeek members, but what I'm suggesting is something on a bigger scale.
Does that make sense? I had an idea mid sentence and went with the flow.
cheaper than therapy and more efficacious.
beeswax

[Sylv3r]

Not liking this peice of software at all. It took me a couple of days to work out the initial installation as quotas were enabled on the drive I was trying to install it to and installation kept on failing. After I had worked that bit out I started to fill in the registration details and thought I had completed that yesterday. This morning when I log on I find out the school details had become corrupt!!

After working through the fix on the website it now says my school key is wrong. After a 20 min phone call to support this morning a brand new registration key will be sent out in the post, so I have to register the school and re-register.

I hope the ICT Teachers and the pupils manage to work out how to use the software once its finally up and running.

[russdev]

ok

important step number one the two tests for this yer one is last years test and other is new test...

last years test does NOT HAVE MINIMIZE

this years test DOES....

Russ

[russdev]

I tried the example "You have mail" test, opened that, took me a while to find the attachement, opened that, running out of elbow room here methinks, then opened the web page. no minimize button that I could see. eventually twigged that I could use the toolbar down the right of the screen to swap between windows. and then there's all the kerfuffle of having 2 windows open side by side. who on earth dreamed that up? By the time I'd changed the first bullet point my "15" minutes was up. It was like doing needle point in welder's gloves. did anybody find a format painter in the word program?
now this may sound silly, and I don't care how small the writing is, but just as in the end credits of modern day moving pictures where even the teaboy gets a mention, I think each and every one of us who have helped deploy this "product" should get a namecheck. In fact, we should have an edugeek panel, with a floating membership (i.e. whoever wants to be in on a particular session adds their name) offering, for a fee, to try out software in an environment akin to that of a school, not some sparkling lab coated perfect setup. Give them our feedback, and hope that they can incorporate some of our experience of working in schools into revisions of their software. I know we (some of you, anyway) are trialling/reviewing software/hardware for the benefit of edugeek members, but what I'm suggesting is something on a bigger scale.
Does that make sense? I had an idea mid sentence and went with the flow.
cheaper than therapy and more efficacious.
beeswax

Right that make sense but we would not be able to do this on school networks due to legal and common sense etc...

So to do this would need virtual pc or vmware set up with licenses for windows workstation and server would need licenses for multiply people...

So yes idea is great and think it is possability but need to work out the elements of it....

As for sats report eeverything back to rm make them sick of you...

Also they have not fixed the design flaw with email from last year no way to turn off folder lists which really makes life difficult...

Russ

[beeswax]

ok

important step number one the two tests for this yer one is last years test and other is new test...

last years test does NOT HAVE MINIMIZE

this years test DOES....

Russ

all I got this afternoon was 1 sample test, plus some documentation. I was getting a little hyper today so...I'll check again in the morning
beeswax

[broc]

These tests force a method of working that nobody familiar with any modern Window based GUI would tolerate in the real world. Most Windows users will resize windows, drag them to one side/top/bottom etc in order to keep all of the information visible. In this test environment the user is seriously limited in what they can do by comparison and this will seriously frustrate the students. Have you noticed how slow the file manager function is? It feels like it is accessing files on the other side of the world!
I remember 'split screen' mode from my IBM mainframe days in the 1980s...... before the IBM PC had been launched. It was one small step for mankind.... then; today it is a giant leap back!

[beeswax]

2006 practise test - available
2006 test schedualing familiarisation materials - available
2006 pupils familiarisation materials - download pending
and that's it
had a look at the test schedualing and there's no minimize available.
beeswax

[richard]

Christ I hate this thing. I'm trying to get the workstations to download the tests via GPO and it will not work!!

[SteveT]

Suggest this topic be moved to "Technical" as I suspect there will be a lot more posting!!

[beeswax]

Suggest this topic be moved to "Technical" as I suspect there will be a lot more posting!!

either technical or wiki

beeswax

[russdev]

will add new area for ks3 test when get time

2006 pupils familiarisation materials - download pending
and that's it is one that has got miminmize in it

Russell

[alan-d]

OK now I'm getting concerned - ours is set up and ready for the kids to familiarise themselves and it all went without a hitch.

Does that mean I'm going to get the fault that crashes my whole school network and unleashes the deadliest virus mankind has ever seen?

*gulp*

[E1uSiV3]

OK now I'm getting concerned - ours is set up and ready for the kids to familiarise themselves and it all went without a hitch.

Does that mean I'm going to get the fault that crashes my whole school network and unleashes the deadliest virus mankind has ever seen?

*gulp*

Nar, you will get yours when the devil comes to collect your soul (cus theres no way in hell [excuse the pun] that this would run perfectly without some form of divine intervention lol)