"Spare" ADSL Line

But that's the point. We do get powercuts or a breaker trips and the lights go out. It tends to be daylight, so they can continue to teach for a while, same with the heating. If it becomes a problem, then we close the school. That's where the tethered laptop comes in. The Office Manager can access parentmail even though the phones and internet are down. I'm not saying teachers should have a physical Plan B for every lesson. In the very rare event that they lose the internet they should be able to improvise if they know their subject.

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Originally Posted by laserblazer

I'm not saying teachers should have a physical Plan B for every lesson. In the very rare event that they lose the internet they should be able to improvise if they know their subject.

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Assuming that is possible. What if the lesson was to be an online assessment (e.g. Midyis) or a webinar? Also, what about all the things which staff do other than front-of-class teaching? Things like teachers preparing lessons, all staff sending emails (internally and externally), finance dept accessing online banking or transferring payroll data, business manager doing CRB checks, librarian using hosted library catalogue, marketing updating website, etc. There is no Plan B for those nor is there room to improvise, and some are time-critical.

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Originally Posted by laserblazer

But that's the point. We do get powercuts or a breaker trips and the lights go out.

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And that is why the site team have spare light bulbs, ready for that to happen. I am suggesting similar, a spare Internet connection.

This wouldn't protect us against power cuts, of course, but it is one less thing to go wrong. We can't prepare contingency for all eventualities, but there are some for which we can prepare.

Where I see that spare line becoming critical will be exams. We are rapidly approaching the situation where public exams will have components taken online... Having a line available on a specific day at a specific time will be essential.

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Originally Posted by elsiegee40

Where I see that spare line becoming critical will be exams. We are rapidly approaching the situation where public exams will have components taken online... Having a line available on a specific day at a specific time will be essential.

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Sorry, but someone has to provide for a scenario where it simply isn't available. Believe me, this will happen at some time. A big slice of the population will be without any internet access at all. A similar situation was the King's Cross bombings, when the mobile phone networks got so overloaded they fell over and the emergency services suffered as a result. They have subsequently come up with a Plan B.

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Originally Posted by laserblazer

Sorry, but someone has to provide for a scenario where it simply isn't available. Believe me, this will happen at some time. A big slice of the population will be without any internet access at all. A similar situation was the King's Cross bombings, when the mobile phone networks got so overloaded they fell over and the emergency services suffered as a result. They have subsequently come up with a Plan B.

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I think the exam boards will be sympathetic if there are multiple dead following a terrorist attack.

We have an automatic ADSL failover line which kicks in if our leased line fails.
Its happened once and worked like a charm.

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Originally Posted by laserblazer

They have subsequently come up with a Plan B.

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Which is exactly what I'm doing - asking for advice about a Plan B.