Running SIMS on a Netbook

[MunkySpanner]

Looking at a solution for the P.E. department to take registers via Lesson Monitor. Thought about SIMS own Lesson Monitor Mobile add in and PDA's but seems costly for something that has little practical use other than taking registers.

Considering netbooks because of portability, solid state drives as they're bound to get a bit of hammer and can be used for usual web/office based tasks which is all P.E. are going to need them for.

So, has anyone tried running SIMS on a netbook over wireless?

[jcollings]

Indeed. I have implemented a similar thing for PE using the 12Gb, Atom processored version of the EEEPc. They have Windows and SIMS installed on them and are set to autologon to the network and run SIMS so all the staff do is power them up and they are presented with a SIMS logon box.

They seem to be pretty happy with them so far.

[rob101]

This is interesting as our school is also looking at this for next year, any draw backs with using Sims for taking registers and logistical problems?

[Antp]

At our school we recently installed the pars.net registry system
for our p.e department originally they took a paper register as well and just update it on pars when they got access to a computer.
but they have recently bought two hp pda's im not sure wich model but i can find out. im not sure on pricing though so you pro might as well get netbooks.

[matt40k]

One of the other LEA have a number of these as training laptops. I hear they work quite well.

He said something about two partitions, and how you want to get the larger model and fit the entire thing into the 4GB fast partition. He claims it's seconds to use sims from the system being powered down. Assuming this is due to the SSD.

Only thing to watch out for is some have issues with power drain, even when they are powered off!

I've only ever used a normal laptop over wireless using 802.1X which works ok. SIMS upgrades take a while, however it's good to use a cable once in a while, 802.1X likes being plugged into a cable once in a while (to do with cert).

[jcollings]

This is interesting as our school is also looking at this for next year, any draw backs with using Sims for taking registers and logistical problems?

It has worked really well here. Things to consider are how cover teachers from outside school are going to cope. We have given ours a cover username and password and they use that in rooms with PC's. We are also going to get some eeepcs for cover office to dish out. TBH we don't have that many external cover staff now as we have 4 learning managers who do most of the cover.

The only other thing is really getting staff into the culture change. SLT really backed the project in this area so someone each day would check for untaken registers and chase that member of staff up. It is now a tiny number usually with good reason that are missed.

The final thing we did here is abolish PM reg so our Period 5 mark is written back into the PM reg. This really means staff have to fill things in accurately and on time or your attendance figures will really bomb.

All in all I am pleased with the results (and it ticked a box on my performance management!). The persistent truants are easy to pick out with it which is good and form tutors/ heads of year get a very full picture of their kids attendance.

[jcollings]

He said something about two partitions, and how you want to get the larger model and fit the entire thing into the 4GB fast partition. He claims it's seconds to use sims from the system being powered down. Assuming this is due to the SSD.

Yes - that was fun when I found out 12Gb actually means 4Gb and 8Gb on 2 drives. I got ours booting to the 8Gb as the primary and everything fits well enough on them.

[MunkySpanner]

Thanks to everyone for the advice. Looks like this is the way forward as I suspected.

[localzuk]

One thing you may wish to consider here is, how is a PE teacher going to balance the netbook and type?

Ie. it is a 3 hand job, unless they have a desk, and if that's the case, then why not a normal laptop?

[jcollings]

One thing you may wish to consider here is, how is a PE teacher going to balance the netbook and type?

Ie. it is a 3 hand job, unless they have a desk, and if that's the case, then why not a normal laptop?

Our folks seem to manage it on a playing field and they all seem to have only the 2 arms. You only need 1 hand to mark a SIMS register really.

[russdev]

Sorry to create vampire thread...

We are looking to buy some for pe department any updates on what people using etc.

Russ

[K.C.Leblanc]

I had a good look at the Samsung Q1 at BETT. It looked ideal for this purpose.......


........till I discovered they were £600.

[FN-GM]

I have used PARS on a netbook and it seemed to work well. The only problem the new GUI is hard to work with on the low resolution screens.

I have also used lesson monitor on a PDA and its a waste of time. I should imagine SIMS will run perfect on the setup jcollins has.

[vikpaw]

The HP 2133 has pretty good resolution, enough to make the old 'uns squint a bit!
Plus it's pretty hardy with the aluminium casing, small drop resistance, splash resistance. Gigabit LAN when you do want to plug in is pretty cool too.
Not put SIMs on it yet though, but can't see why it wouldn't work.
It is a mechanical hard drive, but no major issue.

[MYK-IT]

Just thought i would bring up this topic again...

The usual scenario PE Department require portable computer(s) to access SIMS Lesson Monitor.
How are netbooks nowadays? Can they really cope with the job? with WSUS and AV updates in background etc?

Staff just need to log onto SIMS, take register save and close....

My initial intention was for medium spec laptops...because at end of the day the staff want to teach a lesson not wait for the computer to load / respond.

Netbooks seem to start from the Dell 1012 @ £180 to the Dell 2110 @ £400+, for that price i would rather buy an i3 based Laptop....

Advice / Case Studies appreciated,

Thanks.

(Wireless is sorted by Ruckus and SIMS was upgraded during Summer to a new Windows / SQL 2008 based server.)