It felt very strange on Thursday whilst down at BETT ... I was nervous, excited, pensive and lots of other things which generally mean I was not too sure how to feel.
I had been put forward for an award and was waiting to hear about being shortlisted.
(taken from Naace: Naace Impact Awards 2013)
I was put forward for the following award
And have been shortlisted against the following.
I am amazed that a) I was initially nominated by someone who I respect for the amount of w
Originally posted on Grumbledook Thinks
And so I take a quick interlude from my look at the recent Apple Workshops to think about a few queries some schools have raised in the last few weeks about Apple and Data Protection.
When it comes to their OS X devices (desktops and laptops) Apple have had some built in encryption for some time. FileVault was introduced in Mac OS X 10.3 and used to just encrypt user files. Not a perfect solution but the introduction of FileVault 2 in Mac OS X 10.7 (
It may seem a little strange to write a summary without having written the other posts … but best to keep things short and sweet.
There will be more posts, but rather than the initial splurge of activity post-BETT I thought I would share ideas, opinions, what I saw, conversations I had, etc … but over a longer period … and it also means that I have the benefit of looking at blog posts from others too … and this year there are a plethora of posts!
I am pretty sure I can summarise the event
Lifecycle Management
Developing a process
Whether you are using ITIL, FITS or other ideology / tools to help you develop a support service, you will find that you will borrow, adapt, use, tweak, refine and make wholesale use of a plethora of pre-existing examples of procedures. It is a simple fact of life that sharing and comparing procedures is more efficient than re-inventing the wheel in isolation.
However, you will find that there will be occasions when you have to create a process
I’ve recently been tracking down a number of web 2.0 tools to ensure I register / protect my online identity. I am known as Tony Sheppard and as GrumbleDook with such equality online that it is hard to separate the two. However, since there is a rather good Jazz musician called Tony Sheppard I have opted to protect my identity as GrumbleDook.
Most people recognise my avatar or variations of it and I am always looking for ways to tweak it a little, make it more interesting or relevant, but wit
I do have the occasional rant about things. Most of the time it is down to having passion about things I believe in or it is intend to grab the attention of others to make them think. At TeachMeet Midlands 2011 it was a bit of both.
Read more
I commend Gary Clawson from the North West Grid for Learning for his recent report about how, in these stringent times, the use of Open Source and Open Content can saves schools and LAs significant amounts of money.
There are a number of good summaries and articles on the report already on the Tinterweb, most of which have many additional constructive comments so rather than re-hash the collective back patting which us going on I will instead talk about a series of points I raised about the rep
Once again I fall into the role of the fervent defender of the blighted IT Support teams in schools. As much as I enjoyed a good argument (oh no you don’t!) there are times when I feel that the word compromise is missing from the vocabulary of some people.
In a short break from the course I am on at the moment I picked up a tweet to a blog post from our friend Spannerman2.
It makes for good reading and raises an important points about IT and ICT & Computing as subjects, about the lack of
I can’t believe that the summer is drawing to a close already. Exam results have come down and been issued out (congratulations to all who did well and commiserations to those who tried but didn’t quite get what they wanted , needed or deserved), some teachers are off on their second holiday and others are back into planning mode.
Many IT Technicians and Network Managers are now playing summer catch-up. That list of jobs that they had to do at the beginning of the holidays still seems a bit l
A short post today, partly in preparation for a longer review of the courses from the FITS Foundation, but mainly in response to Ray Fleming’s latest blog post.
One of the areas we covered on the FITS : Advanced course (also known as the FITS : Manager course) was about financial management … but, as with all of the areas covered, it was not dealt in isolation. For all of us on the course it was a good chance to look at all financial aspects which impact on IT / ICT in schools.
(read more
Taken from GrumbleDook Blogs
As most people will have seen Becta will be cut as a cost saving measure by the Conservative – Lib Dem coalition government. There is no published timescale on this but a number of people have said they have been told it is by November 2010 (myself included).
As with many others who have experienced working with Becta over the years I would like to thank the various staff there and others who have worked closely with them (and yes … that even means consultants)
Originally posted at https://learningpossibilities.lpplus.net/Pages/Sharepointandweb.aspx for LearningPossibilities.
Sharepoint and web 2.0
I’ve always wondered what it is about web 2.0 that people in education are so fascinated about. There are lots of articles out there about the history of the Web, of Darcy DiNucci originally coining the term (1999) and then Tim O’Reilly pushing the term in the O’Reilly Web 2.0 Conference in 2004. Google, Bing and Yahoo! them for more information or p
Probably not that relevant to all ... but worth having a look at and a think.
http://grumbledook.com/2009/12/06/innovation-management/
It would also be worth looking at TeachMeet EdTechRoundUp 2009 as there were so many ideas there that it is hard to summarise.
In a discussion about student IDs I got a tad frustrated by the take some people have about Becta guidance and that it is given from a point of not really understanding how the real world works or giving examples ...
I intend to try and keep a daily run down of things I am up to, if nothing else to try and show that I do actually work for a living, but to also show the full range of what becoming manglement has done to me.
A quick break down of today.
1 - Mainly sorting out the demonstration Joomla site to show the Head and Business Manager tomorrow.
We had the firm that do our propaganda^Wpublicity materials (prospectus, letterheaded paper, etc) come in to look at a redisng of our website. It is ag
