Sparklebox

[SimpleSi]

Now legally, I'm not sure about the ground that John stands on but I FULLY support the sentiments expressed by him and I'm still upset at the number of teachers that simply don't care about who the owner was/is as long as they can print out shiny pictures.

 

The "Cone of Legal Silence" around Sparklebox is a damming indictment of today's "watch what you say otherwise we'll sue you" culture

 

Simon

 

Blog Posting

Edited March 17, 2013 by SimpleSi

[SimpleSi]

If this is true

Company Check - Free company financial check on SPARKLEBOX TEACHER RESOURCES LIMITED. Registered number 06164228. Free company accounts. Companies House information

 

then it just shows the state of the world we live in

 

Simon

PS I know there are far worse issues in the real world but this is our part of the world

 

At least when I still refuse to help a teacher with the site-I'm doing my bit to try to try and bring peoples attention to the issue - maybe Mr Gove should address this sort of issue rather than length of the school day?

[SYNACK]

Its also full of viruses thanks to ad banners, most teachers don't care, anything that saves them a little work is beyond reproach in their opinion.

[ConradJones]

Thanks SI, nearly forgot to check that its blocked on new filtering.

@tom_newton you should be blocking this by default

[ConradJones]

Good Move SI

[Nimon]

Websense has it listed as "educational materials" - Which I've amended on mine into "Questionable" tout-suite

[mats]

I removed the sparklebox toolbar from a teacher laptop just last week. It was there because Twinkl have started charging £30pa apparently.

[sparkeh]

I removed the sparklebox toolbar from a teacher laptop just last week. It was there because Twinkl have started charging £30pa apparently.

Tell me who that was, I have a shortlist...

[mats]

Tell me who that was, I have a shortlist...

 

Couldn't say (in a public forum). DM / email.

[egomaster5]

For some time now this has been a moral question. For clarity, the site is still owned and run by Kinge. It is not thought that he poses a direct threat to children through the site which is now monitored. There are i suppose questions about whether as a school/teacher you are happy in using the materials from the site and therefore supporting a twice convicted sex offender, (and just as importantly would the parents of the children you teach) this is the crux.

 

The statement issued by the South West Grid for Learning issued in May 2010 South West Grid for Learning Trust - Legal Statement Regarding Sparklebox still applies.

 

Great to see members supporting the action taken.

 

Egomaster5 - SWGfL

[synaesthesia]

I've had a few instances of this popping up again recently - both from sparklebox.co.uk and sparkleplus.co.uk. All instances have been blocked (the plus one is new to me but don't know how long it's existed). However the only reason it's been popping up is because of other related infections on those computers, mostly as a result of the toolbar. It's not just moral now, (not that it was ever a tough choice in my eyes, it appears to be so for many teachers) it's a matter of data security.

I've put in rating overrides on the firewalls so it now falls under "Malicious websites".

 

I'm not aware of Twinkl charging £30pa but if *any* teacher think's that's unreasonable they have problems other than figuring out moral code. That's a few pounds a month and guarantee the same people are probably spending that on daft charities (Sponsor a tibetan tiger now for only £3 a month and get a cuddly toy!)

Edited June 4, 2013 by synaesthesia

[egomaster5]

The toolbar was always a worry. Nothing comes for free and the advertsing, spam, virus issues were always a possible outcome. Worthwhile others considering this but not likely many teachers will

[tom_newton]

Thanks SI, nearly forgot to check that its blocked on new filtering.

@tom_newton you should be blocking this by default

 

I was under the impression we were - I have a vague recollection of a discussion about this with @nile_c - i'll ask him what the score is when I am back in the office

[ConradJones]

I was under the impression we were - I have a vague recollection of a discussion about this with @nile_c - i'll ask him what the score is when I am back in the office

 

i removed it from my custom blocked content and it was allowed through. I'll be adding the other urls on this page.

 

My personal attitude is it should never be allowed in schools, but i can't force my view on other people

[sparkeh]

I was under the impression we were - I have a vague recollection of a discussion about this with @nile_c - i'll ask him what the score is when I am back in the office

No I had to add it to a block list.

[X-13]

sparkleplus.co.uk

 

Cheers for that. Just added to the filter.

 

Strangely, letterandsounds.com is blocked [Age restricted/illegal activity] but sparklebox isn't... [Well, it is. Just not in the default lists.]

[mats]

I've just had another round of "is it ok if we use sparklebox?" and emailed the head to offer my opinion ("No. Not at school or at home.").

 

Kinge is still a director of sparklebox (SPARKLEBOX TEACHER RESOURCES LIMITED. Free and instant access to Director and Shareholder details. Credit Reports online instantly.) so as far as I'm concerned, we should stay away.

 

A googling of string "SparkleBox Teacher Resources Ltd site:whois.domaintools.com" pulls up some more sites registered by sparklebox.

 

SparkleBox.org.uk - Sparkle Box

SparkleBox.me.uk - Welcome to SparkleBox

SparklePlus.co.uk - Welcome to SparkleBox

SparkleBoxRes.co.uk - Sparkle Box Res

SparkleBox2.co.uk - 1000s FREE Primary Teaching Resources & Printables - SparkleBox KS2

 

There may be more..

[X-13]

I didn't know a few of those.

 

Definitely blocking them on Monday.

[edutech4schools]

I remember reading last year that the toolbar would also upload jpg files it found on the users computer and would really slow the computer down it was installed on. Not sure how true this was but it definitely slowed my test machine down by a massive amount.

[synaesthesia]

That's quite an accusation - would love to do some testing on that, I'd come down on it like a ton of bricks. Should be easy via wireshark.

[edutech4schools]

I very much doubt that the current version is the same as the one I tested, which was a few years back, but who knows.

[edutech4schools]

Just found these crazy instructions for removing the toolbar in 2010

 

http://mikemcsharry.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/completely-remove-sparklebox-toolbar.pdf

[LeMarchand]

That's quite an accusation - would love to do some testing on that, I'd come down on it like a ton of bricks. Should be easy via wireshark.

 

Surely something the police need to know about if true? Given the owner's crimes...

 

Just found these crazy instructions for removing the toolbar in 2010

 

http://mikemcsharry.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/completely-remove-sparklebox-toolbar.pdf

 

That's where that Search Conduit rubbish keeps coming from! But I never installed anything my...

 

I always fill in the "why did you uninstall?" forms (with a fake email, obviously). I couldn't repeat what gets written down here, though.

[synaesthesia]

Conduit is a "diy toolbar" software used by quite a few toolbar gits - the likes of sparklebox, mywebsearch and babylon are the ones that top the bill for me!

[ButterflyMoon]

All blocked here thanks for the heads up