What revolutionary changes have you made to your school?

[tj2419]

Hi

 

I am probably just pipe dreaming but i have been thinking and like the idea of introducing something new and fresh to our school (A secondary). I want to bring something to the school that they either can't do or don't have but that can have a big impact on a certain area of the school.

 

Just wondering if any of you have introduced something you would class as revolutionary at your school that made a difference to teaching and learning. So not necessarily a virtual network or new backup system or 10Gig backbone but something that has had a real impact in the classroom or how things work at your school.

 

Is this making sense or not?

 

Interested to hear what other people have done or are doing.

 

Cheers

[tmcd35]

Introduced e-mail 3-4 years back (not a joke!).

 

Rolled out Go4Schools about a year ago with Deputy Head and Data Manager. The impact proper, immediate, data analysis has had is scary.

 

Managed WiFi going in this summer, we currently have no WiFi (well a dozen half working home access points dotted around). It promises to be a revolutionary as e-mail was, looking forward to it.

 

Keep toying with iPads and other mobile devices, but they fail to take off to any degree.

[pete]

Currently:

 

# Cheap but effective:

 

We're modifying all the projectors so the "blank" and "nothing connected" screens have basic "here's how to use your projector" guidance. Example attached:

 

 

The blanked-out bit is identifying info in case the projector is stolen.

 

NB: depends on the projector brand supporting image upload for storage on the projector - works on Hitachi, not sure of others.

 

# Still cheap-ish, but a fair amount of time:

 

Using Office365 Video to make video content available via a browser both in and outside of school.

[Steve21]

@pete Honestly didn't even know you could do that, is that a certain model or you find most have that option? (Hitachi wise)

 

Thanks,

Steve

[SteveM555]

Some things I can think of.. spread over the last few years:

 

PC in every classroom hooked up to Interactive Board/Projector.

Impero

VLE

Site-Wide WiFi

iPads (only two classroom sets at the minute, but they get booked up very quickly)

[tj2419]

Currently:

 

# Cheap but effective:

 

We're modifying all the projectors so the "blank" and "nothing connected" screens have basic "here's how to use your projector" guidance. Example attached:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]30759[/ATTACH]

 

The blanked-out bit is identifying info in case the projector is stolen.

 

NB: depends on the projector brand supporting image upload for storage on the projector - works on Hitachi, not sure of others.

 

# Still cheap-ish, but a fair amount of time:

 

Using Office365 Video to make video content available via a browser both in and outside of school.

 

Loving those ideas. Things like that, that are cheap or free but can make such a difference are great!

 

Keep them coming guys.

[Oaktech]

Couple of things... At my last place introduced gigabit internet access and a palo-alto next gen firewall/filter.

 

So far at my new place removed the awful multipoint installation replacing it with normal desktops, replacing our old netbooks that ran RDP sessions with core i5 laptop suites. That has had a massive impact on T&L as things now do what the teachers expect rather than grinding to a halt.

 

I'm working on a new internet connection with lightspeed filtering and fixing the wired network with a view to voip next year.

[DCUK6]

Weve got computers now.

 

Well they had some things that made noises before but so old I wouldn't call them computers.

 

Unifi wireless throughout including guest networks.

Central file server and desktops all redirected. No saving on the machines.

Given staff read only access to pupil drives.

 

 

biggest thing though is that problems get fixed quick now, before things would take so long to be done that staff had the passwords to do it themselves. Changed that before I even started here official

 

Done the iPad thing which staff have taken to really well. I havnt given any training on them.

Edited June 3, 2015 by DCUK6

[pete]

@pete Honestly didn't even know you could do that, is that a certain model or you find most have that option? (Hitachi wise)

 

Thanks,

Steve

 

All the ones we've tried so far have the "My Screen" option. The oldest was an ED-X33. Poke around in the advanced menu and you should find it. Once you upload the image (projector captures the image you're currently showing), you can then choose to show whatever's saved as "My Screen" when the projector is blanked/nothing is connected.

 

Bit more info here: School AV Tips: Customize the Splash Screen on your Hitachi Video Projector

[3s-gtech]

I've been here a good while, so there's a few:

 

PCs in all classrooms (obviously years back) with SIMS for registers

Projectors in all classrooms (same)

Virtualisation

Decent email system for all students (was just KS4 and KS5 before)

Lync for staff

Remote access from home for staff and students

SSDs in all PCs (big impact in the classroom actually)

Unified version of Office across site (thanks to EES)

BYOD

Homework Blog

 

Nothing revolutionary though really. Some of them were done well before they were particularly fashionable, like home access back in 2007 and sitewide SSDs over the last three years. The Homework Blog has worked well though.

[DarrenM]

I think the most revolutionary thing I've done has been remote access. Allowing staff to work from home and get our full PC experience has really changed how people work. Staff now also regularly use this on laptops that they bring in.

[pete]

- Interactive Touch Tables (DIY Build)

 

I am intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

 

(It also does mame, right?)

[SpuffMonkey]

Guillotined the SMT

[JoeBloggs]

Couple of things... At my last place introduced gigabit internet access and a palo-alto next gen firewall/filter.

 

@Oaktech what model Palo Alto have you got? How are you finding it? We've had ours now about 3 months

[Oaktech]

@Oaktech what model Palo Alto have you got? How are you finding it? We've had ours now about 3 months

 

A few teething problems with reading AD logs, but otherwise brilliant. Pretty easy to use once you get your head around it. We went for the 2020 in the end because the through put is full gigabit as is our internet, and because the commit times on the lower appliances weren't acceptable.

[JoeBloggs]

Interesting, we had some teething problems with AD too. We got the 3020.

We do all our filtering through the palo-alto now too!

[Oaktech]

Interesting, we had some teething problems with AD too. We got the 3020.

We do all our filtering through the palo-alto now too!

 

Our teething problem was basically that on occasion it took 2 hours for the PA to update the filtering rules of the logged on user based on the AD logged on user log. If you CLI cleared the user record for the IP of the machine they were logged in to it fixed itself. An update to the AD agent (5.0.10 I think) and a bit of fine tuning to the timings of the AD sync and it was all fine.

[localzuk]

Managed Wifi

Managed Switch-gear, with VLANs and MAC based auth (eliminated network related downtime entirely).

Cashless catering

Moved from cheap equipment to good quality, reasonably priced - reduced suite breakages to be nearly non-existent (I've had to replace 1 keyboard and a dozen mice in 6 years)

Removed local admin rights from all users, enabled local firewalls on all machines - not had a virus or malware issue since doing so!

VOIP phone system - cheap and easy to change, expand etc... Allows us to move rooms around without any real cost.

Helpdesk - all requests are logged and matched against SLAs.

Started stocking a couple of spare PCs, allowing us almost immediate workaround of any issues (we can swap in the spare, then fix the broken one), so the end user has minimal issues

Moved us from Frog to Moodle (well, still ongoing), saving us thousands, and making it easier for staff to just get their lessons online

Introduced SCCM - management of applications is a minor issue now, as are updates, reimages etc...

Edited June 5, 2015 by localzuk