Edugeek Award for Competent Program Design?

[russdev]

Sure

 

See your point will have some words with zh about it.

 

Russ

[ajbritton]

@daveyboy: While I like 2Simple software and agree that they are lovely people, I have to say that their software design is not always bang on and their MSI authoring is a bit basic. At least one title tries to create temporary files under C:\Program Files\... Some write to INI files in %WINDIR%. From what I remember, the INI settings are stored as files rather than INI settings in their MSIs. Yuck.

 

@contink: From my POV, the idea behind the EduGeek mark or award would be to try to make the other software providers think about their own application design and delivery mechanisms. Surely the point is that we should not need to maintain a knowledge base of this stuff. All apps should be follow Microsofts application guidelines and be delivered with properly authored MSIs. Hand awards to those who get it right and name and shame those who don't. It's hardly rocket science after all.

[CyberNerd]

I've just deployed one of my favorite application, which should be awarded.

It's from Heinemann no less (I was shocked)

 

insert cd.

upload SCORM zip file to moodle.

unzip into moodle course.

job done.

 

http://www.heinemann.co.uk/Series/product.aspx?isbn=9780435117252

 

I really hope Heinemann will be releasing more of this.

[contink]

@contink: From my POV, the idea behind the EduGeek mark or award would be to try to make the other software providers think about their own application design and delivery mechanisms. Surely the point is that we should not need to maintain a knowledge base of this stuff. All apps should be follow Microsofts application guidelines and be delivered with properly authored MSIs. Hand awards to those who get it right and name and shame those who don't. It's hardly rocket science after all.

 

Can't fault the idealism but frankly the real world is that they don't bother and we use this site as a resource to resolve those packages (and there are many) where the HT or department head has ignored all advice and gone over our heads to buy "that" POS software because it looked "pretty" or whatever

 

Ultimately an awards system would definitely help provide a "stick" of sorts to clue in those willing to listen but without documenting the weird stuff we have to deal with it's just a pretty gold icon, or whatever.

[SYNACK]

Can't fault the idealism but frankly the real world is that they don't bother and we use this site as a resource to resolve those packages (and there are many) where the HT or department head has ignored all advice and gone over our heads to buy "that" POS software because it looked "pretty" or whatever

 

Ultimately an awards system would definitely help provide a "stick" of sorts to clue in those willing to listen but without documenting the weird stuff we have to deal with it's just a pretty gold icon, or whatever.

 

If this mark or whatever was to become more mainstream then at least there would be something easy to tell the staff to look for. They are teachers after all independent thought is not what they are contracted for. Just show them all the logo and say that this is the 'IT won't yell at you for buying this award'. Providing any more information that this would probably overload most of them and irreparably damage them . The trick is to make sure that the award/mark stays true to the admins that have to install it and is not unduly influenced by the companies.

[ajbritton]

It's just a thought but maybe EduGeek could work together with Becta on this. A joint Becta/EduGeek mark/award might look more impressive to prospective purchasers.

 

@contink: I do think there needs to be the repository for install info, but unless someone chips away at the problem it will only grow.

[sahmeepee]

I think having a BECTA endorsement might detract from the clueful image. Something like Edugeek "Easy Install" award/badge might do the trick, but the problem with badges is that you can't tell if the software just hasn't been evaluated yet.

 

I'd be happy just to have a knowledgebase as long as it included the known-bad software as well as the known-good.

[CyberNerd]

I think Becta wouldn't touch this with a barge pole.

Fair enough having a wiki about how to install things the easy way - but it gets very difficult when people have different systems.

For me installing a SCORM package is the easiest thing I can do, but some don't have SCORM compliant VLE's. For some people an MSI install is easy - but not if you don't have an active directory backend. For some people 'apt-get install package' is easiest in a script, or shoving some files onto a web/file server might be really difficult for others.

Becta already endorse SCORM files as a way of deploying applications, I can't see them wanting to say any more than that.

[alan-d]

Going back to grading software titles.

 

A general grading given by Senior/trusted members e.g 1 to 5 stars

 

Then

 

A readers rating which includes a short write up of the product, good and bad points.

 

A bit like the system used by 'Whatcar.com' for cars.

 

Simple and effective but without bias toward any one product.

[SYNACK]

I think Becta wouldn't touch this with a barge pole.

Fair enough having a wiki about how to install things the easy way - but it gets very difficult when people have different systems.

For me installing a SCORM package is the easiest thing I can do, but some don't have SCORM compliant VLE's. For some people an MSI install is easy - but not if you don't have an active directory backend. For some people 'apt-get install package' is easiest in a script, or shoving some files onto a web/file server might be really difficult for others.

Becta already endorse SCORM files as a way of deploying applications, I can't see them wanting to say any more than that.

 

Agreed that there are may different types of systems around but they could be assessed against what they are supposed to work with. For example if it is windows software it should run with MSI and not write rubbish everywhere. If it is designed to run in linux it should be packaged or a simple case of unzipping it rather than spending half a day tracking down, installing and troubleshooting all of the dependencies.

 

Designed for Windows XP/Vista Windows criteria

Designed for Linux base Linux criteria

 

Even if you don't have an AD backend the fact that the MSI has been designed to be automated and installed silently via GP means that the install can be triggered silently and successfully via a login or autoit script provided by a linux server.

[SYNACK]

Going back to grading software titles.

 

A general grading given by Senior/trusted members e.g 1 to 5 stars

 

Then

 

A readers rating which includes a short write up of the product, good and bad points.

 

A bit like the system used by 'Whatcar.com' for cars.

 

Simple and effective but without bias toward any one product.

 

Add a slightly different front end on top of the data and it could also make quite a nice online catalog of approved software for the teachers/heads to look through. A nice safe purchasing environment where they can't get into to much trouble.

[CyberNerd]

Agreed that there are may different types of systems around but they could be assessed against what they are supposed to work with. For example if it is windows software it should run with MSI and not write rubbish everywhere. If it is designed to run in linux it should be packaged or a simple case of unzipping it rather than spending half a day tracking down, installing and troubleshooting all of the dependencies.

 

Designed for Windows XP/Vista Windows criteria

Designed for Linux base Linux criteria

 

Even if you don't have an AD backend the fact that the MSI has been designed to be automated and installed silently via GP means that the install can be triggered silently and successfully via a login or autoit script provided by a linux server.

 

Problem is that when you go down that path it's difficult to know where to stop - A citrix install is easy for some things and extremely difficult for others, macs, bsd's, mobile phones are other examples. Again, using the MSI example, surely copying to a remote fileserver and placing links is easier than an MSI deployment - so why weight an msi install over a manual filecopy.

[alan-d]

Add a slightly different front end on top of the data and it could also make quite a nice online catalog of approved software for the teachers/heads to look through. A nice safe purchasing environment where they can't get into to much trouble.

 

Linked to an affiliate scheme maybe