Strange request - schedule a message

[bonnett11]

Hi All,

 

A bit of a strange one, but i've been asked to look into scheduling a message to pop up on all teachers laptops to let them know when it's the end of a lesson.

 

Can anyone help?

 

Only way I can think of doing this is adding an event in everyone outlook, but then it requires them to have outlook open, which some of them don't.

 

Thanks,

Ross

[DrBeaker]

Could you do this via task scheduler and display a message?

 

The cynic in me says come on....can they seriously not tell when it's the end of the lesson? [emoji33]

[paulkerton]

Am I missing something? Isn't that what the school bell is for?

[bonnett11]

Am I missing something? Isn't that what the school bell is for?

 

We don't have a school bell.

[paulkerton]

We don't have a school bell.

 

Ahh I can see how scheduling a pop-up might be a more cost effective solution then!

[bonnett11]

The cynic in me says come on....can they seriously not tell when it's the end of the lesson? [emoji33]

 

You'd think, but these are teachers. Plus we don't have a bell and now all the times have changed for the different year groups.

[Zammo]

It can be achieved in a number of ways, but this product worked well for me in the past:

 

https://www.cordaware.com/eng/

 

NetSupport notify could work as well

 

https://www.netsupportsoftware.com/webresources/brochures/NSN/NetSupport_Notify-Creating_a_Notification.pdf

[Norphy]

NetSupport Notify? Yes, it costs but it seems like the ideal solution for this problem.

[mavhc]

just use the msg command

[cw222]

Could you do this via task scheduler and display a message?

 

The cynic in me says come on....can they seriously not tell when it's the end of the lesson? [emoji33]

 

This would be the option that I would choose. You could set the schedule via GPO and push to all computers quite quickly and easily. iirc you can do this on user/computer settings depending on the needs ( you could even get it to play a sound file), and its relatively easy to update if the timetable changes.

[caffrey]

Wonder if this can be done with a toast notification,

[Zammo]

This would be the option that I would choose. You could set the schedule via GPO and push to all computers quite quickly and easily. iirc you can do this on user/computer settings depending on the needs ( you could even get it to play a sound file), and its relatively easy to update if the timetable changes.

 

I would favour buying in a product simply because it then becomes viable to give control over to someone more suitable so they can make amendments for exam periods, activity days and whatever else

 

Scripting, GPOs and task scheduler may save a few pennies but then becomes another IT process.

 

Also products like NetSupport look far more professional and have more customisation options than a plain text box.

[mavhc]

https://ss64.com/nt/msg.html

[pete]

As a longer-term solution, ask the company who supports your fire alarm whether it supports school bell functionality. If it does, it's just a case of adding a timer (think domestic boiler).

[Davit2005]

I think you need as low tech method as possible.

 

An MS update or software update could render any over engineered mechanisms for popups then you will getting earache as to why the system has failed.

[mikeprice]

why in the name of $deity do a bunch or teachers need a reminder when a lesson finishes?????

 

 

I worked in a school once that had a major fire - main teaching block totally unusable

 

school bell cables routed through the building the whole system failed and couldn;t be fixed (dunno why - how hard can it be)

 

anyway - we managed without any bells for about 5 years - the general consensus was that it worked better - the kids were not hearing something saying the lesson was over so the teacher was in charge

 

beats me why some school think teachers can't work out the time

[mavhc]

PowerShell Script to run commands per Active Directory OU - SQUARECLOUDS

 

set the command to be msg * /server:$_ "End of lesson"

 

and then set a scheduled task

[Davit2005]

why in the name of $deity do a bunch or teachers need a reminder when a lesson finishes?????

 

 

I worked in a school once that had a major fire - main teaching block totally unusable

 

school bell cables routed through the building the whole system failed and couldn;t be fixed (dunno why - how hard can it be)

 

anyway - we managed without any bells for about 5 years - the general consensus was that it worked better - the kids were not hearing something saying the lesson was over so the teacher was in charge

 

beats me why some school think teachers can't work out the time

 

+1

 

There is nothing wrong with being helpful but I cannot help thing we are making problems out of nothing. I've worked in Edu for 10+ years and never had a bell system, I cannot even remember having them at school, although that was some time ago, lol.

[DrBeaker]

+1

 

There is nothing wrong with being helpful but I cannot help thing we are making problems out of nothing. I've worked in Edu for 10+ years and never had a bell system, I cannot even remember having them at school, although that was some time ago, lol.

 

It's the same "I cannot teach with X / Y /Z" claim from teachers isn't it though?

 

No, it's not a show-stopper, the world doesn't stop revolving. It's an inconvenience if the sound, projector etc doesn't work. If SIMs doesn't work, you can take a paper register.

We all survived fine before the tech came along.

There's alternative plans for most of these situations. It just means they have to work a little harder in the lesson and not rely on the tech as it's an easy copout to blame the tech not working. In businesses some staff deliberately log tickets with IT as they say IT haven't fixed it and I can't do any work so they can sit around all day without doing any work and get away with it. This is from people I've worked with as teams and end users and told me this!

 

If you claimed you cannot teach purely due to tech issue that could happen at any time to anybody I'd seriously be questioning your ability to cope with situations like this.

 

I'd imagine for most of us these issues are sorted the same day which is a pretty damm good service to me.

Edited September 14, 2020 by DrBeaker

[mikeprice]

We actually found that teaching IMPROVED without the bells!

[Cam_liddell]

What about a simple solution for the G-Suite users. Google Calendar with event notifications.