SIMS Mobile 3 - Fire Register

[Gatt]

Now that we have Sims Mobile working, and have a couple of Acess Points in place - our SMT are wondering if they can be used for taking registers during a Fire Drill?

 

If so - how's it done..

[FragglePete]

Slight OT, but how are you getting on with SIMS Mobile?

 

I've been handed the PDA back in disgust by the PE Teachers as they find the interface unworkable, clunky and just awkward having to Sync the damn thing for offline registration. I have to admit I'm not impressed by the Server side of things either.

 

As a result, the PE Staff are doing paper registers during the lesson that happens at the local sports centre and doing the entry when they get back to their office.

 

Pete

[Willzzz]

Is this a technical or a legal question?

[Gatt]

Technical - looking to trial it but not sure how best to do it

[kmount]

Now that we have Sims Mobile working, and have a couple of Acess Points in place - our SMT are wondering if they can be used for taking registers during a Fire Drill?

 

If so - how's it done..

 

Depends upon whether you're talking about sync'ing and taking an "offline" register or whether you want to try and do it online via the wireless. - If so, be cautious in that what if the fire is in your server room?

[Gatt]

Would probably be in offline mode just wondering how it'd be done- cos we line the kids up by year so not sure how the registers would be taken...

[Tiger]

Is this any help???

 

28-07-2008, 01:55 PM #3

Bromcom2008

 

Hi there.. I understand your frustration with mobile registration, as it is a serious issue faced by many schools.

 

A school that I have been working with in East London reported similar problems as to those you described and we resolved it very neatly. The solution is to have a solution that can work 'off-line working' with wireless (either GPRS, Wi-Fi or both) It needs to be a seamless operation from a P.E Teachers point of view.

 

The solution that I am referring to enables attendance to be taken remotely using Smart Phones. This is ideal for P.E staff to use on the sports grounds and also for use during school field trips.

 

Making use of GPRS technology means that registration can be taken anywhere there is mobile phone network - so even abroad. Some schools started using it to take attendance in assembly halls rather using paper! Schools can be sure that they have the latest pupil attendance in realtime at all times.

 

I'll drop you a PM with more details - otherwise I will be accused of unauthorised promotion!

 

If there is anyone else with the same problem or if anyone wishes to have further details, please just contact me - I am happy to help.

 

NB: In case you're wondering - yes, the solution I have works directly with SIMS Attendance and Lesson Monitor software.[/i]

[EduTech]

SIMS Mobile... hmm!.. never even knew about it

 

This might be something we need.. how are you getting on with it

 

sorry to jump off topic

[kmount]

It's rubbish if you want my honest opinion.

[FragglePete]

SIMS Mobile... hmm!.. never even knew about it

 

This might be something we need.. how are you getting on with it

 

sorry to jump off topic

 

SIMS Mobile = Useless. As I said earlier, very clunky interface and has been given back to me by PE Staff as unworkable.

 

Looks like we're going to drop it completely. I need to look at other solutions.

 

Pete

[Tiger]

SIMS Mobile = Useless. As I said earlier, very clunky interface and has been given back to me by PE Staff as unworkable.

 

Looks like we're going to drop it completely. I need to look at other solutions.

 

Pete

 

Pete,

I recall you were also looking at Bromcom's one. Did you ever got to look at it?

 

If what Bromcom2008 says stands - then it may the answer for PE Teacher registration.

 

You seem to be leading this topic and hence your feedback will be most welcome.

[FragglePete]

Pete,

I recall you were also looking at Bromcom's one. Did you ever got to look at it?

 

If what Bromcom2008 says stands - then it may the answer for PE Teacher registration.

 

You seem to be leading this topic and hence your feedback will be most welcome.

 

We got some intial pricing, and to be honest the cost is just way too much.

 

I think we're just throwing money & IT at a problem for the sake of it. PE Teachers do the register on their return to the School after being at the local sports centre.

 

WiFi access reaches into the changing rooms, so Teachers are using their laptops with SIMS on to register with no problems.

 

One solution I guess would be to get a VPN connection to the local sports centre to our network over a ADSL Line. But again, it's just throwing a complicated setup and lots of cost at what really is a small problem.

 

Oh well, maybe BETT will throw something up.

 

Pete

[chris-bromcom]

I have been reading your threads and felt the need to explain a bit more about Bromcom's Solution for the registration of pupils by P.E. Staff or for the purpose of offsite learning i.e. Leisure centre.

 

It seems you are all looking for a simple solution to allow P.E. Teachers to take a register without having to be confined to working on a PC or laptop in an office away from the class. You may also want to be able to mark attendance for students who are on a school trip and without network access to your school network this would be imposable for most companies to give you the tools to provide REAL TIME attendance data to your MIS system.

This is where Bromcom's M-Register comes into its own by giving schools and colleges the ability to record REAL TIME attendance data to their MIS System whether it be Bromcom, Sims.Net or others. Firstly teachers would have a Smart Phone or PDA device which has a registration Product installed (some of you may know Winfolder) and then the teacher logs in with their credentials and calls up the days timetable. By simply clicking on a Register / Period they can download the class register and send it back to the MIS System.

We can do this by a simple interface which allows a Smart Phone or PDA device with GPRS to retrieve a register for marking. The teacher would then mark the register and return it via the same way it was delivered, all over a mobile phone network. Of course if you have a wireless 802 device, you can have the added benefit of duel connection back to your MIS system, in school via your wireless network and GPRS when outside your school network.

 

M-Register software is the only solution that allows you to send registration data via a Smartphone / PDA anywhere in the world with a mobile phone signal REAL TIME! You are not confined to having to remember to input a register at the end of a lesson or worry about fire drill data being up to date as M-Register provides REAL TIME communication between your MIS System and the teacher.

 

If you want any further information please see the Bromcom Website or come and see us at BETT 09 for a live demonstartion (Stand E20)

 

Please feel free to ask any questions and I will reply as quickly as I can ...

Thanks

 

Chris

[Mcshammer_dj]

you could always stay with SIMS and use terminal server.

 

Add a couple of 3g cards for off site reg

[chris-bromcom]

Thanks for your input Mcshammer_dj,

It is interesting that you make this comment as I have come across many local authorities who will not allow terminal services access to school servers from outside its own WAN. Also you have the added cost of supplying 3G Data cards and a bulky laptop for the teacher to use.

Would you not agree that a Mobile phone is far a better solution?

 

I also take the direction that giving access to Terminal services from outside your school, say down the leisure centre would mean having allot of personal data being accessed outside your secure network environment.

 

If a teacher leaves a laptop connected to a Terminal services session whilst logged in to sims.net, that poses a big security risk and let’s say this laptop got stolen from the leisure centre changing rooms. That person who has now got it has access to all the student records for addresses, SEN, Phone Numbers amongst other personal information.

Also you have to remember that it would take a considerable amount of time to logon to the laptop, start up the 3g Data Service, login to the terminal server and them into sims.net. You have to do all this even before you have taken a register, can you imagine a teacher wanting to do that in front of a waiting class? What a waste of time.

 

Why take that risk, after all teachers just want to be able to take a register and nothing else. I still say that M-Register is the most versatile, secure and user friendly software on the market. What’s more it can download a register in less than 20 secs!

 

Thanks

 

Chris

[Mcshammer_dj]

I am nor disagreeing with the virtues on M-register. I am just looking at alternatives.

[SchoolITLackey]

Chris Bromcom

 

Very costly in our opinion when we looked at Bromcom's solution. I presume that the school would need the full Bromcom attendance core system as well to implement Bromcom mobile registers? Is this correct?

We moved over from Bromcom to SIMS for registration last year after a history of problems with a very poor 2-way interface to our SIMS .NET, slow reports etc. (and don't even mention MarkBook! ) - and we would not be looking to change again.

 

Will be looking at SIMS Mobile solution for our PE staff, we'll make the decision when we have visited BETT and had a look at the SIMS Mobile app.

[chris-bromcom]

Hi SchoolITLackey,

Thanks for your recent post about Mobile registration.

First of all it seems there is some confusion about the M-Register Product, M-Register can be used as a stand alone solution which can interact with Sims.net as well as other MIS supplies out there and has been very successful in many schools around the UK.

Bromcom is a Technical partner with Capita who supply sims.net; therefore we have the knowledge and expertise to read/write data to the Sims.net database via our 3rd part agreement.

I am surprised that you think M-Register is a costly solution as you do not need to take out the full Bromcom Package as M-Register can be used on its own; along side your current MIS provider.

If you think of the cost for 3G Data cards, Laptops, terminal services licensing. it equates to allot of money and not very cost effective, also the amount of time it would take to logon would mean valuable teaching time disappearing. Whereas M-Register is just the cost of software and Mobile phone.

In my option far more secure as teachers can only access the register they call, not other information about students which could get into the wrong hands.

You cannot put a price on Data Security as it should be a schools No.1 priority. You have said you will be looking around during BETT 09, please come along to the Bromcom Stand where we will be happy to show you all the benefits’ it can bring to you school.

[Mcshammer_dj]

Chris

 

Can you direct me to the information on M-register as when I look at your site the link does not appear to work

[SchoolITLackey]

Chris

Thanks for your reply, very interesting.

 

(As above - uanble to access mobiel register link via your company website)

 

So, if I understand your reply, Bromcom's mobile register will talk directly to the SIMS database in real-time, without the need for the Bromcom database / attendance system etc.

Would any Bromcom software have to be installed on our school network at all?

So, if we were interested, we would just purchase the Bromcom mobile app software (we would supply our own phones), any platform restrictions, e.g. Windows Mobile 5 / 6?

Edited December 22, 2008 by SchoolITLackey

[chris-bromcom]

Hi Mcshammer_dj,

I have had a look round and see you and others are right in reporting that our link is broken. don’t worry I have reported this to our webmaster and they are looking into the problem (Iv been told it should be working again tomorrow morning) but in the meantime please use the link below which will give you what you was hopping from the Bromcom website.

 

http://www.bromcom.com/case_study/pdf/mRegister_CaseStudy%20(Brampton%20Manor).pdf

 

SchoolITLackey,

In reply to your question about direct read/write into the sims.net database, we would need to install a small piece of software on a gateway computer (an office PC but a dedicated machine would be better) which will give use the ability to interact via the 3rd party agreement with Capita. Yes any data changes would be REAL TIME without the need to have the Bromcom Attendance solution installed.

The only platform restrictions are Windows Mobile 5 / 6 on a Smartphone device, which your school / college can provide from any Mobile phone operator.

[Domino]

Thanks for your input Mcshammer_dj,

It is interesting that you make this comment as I have come across many local authorities who will not allow terminal services access to school servers from outside its own WAN. Also you have the added cost of supplying 3G Data cards and a bulky laptop for the teacher to use.

Would you not agree that a Mobile phone is far a better solution?

 

 

Windows mobile 5/6 has a remote desktop client you can download to them.

 

Also your comments about a laptops security have the same impact on a mobile.

[chris-bromcom]

Windows mobile 5/6 has a remote desktop client you can download to them.

 

Also your comments about a laptops security have the same impact on a mobile.

 

Hi thanks for your reply,

You make a very valid point but now Windows Mobile 6 does not include Remote Desktop and think of the data Costs for that type of setup. Also can you imagine the size of the window... it would be impractical for teacher to use and have said previously the data costs would be high for such a solution you put forward.

M-Register uses a Pocket PDA / Smart phone software for registration which has been designed to fit nicely on a PDA / Mobile Phone Screen.

With regards to data security, smart phones carry allot less information about student data than a laptop connected with a gprs data card to your school network. M-Register only shows registration details i.e. Students name only, compared to being logged into your MIS system on a laptop which can show address, other personal sensitive information.

Some of you have enquired about costs so feel free to email me your details and ill arrange for some price guides to be sent your way.

 

 

Thanks

 

Chris

 

[email protected]

Edited December 22, 2008 by chris-bromcom

[Gatt]

IIRC, our school tried Bromcom (before I started) and, from what i've been told, it wasn't a pleasant experience.. Not sure when it was or what the whole story was but no-one was happy with it.. We had all the old protables and still have various transmitters around the school..

 

So far our Head of PE has tried SIMS Mobile and is finding it very useful, when I return he want;s me to trial it with another of his PE staff..

 

I think, for now, the Fire Register Idea will need to wait...

[chris-bromcom]

Gatt,

Thanks for your input... it is interesting that you say your school was using Bromcom with the Grey Transmitters - Did you know that technology is over 15 years old? Thinks have moved on and more and more schools use our Winfolder product for registration in and out of the school.

 

I have done some research about sims.net mobile but as far as I can see this does not give you the ability to call up registers in REAL TIME from outside your school network which is the point we are trying to emphasize about Fire Register information being up to date. How would a PE Teacher based at a leisure centre all afternoon be able to mark attendance and have it sent back real time? Sims.Net Mobile 3? No..... this is a quote from the Capita Website which states

"SIMS Mobile Registration is an exciting new software option which gives you the freedom to take attendance electronically from anywhere in or around your school using a Pocket PC."...

Note you are confined to anywhere in or around your school..... Whereas M-Register is truly mobile and teacher friendly solution for REAL TIME communication anywhere in the world...

 

I have been told the M-Register Link on the Bromcom.com Website is working now...

 

Thanks

 

Chris

Edited December 24, 2008 by chris-bromcom