Sims and PE

[sippo]

How do your PE staff members do their lesson monitor registers?

 

I was thinking of possibly a PDA. We have a slight issue here. The town leisure centre is on the site of the school but the school uses it for PE etc. The centre is owned by the council. A lot of the time, students use the centre for getting changed/swimming etc. I'm not sure the best way for the staff members to take their registers apart from paper.

 

Is getting a link in to the schools network the best way? It would be a major security risk...

[Vegas]

SIMS Mobile Registration - Capita Education Services

 

I've been looking at this but it's too expensive for our small PE dept of 3 staff, they are using paper registers and updating on their office PC's later in the day.

[SchoolITLackey]

Bromcom offer a Mobile registration solution using mobile internet, apparently can talk directly to SIMS, there is an earlier thread regarding this.

Not sure of price, planning to call in on their stand at BETT to have a demo / chat and see how the price matches against SIMS Mobile.

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/27588-sims-mobile-3-fire-register-2.html

[chris-bromcom]

Hi Sippo,

I understand that you are looking for a solution for your PE Staff taking registers off site at a leisure centre in Swindon. I used to live in Ash Brake north of Swindon and from my dealing with schools around the area, it seems that Swindon Council are very reluctant to allow schools to have direct access to other establishments like the Link Centre, this is due to the tight security policy that the council adheres to.

There is a solution called M-Register by Bromcom which allows staff to take registers on smart phones running WM5, this is done using a simple interface which calls down a register from your MIS system over GPRS mobile phone coverage. Once completed this is then sent back in REAL TIME to your MIS system, the benefit here is that you don’t need to have any VPN or ports opened on council firewalls to use M-Register as it works via GPRS, meaning you can take a register anywhere with a signal.

The other key aspect is that M-register will work along side your current MIS / Registration system.

 

Please take a look at Bromcom Computers Plc | Management Information Systems for Schools & Colleges or visit us at BETT 2009 stand E20

 

As I used to live in Swindon can I ask from what school are your enquiring from as I have good relations with a number of schools in the area.

[bossman]

Sims webparts, netbook with internet dongle viola!!! secure access using SSL through browser.

Expensive to setup at first but very effective plus allows parental access which will tick Ofsted box.

TCO will bear out after 4 years.

[Dom_]

We just had a few network ports put into the changing rooms then they use their own laptops.

[chris-bromcom]

Hi Bossman,

Thanks for your reply, I think what we are trying to address is an inexpensive solution which does not require bulky impractical devices for PE Teachers.

From what I hear the latest figures are about £10k for Capita Webparts which is very expensive for just taking registers off site, then you also need to factor in dongle costs.

 

I recommend that you look at Bromcom's solution which is M-register, this solution simply uses a smart enabled WM5 Mobile phone with a registration tool installed to record and send data back in REAL TIME.

 

M-Register is very secure, requiring a teacher to login to registration software and then the teacher has the ability to view registration data only.. Meaning that security is not compromised.

 

Also with M-register you can take a register anywhere in the world with a Mobile Phone Signal.

 

Please take a look at Bromcom Computers Plc | Management Information Systems for Schools & Colleges or visit us at BETT 2009 Stand E20 for a live Demo

[stratisphere]

Hi Bossman,

Thanks for your reply, I think what we are trying to address is an inexpensive solution which does not require bulky impractical devices for PE Teachers.

From what I hear the latest figures are about £10k for Capita Webparts which is very expensive for just taking registers off site, then you also need to factor in dongle costs.

 

I recommend that you look at Bromcom's solution which is M-register, this solution simply uses a smart enabled WM5 Mobile phone with a registration tool installed to record and send data back in REAL TIME.

 

M-Register is very secure, requiring a teacher to login to registration software and then the teacher has the ability to view registration data only.. Meaning that security is not compromised.

 

Also with M-register you can take a register anywhere in the world with a Mobile Phone Signal.

 

Please take a look at Bromcom Computers Plc | Management Information Systems for Schools & Colleges or visit us at BETT 2009 Stand E20 for a live Demo

 

No price estimates?

[crt404]

We have recently bought 2 Dell Mini 9's for our PE dept; they can then use SIMS to take registers.

 

The school had purchased HP Ipaqs to use mobile SIMS, but after a year, the previous IT team still couldn't get them to work. I couldn't be bothered to even try, so just bought them Mini 9's. Well worth the money; just be carefull to disable the integrated webcam!

[Tiger]

We have recently bought 2 Dell Mini 9's for our PE dept; they can then use SIMS to take registers.

 

The problem is you still need PE Teachers with 3 hands to operate any form/size of laptop whether 9 inch screen or 14 inch. Hence an effective solution naturally is around Pocket-PC/ hand-helds - a mobile device for on-the-move / mobile applictions, so long as you get the right software to go with it too!

[bossman]

@chris-bromcom:

Yes you could go down that route of an inexpensive mobile phone but this would not tick any Ofsted boxes as would the Sims webparts which would in effect pay for itself in 4 years and give the school more credence towards parental access along with other outside services.

Sometimes you have to speculate to accumulate in my world but I do see your point chris-bromcom.

Oh BTW with the webparts you could actually use a mobile phone which has the appropriate web browser installed but then some teachers prefer to actually see what they are looking at as sometimes a mobile phone's screen can be a tad little whereas a notebook or even a PDA is more user friendly don't you think. :)

[webman]

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