Kaleidos Learning Platform VLE is unavailable

[andy_nic]

Just when I was trying to convince people to use The Kaleidos Learning Platform VLE I get The Kaleidos Learning Platform VLE is currently unavailable. And has been for all the morning

[simpsonj]

Hopefully they'll improve the speed whilst they are at it.

 

Heard about California abandoning text books and using online resources instead. This highlights EXACTLY why this is a bad idea...

[andy_nic]

yay its back up but at reduced service, Where did Kaleidos go? according to the link it was a hardware failure in the data centre infrastructure

[funkyfin2000]

And RM were open and honest about the issue which is a positive, it was fixed promptly with many updates. These kind of things can happen to any provider.

[simpsonj]

Completely agree, RM dealt with the problem quickly, openly and honestly.

 

However, thats not good compensation if your entire teaching staff is reliant on the VLE to teach with...

[russdev]

But then what would happen if you hosted yourself and your server goes down...

 

Still means you with out a portal/vle. It is just one of the new orders we have to deal with in this connected world.

 

Russ

[funkyfin2000]

Russ is correct.

 

I suspect if you hosted a solution yourself, trying to fix a similiar issue or dead PSU in your server would have taken over 5 hrs of core time.

 

It's easy to run RM in to the ground as they are a major player in the Education market, but they certainly listen to their customers and alter things as requested. How many other companies have the resource and ears to do that?

Edited June 18, 2009 by funkyfin2000

[simpsonj]

Its the reliance on any server/VLE/technology that is the concern, regardless of where it is hosted.

 

However, there will always be a reliance on something I guess...

[CyberNerd]

But then what would happen if you hosted yourself and your server goes down...

 

 

the virtual machine would automatically migrate to a working server with no downtime ?

The backup fibre channel would kick in?

a redundant network link would be in use?

[bossman]

@CyberNerd:

 

Absolutely agree what is hardware these days when you have virtualisation with failover to fall back on... ;)

 

See Russ this is what RM should be doing hehe! ;)

[funkyfin2000]

the virtual machine would automatically migrate to a working server with no downtime ?

The backup fibre channel would kick in?

a redundant network link would be in use?

 

I'm sure every Secondary school would have the money and time to put a solution like that together, let alone a Primary school!

[NewOrder]

If this was part of a BSF offering I would hope that there would be compensation!!!

 

As part of winning a contract and a large amount of money you have certain KPi's to reach, downtime could be one of these. So a switchable back up should come in to play. In the payment mechanisms there are penalties.

 

Then all of this depends on how good the LAs lawyers are at drafting the contract.

[funkyfin2000]

Yeah but sadly New Order, with the best will in the world, you will never EVER get a provider to sign up to a contract with 100% up time. That would be corporate suicide.

 

I know the contents of our contract with our provider and I know its not far off 100%. If it breaches that, then said company would be brought to task, by the LA Lawyers!

[CyberNerd]

Yeah but sadly New Order, with the best will in the world, you will never EVER get a provider to sign up to a contract with 100% up time. That would be corporate suicide.

 

 

consider a contract for 100% uptime: 99.5% rounds up to 100%. 0.5% of one year is 43hrs ! If contract was to specify 100.000% uptime with no scheduled maintenance then that might be corporate suicide, 99.5% should be doable given sufficient resources.

[NewOrder]

consider a contract for 100% uptime: 99.5% rounds up to 100%. 0.5% of one year is 43hrs ! If contract was to specify 100.000% uptime with no scheduled maintenance then that might be corporate suicide, 99.5% should be doable given sufficient resources.

 

Unfortunately its not as simple as that. There is core time, off peak and non core. Core time is 8 till 6. So why not 100% in core time. maintenance can be agreed exception so can development time.

[NewOrder]

Think about this if your LA is going to be the IT Contractor in BSF should they be subject to the same penalties. Definately and with financial penalties.

 

So if they provide a crap service and do not meet targets, will they give money back to the schools? or will they give you credits to buy more crap.

[kitsch]

Just when I was trying to convince people to use The Kaleidos Learning Platform VLE I get The Kaleidos Learning Platform VLE is currently unavailable. And has been for all the morning

 

To me, it's ALWAYS unavailable. I run a Mac at home. It is six years old and can do pretty much all else I want... but not Kaleidos... and I'm jiggered if I'm going to buy a new computer at the moment just for THAT. I'm one of the school Kaleidos team at school and yet cannot access it out of school.

 

So, you're convincing people to use Kaleidos? Does that mean it's one of the better ones?

 

Blimey.

[funkyfin2000]

Kitsch,

 

Technology moves on, a 6 yr old mac? Try running Office 2007 or the up and coming Office 2010 off it? I expect it will be slow. (Don't know MACs that well but something like the latest Cubase or Cakewalk!)

 

Most Learning Platforms are tending to run Sharepoint 2007, this is MS's latest incarnation with Sharepoint 14 coming soon. This is powerful stuff, you're basically saying, for example, that you have a 6yr car stereo that can play Cd's but because it's 2009 it should play MP3's! Nope you will need a new machine! Technology moves on, that is the way of the world! That's how large conglomerates make money!

 

One of the other issues is, people expect Learning Platforms to work like they were using google! They will never be that fast due to the underlying technology, difference in things that are going on and reliance on bandwith etc! Its all about expectations!

 

I am sure if you dig deep enough, RM's Kaleidos has a minimum spec posted on their website, I would suspect and be inclined to think your 6yr Mac probably doesn't meet them!

[kitsch]

Kitsch,

 

Technology moves on, a 6 yr old mac? Try running Office 2007 or the up and coming Office 2010 off it? I expect it will be slow. (Don't know MACs that well but something like the latest Cubase or Cakewalk!)

 

Most Learning Platforms are tending to run Sharepoint 2007, this is MS's latest incarnation with Sharepoint 14 coming soon. This is powerful stuff, you're basically saying, for example, that you have a 6yr car stereo that can play Cd's but because it's 2009 it should play MP3's! Nope you will need a new machine! Technology moves on, that is the way of the world! That's how large conglomerates make money!

 

One of the other issues is, people expect Learning Platforms to work like they were using google! They will never be that fast due to the underlying technology, difference in things that are going on and reliance on bandwith etc! Its all about expectations!

 

I am sure if you dig deep enough, RM's Kaleidos has a minimum spec posted on their website, I would suspect and be inclined to think your 6yr Mac probably doesn't meet them!

 

Absolutely right, funkyfin, I will need a new machine sometime.... a very astute observation. It will be my 7th, I think. It's a problem that has always been there since my first 680k computer (that was the memory, not the price... though at £1200 it felt like it at the time) back in 1989.

 

I'm just not going to let something like Kaleidos (ESPECIALLY Kaleidos) govern when that will be (Oh, and the other thing I can't seem to be able to do is listen to bands' tracks on Myspace).

Edited September 20, 2009 by kitsch

[funkyfin2000]

Absolutely right, funkyfin, I will need a new machine sometime.... a very astute observation. It will be my 7th, I think. It's a problem that has always been there since my first 680k computer (that was the memory, not the price... though at £1200 it felt like it at the time) back in 1989.

 

I'm just not going to let something like Kaleidos (ESPECIALLY Kaleidos) govern when that will be (Oh, and the other thing I can't seem to be able to do is listen to bands' tracks on Myspace).

 

Kitsch,

 

I think the point i'm trying to get at, and as you may have illustrated in your post, is that ALL technology moves on, thats how the merry-go-round of technology life goes!

 

To not use Kaleidos at home (and to ultimately not upgrade your machine) just because your hardware/software doesn't work is terribly short sited IMHO. As you illustrated it would seem other things are slow/not working (not JUST Kaleidos) more than likely again due to the use of old technology, be that software or hardware. TBH, the fact Kaleidos doesn't work could be to not running the latest version of Flash!

 

Any how I'm not getting at you personally....just saying the pace of technology moves fast. Mind you if you kept up with pace of hardware constantly, you would have had to had won the £85mill euromillions to afford it this weekend! :-)

 

Give Kaleidos a go at school, take bite size chunks, take a positive outlook and things maybe different? If the whole world was run by pessimists where would we be?

[kitsch]

Kitsch,

 

I think the point i'm trying to get at, and as you may have illustrated in your post, is that ALL technology moves on, thats how the merry-go-round of technology life goes!

 

To not use Kaleidos at home (and to ultimately not upgrade your machine) just because your hardware/software doesn't work is terribly short sited IMHO. As you illustrated it would seem other things are slow/not working (not JUST Kaleidos) more than likely again due to the use of old technology, be that software or hardware. TBH, the fact Kaleidos doesn't work could be to not running the latest version of Flash!

 

Any how I'm not getting at you personally....just saying the pace of technology moves fast. Mind you if you kept up with pace of hardware constantly, you would have had to had won the £85mill euromillions to afford it this weekend! :-)

 

Give Kaleidos a go at school, take bite size chunks, take a positive outlook and things maybe different? If the whole world was run by pessimists where would we be?

 

Pessimists? Oh, I couldn't agree more. When I did our faculty website three years ago, I met with my fair share of skepticism, but now it is even written into the faculty development plan.

 

Ha ha... I AM doing Kaleidos at school! Just having Kaleidos at school is more than enough. When it was introduced, I was asked to be a 'champion', something I do reluctantly.

 

As a Technology teacher, Kaleidos is a bit of an overkill; I function quite happily with my own little site (which I inform people about and they have full access to...it contains the faculty-produced sheets which everyone uses) for keeping ks3 worksheets and schemes of work together, keystage3.info, along with my faculty one lordbills.com, my one for my yr 11 group from last year yr11.info and my yr 10 one I have started for this year, yr10.info.

 

They are nothing clever, but I don't want 'clever'... I want something that does exactly what I want. Kaleidos just gives me the same thing in a lot more stages and a whole lot more which just isn't actually relevant in my particular subject areas.

 

What I do is the equivalent of taking a hatchback to the supermarket for my weekly shop: perfect for the job, easy to manouvre. Kaleidos is like having to drive an articulated lorry for the same trip.

 

Re: my computer, I think I can live with not getting bands' demos on Myspace, but that may change if I suddenly find I can't live without listening to moody teenagers holed up in garage somewhere with a sixpack of lager, a fuzz box and an Argos drumkit.

 

I'm enjoying this conversation, but this is my last post on the subject as it has become not really relevant to the topic and not what people have clicked on here to see. Please feel free to message me, though, or whatever people do on these forum things!

Edited September 21, 2009 by kitsch

[funkyfin2000]

I think maybe Insular is the key word here. Glass half full, or half empty?

 

Certainly no wider vision for collaboration IMO.

 

But the world would be boring if we were all the same!

Edited September 21, 2009 by funkyfin2000