FrogTeacher VLE Questions??

[sycho666]

Hello All,

 

Our Head of ICT has pretty much decided to go with this choice of VLE (despite all attempts by me not too). I am trying to get some kind of feedback from other shcools IT department with their views or experiences of this VLE. They claim the usual features such as AD intergration and SIMS integration, but dont explain how...What a surprise.

Anyway any feedback would be appreiciated to help me smooth the process of implementaion that is imminant. :sad1:

 

Cheers

[beeswax]

I do know that FrogTeacher recently announced it was gettinbg into bed with Sharepoint Server (March 7th). I saw a very short demo of it before the nuptuals, and it seemd to offer quite a lot, though a more forensic investigation might reveal huge gaps below the water line.

[sycho666]

Though a more forensic investigation might reveal huge gaps below the water line.

 

Thanks beeswax,

 

Thats the kind of thing im hoping wont happen. Although they say its an all singing all dancing VLE, I am still a bit unsure as to how good it really is. The sales person who did the demo to our SLT, said that they were being used by BECTA as the model VLE to use to get your school to BECTA's phase 3 target of 2010. It just seems to me to be to good to be true. But if someone can prove me wrong, Please do. [-o<

[rob101]

We are also getting this and im a little worred to say the least when i hear words like ad intergration i am offen not convinced.

 

will let you know when i know more but atm the slg is drawing out how it will look and run.

[sycho666]

rob101 - Have you by any chance seen the software licence and service level agreements for it. They are well worth a look with statement such as

 

"FrogTrade cannot guarantee that the product provided will meet your requirements, and may not be uninterrupted or error free".

 

Worth a read. We were asked to skim over it and highlight any points worth looking at, pretty much every page of the 20 page document had at least one point that needed highlighting. But I suspect if your at the point of drawing up the designs your school has already gone with it. I just hope all goes well.

[ctbjs]

Hi Sycho666

 

We have a few schools in our Borough that are using Frog and have been for a while. If you like I could post them on here in case you want to contact them direct. Could be worth a visit to some sites that use it. I don't know your location so they may not be of any use to you.

 

Hathershaw Technology College use it but I am not sure to what extent as they had some issues with the back end security you might want to ask whether that has been sorted, you don't want a leaking back end!!!

[petectid]

I've got frog here PM me if you want the low down.

[GrumbleDook]

The Hathershaw stuff was an issue with a rogue ex-student more than a problem with Frog ... and also the way some of it had been setup (ie, not completely following the guidelines ... which have been re-iterated to Frog schools).

 

I'll dig out some more details about AD and MIS integration during the hols, but it can do both ... I just don't have the relevant papers to hand to explain some of the technicalities of it.

[ctbjs]

Indeed Tony and apparently that rogue ex-student is still at it too interfereing with telephones and the like. It's not a total frog issue although they did accept that there were issues as you alluded to. I quite liked the frog vle when i first saw it.

[GrumbleDook]

He's still at it? I would have thought that they had a damn good case for harrassment if nothing else ...

[petectid]

I'll dig out some more details about AD and MIS integration during the hols, but it can do both ... I just don't have the relevant papers to hand to explain some of the technicalities of it.

 

With respect Tony, yes it does do Sims integration, not MIS, they are working on a CMIS connection. Sims integration can only be achieved using extra software = extra expense. There is not any Sims integration out of the box. Do you have a Frogserver at your site?

[StArbiter]

I believe the SIMS integration is done by using PARS software from TASC. Read data from SIMS is quite cheap but the write back requires the purchase of a full PARS licencne.

[Richie1972]

Reading data from SIMS can be done for free - I've got a report that gets exported as a CSV daily. I then use this report to enable students to view their timetable (I import the CSV into an SQL Express database).

Getting back to the original topic, though, we have a Frog VLE.

It's pretty good and easy to use, but it's web design side is non-standard, so teaching the students how to design a website on it is pretty useless if they aren't going to work in an environment that has a frog VLE.

It's totally web based for management, has a very basic integration with active directory (passwords are integrated, but there is no way to create/edit/delete users outside the frog web management system).

It's got email (but no spam filtering).

There's web filtering (dans guardian)

There's ict room internet control

The SIMS integration is pretty new and can be a bit of a pain to set up if your users (staff and students) are split into groups across servers.

On the whole it's a good system, but, if I had the time, I'd like to have built my own system - or used a free one that I could customise to our own needs (I think moodle is the only free one, isn't it)

 

Richie

[Messa]

Hi,

 

So what about internet blocking for specific students how is it done??

is it easy to use for the staff and is there any way they could cause problems with our current setup?

 

Thanks in advance

[GrumbleDook]

@ritchie

Another free VLE is bodington That was originally developed by the university of Leeds, but now worked on by many others including Oxford and UHI (though some are also running Moodle alongside).

[Richie1972]

@Messa:

We don't actually use the internet blocking with the frog system (we have websense), but I seem to recall that you can only block computers, not users

 

@Grumbledook:

Thanks for that, I'll have to have a look.

 

I've been doing some looking around and it looks like there is a free version of sharepoint - I'm guessing a cut down version. Sharepoint Services? Anyone created a VLE with this???

[GrumbleDook]

Windows Sharepoint Service v3 is quite nice actually. I would recommend that you follow the learning lab that is on the site to find about the functionality and see whether it is what you want.

[webman]

It's a document manager

[john]

with a VLE module. I use it and find it great, its ace, powerful, amazing, and the staff know how to work it as its just like working Outlook. So it goes down a storm with them.

[StArbiter]

anyone know how many schools are now using Frog - I have heard it could be 30 or 300 ?

[sycho666]

D-Day.....Today is the installation day. I will let you all know how I get on. Hopefully will have no problems.

[Maxine]

Hi, we have Frog in our school and I love it. I have been involved from the very beginning and am more than willing to share our solutions with any of you. Please just ask a question

 

IT Systems Manager (general Dogsbody)

[StArbiter]

Hi, we have Frog in our school and I love it. I have been involved from the very beginning and am more than willing to share our solutions with any of you. Please just ask a question

 

IT Systems Manager (general Dogsbody)

Maxine - how many school customers do Frog have ?

[e_g_r]

We had them in to demo the other day and they have over 300+ sites. They are also in 30 different authorities.

 

Out of all of the 'sales' people that they have had in they were the best. Not in terms of selling, but rather in expalining the whole concept from inital planning to full blown VLE.

 

Another thing that impressed is they seem to be flexible to requests and have made changes based on suggestions from schools.

 

The internet filtering can be black list but they also do white list, that was suggested by a school near us - Spring Hill in Rochdale.

 

Another feature is resource booking and help desk!!!

 

Don't forget that most VLE's only have sims data inwards and capita have held onto the necessary stuff to facilitate 2 way traffic.

[Maxine]

They do indeed have a huge stamp in the market and best of all, the solution is yours. Its not an out of the box ready to go "you will have this and make it work for you". Its totally customizable and if you come up with a good idea frog will make it work for you, like the white list that we wanted.

Lesson plans can still be in the same format as you do them now so there is no stress for the teachers all they are doing is showing them in a different manner. We have had frog now for 2 1/2 years. We are quite a long way down the line and are involving community now also. This doesn't mean we don't still have a lot to do. Please feel free to browse our website, which is all hosted on frog, its http://www.springhillhigh.net

 

Our staff fell in love with this for the room control feature alone. And, if used properly, you actually don't have to ban a child, as I do not in AD because this does affect the way they work. The white list control makes it possible for the child to still work correctly on the internet whilst not being allowed to abuse it. I also put out a list of kids that are not to be allowed "free time" onto the teachers desktop. This means that they are not allowed in ICT clubs at lunchtime without having internet removed. Works a treat