Enjoy

EduGeek.net the hugely popular free website for IT support staff working in education is making its physical presence known in the USA. For the first time EduGeek will exhibit at the ISTE 2010 (formerly known as NECC), the USA’s premier education conference. ISTE is being held in Denver between 27th and 30th June where you will find EduGeek.net teaming up with web-filter specialists SmoothWall. Both companies can be visited at stand number 1484.

The Denver conference will be EduGeek’s first major exhibit outside of the UK which reflects the popularity of the site amongst US visitors are our second biggest group of visitors outside the UK. When we were offered the opportunity to exhibit with SmoothWall at ISTE 2010 we jumped at the opportunity. Our presence at ISTE 2010 means we can meet our US members face to face for the first time and raise our profile amongst the educational IT industry in the USA.

EduGeek.net was founded in 2005 and provides resources; peer support and facilities for IT support staff in education, and increasingly the private sector all for free to all. EduGeek has many different elements from our very successful support forums, our free IT software and also member created utilities through to our highly successful conferences and our work with external organisations, such as the UK government and Microsoft on issues that affect IT is schools. Central to our core has been the fundamental principle that everything we provide is free for people to access and use. We have a global membership of over 24,000 IT technical staff and we welcome anyone who wishes to join in or simply use the vast quantity of technical information contained on the forums.

EduGeek.net CEO Chris Byers and Webmaster\CTO Shaun Garriock will be manning the stand at the show. If you would like to get more information on EduGeek.net then please use the contact details below.

ABOUT EDUGEEK.NET

With over 24,000 members worldwide, EduGeek.net is the world’s largest online support community for IT staff in education. EduGeek.net was founded in 2005 by Chris Byers with the aim of allowing IT technical staff in education to get first class support and advice from other IT professionals without having their personal details passed, on, sold or being forced to pay a membership fee.

ABOUT SMOOTHWALL

The SmoothWall family of Internet security solutions helps schools, enterprises and small/medium businesses to prevent internet misuse, block objectionable content and protect against web related threats.

Delivered and supported via a global network of partners in over 60 countries, SmoothWall's commercial and open source solutions now safeguard more than a million networks worldwide.

For further details and information please contact:

info@edugeek.net

press@edugeek.net

Visit us on stand 1484 at ISTE 2010

EduGeek

Unit 5, Albert Edward House

The Pavilions

Ashton-on-Ribble

Preston

Lancs, UK

PR2 2YB

Tel: +44 (0)1772 842137

Fax: +44 (0)1772 842179

Mob: +44 (0)7806785028 (you can use this number to contact us at ISTE 2010)

Please note that, while links to companies and suppliers are mentioned in this post, I am not affiliated with any of them. And apologies if you are forgotten about, jumping from MCM Expo to the other side of the country for the conference with only one night in-between scatters your brain a bit.

Conference talks included:

Bunnyfoot attended asking attendees to contact them regarding any useful resources they find to study what school staff find useful when looking for help. Contact them at Eyetracking, usability testing, user centred design - from Bunnyfoot UK if you do find anything you feel useful.

Will Townsend, formerly Special Agent but now running his own company Education Support Professionals, gave a talk on career development in the education sector for IT workers and how outsourcing companies look like a strong position. I'd go into more details but I was fixing my netbook at the time. Will can be contacted at his company site at Education Support Professionals

EduGeek Logon Tracker was discussed and provides an updated version compatible with the Windows 7 era of networking.

Capita came for a discussion on SIMS and the future they plan on taking. It looks liek they are taking the stance towards cloud software and the competition between VLE and MIS software. There was even screenshots of past SIMS user interfaces including the a scrapped project where the program was running in Internet Explorer 6! A fascinating look into where a widely used piece of school software could have been many years ago.

Smoothwall came to talk about their recent releases plus recent security trends. Gambling, Hate, Gore and Fake Antivirus threats have increased over the past year with pornography remaining at a steady level. Plans for Java-based games filters also came up with a Flash filter already in operation plus improved malware detection. Games sites have also been proving a steadily growing pain over the past year. Check them out at SmoothWall | Web Content Filtering and Network Security

FITS stopped by to showcase their plans for providing a framework for IT support in schools and helping to support workers in the education sector following the collapse of Becta. A number of training courses were mentioned in communications and management skills required to run a network (and as a school tech, a lot of different skills are used!) More information can be obtained from The FITS Foundation - Professional qualifications and support for ICT staff within education

Mobotix came by with some frankly jaw-dropping technology in the form of their IP CCTV cameras. I’ll be honest, looking at the graffiti on the train home, I was wondering how many were caught by one of these cameras. Demos were given of how a single fish-eye camera could zoom in on the face of a vandal on a bus no matter where he is. Same for class-rooms, on seeing the demo I thought that many cameras were used. It was surprising to see just one. Find them at MOBOTIX AG - The HiRes Video Company / IP Video Cameras

By and far my favourite talk was by Microsoft and their vision of the future. Some seemed a bit far fetched, with walls plastered with transparent displays and devices instantly capturing data with a flick of a hand. But with Project Natal coming and Lucid Touch providing touch screens without actually touching the screen (you touch behind it), maybe the frankly crazy ideas from Microsoft are closer then we think. Check out the video below to see what was shown by the Microsoft representative and tell me, what important device in most computers is deliberately missing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO7ICgqV7dM

Lastly Ruckus came along for their talk on wireless technology but I’ll be honest, it wasn’t my favourite of the lot. After all, why would I need a 50km wireless signal that can serve 3000 people per 15 access points or something? The ideas of load balancing were good but it didn’t feel as relevant to education as the other talks apart from the few bits on the Access Points in a conference room. Sorry guys, though larger educational institutions such as universities may find it useful, unless your LA plans to make a borough-wide Wireless Network.

Back to recovering from the large amount of food and drink consumed at Prego using my swag from MCM Expo. DVDs that play the movie on the surface, now there is a futuristic idea.

08:45 Coach leaves Ibis Hotel

08:45 - 09:30 Arrive - Register

09:30 - 09:35 Introduction - Chris Byers

09:35 - 09:45 OZ - New Free Piece of Software for EduGeek Members!

09:45 - 10:00 Will Townsend - IT Jobs Market Brief

10:00 - 10:45 Capita - MIS - Back To The Future

10:45 - 11:15 Coffee Break

11:15 - 12:00 SmoothWall - Security Brief

12:00 - 12:45 FITS Foundation - FITS Courses Rundown

12:45 - 12:50 CPL Laptop Draw

12:50 - 13:45 Lunch - Networking

13:45 - 14:30 Net-Ctrl - IP Security Systems (Cameras)

14:30 - 14:45 Coffee break

14:45 - 15:30 Microsoft - The Future Productivity Vision

15:30 - 16:00 Net-Ctrl - Ruckus Updates

16:00 - 16:45 Raffle - Ask the Admins

16:45 End (Photocall) - Coach back to Hotel

19:00 Drinks and meal at 20:00

So all in all, a pretty diverse and well packed schedule. Oh, I almost forgot, we only have 12 places left and they're filling up fast. if you want to attend please email me at conf.2010@edugeek.net.

Chris

Will Townsend (ESP Recruitment) - An update on the IT jobs market and BSF

Tom Newton (SmoothWall) - Latest security issues and updates

Capita - SIMS news

Net-Ctrl - IP security cameras and Mobotix

Ray Fleming (Microsoft) - Office 2010 and 'Where IT workers will be in 2020'

Net-Ctrl - Ruckus update and new features

FITS Foundation - FITS, what it is, where you can get it and what you can do with it

Ask the admins - Again, your chance to throw the verbal equivelent of rotton vegitables at us!

We will also have stands in the room from Computer Products Limited, Net-Ctrl and Brother, so It's going to be a pretty packed day. Places are filling fast, so if you don't want to miss out please get you details to me ASAP using the info on this page: EduGeek.net - How to Register for the EduGeek Chorley Conf 2010

Please email me the following to conf.2010@edugeek.net:

Real name

EduGeek name

Home\Work Address (we won't spam you or sell your details on)

Please note that if you work for a private company you must pay to attend. The cost is £35, and you must notify me up to 7 working days before if you wish to drop out, if not you will receive a bill. Sorry, but as we pay for all of the places we were left out of pocket by almost £500 a couple of years back by people who decided not to attend at the last minute, and this isn't fair on thoese who wanted to attend but had the spaces taken up.

The conf is on the 2nd June 2010 and will start at 09:30 at the Woodlands Centre in Chorley:

Woodlands Conferencing

If you wish to stay on either the Tuesday or Wednesday night, we shall be there to entertain you both evenings, but the main social meal is on the Wednesday evening at Prego! (formerly Le Frog) where we ate last year (Prego). if you are overnighting on the Tuesday evening we shall be laying on a coach (as per usual) to take you from the hotel, to the conf, and back again afterwards.

The hotel we recommend is the Ibis Preston North (Hotel PRESTON Ibis Preston North: hotel reservation in PRESTON), as it's cheap, accessable and has a pub next door

This years conf is looking to be the best yet!

One idea I've had after meeting the Aruba guys earlier in the month is to have a Ruckus-Aruba 'shoot out'. So if you have a laptop please bring it and we shall see just what bandwidth we can squeeze out of one access point!!

So who's coming then?

P.S. For those new members here I forgot to add that the conf is free to attend as we pick up all the bills. All you have to do is get yourself here, but please note that it costs us around £35 per head, so there is no dropping out at the last minute unless you want a bill!