synaesthesia

Calibration on touchscreens? That's a new one on me, if the touch is out then I'd suspect something software/firmware based is going a bit squiffy. Might be worth reaching out to Genee?

Some good info here, quite like the checklist from LGFL, cheers @DavR, a very good starting point. We should all be doing the basic checks anyway - I would expect DSL's to have been doing this for some time but knowing what goes on in schools, it doesn't surprise me to hear that it doesn't happen. Ours is fairly "ad-hoc" but we do have weekly checks just based on testfiltering.com as well as manual checks to ensure authentication is correct and the right policies are applied, but this is followed up by a termly meeting with our DSL to review it all. The DSL is ultimately responsible of course and should have oversight of everything that is blocked, unblocked and all changes so this is a good forum to go through these on a common sense approach. (i.e. if a site needs unblocking immediately which is incorrectly categorised, we'll do it, otherwise those requests need to go to the DSL rather than IT). Again, all of that is logged and discussed. Not only does that seem to make sense from a safeguarding perspective, it would also help in the future should we decide to move to a different filtering system and then have a good baseline to work from.

"Contract" is probably the wrong word, Ad-hoc or ongoing agreements are absolutely fine as long as you & they satisfy the requirements and have the relevant paperwork to show them acting as a data processor, certificate of destruction, waste transfer notes etc. As long as you have a full audit trail for asset disposal you're fine.

Not a huge shock - I can't imagine they're too happy trying to prop up some devices which just keep on kicking particularly for schools and places where budgets don't allow for much more than "if it's not broke, don't fix it". Still, I won't be chucking out my spare 5600zl2 just yet!

Holy crap. Likewise I've heard rumblings but never looked into it or thought much of it. That's more than underhand, that's "actively boycott this company" level of nastiness.

Good question - raises another. Is there a need for 2.4 these days other than some older devices? Can the signal strength on 2.4 be changed? - for instance on UniFi you could set the transmit strength to low and enable minimum RSSI.

Would be an interesting move, particular for someone going from here to the other rather than having been doing it all the time in the states. From what I've seen, it can be a completely different scenario from one block to the next - one school may have the latest and greatest and the next along barely any IT provision at all. Hard to say from here of course but I suspect they don't have a body enforcing or "highly recommending" standards as we do, or if they do it might be on a more localised basis. (And that's another rub - "local" to them could be an area far bigger than the entirety of the UK!) Certainly a larger percentage of Mac usage in edu over there so if you've any experience managing those it'll be a bonus. If you do, it'd be wonderful to see a comparison after you've settled in! I thought about this many moons ago thanks to being eligible for dual citizenship (mother is Kansas born) but my wife and kids now wouldn't be too pleased with the notion!

Metal detector wand thingy

Just about to have it installed by Redway as part of our CtC project. Having used Aruba extensively before as well as Ruckus, I have a strong preference already for what I've seen with Cambium. We're Unifi currently. Our install is pretty much the 35s everywhere with a couple of 55's in high density areas, with them paired up in exam locations.

Oh wow. I've little doubt there's more to it, but it's always horrible when something so positive turns into a political mud slinging match, leaving us the poor users in the dark ages.

Is it more focussed towards the US market? I'm rather in the dark about how it works over there but the wording on some parts makes me think it's probably more "k-12" then primary & secondary and doesn't always translate perfectly. Worth getting any ideas together and putting them to the UK edu specialists though, they are surprisingly receptive in that area (Fiona Law I think is the main contact for us)

I use GAM - out of necessisity of course, in an ideal world it really shouldn't be because it's frankly a ludicrous way of managing anything. It's 2026 and why we are being strongarmed into sticking to the 80s unix method of getting things done when everything else is made to look so pretty and intuitive is absolutely beyond me. Yes it's easier now with "AI" supposedly helping, but even Google's own AI can't work GAM without help - that speaks volumes. And I also say this after having used Edusync from Wonde before to manage this, but the cost soon adds up. I've certainly pondered using the APIs to knock something up that Just Works, but I lack the time, patience and knowledge! If it was any other week I'd probably be digging into that code from github - thank you, I did see all that, but it mostly surprised me as it appears to have been around a while but literally zero mentions pretty much anywhere. If anyone does have the time, please feed back because this could potentially be a massive help for many schools forced to use GAM (or more specifically if anything like me, partial memory & own documentation, trying to piece together the right syntax from the gatekeeping muppets who make their documentation, trying to figure out if Gemini is confusing GCDS with a Hasbro Optimus Prime toy from 1985 or, as is usually the case, some human has had the same problem and provided the exact syntax on this very forum I suspect the majority of difficulty is on larger tenants and certainly when you have multiple domains - most of the commands are generally OK, but the trouble comes with filtering it down. Exacerbated by Google's own wayward design choices such as classrooms being tenant level, groups could be just about anywhere, users depending on your own OU, shared drives likewise could be anywhere...

Ah man RIP Sam.

Colour me intrigued - that's the first time educ.io has been mentioned here yet looks extremely useful. Naturally I'm very wary though - has anyone else looked into this?

a Sims Next Gen Champion? As far as Champions go, that's gotta be a bit... Eddie the Eagle?

Indeed - after all, they nearly all identify as air quality sensors first and foremost, and just happens they can pick up certain compounds. When you start looking closely at the more expensive models they even go into detail about how well they detect strains of THC, CBD, CO2 etc so can effectively differentiate between smoking, vaping, weed, cigarettes - but they're all working on the same physical sensor systems and do so via software analysis. This is certainly a trap a lot fell into when they first saw "vape detection" systems hit the market a few years ago, loads of schools ran out to buy things at silly money and were ultimately disappointed because they didn't actually read enough into it. See a headline, throw cash at it. The difference with the UniFi stuff is that price point - they go apples for apples with the likes of the £700-£1000 per unit "big boys" (when can we start calling them scammers/opportunists?) and even make the more budget models look daft. As a whole, the product is good but expectations need managing, as does how the schools actually work with them. This is the stage we're at - I have a workable notification system working via Google chat, something in line to flash up to whoever is on duty outside those toilets (enough to use a wand on whoever is coming out) but it's now up to SLT to decide how this is managed from a staffing perspective, how they are acted upon and ultimately is it actually worth it; for the price, assuming they stay around that mark, I think they're certainly worthwhile. Our business manager made a good point, even if they're not vaping, you can see how bad the air quality goes when they're all spraying crap as that's a viable health and safety problem on it's own. I wonder if anyone would dare install one in the PE changing rooms.

We're starting to find this with a few brands - however I think there needs to be a note of realism - there is not a single product on the market, not one capable of fully distinguishing the difference and they certainly shouldn't be used on their own for evidence. Still, so far I have found these better than Halo and Verkada by a noticeable margin and unsurmountable times better than the likes of VapeGuardian. Still it will be interesting to see what they come back with, there may be a small tweak which makes all the difference.

For off site, I'd question why 6 hours is going to be difficult unless they are constantly working more than that? For the majority surely, there would be no effective difference between every 6 hours and every 12 or even 24.

If they've stored them for 13 years, then it's time for some recommendations for WEEE facilities

Iiyama's support is driving me to distraction, I'm finding them extremely poor. Our issue isn't IWB's but digital signage displays that can't do something as simple as keep track of time. Not a major issue until you need them to turn on/off on a schedule and they change their own dates for no reason whatsoever. Iiyama's only response so far has been to do a firmware update, and radio silence after that despite many attempts.

Put it to your DPO, it's their decision. I would personally push back and say please use something EU based though.

I've used AMC very often for UniFi kit, and have used 4gon and MSDist in the past also. With exception to the new vape alarms and associated gubbins however unlikely to be using them for much else any more (vape alarms we bought direct as they were sold out before any disties got a look in!)

All back up and running thankfully with no major issues

Incorrect. All colleges. Until the government departments can decide how an actual school can do this whilst banning the equipment most likely to help and chopping schools budgets, this is not going to happen.

To be fair it might be nearer that these days - those figures are from back when I did recycling in circa 2006/2007! And that was with HUGE specialist equipment to tear down/extract. I wonder if these days it might be a little less lucrative due to the prevalence of lion/lipo batteries, getting to the point where too much kit is like a fridge and not even scrappies want them thanks to the gases in them