beeswax

I'll check this out tomorrow.

Could this be taken one step further? For example, I have a group of Year 7s in a metacourse (Y7) and they're associated with all the child courses in Year 7. At the end of the school year they naturally move up to Year 8. Could I disassociate that Y7 metacourse from all the child courses in Year 7, and then associate it with child courses in Year 8?

That's correct. To be able to click on a pupil's name and bring up all they've done across all courses.

Thanks for that. I've passed the information on to the relevant party.

We are about to go live with a school radio station, and I was asked if some of the output could be put on the VLE as podcasts. I said there was no problem unless they wanted to play music without a licence. The PPL, when asked, told us to get in touch with each individual record label for permission. Surely there must be a simpler method than this? Has anyone attempted this in their own school?

In both FF and IE the main content section goes beyond the header and footer on the right hand side (see attached image). Personally I wouldn't use black as a background colour in this situation.

In Moodle is there any way for a teacher to view all the work done by a particular student? I can see the Complete Activity in the Activity Report but this simply shows where a student has been.

Thanks for that. Heard a new word in the States some years ago as we were waiting to get off a plane the air hostess announced that we would be able to deplane once the plane had come to a halt and the cabin doors were open.

Thanks for that. In a way, I'm casting about for something to complement the degree and whatever IT expertise I possess and build up a portfolio of skills for the coming new world order. (I also feel a little lost in the evenings not having a goal to work at).

Thanks Zak. I'm suffering physically for it now though; I've had more days off sick this month than in my previous 10 years.

I've just passed my degree (Learning, Technology & Research) and was hoping to combine it with something like Prince 2 to give me a wider scope for moving on. Has anyone taken this course (Prince 2), where did you take it, what did you think of it, and have you used what you learned?

I posted this - A Group is its Own Worst Enemy a couple of years ago. At the time I thought it might be a little dated (circa 2003), but in parts it appears pertinent to the current situation. I don't believe what Shirky sets out is immutable, simply looking at the circumstances as they were then, but the piece might provide the basis for working out a route forward from the current imbroglio.

It only seems able to translate single words into Somali so I fear that the meaning of a sentence will be lost. Thanks a lot for your help though.

I'm afraid Google Translate doesn't seem to have Somali.

Does anyone know of an online translation tool which will translate from English to Somali? It would really help one of our new pupils.

We've set up a questionnaire on the staff intranet to see who is using Vista/Win 7 at home, and if they would like to be early adopters of this technology (Win 7) within the school, and so far we have about a dozen who want to go down this route. This is a slightly different tack to earlier efforts at managing technological change within our school, but it's too early to pass any judgements on this.

BSF is an LEA-wide objective and several consortiums are invited to tender for a particular LEA's business. Each consortium consists of several companies, usually something like a building company, It Services, possibly grounds maintainance etc. The winning bidder then gets to build/refurbish the schools and provide other services such as IT support, this part of the consortium is known as the Managed Service Provider (MSP) and I would imagine this would affect you most directly, as part of the managed service the company needs people to maintain the school networks etc. and you will be TUPEd over (though not in all cases, depending on your role in school and if the head and governors feel you're too valuable to loose) to work for the MSP. You will not necessarily work in the same school as you do currently. THe BSF provider receives rent for 25-30 years, depending on the deal struck with the LEA, at the end of which time the school then reverts back to the LEA, and that's one of the ways companies make money from this process. The MSP receives a sum of money from each school's budget of £x per pupil per year (this amount varies from LEA to LEA and depends on the deals each individual LEA has struck with their provider) to provide IT support. Each contract lasts for 5 years, at the end of which period the LEA can go for another provider if they are not satisfied with the service provided by the current provider. I was told by our LEA BSF negotiator that we wouldn't be taken back by the schools but would remain in stasis and TUPE over to the new provider, which begs several big questions. Teachers and classroom assistants, admin staff and the like are not going to be TUPEd over, this is mainly about IT staff. BSF is a huge subject and I suggest you search the BSF forums here. HTH

The simple answer is that Edugeek as an organization is the members. Without us it wouldn't continue to exist. Looking at it from a dry, academic point of view, it is a Community of Practice. It exists because there was/is a need for it. It also seems logical to me that if such a disparate bunch of people are to have any impact on the community outside of IT Professionals then there has to be a focus, someone who can be the "face" of Edugeek when "Going to meet 'The Man' on our behalf". I believe the site and its members serve as a weather vane for government and private companies alike, and to this end we cannot escape the fact that we are a political entity, however, it is not a trade union. This is one of the most democratic sites I've been a member of. Over the years I've seen it metamorphose and adapt to accommodate a growing worldwide membership in an almost organic fashion to reflect the online community. Some of the level of debate (religion, ironing) has been of the highest calibre. So what was Edugeek four years ago is possibly not what Edugeek is now, though Dos_Box will correct me if I'm wrong here. What Edugeek isn't is a closed community.

Congratulations. Hope everyone's healthy and not too tired. You'll have to give up ther beer of course to fund anything your daughter wants.

I'll agree with you there, and more varieties of cheese than you can shake a stick at. The only drawbacks are the house prices. Well over a £1million for a crumbling building.

It seems they do. My sister lives in Geneva and the airport was closed recently due to snow, but there was no snow on the mountains so the ski slopes were closed as well.

I think this should be the link. CrazyTalk - Facial Animation Creator

Try these walkthrough's from Tomaz Lasic. Not everyone's cup of tea though. I've just spent the past year researching the best methods of training staff how to use the various aspects of Moodle, and the consensus at my school appears to be that one-to-one/one-to-faculty with a portfolio of training examples on the VLE to reinforce what they've been shown in the personal sessions. Once again, this doesn't work for everyone. Managing resistance is a vital aspect of successful training.

Do you want to be an IT tech in a school? If so bear in mind that with BSF and managed services you wouldn't be working for the school but for the company providing the managed services to the school and therefore in a more "corporate" environment. BSF still has some way to run so my view would be to complete your degree, and not only for the core of what you're doing, but for the other skills you should gain, generally referred to as "Graduateness" (I know it's a jobs related site, but they should know what employers are looking for). If you do a Google for "graduateness" you'll see the importance most universities place on these skills. If you don't think Computing for Business is the right path for you can you transfer to another section of computing. Talk it over with a tutor, just as you're doing here, as this can often help clarify why you feel disenchanted with your current situation. (edit)Several posts were made while I was tippy-tapping out my reply. You may want to ignore what I said.

Yes it was. Thanks.