beeswax

http://store.stonecomputers.co.uk/ They have been very good for us.

Does anyone know of such an item? I've looked through the forums but can't find anything. Ta

think about your future. will you still be in a job you like come BSF? give yourself options.

(Dons judges' wig) And just who, may I ask, is this Kate Garraway?

You think that's bad? 3 hours ago my plane touched down after a week in Tenerife. Yes it was hot and sunny. Found a great venue for next year's conference out there as well.

No, Kids should get taught the principles - teaching an application is a bad idea. It's better kids get taught the fundamentals - applications change, but the fundamentals do not, MS wasn't always the dominant Office application, things change, so do interfaces. This is partly what the KS3 online tests were all about, and I feel that some of the problems arising from this were directly related to teaching staff not grasping this fact and getting stuck in the "This doesn't look like Word" rut. We recommend Open Office to anyone wanting a suite of applications and not being able to afford the MS product, and give them a brief run through of what it will do. Office 2007? We still have pupils bringing in work done in Works.

I'm a little puzzled here. You've used Rochdale as an example of an LA successfully outsourcing services in a previous post. What exactly do you mean by that? Which services have been outsourced? If there's anyone (in IT) working in Rochdale schools who has been outsourced, or knows of anyone who's been outsourced, could they please post here? Rochdale's two CLC's have naturally got Cisco powered networks, and my own school is almost all Cisco, but that is not the case in all the schools. Again, I'll draw your attention to the fact that the current group managing the Council's services, tried to charge the charity set up to provide training for Rochdale schools £5000 for two computers. £1000 for the actual machines, and £4000 to add them to the network. Where are the savings large organisations can make through their buying power in this case?

See the results here

I can't speak for Birmingham but the only thing I know of outsourced in Rochdale so far has been the EDIT team (they manage SIMS for schools). A lot of the primary schools are moving away from the flat network and services provided, at the moment, by the LA, and by implication a managed services company.

Can I point Torledo to this page the third post down from me.

We have some machines we're trying get ready for our Media Dept. which is basically Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5, and the above Matrox cards. The instructions are to install Premiere, then fit the card. Ignore that Windows has detected new hardware then install the drivers from the disk. The fun bit is when the Matrox install tells me that Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 had to be installed before the card can be installed. Has anybody come across this and solved it?

A few years ago I tried a wireless router (sorry, can't remember the make) with my machine, and as soon as the phone rang the connection dropped. These were DECT phones. Someone told me that this was a known problem. Since going back to cable there hasn't been a problem.

Have to correct you there, the last thing the Tories did under John Major was to privatise the railways. Labour are picking up the pieces from that debacle, which doesn't, in my eyes, excuse then from the way they are going about financing BSF and the NHS.

This site is proving useful at our school for establishing eportfolios, and it appears to be free. when SMT finally decide which VLE/MLE they're going with then I assume Yacapaca will be dropped, but until then, it fills a needs.

No taxation without representation. Let's have a tea party! Want Labour out? Vote here.

you may find some useful info here and here

I don't know if any of you saw QI on Friday night, repeated next Friday on BBC2 at 22:00, where they took apart a few euro myths. Very instructive.

I came across this some months ago. A little out of date, but it may help you to form some guidlines. HTH

You also have to keep in mind that north sea oil was coming on stream, and that by the mid '80's the revenue from this was so huge that it was enough to pay the unemployment benefit for millions of people for many years without sacrificing the promise of tax cuts for the rich. The 1983 election was all about gaining control of this revenue. Can someone explain to me what the point of keeping construction workers, electricians, plumbers and the like out of work was, when it was obvious that the county's infrastructure (schools, hospitals, roads, railways and public transport) needed rebuilding, and that this was the best opportunity of doing it since Victorian times? What have we got now? BSF and P4S, because Labour are in thrall to this low tax agenda set in train in the '80's. The Tories behaved like an elected junta, and allowed whole swathes of the country to go to the wall.

Er..I don't know how long it's been since you've had a look, but from where I'm sitting, it appears that the job has already been done.

John Major anyone? EDIT Oh bugger. should have read ALL the replies first.

Education in Scotland isn't free. It's paid for out of taxation. The people of Scotland voted for a government which would spend their taxes in the way they are doing now.

FITS Your Experiences. Hmm, not as catchy as Suit You, Sir.

I'm afraid there are inequalities throughout the world. It shouldn't mean that because there's not enough to go round, no one gets to use it though. However imperfect the system is (and I know our own school's laptops for pupils scheme is going to cause us a major headache), it's what we have to work with.

If my memory serves me correctly, I don't think the new Djanogly City Academy in Nottingham had any dedicated ICT suites. They utilised tablet notebooks, and wireless projectors. There are lockers at the back of a few rooms where these tablets are stored and charged. Some rooms have power for the tablets when in use as well. I didn't like the way the techies were kept in two dark windowless rooms below ground, almost as an afterthought.