beeswax

people get together for funerals as well. text, IM, blogs are just some of the channels kids use to connect with each other. I still see notes being passed round a class from time to time. Girls still come into school wearing makeup, despite being told not to. I don't think they do it to break school rules, but as an act of display. All animals do this. But they do this a part of a social group. The boys do their best to make themselves attractive too. It's a natural urge which at its base is there to propogate the species. In the case of the peacock display seems it's only purpose in life. It's in out nature to be social creatures. We get together, we discuss ideas, we make decisions, we improve.

I suppose there's always Second Life. However, my 16 year old daughter seems to be doing a lot of "social interaction" at the moment with a certain young man. They text each other, hotmail etc. but still feel the need to meet up in person. Now why is that?

Thanks for all your help on this, you've given me a lot of useful advice.

One of the speakers at the conference was from BECTA (I think, my notes are in school) and he referred to a study carried out which basically concluded that teenagers bodies/minds work in a different time frame to adults, and they would be better starting school at say, 11:00am, and going on to 17:00, or 17:30, extending the school day. I heard a teacher mutter that they'd never get that past the unions. @bossman: you seem to be under the impression that children will no longer be going to school, and everything they do they'll accomplish from home. Building all these new schools, and bringing the rest up to a decent standard doesn't seem to indicate that. More importantly, humans tend to be social creatures (apart from that bloke at the end of the bar who's been nursing a half of shandy for the past hour), and it's the controlled socialisation you get in play groups and schools which for the most part teach us how to mix in the wider world. Teachers provide this "in loco parentis". Schools, or places where children can mix with their peers in a friendly (for the most part) environment, will be with us for a long time yet.

"Yet another buzzword and crappy initiative, seemingly ignoring the fact that not every student likes or gets on using a PC, and that if you cannot read in the first place, having the work on a screen is not going to help you either." Try this link, and there's an Australian company who produce an icon based interface. RM of course have Successmaker which again relies heavily on icons/images to guide the user.

I've just this minute finished reading the above book. The strapline reads, "A journey through virtual worlds". From 1981 his mother took him to live in communes around the world, alternate worlds rather than virtual worlds. But he uses this experience to create a fascinating account of virtual worlds. Though mainly based on/in Second Life he looks into other role playing games such as Quest and World of Warcraft (where he meets up with his estranged father from time to time). The book opens in Boston, Mass. where a nurse in a care home has created a character called Wilde for a group of patients with cerebral palsey. As the group is a mix of males and females, and the makeup of the character is democratically decided, Wilde is sometimes a man, and sometimes a woman. From enabling the wheelchair bound to fly, he moves into second life and meets up with terrorists and Second Life mafia, who will take apart your character or delete your casino. He explores the use the US Army has made of role playing games. Of how they are re constructing the whole world, virtually, so that they can rehearse operations before actually going in to action. He tells of how the US Army Recruiting Service developed an online role playing game as part of their recruitment process, and saw recruitment rise for the first time in years. Not only that, everyone who played the online game had to register, so that if and when they turned up to join up, the sergeant only had to call up their name from a database to see what sort of material they were made of. The flip side of that coin is the online training recruits scheduled for overseas engagements receive. Working with phsychologists the army has produced such stress inducing scenarios as having the soldier man a checkpoint somewhere abroad and have a family approach, gesticulating and shouting incomprehensibly, and watching how the soldier reacts. Are they an innocent family, or are they terrorists attempting to blow the checkpoint away? He meets the Chinese woman who employs a team to manufacture Second Life artifacts for real life money. She is now a dollar millionaire. There's an awful lot more food for thought in this book, from the plain weird to medical advances. It should make for good holiday reading.

With BSF the first problem would be solved, as you'd have the same pieces of kit throughout the school. You may well loose the ethos of pulling together for the school though. What BSF giveth, so BSF taketh away. Before anybody starts jumping on me, within a year, possibly 18 months, I'll be tupe'd to a private company.

My eldest daughter's at university in mainland Europe and I need to get her a new laptop before she goes back in September. I bought one in a rush a couple of years ago (a FujitsuSiemens AmilPro V2010). As well as being within my budget at the time, the company also offers Europe-wide servicing. I'm sure others would possibly do the same. Has anyone any recommendations around the £500 mark? I'll probably stick with XP Home/Pro for now.

I was at a conference the other day discussing VLE's, and one of the speakers was talking of personalised learning. Being a teacher, he asked his pupils what they thought it meant. The unanimous answer was being able to make your space "personal", modding it, or perhaps pimping it. He gave all sorts of other examples from over the years, drawing on the covers of exercise books etc, basically, taking ownership. I know there's been an argument for not allowing pupils to change their desktop wallpaper, and lock everything down, but I've been watching what happens (via net support) as some pupils log on. They go to their home folders, pick an image, set it as their desktop wallpaper, and then get on with their work. Of course there's always going to be someone who can't choose between the Ferrari or the Porsche, but so far it doesn't seem to have affected their work. It's certainly another point to take into account when assessing Learning Platforms.

I don't think I'd go as far as hated. Perhaps resented the odd time when you point out to them the reason the computer/printer etc isn't working is the fact that it isn't switched on (despite letting them know as gracefully as possible). I was told last week that quite a few of the teachers believe we're only in school to support the ICT Faculty, and yet they still call us out if there's a problem. Every classroom has a minimum of projector, IWB, amp and speakers, every teacher has a laptop (with local admin rights), and the whole of the school admin couldn't run if the servers were to go down. We have the same problems as claridentech with one faculty (that may be to do with the head of that faculty though) who email the head with IT problems, rather than telling us. I do wonder if some teachers have realized quite how dependent the whole of teaching is on the IT infrastructure, and resent the fact that they sometimes have to "go through" us to deliver a lesson. My view is that we should be as discreet as possible. I don't like going into a class when a lesson is being delivered, but sometimes there's no option. I haven't found that older members of staff are more averse to new technology than those just starting out, if the benefits are explained to them. Along with the ICT teachers we run training in various pieces of software/hardware, and there's a hard core who just won't turn up, despite it being for their benefit. Not all of them are luddites either, some are very competent with IT, but I don't feel that they should be learning how to use something as they deliver a lesson.

I've been trying to post to the site all day from work but it just keeps timing out. Put me down for html/css/design. I did email you as well.

link here you'll have to scroll down though.

ok. click the link, then click the Search button. at the moment the vacancy is on page 6 of 9

sh*t

link

I was out of the office yesterday, but this message has been appearing on screens up and down the school as people boot up their machines. I can figure it out if I see the message on only one machine, but it's popping up everywhere. I haven't a clue why this should be happening. All mapped drives are working, but if I try to browse the network through My Network Places I can't see any machines. Any advice here would be helpful. The network seems to be running as normal otherwise.

there's an NSPCC link here, and BECTA also offer advice (but I can't locate it this morning, and I'm in a hurry today). You may want to contact your LEA, and do a search on the Edugeek forums for something similar.

job ad scroll down the page. It's a good school, around 800 pupils. I think they only have an NM, so you may find yourself doing a lot of techie stuff as opposed to the elearning stuff. I don't think the money offered reflects what you'll be asked to do, but you may find it a good stepping stone to other things. It's term time only.

yes we have. I've been in this post (school techie) for nigh on 2 years now, and if we've had any problems they've been dealt with on a return to base/replacement part/swap efficiently and swiftly. I don't think they're as cheap as some other suppliers, but they offer a 3 year warranty. They've recently taken to imaging machines for us as we've been too busy to handle it. We have used other suppliers, but mainly because they offered us such a good deal that we could be accused of wasting the school's money if we didn't go down that route. HTH

can you smell burning?

Has anyone come across this yet?

tell her to get a +1 for you

It's Wink all the way for me too.

King Street Junior?

good news all round. congratualtions