tmcd35

Just a thought, are the Pi's staying in situe or are they being stored when not in use? Maybe adding 2-way KVM's to the spec could make it quicker/easier to switch between the two without the need for student to mess around with cabling?

Don't know what's available at the moment, but the general rule of thumb is give @VeryPC a £450 per machine limit and squeeze as much as I can get away with Current spec is i3 SSD 4Gb Ram SFF with All in One Monitor stand 19" WXGA Screen Windows Home But I may try my luck with 8Gb Ram and/or an i5 on the next purchase...

I've never suggested non programming parts don't exist. The interesting thing is to read the detail and see how heavily weighted towards programming topics it is. But as I say, that's just me reading of it...

I'm pretty sure this was it (haven't re-read): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-computing-programmes-of-study And, no, as I said above, although it does mention other areas, it looks far too coding focused to my eyes. There seems to be a myth that teaching coding will teach how computer work, and this panders to that myth.

10 let x=1 10 repeat 20 gosub 100 30 until x=0 100 for x=1 to 15 110 colour x 120 print "you smell! "; 130 next x 140 return Better?

Oh please, add a little colour - 10 for x=1 to 15 20 colour x 30 print "you smell! "; 40 next x 50 goto 10 If I remember rightly one of the "colours" flashes, which was a nice surprise as your messaged scrolled up the screen

Isn't there some odd-ball requirement about being able to code in 2 languages before starting high school? Are Scratch or Logo (turtle graphics) considered "languages" by the DfE? (I do). Personally I'd say HTML with a bit of Javascript and maybe PHP on the side would be good. Pascal. Cobol. Basic. Whatever the teacher feels comfortable with (Scratch and Flowol then ).

^This (EDIT: too meny quick posts, responding to @Ephelyon) During the previous thread on the subject I went off and actually read the propossed new curriculum details. While other areas of IT are mentioned, it seems very skewed towards coding almost to the exclusion of all else. This to my mind is almost as bad as just teaching Word/Excel/Powerpoint. It's also in danger of trying to fixed one perserved industry problem - not enough programming graduates - and not fullfilling it's educational function, teaching kids how computers actually work.

This is where I have a problem with the concept of teaching 'coding'. When I learned to drive I was never asked to strip an engine in order to understand the mechanics of how it works, I was taught the function of the accellerator, and clutch and radiator, and their general relation to one another. I've talked before about how computers work through layers of abstraction. And while it's software that pulls off the trickery, you don't need to write code to understand how one component/theory effects the next. To me coding feels like too low a level, much like striping a car engine to learn to drive. Much better to learn the function of the CPU, and the RAM, and the GPU and how they relate to one another. Unless we're coding Assembler, programming seems the wrong tool for the job. Writing programs in Scratch isn't really so far removed from Powerpoint presentations. You get an end result, but does it really explain any of the magic under the hood that's producing the results? Coding is a useful skill and good for logical thinking. It most certainly should be taught (part of Maths IMHO ). But it feels like there's too much focus on one layer of computing and missing some of the more important stuff that might give better light bulb moments to students wondering how the magic actually happens.

I'm in the "can code - can't be asked to" club. While I agree coding is a useful skill that should be introduced at school, I personally feel that Gove's approach is to over emphises one headline grabbing area of a subject he know nothing about. Seriously, there's no reason to make coding a statatory requirement for 5 year olds who really should be spending the majority of their time honing their maths and english skills. Besides, as I've argued in the past, ICT is a much broader subject than coding on hand and powerpoint on the other. There's other whole more interesting area of IT that deserve a little more focus (although if I remember these discussions from the past, are actually included in extrememly small doses in the new curriculum). At primary level this is just one more destraction to the list that is causing secondary teachers to complain at the general english and maths abilities of incoming year 7 pupils. At secondary level it should be a much smaller part of a much wider ICT curriculum. Just my 2c

You should leave three envolopes on the desk to be opened in turn each time the excriment hits the fan... 1st envelope - "I'm new here, still learning the ropes, sorry" 2nd envelope - "Sorry, was something the last Network Manager set up, I'll get it sorted" 3rd envelope - "time to write an resignation letter and leave three envelopes for the next guy"

Driving - about 12miles there, 15miles back. No more than half an hour. Cycling - 15miles, about 1hr 20, did get down to about 1hr 5 at my fastest - nearly 2hrs on a bad day and I won't tell you the time with a puncture 3 miles from home

Personally, I'm not sure a practical test can tell you a lot for a IT Manager role. It works for technician roles where your testing entry level compitences and problem solving skills, anyone applying for a higher level post should be able to demonstrate those skills in their CV/Application - mainly through previous job roles. As for technical questions - From my interview they revovled mostly around Active Directory and Networking. What are GPO's? How do you back up Active Directory? that sort of thing. Depending on the environment questions on storage arrays, virtualisation, or database management might be in order.

We hosted SLG locally until recently. I'd mirror what others have already said - it's very clunky (sharepoint, yueck). Only ever used it so staff could enter assessment grades and comment banks from home, parents never, ever, saw it. We've just moved over to Go4Schools which has got very positive feedback from staff and we are happily planning on rolling out to parents. One thing to note on SLG is the dreaded termly SIMS upgrade. I don't think I managed to successfully update SLG even once without having to phone Capita to remote in and look at what went wrong. It's all command line based, removing old packages and adding new to sharepoint. Our setup had the additional complication of ADPS being on a seperate server which I think caused most of the phone calls to Capita to bail me out.

While, yes - I would say, like meny schools, it's one person championing a seemingly good idea. That idea has yet to pass through endless SLT and Governor meetings before it's likely to bear any serious fruit (given the size of the outlay involved). IMHO, you need someone to champion developments or else nothing will ever get done. But that champion is really little more than a catalyst for further, serious, discussion (which is just starting now).

Quiet the reverse, I don't think you've gone into enough detail Couple of points I thought interesting to pick up on, if I may... Since this is something I said, I want to be careful and not be taken out of context. I'm sure my fellow Edugeekers, whom I've discussed this with on numerous occations, understand where I'm coming from. I believe, as a techie, to look at a tablet device and not see the possibilities is small minded. That is entirely seperate and different to the wider debate of affordability, educational impact, school strategy, implementation, etc. I look at the form factor and see very real ways in which they can be used to enhance or enrich teaching and learning. It must be almost 2 years ago, back during Windows 8 beta, that I last did a proper review. Android was still on version 3. At the time, iPads looked to be the only option. The quality and consistancy of the Appstore contents set them appart. It'd be interesting to see how things have changed. IMHO, Jelly Bean often times feels like a more enjoyable OS to use the IOS (although IOS 7 as improved matters greatly). I also wonder what the Windows store is like now? Since Windows 8 is domain joinable, it may herald the best of all worlds? Are you able to share any detail on what isn't working about the scheme? Do you think it is totally unworkable, or is there scope for improvement with the right changes? Are staff engaging with the devices and promoting their use in lessons? Very kind, I'll send a PM soon. Could be very handy considering the stage we are at here. Sorry if I didn'y pick this up, but is this a full 1:1 scheme or are we talking large numbers of netbooks owned by departments ready for student use in lesson? If 1:1 are they entirely school bought devices, or are parents contributing/buying (and if so are you able to indicate how much)? I'd also be very interested to hear what the main reasons you get for repair are and what the biggest reason for insurance claims is?

1) Close all the curtains 2) Hide behind sofa 3) Make sure no one answers the door Maybe they'll think no ones home and will go away? Good luck

Lol, near the line I'll agree - but hardly plot defining

There's a point in AC:IV where you hack Abstergo's computers and read some internal e-mails. One of them lists possible era's available on both Desmond's maternal and paternal lines. Fuedal Japan was on the list...

That's the point though IMHO. If they make their existing IP, classic games, available on mobile platforms then they seriously devalue their hardware brand. Why buy Nintendo if you can play Mario on the iPhone? Some clever purchases could give them a broader range of exclusive IP that attracts punters to the Nintendo hardware. For me part of the problem with the Wii-U is "another Mario", "another Zeda", etc.

Is interesting, but as I said above, I don't really agree. They have the cash reserves for another roll of the console dice and to make a couple of stratigic buy-outs. What they really need is a more diverse range of new exclusive IP on a relavent gaming platform (not the Wii-U then). As I said above, letting Microsoft get hold of RARE was by far their biggest mistake (Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Banjo Kazooie, Donkey Kong, etc).

Surely the first priority for any school is to employ enough teachers to meet their curriculum needs. Will employing additional teachers beyond your curriculum needs be more beneficial to a school? Are you thinking smaller class sizes? How meny additional teachers will be needed to make to bring classes sizes down to a level that has a quantifiable impact? Is that staffing ratio a good use of school funds? Or are we looking at TA's? or Support staff? No doubt, the size of the project probably does require an SLT view on the impact of staffing, but I wonder if a number of schools would be looking at other parts of the budget - cost of printing, text book purchases, etc? I'm not overally convinced the question revolves entirely around staffing, if anything I think it's a seperate issue although not entirely unrelated. This is probably where schools like the one in the OP get in to trouble with parent "donations".

As I embarrassingly learnt to my detrimant when doing a whole school training session - make sure SIMSLoad.exe is not being run! Change any shortcuts to load Pulsar.exe only.

While I don't necerssarily completely disagree, I wonder if rather than being a question of measuring results, is it more a case of questioning value? What value is the device bringing to the classroom? Is the value improved results in some metric or another? Or does the value lie somewhere else? The ability to produce/display powerpoint presentations in any lesson? Improved Internet access? More dynamic facilities to write up work? Does results=value (or vice-versa)? I wonder if there is a danger of not buying into technical possibilities on the basis of not being able to quantify a perceved outcome? Looking for something that isn't there? Rather than asking, what I think is a more important question, what value does it bring to the teaching and learning experience? Sure you might get the same resuts cheaper out of a copy of Encyclopdia Brittanica, but...

I suppose the question becomes - why measure? What do we need to measure - if anything? I'm sure something can be done to log individual device access to show they are being used in lessons. Maybe it's a question for HoD's to be monitoring lesson plans and SLT's in lesson observations?