Sylv3r

I've just bought an iPOD touch and installed it on the device so our head of PE can have a play doing the registers etc. Early signs (yesterday and today) looks like it works well and they would be happy to use them if we purchase more for the department.

I thought it was £560 inclusive of VAT. Maybes, I am wrong unless the price has gone up. We have signed up as part of the SSAT agreement and get the advanced membership and pay no where near the £1,100 quoted.

I e-mailed a couple of weeks ago to chase up whether we would still be getting a free monitor after an engineer come last summer holidays and said he didn't have the right part so was to return the following day to fit it. I never got a reply to my e-mail, so I think it's safe to say we won't be getting one. After I spent money on getting a data point installed into the switch room too!

Congrats and good luck in your new role. I am sure you'll still be hanging out on here and helping people where you can.

We currently run unlimited quotas for both staff and students and they don't get abused. We are moving across to a SAN solution over the next few months and will probably implement quota's but will remain quite high. Probably 1GB per student and 5gb per member of staff. Those students studying media, art, graphics and ICT in our sixth form are close to around 5gb and will have their accounts increased accordingly.

Congrats Russ and Shaun in your new roles.

We use Kayako Help Desk Software, Live Chat Software and Customer Service Software and have done for the last 5 years. The program has evolved over the last 6 months and although not perfect currently I still think it's a fantastic tool with intergrated knowledgebase, Desktop Client enabling chat and VNC capability to take over the end user PC. It's a one off cost and a small annual support cost if you wish to remain receiving updates etc. We even have a testimonial listed alongside the likes of RSPCA, SEGA etc. Testimonials from our customers - Kayako

A story along a similar line appeared in our local sunday newspaper this week. Benfield School pupil expelled after sex prank - Sunday Sun

Cheers

Could you knock up a quick proforma which the staff have to complete prior, during and at the end of the course? The member of staff comes up with a scenario they would hope to achieve. By the end of these sessions I hope to be able to use ACTIVStudio to be able to create an ACTIVote document. They state their skills before they start and whether they have improved etc at the end. As part of our staff (Teachers and Support Staff) Performance Management we ask them to include a use of ICT / e-Learning target which covers the above questions during their review. You could also ammend slightly your Lesson Observation form to include Use of e-Learning / IWB etc, which we have also done. As part of the new OfSTED criteria staff may be asked the question if they have access to an IWB why didn't they use it - I am aware that some lessons may not lend themselves to using the IWB but some do. It's also not just about using the kit but using it for a teaching and learning purpose. Some schools tend to get obsessed with things like IWB's but it very rarely has an impact on learning in some cases.

Do these ACTIVBooks not come with a CD for the network and a seperate CD with the VLE content or am I getting it mixed up with some other bit of useless software?

From snippets and research I have picked up regarding changes to becoming an academy really come down to wanting your own flexibility and ability to be less dependant on services supplied by the LA. If your wanting to have huge pots of money then academy isn't the cash cow you have been looking for. With things like having to provide your own transport as well as payroll etc then you could actually be more out of pocket then your current budget.

Another thing to bare in mind is Dropbox free for personal use? Would that include use by all staff in a school? That is debatable.

If you negotiate you could get a TomTom relatively cheap from your hire car company - at least this way you know it will work rather then paying money out for an app for your phone + it will save on any roaming costs.

If your school is part of the SSAT you will get advanced membership for around £420 ex VAT.

I'd be interested in this if you make it available.

We also use FirstClass and although I don't think theres anything wrong with the product we feel the time is right to move onto something new. Staff use of e-mail is a huge communication tool and I think I would need to be in a position to migrate existing mail to the Exchange server. If you do embark on the migration to Exchange, i'd be interested to hear how you got on.

I did around 150 staff in one go and tend to do the students a year group at a time. As as has been posted above, if it stops on a user it's easy to delete it and hopefully it will resume.

As a school you can direct the IIP assessors to talk to individual people, I have spoken to our IIP assessor on two occasions, initial IIP qualification and the renewal.

Very unlikely that they will set time aside to talk to you, but if your passing in the corridor they may stop and talk. Treat this as an interview and tell them what they want to hear )

We use a wiki for our ICT Support portal - useful for keeping passwords, serials, how to guides etc in the one place. Just got to remember to keep it up to date as much as possible.

Don't drink tea or coffee. Can't stand the stuff! Irn Bru all the way )

The app was delivered to the device by browsing too Emerge All the config is done server side. You need to setup devices with the UIUID (Unique ID) The users are also required to be setup - you need to enter the staff name and initials who you want to create accounts for - these are not pulled from sims and uses the staff codes to link to the timetables etc. I organised my trial via groupcall - I believe it's a lot easier to get a trial if you have your own devices although I think they do have hardware to loan but this takes longer to organise.

Extortionate? We pay £21k for 10Mbps here!!!

I had a quote from educ8tv - Welcome a year or so ago and the price wasn't too bad if I remember right. But for one reason or another we didn't go down the route of a prospectus on a DVD as it was felt it would be a waste of time and money.