Sylv3r

We had our trial installed this afternoon and have had a couple of hours to have a play with it and shown the Deputy Head and Head teacher who were both really impressed. Early indications shows that it will be perfect for our needs - PE Registration. The management software was installed onto our SIMS server remotely (Logmein) by a Groupcall engineer who talked me through the whole process of adding new devices etc. The 4 week trial is for unlimited devices. I created a Groupcall user on our SIMS system and had to add this in the installation process. We have our wireless vlan'ed off but my iPhone4 could still cross our VLAN's to see the SIMS server through our smoothwall box. I was a little concerned after seeing how quick the demo was at BETT and the test data that with a school of 1,450 students it would be a lot slower but I don't feel it has any speed issues at all. The photo feature of all students is also very useful for those 'forgetful' members of staff. In an ideal world I would love for each member of staff to have an 'i' device if for no other reason than for this app - anyway back to reality! If anybody else has any questions, feel free to post them here and I'll try and answer them but you may be better contacting Groupcall directly.

When I first started I wore shirt, trousers and tie but for the last 5 or so years I've worn a full suit, shirt and tie combination. I don't find a tie gets in the way and touch wood up to now haven't damaged any clothes in 10 years.

Oh... something has come up and I won't be able to come in at half term to lend a hand!

Im getting it installed here on Friday for a trial. I'll update this thread if I think of anything to add.

We usually run the missing comments report before we move the status to Review mode the day before or lunchtime on deadline day and chase up those staff who haven't bothered to do their reports yet. Seems to work well.

Yes, We get that occasionally although I don't have a fix.

Next time round we will look at wordpress or sharepoint when we fancy a refresh.

Our non essential servers are named after alcoholic beverages but I still stick with a prefix so I can identify straight away that they are servers. STB-SVR-CORONA STB-SVR-BACARDI STB-SVR-PENKA STB-SVR-STELLA etc... As above, without documentation if I was to get knocked over by a bus the roles of the servers are not obvious, but just as well the documentation is in place. General servers take the layout of: STB-SVR-001 STB-SVR-002 STB-SVR-003 STB-SVR-004 STB-SVR-MANSRV1 STB-SVR-SQL STB-SVR-SBLG STB-SVR-ISA etc

Number of IT staff: 2 Number of students: 1450 Number of IT teachers (IT only): 3 Number of staff (whole school): 120 Number of computers: 1150 School Funding: State School Type: Secondary Other comments:

I went for the 13" version and love it for portability etc. In hindsight now I probably would have gone for the 11" version as after seeing it in the shop it's not too small for everyday use.

You could have a look at Wordpress mu - I'm sure it's possible to connect with AD with an addon or hack. WordPress › Blog Tool and Publishing Platform It may be called Wordpress Multisite now.

Another year celebrating my birthday at an edugeek conference - what more can I ask for )

I have the same problem here - if you rename the extensions to .doc they all seem to open fine and can print multiples without problems.

I'm having an issues with the site and Be too. It was the same yesterday. I've stuck in a support ticket - I'll update this if I hear back from them

Yes, I think as John has mentioned this would be the better option. Certainly ensuring the end-users fully read the document and if they disagree and "opt-out" will certainly create less administration overheads from your point of view.

We are currently considering the positives and negatives of using student owned mobile phones in lessons. I recently sat in and wrote up a report on the initial trial cohort class - a Year 10 middle set MFL class. Student feedback was positive with all students engaged on task which was to use built in voice recorder apps on the devices. Student feedback was really positive. Whether it will work in a lower ability - dis-interested class is another question - we are looking to identify a lower ability class to carry out the same exercise to investigate our findings.

From what I have seen of the Insight product and from other NM's in the area - it sounds cheaper alternative to SLG. We use SLG here and have no problems with it and feel it is a good product also.

We give access to outside agencies in school to our SIMS Learning Gateway, but those students that attend neighbouring colleges etc. a register is taking before they leave. Reports are copied and pasted into Profiles for EOY reports.

I've got an account and have linked up with several members here and those who I have dealt with professionally in the past, but find little benefit of having an account.

We used to do it quite infrequently but I want to get into a regular pattern. I knocked up a spreadsheet with all of our rooms listed and the date the projector cleaned. It then works out in a traffic light system and colour codes the room with green <50 days, amber <75 days and red 76> days. It certainly gives us at at a glance easy view on which projectors need cleaning etc.

The one thing about disclaimers is you often ask people not to print e-mails to save toner and paper and more often than not they still will ! With the disclaimer included, an e-mail often goes over two pages wasted more ink and paper than you would have done with out it! We use e-mail for staff as the main method of communication, and have cut down on the amount of messages left within staff mailing trays - however the odd member of staff still prefers to print nearly every e-mail they receive just so they can have it on their desk as a way of a "to do" list.

Help protect our environment by only printing this email if absolutely necessary. The information it contains and any files transmitted with it are confidential and are only intended for the person or organisation to whom it is addressed. **** takes reasonable precautions to ensure that all emails are virus free. However, we do not accept responsibility for any loss incurred as a result of viruses we may transmit and recommend that you should use your own virus checking procedures.

We use TightVNC here across our network with no issues - fantastic tool for when ICT support are too lazy to get off the chair! )

We get the odd freebie (not really free) from a Deputy Head through credits accrued through our teaching supply agency. We accumulate points to purchase from a magazine at the end of each school year - we've had projectors, camcorders, digital cameras etc from them in the past.

Scrapped Symantec and went with Kaspersky. If didn't get many negative comments in this thread but I have read others where people didn't rate Kaspersky. 3 months use here and no complaints - much prefer it to the previous symantec.