Bev

I have setup the messages system that MrDolan wrote http://www.edugeek.net/forums/web-development/144188-student-messages-bulletin-system.html It works really well, except that occasionally a staff member will add a message that 'breaks' the RSS feed. I am trying to find the rules for the feed so that I can clean up any messages before they are sent to the feed in an attempt to stop them breaking. I'm currently removing New Lines and various other characters but something is still slipping through as about once a week it will break.

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/web-development/144188-student-messages-bulletin-system.html This is the system that I am using, it was developed by another member on here. It's very popular with our staff. I also use it to drive our Reception Notice board using the RSS feed and that doesn't always work very well, but the basic messaging system is very good.

This has just popped up at the top of the screen, as I am working on the very same thing. There was a system posted on here a while ago that I am now using. I will try and find a link to the relevant post.

Our IT classes are using the X-Ray goggles software from Mozilla webmaker. We are using it with Chrome. We also have Internet Explorer available. Occasionally, when the child makes a change to the webpage, an Update/Cancel button appears with no code associated with it, and you can't click on either update or cancel. If you refresh the screen it goes, but all the changes are lost. the ICT teacher is understandably unhappy about this. I am considering installing Firefox to see if that helps, but wondered if anyone else had encountered this before I install Firefox through the ICT Suite. Thanks Bev

I've been asked to go into a school tomorrow and take an audit of all their equipment, both network connected PCs, iPads (lots), and also things like Projectors and Smartboards. I use LanSweeper in my school, but I'm not sure how much access I will have to their server (I don't think they will want me to install Lansweeper on it for example) I was wondering if there is anything I can use on the iPad (or Android but I'd prefer iPad), that I can carry around the school with me and log what I find. I did find iSchool Audit | Smart Audit Technology which looks fab, but I don't feel I can walk into a new school and ask for a £500 app.

We use roaming profiles which are all saved in a share on the server. I've got profiles still on there for kids that left 2 or 3 years ago. Is there any hard in just deleting the folders? Or do I need to delete them in any particular way? I'd also like to split the existing profiles by Year group - they are all split by year group in AD, but all the profiles are in the same folder. I'm thinking it would make sense to split them into Yearly folders to make them easier to clean up in the future. Is there any automated way or moving the profiles, or am I best leaving them alone and just setting up future year groups to go into their own folders?

That would be very helpful.

I suspect this may be the problem, in group policy Set Google Chrome Frame user data directory Enabled Set user data directory ${profile}\Google\Google Chrome Policy Setting Comment Set user data directory Enabled Set user data directory ${profile}\Google\Google Chrome

I have to admit, I looked into Mandatory Profiles but all the instructions I've read seemed extremely complicated. looking at the profiles, all I have is an Appdata folder which is tiny, 13k, favourites is 3k (that's only for staff), and then a huge google folder. We use Google Chrome a lot, so just getting rid of Chrome isn't an option, but obviously the profile is an issue. I wonder if I can put that on a redirected folder. Documents, Videos, Pictures, Music etc. All of these are redirected already.

We redirect their home directories, my test account is only 16MB profile, some of them go upto 260MB. Almost all the space taken is within a google chrome folder.

Roaming profiles

I have been working on speeding up logon/logoff times, and have run into a problem with logging off. It is taking 30 seconds to log off as a normal user, but the administrator account can log off virtually instantly. When I log off as a normal user, I get an error Windows cannot delete the profile directory C:\Users\LoginTest.DOMAINNAME. This error may be caused by files in this directory being used by another program. and the directories are mounting up on the machine. I presume this is a permissions error, but the permissions allow LoginTest, System and administrator full rights on the folder.

We use Pupil Asset, it's web-based. It can import data from SIMS but it's more of a standalone as far as the tracking goes. I moved over from SIMS marksheets about a year ago and it's been brilliant for us. We are a middle rather than Primary or Secondary, and this was one of the few products that could cope with that.

I know this is an old post, but this sounds like something I need to do. I'm just not clear on where exactly I would change this for all the machines in school? Can I do it via Group Policy?

Just found this help on exporting in Tab seperated format. https://fftaspire.org/Help/HelpAndGuidanceDocuments/PDF/FFTAspire_Exporting_Data_Guide

Aspire isn't giving out KS3 Targets, so we had assumed we wouldn't be getting any KS3 targets this year. However, FFTLive is calculating them. Seems a complete and utter farce to be honest! I can also get CSV exports from FFTLIVE, but not from Aspire. Is there any reason I should be avoiding fftlive data?

We went with Chromebooks. They required a complete rethink from the staff, we now very rarely use Office and have moved to Google Docs for almost everything. Even when on the desktop. Google Docs has loads of advantages anyway, kids can do work at home and it is available here. I can't remember the last time a child appeared with a memory stick with their homework on it. They can also do collaborative work, and you can share documents between staff/students etc. We have Samsung Chromebooks which we have had for 18 months. They were a bit tricky to set up, but that turned out to be some issue with our wifi at school, as eventually I took them home and set them all up within an hour! Since then, they have been fab. I rarely have to look at them. I was really opposed to getting more laptops, as our previous trolley caused me no end of bother, but these are very easy. The only thing I occasionally have to do is reset a password, as they need to log into their google account to use them.

We went through this last year, and ended up buying into Pupil Asset. So far, so good. As a middle school a lot of the other systems didnt work well across ks2 + ks3. So far, this has done everything we need it too.

Actually, they are all 32bit machines but the server is 64bit.

Yes, we do. I have always done all shortcuts through Ranger which splits by User rather than machine, but the more I'm looking into this I think I will have to do them via GPO so I can do exactly as you say and split them via 32/64 bit

I'm even more confused. I have a shortcut that I can see in Ranger has x86 in it, but when I get to the PC and check the shortcut the x86 has been removed. Is it Ranger that is changing my shortcuts, or is that normal in Google? Shortcut created with x86 in Program Files It appears on the Desktop without the x86 so it doesn't work.

We are having a big problem with Chrome not opening on certain machines. We have fixed desktops and the shortcuts are all set up using Ranger Administrator. The kids computers all use Program Files x86 shortcut, and that works fine. Most of the staff computers don't have an x86 folder, so I have created a shortcut without the x86 but whenever I paste it into Ranger to put it on their desktop the x86 appears within the link. (I don't understand how but it is definitely happening). All the computers also seem to have the default browser as x86 Chrome even though they don't have that version installed on their machine. I think this is probably related to me trying to be clever (!) and installing the enterprise version of Chrome rather than the domestic version. The end result is an absolute mess, with most staff unable to click on desktop links as they won't open, and the default Chrome icon at the bottom of the screen no longer working. Any suggestions? I'm at my wit's end and considering just uninstalling Chrome altogether, but we use Google Docs a lot and they recommend the use of Chrome. Thanks

I just wanted to follow this up. We launched this new system on Monday and it's been a huge success. Everyone likes it (which is very rare), and it's fixed my problem of how to keep the front screen up to date which has been an issue since I started 6 years ago. I'm using Rollgator to drive the front screen, as in the above post, and it works great. Having looked at the rollgator code, I'm going to try and write my own version so we aren't using a third party, and I can use the school colours, but that will probably be a half term project.

Just to finalise this, some of the feed readers don't like the HTML codes, so I added some code to clean out etc, and it is now displaying in Rollgator, which makes a nice Display screen for our reception area. The only problem I have, is it won't recognise a new line, so if you do a list then everything appears in one line. I think I will have to live with that for the moment. You can see the front screen with Rollgator - RollGator - Your feeds roll on your wall or RollGator - Your feeds roll on your wall I haven't decided which format I prefer.

Ah, that's interesting. I can also see them in Feedly. I was wanting to use Rollgator which will give a rolling newsscreen, like this Screen sample of Rolling Aggregator for your public display I thought it would work for the reception screen, but that can't pick it up. I get this RollGator - Your feeds roll on your wall I will have a look for another option for the front screen. Apart from that, all looks good. Thank you.