fayfrancis

Have you looked into software that can reduce back up times and reduce storage? ie a file archiver or storage archiver at all? theres some info on that here Hollies Blog: Birmingham Technology College Goes Green edutech has this

Russ - have you forgotten me and hollie

thanks - what i would like to add as no rant, Is that "my impression" of working with the staff on the earlier stages of this project is that this School appears to care very much about its students, their learning and the image of the School. The students always seemed very well mannered. I am very proud to have worked with such a hard working team of staff and to have achieved what was achieved for the school. I think the general opinion was that we believed it could all come together but the fact that there was development from Apple partners and attention from Apple themselves was an unbelievable achievement in itself let alone the fact that itunes have made some contribution. I am very proud to have worked on this project and I think it shows that if a school has direction and a vision it can be achieved. I would like to congratulate them on their success.

I am struggling to find it online, but the learning grid did say it had a name. What I will do is find some information on this and definately get back to you on it.

just a question, have you asked the school if they have done this also? I think maybe anyone with questions of this nature should research the school prior to comment and if anything of that nature is unanswered then you are able to direct your questions at the school. they do have meetings where other schools can attend, I am unsure as to the invitation side of this but certainly Im sure there would be no harm in asking. I believe that the grades improved by 50% this yr (not the school or my employers opinion)

it was on the schools ipod scheme, the directives I was told about by a learning grid - Id have to check some notes but if I remember correctly the deadline was 2012 but thats just off the top of my head, I cant find it online ill ask the learning grid as I may be wrong about the date.

An iPod for each pupil at Essa Academy will help school to stay in touch - Times Online

Sorry my sense of humour, I think thats probably the argument of portable vs mobility, ie why have email on your phone. Virtually everyone in business has email on their phone, plus this is just my interpretation not anyone elses, but how would i know if I have an email if my laptop is in my bag? Not being argumentative about it at all but the school wanted real time as much as possible im sure so isnt this what we all like about twitter and other such applications. The emphasis from the school was a small device, not to make them targets of crime I personally think this should be any schools primary concern

Ok, I think ive given a clear picture of what the school has as a solution - so I would like to invite you to offer your ideas of a better solution - ????? the brief was as follows, want to provide each student with a device that can assist them curriculum wise in and out of school, that can provide a daily planner, that is good for media, that is very small and cannot be seen visibly when travelling ie no laptop size devices to make children a target, that has a long battery life, that can engage the students in learning, that can utilise voting software, provide email functionality, is good on the application side. Any ideas? Id be interested? (also please remember there is a directive which has a deadline for each student to have a device so all schools should have this on their to do list)

I think that the size was very important, based on the location and what (i interpreted) the school felt that it had a duty of care to the students to not make them targets of crime. Your reference to pocket email? laptop in pocket?

the school do have security measures in place as they would on their network anyway,I cant disclose the schools full information, the school have undertaken some insurances to cover eventualities, there was a lot of development went into this, not just from the school but the also apple, wirless vendor and itunes as this is the platform that the media runs on. If the device is lost this is covered by insurances. iTouches have not replaced all pc's. They are a learning assistant for the students, this is to assist students that may not engage generally very well within certain topics will have podcasts and information around this subject to assist them. (not my employers view or the schools)

I like your thinking on this, it definately doesnt have ropey wifi though, mentioned a few things I hadnt thought of either

Thats interesting, looked at this link - this is a difficult argument actually but the link refers to business rather than education. The business point of view will always be not to adopt new technologies until they are proven to be a stable environment, which is obv reference to the link rather than itouch scenario. You will sometimes see a business with cutting edge views, this is the reason that your equipment at home is sometimes seen as better or faster than the work environment. The reason is very important for a business they will not choose the shiny equipment you have at home they will buy something that is fit for purpose, something that is more durable and hard wearing. They will often have chosen a standard of equipment for their policies and often a standard image that they roll out which will mean that they will have a standard specification. The cost of not having a standard image to business can be immense. Usually if you can convince an employer that there are benefits to having a smartphone they will not normally object in a business environment, education is a completely different ball game with very unique requirements

Ah I didnt touch on this point, lapsafe have made a re-charging unit called the Q Charger, you would have to look at specific laptops but if they are considering new ones, there is a product released by intel which are designed to be tough (not quite as tough as tough books) they are called fizzbooks and will withstand a drop,standing on or spillage they are probably more interesting for primarys (some secondarys have) but they also have strengthened keys and have additional security so that they dont work outside the wlan if you want to have that set, these definately fit in the Q charger

I have done one of these for a secondary school with 1000+ devices, they do still have cabled IT Suites but they can run everything on the wireless if they want to. They even have wireless projectors, what I would reccomend is that you do not use any wireless that is cell based (and make sure you check) as it will not provide the bandwidth required. An iPod for each pupil at Essa Academy will help school to stay in touch - Times Online

sorry I didnt answer this - yes 130 aps, it is a full n deployment which is in the 5ghz band so the propogation is smaller there are appoximately 10 buildings for the school so that obviously was unfortunate that they were not in one building. There are secondarys with a similar solution but much less on aps they also covered the external areas ie picnic areas and playing fields. This was to allow the children flexible collaborative learning, they may not use the iTouches for certain studies but ie a revision class can sit in the picnic areas and use collaborative learning to revise. Also the high bandwidth system will allow for online exams in the hall eventually when the exam system is capable. (again my views from working on the project)

After fully reading all of the posts, I definately think that there is a full misunderstanding of how this technology is used, it is used for learning - it is used purely for planners, pod-casts and other learning apps. It was a carefully planned project of which i was involved with personally myself. I think it is as i mentioned before cheaper than a laptop and the school did not want to endanger their children and make them a target, iTouches were much less cost than a laptop and not as easily seen. This if you see the full picture is a fantastic way of engaging the childrens interest, as they are for learning in controlled circumstances I understand how it could be seen as a gimmick but clearly school put a lot of thought into the best solution for their students. If over all their grades are improving I fail to see how this can be seen as a negative. This is not a view of my employer or the school themselves,

The funding was from Sponsors I believe, the devices are insured also I believe. What I would like to point out is that this is engaging the pupils interest in learing through pod-casts, homework allocation and more interactive learning, the devices are much less cost than a full laptop which under directives soon to be deadline each student must have a device, this is nothing but an innovative learing solution.

You can get products to assist with the security implications of devices that are leaving the network Total Traffic Control Demo for Schools also when you look at the wireless you are able to get a wireless product that can have an entirely separate network for offsite devices that can go straight out to the internet and loop back in via your VLE, so that there is no security comprimise.

Hi, I visit a lot of schools that have these issues, some of the problem is the netbooks and the specifications in some cases but mostly it is due to the wireless. Using a cell based technology is the difficulty I always reccomend a 4th generation wireless as schools is one of the few enviroments where everyone logs on at exactly the same time so many times a day. Thanks Fay