Kat101

I know the pros and cons of RT versus full Windows 8 on tablets has been discussed on various threads already but I'm still in a quandary as to which ones would be best for what we need. I need to purchase 2 tablets for our DT dept. The budget is only around £300 each. They are primarily for the teachers to use as remote devices within the classrooms so they can access Excel marksheets and use the camera/video to record evidence of learning. They also want to utilise them as basic visualisers using 'in-house' designed stands (they are the Design Technology Dept. after all and do love their laser cutter!) so being able to send the images directly to their Smartboards is high on their list of priorities. Ideally they would also like to be able to 'beam' images of pupils work direct from the tablet to the Smartboard without having to attach the tablet to a cable and use the Smartboard remotely. They also need expandable storage, ideally USB. Bluetooth would be a nice option in case they want (or need to add) keyboards afterwards as I know most of the tablets in this price range don't come with them and are pretty pricey. They also want to be able to access their Dropbox accounts directly instead of having to go online (at the moment they can only have one Dropbox account on their primary machine so when they move classrooms they have to go to DpBx online which does sort of defeat the object of it in the first place. We use Windows 7 in school and have remote desktop facilities. We also have WIFI throughout the school. They would need to have access to their networked home folders and shared drives. Apologises if any of that is in total numpty-speak but my expertise is in software and VLEs not hardware and networking! (can you tell! ) Both staff own iPads but know that they don't want them because accessing the network and their Office docs seamlessly is impossible, plus the lack of expandable storage makes them more trouble than they are worth. I originally was looking at the Surface RT as they don't really want to add extra software or apps other than already previously mentioned but comments on some of the other threads have made me a bit wary of these, particularly in respect of connecting them to our network and of using them as remote devices with the Smartboard. Have since looked at reviews for the Transformer T100 but was put off by the quality of the cameras; the VivoTab Smart - supposed to be sluggish and has no USB connection and the Toshiba Encore - just got really bad reviews. Would welcome any advice or suggestions.. Thanks

Still with Uniservity, with an option to switch over to Life sometime before next April. Whilst it is most likely that we will switch, we are continuing to look at other options. As previously mentioned we've had a quote of over £10k from Webanywhere for a customised Moodle platform. My biggest concern with switching to moodle isn't the costs but the amount of training and set up time required - I think someone else has already mentioned that this is probably the biggest outlay. We're an average sized secondary and at the moment I am the only member of staff trained sufficiently enough to be the superuser for the Uniservity clc and I only work on the VLE part time, even though all our kids and staff are on it and using it. Other teachers do bits but not the main day to day admin and set up. I'm very concerned that moodle will beyond the scope of our ataff and that I just won't have enough time to learn it, set it up and manage it. I could spend all day everyday working on the clc to make it as good as it can be but unfortunately it is only part of my job and SLT aren't about to acknowledge any time soon the amount of time any VLE takes up if they don't get all the staff doing their fair share. Have been asked to look at other options and have received some basic info on the REALSMARTCLOUD product by Smartassess realsmart - the real learning suite Has anyone else heard of it or know any more about it?

Webanywhere quoted us over £10,000 to replace our Uniservity VLE plus over £3k per annum for maintenance and support. At the moment Uniservity is cheaper.

Quick answers to LIFE - Yes, Life is better than cLc. Yes, it's easier to learn and use. No, you can't have both whilst you train staff ready for the change over. Yes, your resources can be transfered, though some thngs created using the old cLc tools won't function in quite the same way but all uploaded resources should be fine. Our authority are in a similar position in that our current contracts have expired and we have been offered a 12mth one to try out LIFE. You're correct, it isn't available in school before Sept, though they can start moving your resources across before then - there's a pack to fill out to say what you want moving. Also note that whilst many of the features, including the MIS integration will be available in Sept, not everything will. There has been no published date for the release of the Quiz, Survey & Poll functions, video conferencing, sound recorder, Live@Edu amongst others. Whilst they won't be in the May release (LIFE v1.1), they could be in the August one (v2) but equally could be in v3 which isn't scheduled till Jan 2012. Worth checking with whoever looks after your account. Testing is still under way and it is easier to use than the old product. I've been trying it out for 5 mths now. They have promised more control over the styling closer to the release date (personally don't like the cell layouts). If you want to see it for yourself contact Uniservity and ask for a sandpit login. This will give you access to a live area where you can try it for yourself. We're undecided yet as to the best time to implement. Sept is far too soon and the possibility of glitches to real. January seemed the next best option but then do you spend time training Year 11 for just a couple of months or take the VLe away from them completely. If we wait till they've gone then it's MAy 2012 and we'll have to sign up again. Contractually Uniservity have to keep the old system going till 2013 so you don't necessarily have to swap to LIFE immediately.

Has Uniservity given up on updating/responding to questions on it's forums? I know they are developing a new product but people are still using the old one. I was looking for info on embedding iFrames into the cLc. You can do it really easily in the new product and I know it is possible in the old cLc, I just don't know how. My knowledge of code is fairly limited. Any help would be appreciated

No I don't work for Uniservity. Maybe I should ask them for sponsorship money! We've been using the current Uniservity platform for about 3 years now and it is by no means perfect but I have worked with worse. Our school has been involved with the BETA testing of the new Uniservity platform LIFE, not because we thought the old one was brilliant but because we wanted to have input on making sure the new one resolved the problems of the previous one. Of the schools involved in the testing, many of them of them complained of the glitches and lack of functionality and were quite adament that it was something they wanted resolved in the new one or they wouldn't be interested in continuing. In their defence Uniservity did hold their hands up and say the comments were justified. And they do read edugeek! There have been known glitches and oversights in the current platform but, rightly or wrongly, Uniservity have chose to ignore them in favour of building a new platform and addressing them there. Why keep patching up something that's on it's way out anyway? In their words the old platform has reached it's limits and there was no point putting ferrari parts on an old cortina. It is my understanding, though I could be wrong, that the old platform will continued to be supported in so far that if something breaks they'll fix it but there won't be any more developments or improvements so RFCs are pointless. Obviously they're hoping everyone will eventually switch to LIFE. As I said before, I don't work for them, it's just the platform I'm most familiar with and I'm of the opinion better the devil you know (which I'm sure I've said on another post before anyone points it out). Having invested a huge amount of my time and my staff's time implementing the cLc, it is more efficient for us to work with Uniservity and get things fixed than to start all over again and in doing so lose a lot of the ground we've made with the teaching staff, particularly the technophobes amongst them. What I have discovered, having spoke to authority and school technicians, network managers, ICT teachers and 'normal' teaching staff and even reading many of the comments on here, the more technical you are the more disatisfied you are likely to be with Uniservity. The average user doesn't come across many of the glitches that a superuser works around everyday so are unaware of its many failings. Having attended LA meetings with people from various levels and involvment with schools ICT, the people who complain most are the ones that have to do all the 'behind the scenes' work, of which I am one. The average teacher is more likely to complain about connection issues which can have absolutely nothing to do with the individual platform you're using. I think that when choosing a platform it is important to talk to both the people that manage it and the actual users because their experiences and opinions of its pros and cons can be very different. Ultimately I feel it my job as the VLE manager to provide something I know my staff can use and are comfortable with and allows for a wide range of teaching and learning oportunities even if I know it isn't the best product. Average but being used is better than top of the range and half the staff too scared to go near it. Everyone's experience of schools is different but I know my staff and I know how hard it was to get this far so I'm prepared to stick with it for at least another year and give the new LIFE platform a chance. If it's as bad as ever then I have 12mths to look at alternatives but it will be absolutley the last resort. Hope that clears up any confusion on my connection with Uniservity

Well you sound like you've had more experience with different VLEs than I have and whilst I've also seen better, I've had to live with worse than Uniservity so there is a certain amount of 'better the devil you know' in my view

Life was launched at BETT this week and is available in schools from Sept. Our school has taken part in some of the testing and it's tons better than the old one. Still a bit glitchy but I'm hoping that's just because it's a test version. I know primary colleagues who love it. I want to see it in a secondary environment though to see if it can handle the subject load.

We use Uniservity and have about 70% of staff using it and 100% of pupils. It isn't perfect and can be glitchy and like any of the externally hosted solutions is at the mercy of connection speeds. From the sounds of it this is where frog and moodle excel and the others can't compete as they're not built the same way. That's not to say they're better or worse, just different. They all have pros and cons and you just have to work out what things you need and what you can put up with to get the best solution. Uniservity have just launched a next gen platform called Life. Can't say if it's better than the others on the market but it's definitely a vast improvement on the current one so worth a look.

Whilst uniservity is less than perfect, it is worth pointing out that they have just launched their next gen platform Life at BETT this week. Ignore the poncy "imagine a world..." type ads and ask to see it in action. That way you will be making an informed decision about swapping. You may also be able to negotiate pricing if they think you're interested. Our LA, whilst no longer paying for the VLE have negotiated a price based on the % of schools that continue with uniservity and a 12mth contract is cheaper than setting up moodle (although much of moodle's cost are in set up rather than continuous. Kat