steveg

The whiteboards that Interactive education sell are re-branded Numonics boards, so they may be able to help you. - I know the ie boards we have here use a similar power system to the one you have described. Their website is Interactive Whiteboards, ICT Solutions by Interactive Education Ltd Steve

Is laptop security a major issue, or are they keys just left with the trolley? If they are, why not attach the keys to the mains cable fairly near the plug end, so the only way to unlock the trolley is to remove the mains plug first? Steve

Is it actually a problem if the children unplug them when they are live? The trolleys are wired so that the mains part of the charger is out of the way of the children, the only bit they can get to is the low voltage lead, which for most laptops is around 19v, and really couldn't do much damage! A lot of our laptop trolleys are static, and therefore stay plugged in, with children in year 1 being taught how to remove and replace their own laptop. The newer ones come with an RCD, which could easily be added to an older trolley - so if there was any fault with 1 of the ac adaptors it would trip. Steve

Take the hard disk out and put it in another machine, if you have the same problem on that one then the password is on the disk itself and there is nothing you can do, just get a new hard drive. If the problem remains with the laptop then its a bios boot password, so you should be able to crack / remove it. Steve

I meant the WFS709TP controller and lightweight access points, although I have used the WG302 points in one school for a couple of years with no problems. 1 point happily supports 20 laptops with no worries at all. Steve

I've found the netgear managed kit to be quite reliable, and very good value. Not the simplest setup ever but isn't too complicated. Where abouts down south are you? Steve

I'd agree that the 7" ones are too small, even in a primary setting. We went for the Acer Aspire one d150 model, which has a 10" screen and 6 cell battery, so we get around 5 hours battery life. As a rough guide, we got 15 of them, 15 copies of xp pro, office, pub and server CAL's, a trolley, 3 year extended warranty, and 4 years of insurance so the kids can take them home for a bit under £7500. Steve

We have a county wide premier account with them, so it is heavily discounted. I wonder if schools are allowed to become resellers, could make quite a bit! lol

We've just got a set of 15 netbooks for our year 1 class, previously we had always used laptops. Netbooks seemed to have a lot of advantages for us, mainly the price, easier to carry, and easier to get a model with a 5 hour + battery life. We didnt need optical drives, and the small keyboards and screens aren't an issue, so was a logical choice. The wireless seems pretty robust on them as well, although until we let the kids loose with them after the easter break we wont know for definate! Steve

We get these quite a bit cheaper from Dell direct! I think it is one thing our LEA actually negotiated well was good pricing with dell! Steve

Could be something as simple as a corrupt user profile? Steve

Does it have the 3 or 6 cell battery? Steve

We have just brought teamviewer, and find it to be pretty reliable, and certainly the cheapest of any we looked at. It also comes with a server version that can be installed as a service which is useful. There is a free version availible for personal use so download it and give it a go. Steve

Does the Ruckus kit require a physical cable connection to each access point, or does it work over ip? Roughly what sort of cost is it?

I've just (about 10 mins ago!) got a quote for a managed system for a small school, using a netgear controller. The controller is £1165, and each of the access points are £86 - these are dual band a/g points, if you just want g they are a little cheaper. The controller supports up to 16 points, and has 8 poe sockets. If you dont want to go down the managed solution, i've found the netgear wg302's to be very good, supporting 15 - 20 laptops on 1 point. Steve

It would be worth speaking to the LA, as they may already have an arrangement with a leasing company - I know we have one which we are meant to use, which if we do we dont need to get additional quotes. Steve

For our latest lot of laptops for kids (year 1 they will be for) we are looking at the Acer aspire one. If you wait a couple of weeks the new model with the 10 inch screen will be out, which is only about 100g heavier than the exisiting one (1.1kg total) Some of the new models also have the option of a 6 cell battery as standard, which gives 5 - 6 hours battery life. We've never ventured away from windows so far, and will probably stick with it for these. If you have prolems with them being abused, look at something like Deep freeze for them - We've never had a single problem since installing it on all of our laptops that go home. Steve

I now have the full job description and application pack availible for this job. Please email steveng at chyngton-primary.e-sussex.sch.uk if you are interested. Thanks Steve

Still finalising the details on this, but we have an opening for an IT technician. The post will be based at a primary school in Seaford, East Sussex, and will involve supporting other local primary schools, so Driving licence / car is essential. Pay scale will be £17,426 - £22,363 depending on experience, and is full time. (term time could possibly be offered if prefered) I will update with more details later, but thought i'd post now as we are aiming to interview next fri, (yes, friday the 13th!) If you would like an application pack or job description, please pm me an email address. Steve

Daling, its a lot like dealing, just with less letters :-)

I can see the new tabs, but only noticed them because they've been mentioned! Only managed to get into this post from the front page until I read it I had assumed that a load of the forums had been axed! Maybe its just because i've spent the last hour daling with parents? :-) Steve

We've got 4 of the Acer aspire one's here as a trial, and have generally been pretty impressed with them, i'm just getting a quote for another 21 of them so all of our year 6 pupils can have 1 each! Steve

Who do they use for email? A lot of places that provide pop will also have a web interface for email, and there is often the option to put out of office on via that. Steve

What do you want to use the final video for? If its just web / computer playback then there are some great sd camcorders around the £80 mark that should do what you want. We've just ordered a set of Toshiba camelio pro sd cameras, and have also ordered one Sony Hard disk camcorder, which should get here next week, so i'll let you know how we get on! steve

One primary school I work at is 1:2.5, another is 1:3 but this should improve when the next set of pupil laptops come in. Most of the schools we support (all primary) range from around 1:3 to 1:5. Steve