benit2

I could be the connect ini file. IS the drive used for sims mapped for the user having problems. Ours is mapped to S:\ to sims installation folder. Sometimes when we get problem with server and they have not reboted (drives not mapped) we see this sort of issue. hope it helps ben

We had a few go missing, I got one of CPC, just typed 9v 1.7 in search, granted this needed different adaptor on end (we have lots of them anyhow) but the voltage and amp the same and the lead is very long. I think same sort of price as 3com ones. I went with CPC as we have an AC allready, always nice to have a few options though. Ben

Point taken, it does sound that way, I'm not opposed at all, my objection is that a VLE is a solution for a problem my school does not have but we will be required by diktat to have one and the not inconsiderable funding will be wasted. That is SO not going to happen in my area. If VLEs in 10 years time are providing opportunities not available (for free) elsewhere, I'm sure we would jump on board then. At present a VLE has nothing to offer my school. The skills involved are incredibly basic and well covered by year 2 or 3. If VLEs do demand higher skill levels in the future I would bet that those skill levels will have already been exceeded by other curricular demands. Meet you here in 10 years to discuss that one. Haven't got a problem with other schools pursuing VLEs, I won't be forcing anyone not to have one, on the other hand my school will be forced to have one, without any consultation. Oh no, I am aware; my point/question is: what can a VLE offer my school that can't be achieved through means already at our disposal, for free? I repeat, a VLE is not a solution to any problem we have but we are going to HAVE to have one anyway and the funding that is being spent on it in our name will be wasted. As I have said elsewhere, my view might soften if I could only convince my HT that a VLE requires AC in the IT suite....... I think as someone mentions, the cost can be so so small, and in addition to other items you allready have (wiki, blogs, email etc) you really could start to use things that you may not have thought of. I think is sounds like your school is well ran to have some of these features, govement sometimes need to set targets to make sure everyone is onboard a scheme or level of thinking. You are right that some schools will be kind of forced, but schools like yours could create a quick and free moodle install and you are done! or use the free MS SLK!! Govement schemes are not always the best (take RM KS3 tests -the tax payers paid RM £25million for that!!! then kind of binned it, but not quite for a cover up) but some things will never be perfect, make the best of the situation and run with it. I think your best approach would be to link a few primaries together, get them sharing teaching resources or discussions about primary teaching, good websites etc and see where it goes. I think you will be surprised at the uptake -even if only one teacher uses it, if it fails well you can't be blammed for not trying! Your question of what your will gain in primary in regards to a VLE, may only be answered, at least in your schools situation and perhaps others, is by getting your feet a little wet and having a go. I use our VLE for running the IT Department now, somethink I would never thought I would!!

benit2 you just don't get what goes on in primary schools or the relationship we have with the secondaries we feed into. I can just see our neighbourhood sec. hosting our 450 pupils! anyone reckon SIMS will be picking up the new arrivals and departuires of children (about 50 a year)? and of course they will really want to host all of our 5/6/7 year olds won't they? please get real... What logic is required of a VLE that my year 2s aren't already using accessing our network, saving intio their userarea, accessing shared areas + files and navigating websites? What, pray, might our primary children miss out on, some quizzes? e-mail they've already got in school but hardly ever use? content 30% can't access from outside school? discussion most wouldn't dream of taking part in or have the literacy skills to access? homework once a week they could do more easily on paper and the teachers don't much want to distribute electronically?......I could go on but the thrust of the OP is: what can a VLE offer a primary school that would solve a problem we have? or that we can't do by other means -e-mail, blogs, downloads from website etc? @Becktonboy I agree with some of your comments but think you are being a bit anti VLE in some elements of what you say. I am aware of Primary school operations - I worked with over 60 primary! Schools in Bristol over a 4 year period. This was both from an external company view and local council technician / advisor role. I understand some Secs are "look out for themselves only" approach - this is a shame because it does not help people like yourselves (I assume you work in primary). Its not un-common though to have a VLE hosted by Secs - I have a school i work closely with that host the VLE for all feader schools !! It does happen!. If not hosting though local county is always an option or grouping several primaries together to pull resources and budgets, its not impossible. Hosting early ages from a Secs point of view is not an issue, trust me from working in primary then moving to Sec, pupils in secs are trying to hack left right and centre so this is not a big issue. Some secs would also welcome it as part funding from feader schools helps enrich everyones experince with the VLE. I think you are missing the point of logic, I agree your year 2's are using basic skills that will help with all elements, but when I went to school we just about got onto excel in year 10 !! now schools are doing this at primary level. Do you see my point, this skill has jumped lets say 5 school years!! so if we look at VLE implementation in 10 years time, your argument could (find me in 10 years if i am wrong) look very weak. Even Bill at MS got it wrong - famous line 512kb should be enough for anyone what ever happens !! But remember, just because you primary school (s) may not see a way forward for the, if just 20% of schools do make use of them to have a positive impact on learning it is more than worth it. how many kids does that impact!! I do agree primary is such a debat, perhaps local gov could provide more guidance to primaries, but even if you use your existing "means" such as email etc in the VLE, this is great as primary school teachers could then share resources between teachers and then between schools. thats a very hard target it would be hard to acheive most other ways. I think you dont know it, you kind of have part of a VLE allready, Email / blogs, downloads. The word VLE is just putting that all together!! in a way you feel works!!

Or at a push, I will share the Ferrari with crc-ict, I have 6 months and you have next 6 months!!! 8)

@Jwood I agree, GP should lock most settings down anyway, we have not ever needed to reload a pc because somone has played with settings as then can't even if they are local admins. We also monitor there actions anyway so we would see them messing around or attempting to hack something, like jwood says its the servers that are critical.

Sorry the thread did go a bit off track!! I agree contink , if some schools or key role players dont understand the power of such projects or can not think outside the box for certain items, its a very very hard sell. To compare, I recall a discussion with a head about data projectors when they first got pushed to be installed in schools. A response such as.. If they need to use one they can go in the computer room or just use the TV instead!!! Now, well eat your words, each room has one in his school, he thinks they are now the best think since slice bread. Why does he think that now? - because problems can be solved by data projectors. Thats it then its clicked!! In education, sometimes it seems the tool or solution (VLE in our discusson here) is pushed first then a problem it may solve will be looked for. I agree this does happen, but often its only when we see the tool or solution do we notice some problems or how things can be made better. Its the same with a VLE!!

I think (please correct me if i am wrong) you are allowed to acces the SQL database of sims, this is not any sims workings, just your data you paid your office staff to enter. I am working on a system to pull info out this way. Capita want about 7k for there webparts !!! much the same as you export the data from sims in csv format now, its would be comparible situation, just using a different extraction method.

You sound like you work for Microsoft - as that's exactly how they sell the Learning Gateway, as a set of components and a suite of products as opposed to a single VLE product. But if you are going down the Microsoft route the key component is obviously Sharepoint (or WSS). I think there are quite a few people on here who have experience with rolling out a MOSS based portal/learning gateway. And of course theres the class server SDK that let's you add school specific portlets (sorry, java term there...but for want of a better word ) And of all the approaches this is certainly the most elegant. You can actually get a very useable portable before you even have to think about web parts or vb.net code. I know there's been a lot of talk about facebook and social networking...but surely the killer app as far as an online Learning platform is to be able to exploit the power of web services - so that you can seamlessly integrate and extract information from various sources both from the school intranet and from the wider internet and present them in an easy to nagivate and structured way. And yes, you mentioned exchange integration (OWA) and facebook style interaction...but also news alerts, video sharing, assignment scores etc. Integrating with SQL data if necessary. Where I see it heading, Content management systems, intranets, portals, B2B porta;s and VLE's integrating into a single information portal. I've even coined my own term CIP. Converged Information Platform. Pronouned KIP so as not to be confused with the world beater that is SIP. geddit ? This has been going on for years in the corporate sector - giving employees their own My_insert name of company here____ area. At my last company they used peoplesoft to accomlish this. But php, moodle and now MOSS have come along to allow schools to do something similar more affordably. But it still requires programming and technical skills. I wish I worked for MS, its where the money is at 8) Indeed the integration is fantastic, our MOSS links with Sims, canteen system, banned users or internet blocked users, library system etc. When we looked round for VLE, not many of them could do all that, with integratted login - That is a blessing - Sign on to windows and not more prompts for usernames etc. We also use a product called tools forever that sucks the information from sims and creates users automatically - not september blues for us!!! If anyone one wants advice on MLG I am happy to give my view /experinces.

Ok I am going to go out on a ledge here against you lot. My view point is from a secondary school requirements, I do agree its a lot harder for primary schools to find money for such a project, being some do not even have decent computer suites (I use to work for 10 primary schools in Bristol) That said Primary schools should not need to carry too much cost as they should team up with secondary schools (Feeder schools helped by secondary’s). This logic also means the children already know about such systems before getting to secondary school. Even if there use in primary school was to use it on a very basic level. The point is they have the skills and the logic to use it! I strongly believe a school cannot simply keep adding computers to a network with not real learning framework in place to keep it all in sync (cross curricular, home links etc). I have been to schools with thousands of computers (literally) but without decent learning platform and or software titles, the computers are useless – unless teachers would rather kids messed round on the internet for an hours lesson!!! Without being ageist, we need to at least put a bit of thought about how children of today think. I would like to bet that most children know of and most likely have a facebook or IM account!! They are motivated by this dream of a virtual world they control. Why fight against what they are motivated by, use it as a tool to educated them on stuff that is otherwise “boring miss!!”. I would not for one minute say use facebook in a lesson, but VLEs are structured in similar methods to this, so they will see the comparisons !! As for sharing resources it’s an excellent tool, I am in contact with about 8 schools across the UK who have the Microsoft VLE (Microsoft Learning Gateway). We all share best practice and develop various things and share them!! Just like on Edugeek!! Let’s not reinvent the wheel scenario!!! On a final note (I have gone on a bit), before we implemented a VLE, we actually (even though we did not know it) has allot of the VLE elements already, such as exchange server (email server) ISA Firewall and web based sharing (windows 2003). The VLE should not be seen as a bit of individual software, look at it as a framework or gateway to pull various functions, software, collaboration and systems together!! That’s the benefit!! If you take the easy route within IT manager / Technician roles within schools, you will have a relaxed job!!, but the kids will lose out, and that is not fair on them!!

there is an option in word called Drawing cavas, this can have similar effects, try turning it off and see oif makes any difference! Ben

You say its intermittent and doesnt happen all the time... I am sure you have checked, but are the permissioins on the sub folders in this share correct? If the Z is mapped to the root of the share, are they allowed to double click their folder (username)? intermittent - Is this just few users of random? If you get it happening quite often, I would conduct a test by placing 10 users shares on different share on same server then 10 users on another server all together, this may rule out a few items!!! Ben

Great Find ChrisP, I am going to keep this running on an old system in the corner of the office, will certainly keep an eye on stuff!!!

So, if you use (or going to use) local profiles on each machine - does it drag a new profile down from the server each login? If it does not some programs such as office (if deployed over Lan) install on each user run (it installs some user parts in the profile), where as on one profile for all students you can run this once only. The end result making office products open very quick! Also would you not have thousands of local profiles on each machine? Any work arounds for this? I am on central mand profile for all profiles, login time is about 40 seconds!!

Thanks for your message Kiran. This will be a brief reply to your question, I am still digging out some stuff to add to this thread- its just finding the time. We have only really just installed the VLE. We are reviewing packages for creating scorm content and quiz type content that provides automatic marking (thus making it trackable and personal). I felt we need to really research all products (free and $$$) as when we comit to one, and provide the training to staff we can not easily swap it. Our deployment plan is to have all "subject resource shares" migrated into document libraries. This will get staff using the VLE to access the content they use allready. We are mainly concentrating on this, as by using 1 document library per department (pupil side) we can create pages that pull information from the department document library for each of the topics based on the documents metadata. This in essence means when a member of staff uploads a document with the meta data "Y7" and "Hitler" it will be available in the subsite with this filter applied (in this case Y7>History>WW2>Hitler). This subsite can then contain other goodies such as hyperlinks and such. Have you trialed any content creators yet Kiran? or Anyone else

We have recently installed our chosen VLE – The Microsoft Learning Gateway Solution. This is a fantastic product, its hugely compatible with most systems. Naturally being a Microsoft product it has seamless integration to the new Office 2007 Suite. Post your Ideas, Hints and Resources here. I shall be adding some content to this thread soon

I 2nd that, Slim chance you can but you may be able to: Depending on what disk configuration you have, if the server was a low end unit with IDE drives in or SATA drives you could image the server to a new set of disks. This will only work if not on a raid etc. This way you can upgrade it once on the copied image set, tweek it a bit and be confident you can go back. Do watch out though for major changes as this may effect Active directory or partner servers hope all goes well

Thanks Teth, This seems logical, but a real pain when upgrading items such as IE7 via WSUS. Its also means you have no testing methods before they get the updates - by then its to late !!

Hi All, We have WSUS V3 installed, the new version from Microsoft. The problem: Desktop Updates are easy as they are always onsite. Each Teacher has a laptop they use at home and in school. Some users never connect the laptop to the school network for longer than a day per month or so; these users do connect to the internet at home though. The laptops never have time to download the updates from the network, users will never downloaded or review updates themselves!!! The laptops are therefore only updated if users connect them to network on regular basis. Solution needed: Using WSUS you can use something called Remote storage. This simply allows you to control the updates that will be downloaded and installed, but they just get this list (quick Download). There laptop then uses the microsoft site to get the updates. This means they could in theory use home internet connections. Solution that does not work: You can on the WSUS server choose the option to get clients to download from MS Site, but this is for all clients on site, inc the desktops - this would not be pratical as download bandwidth would be huge! My idea of what may work, but need some input: Setup a second WSUS Server for laptops only, then enable remote storage and all laptops will then use MS Site, this is still not ideal!! I am sure MS have an option of "Is the WSUS on my network now " is so use this "If not" Then go to update.microsoft.com and use this list of updates!! HELP HELP HELP