becktonboy

Hate to say this but I just installed the app and resources onto the P: drive, provided a shortcut in appropriate program sets and it has worked well ever since. I haven't come across any part of the program that doesn't work, yet.

Would that be Dance e-jay for schools?

From my perspective, that would be a 'nightmare' or 'worst case scenario' statement. I've got an ICT vision statement which I'm sure you could adapt?

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.......

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?

I took part in that TES discussion eean and am still waiting for anyone to really give me much help in answering that question, although grumbledook gave me pause for thought in a similar thread I started here. . I soooo agree, I am also prety hacked off about the amount of money it will cost which could have been spent more wisely - especially if spent by me -

re OP, I guess we all think of software that's a pain to install is because we aren't trying to install crap software? I have tried and rejected dozens of programs which didn't get as far as checking out for ease of installation, as they were checked out on my home laptop first to see if they were worth the bother. midget, you have a lot to learn about Primary Schools, the foundation stage in particular, if you're interested; if you're not, a question like 'what does a primary teacher need a laptop for' is unbelievably redundant. I can't even be bothered to start going into the value of computers to the children, take my word for it, they are valuable to the point that our 35 strong nursery has 3 PCs, on all day, and the children have at least 30 mins a week in the ICT suite.

Don't know about you simon but most of the software I have running on my network didn't come in a network version. Some educational software houses care that the majority of schools want to run their applications across a network and go out of their way to help (Sherston, 2Simple - the latter even produce CC3 msis, how helpful is that!?). No-one has accused db of claiming to be anything other than a standalone piece of software. I agree the software is very good. It's precisely because the software is well suited to the Primary environment that teachers want to use it and ICT coordinators want to be able to install it quickly and easily on a variety of workstations - and that's where the complaint comes in: it is a total nightmare, has been for years, and db have to my knowledge been of no real help to anyone, despite the thousands of mails they must have received asking for help. I refuse to run around 50 or 60 machines (or have my tech do it) installing drivers for lovely little cameras that never get used as a result.

Birchfiled do Ace Monkey stuff and most of it is brilliant, for the price. Don't know this title so can't comment on it.

That's an old probelem which should have been addressed in the school in the past, principally through the AIUP. Children should not be wandering willy-nilly round the net, the child and parent has to take responsibility if the kid types '*****whatever****' into google. Would they sue the school for providing a pencil which was used to make an obscene drawing? Your head needs to grow up and get a grip of what's important for her school.

...it's not the interface or availability of help for poor readers that's the problem- tho' having everything recorded as a speech file might help ... (fat chance). The concept that the majority of anyone's education can be delivered online is fatally flawed - it's a stupid idea. Ask "What's the best way of delivering 90% of someone's educational expereince online?" and you will eventually get 'VLE, everyone needs one', as the answer. Ask"What's the best way of delivering a high quality education?", and you will get an answer involving well-motivated, well-trained and well-resourced teachers with smaller and smaller groups of students. Ask the wrong questions and you will always get the wrong answers.

What does PL mean to me? more work. Unless we aim to break the most important link in education, PL will mean 'Personalised' teaching - 1 to 1 teaching? not in this universe. PL means VLEs, eventually education will consist of 1 teacher sitting in a room, setting work for hundreds of pupils they never meet, work marked by computers, mostly mutliple choice quizzes of course, the odd bit sent off to a real person, possibly covering several schools. I'd rather stick to userareas, personalised desktops and mouse settings.

Fraid not, more's the pity and no, you can't borrow mine!

I never understood why Promethean moved away from the original slim black design: I've been using the same one for about 5 years, trouble free and yes it has been dropped, thrown, heavily used. The orange/grey and purple/yellow ones are nasty and fragile.

Yes, it will, as long as they use the same usb port the admin used.

The drivers seem are the main problem, not the software, which is quite appealing to primary kids. We can install via a distributed msi but then have to log in as admin at each machine to finalise the driver install. Additional pain, the camera then has to be plugged into the same usb port every time for use.

You've really got to BELIEVE it will work tho'! Don't you work in IT??

We will be getting Fronter, courtesy of the LA and I still don't know why (we need a VLE or this one in particular).

We will be getting Fronter, courtesy of the LA and I still don't know why (we need a VLE or this one in particular).

PS if yuo want to lose the Witnesses on your doorstep and for some reason you are not dressed as one of Satan's minions (it can happen), try : a: tell them you are RC and it is a mortal sin to speak to them b: tell them you are a member of the Mormon/Latter Day Saints Church and ask if they have ever wondered why the world is so cruel and harsh and ask if they would like to come in and see the magazine you have....

Don't usually cruise this forum but stumbled across this thread about my blog. It has since been added to. As I stagger towards the setting sun of my career, I am finding it disturbingly cathartic to offload lots of little bits of resentment and frustration which have built up over the years. I wasn't aware that more than 3 people had read any of my first post but it has been joined by a couple of others on bullying, assessment, the status of ICT and the hell of going on government initiative training courses. Ta for nice comment, Russ.

2Animate excellent for Primary.

Seems to be taking a holiday this weekend, anyone seen paper sticking out of their letterbox or a post-it note on their door about a weekend away?

Tried loads, nothing worked, til I used microfibre cloths: no detergents, hardly any water, little elbow stress and everything (LCD or glass screen, keyboards, cables, cases) all come clean.

Use Windose search, *.exes won't run on my CC3 system anyway so they are useless, I delete them. MP3 and *.avi etc, I talk to the staff member involved and point to the AUP which tells all they should not be storing personal stuff on the network drives (which is kind of the point of the exercise).