rprice

Hi Tim, First off If I were to be doing the course, i would look at the objectives for the course, or success criteria rather than time spent gawping at a page. 6 Minutes on one page is a loooooooooong time if you have already got something.. If it must be a certain length, consider using Video, audio and animation as well as testing their knowledge etc. That will make them think, retain more and take ownership of what idea you want them to absorb. But first off i would start with what you want the participant to have learned, absorbed etc and what use it is to the organisation. A course that would make me sit and wait before moving on gets me cross, bored and likely to click anything to crash out of it. You could develop a course within Powerpoint and export it to include on a platform, or use in Kiosk mode on a computer - low development costs and easy to change it later. Some people would in the past have done a custom flash course, but that really is overkill for what you want.

It is worth asking for the answer by the suppliers. I find they are quick with such queries. Have not used for registers on Moodle yet so cannot comment more than that.

Am based in a secondary and started getting ludicrous requests for laptops, so much so that called a halt and rejigged the network adding that into the overall bill. Now no longer running the network, but I had need of class numbers (28-30) on an AP. Only way we could reliably do this was by introducing a/b/g radios in teaching areas, (colubris (might have spelt wrong) ) and buying laptops that had good a radios in them. Laptops are not perfect but dont seem to drop off so much once logged on. Other kit, like staff laptops can use b/g without any problems too. Just seen a few Ruckus devices around which I guess the current NM is using in places that I didn't have installed. Had difficult conversations about the laptops not working on the old APs (cheap- domestic..) "why dont they just work...". Had to explain that APs do not like having so many devices on them. Most departments here have a bank of laptops and are zoned so try not to have them roving the school. It cost a lot to do all this, and some places have reverted to having banks of flexible use computers - less time lost in a lesson.

We have a few staff on various hours in the IT support role, and have done the modern apprentice scheme once, retained one of those but was an overhead for the school in terms of admin. For the past two years we have benefited from taking on people on a year by year basis. Sounds bad? - let me explain... Well what we found out was that there are University courses that will consider working within a school adequate for a year out in industry. So for the price of one basic IT technician, we get two Uni placement students who have usually completed two years of Uni, and we as a school get to pick the skills to assist. So far we have really benefited from this, and some bring specialist skills like media, animation, video editing to raise the general skills level in the school. Worth considering, about right time now to start asking your local universities. We appoint them in the summer term and are paid from September to July. Worked well here with very willing workers.

Buy New ones. Otherwise you are starting with unreliable Kit. We purchased New HP units. Partly from reputation but also needed 802.11 a radio. HP are running some very keenly priced deals on decent laptops. Laptop trollies, following a theft, we replaced a 30+ bay horizontal loading trolly (with tendancy to get uncomfortably hot) with two Bretford LAP16EPM-AR units. So far these are better, (manageable weight) and by shopping around got at a price comparable to the more basic original unit.