DanRF

Thanks for the post on how to add this feature it was just what we needed at the school I work at. I've added a comment to a feature request for this feature on the MRBS website notifying that the feature has been written by an edugeek member. https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=2191070&group_id=5113&atid=355113 So I'm hoping one of the MRBS developers will follow the link here and add the feature into the next version either inspired from the code here or if theres no objections copied from here so next time someone needs this feature or I do an upgrade I won't have to cut and paste code from here. Thanks, Daniel

Another alternative to the touch to look into would be the N800 and N810 internet tablets from Nokia. They run a Linux powered OS, originally the N800 used opera for the browser I think but the N810 and an upgraded N800 uses a firefox based browser, gets pretty good reviews on it's web browsing capabilities, has no phone abilities (beyound skype/VOIP) though and not much in the way of calender and organiser software. But fair bit of open source community software out there for it. (Just waiting for the N810 to come down in price a bit myself)

Not looked at it for a while but there was an opensource MMORPG game called planeshift I think. Might be worth looking up and seeing what state it is in now. Daniel

I think people generally agree that all things should be equal, the discussion is if it is equal and which way places are biased. Yes it has been the case that generally male applicants were more regularly put before female applicants in IT. I agree with the increasing emphisis on political correctness/equal rights (and in some regions maybe too much praise for hiring female employees rather than the best person for the job) that increasingly in recent years people might experience bias towards a female applicant. But this is all regional to the company and area you are in. As we don't live in a perfect world some places will be male biased because it's the 'traditional gender' and some places will be female biased because "it varies the workforce and looks good with regard to equal rights". Neither are right and I hope more places would judge on skills and talent than gender. Personally I wouldn't be happy knowing that I was refused a job because the other person was female (with no other justification). I imagine the person who got the job wouldn't be happy knowing that the only reason they got the job was because of there gender. (and vice versa) In an ideal world I should be able to apply for a job and get the same response regardless of if i've changed nationality or had a sex change operation. Also about getting more people into IT, i'm all for computer clubs and raising awareness of the jobs in IT but I don't agree with the exclusively for girls computer clubs, if your going to have one you should leave it open for anyone who's interested to attend, treating people differently in school because of there gender will only make things worse in my opinion. Daniel

I wouldn't go as far as to write the lesson plans out and do all the work for the teacher, with your "aid in preparing resources for ICT" i would put the emphisis on 'aid'. I personally would go as far as to go over a draft lesson plan with a new teacher or one without many IT skills and say what is and isn't possible on the school systems and load up any additional files or software that was needed, check the IT room was working fine. Generally give advice, but would leave writing the final lesson plan to the teacher, afterall they are the ones who should know the syllabus and topics to be covered not us. I've been asked to be present in the odd lesson before with some teachers to troubleshoot any problems that come up, but on the whole the staff where I work are ok with using the computers, and come to my office which is next to the most regularly used IT rooms when they have any unexpected problems. If your happy to take a more active role I would try and get your job changed to more of an ICT co-ordinator position as Nij.UK says, and get your job description a bit better defined. Daniel

Hi, I came across this site in my searchs for answers to some questions in the past and decided to create an account at last. I'm an IT Technician for a fairly small Secondary school in Rugby, Warwickshire. Mostly RM equipment and Windows/CC3 networks here, though i have more of an interest towards linux and opensource personally when out of work. Daniel

Scotmk I think in this context distribution is meant in the sense of Variety. Often the Operating System is refered to as Linux and the Distribution is the variety of Linux being used (eg Novell's Suse, Redhat, Ubuntu, Debian etc). I prefer ubuntu personally for ease of use, but it's a matter of taste. Good idea to check how long the distribution you pick is supported with security updates as well. (In ubuntu the Long Term Support releases have something like 5years server support but the releases inbetween the LTS ones have less support) This is even more important if they are visible from the internet. But the best first step is to download/order a few Live CD's or virtual machines images and just try them out. Ubuntu will send a free live/install cd on request so you can try ubuntu from the CD which is good for checking the hardware will work then if you like by clicking the install icon it will put ubuntu onto the harddrive, but you'll want the server CD I imagine for the final install. Ubuntu's not the only one with a live CD of course so look around for them to 'try before you buy' as it were. (many distributions are free of course so shouldn't need to buy unless you want extra support services or a distribution which bundles non-free software in there releases)