Styloid

sorry - yes I mean no drivers. None. So non of the Common HP inkjets will work in the classroom if using windows 2008.

Can anybody help me. Server 2008 does not seem to support many popular HP inkjets in use daily in many classrooms. Those not supported include K5400n Pro 8000, and the brand new model, the 8100 eprinter. HP Inkjets which do support 2008 include HP 6500 and the HP 9640 and are not really suitable for school use. Has anybody got a fix for this ? thanks Pete

We run a small company supporting schools in the UK. We have a good reputation and undertake almost anything technical to do with ICT As an ICT supplier to schools we've been affected by BSF as many here have though in different ways. For us BSF meant being excluded from school with whom we had a good relationship with, only to be replaced with costly and ineffective company who then arguably mis- treated the technical staff we had been getting on so well with. Money was probably the attraction for these big companies and they know how to protect their interests and extract the most cash from the system while promising to deliver “excellence” and “educational transformation”. BSF is dead, and its clear the some BSF- ICT partners are under stress – arguably now seen as costly and incompetent and forced by the new Government to reduce costs by cuts to services and technical recourses. The problem for me is that while I am not sorry that BSF is dead - I don't know or how to who offer our services to schools. Some many schools, so many waves. So much legal and contractual mess. So much secrecy and double speak. We don’t have a single national ICT education scheme / policy. Its fragmented and complex. And all compounded by massive legal implications, scary law firms and non disclosure agreements. It’s a tangled up nightmare. As a result how can things get better? How do we ensure that good decisions are made, and how should companies like mine ( taking a pride in making a difference to education and maintaining good long term relationships with schools) put ourselves forward ? I think that many people here are genuinely interested in making schools great places for kids and make learning fun by reliable and powerful ICT. I’m trying not selling my companies services in this post– but I do want to hear what others on the inside think. Please feel free to contact me privately if you want to speak more openly, or comment on the situation in your school / company / experience.

A short while ago I posted here about an event in Birmingham planned for the 6th of March. Little did I know how crowded March was with BSF events and other educational conferences. Many people were disappointed and said the date did not work for them. So the have a new date and I’m pleased to say Steve Moss has committed to attend. The new date is Thursday the 30th April – and as before I’m offering one or two free places to Edugeeks working in schools. I am keen to get school management there and people from the LEPs and Non LEP local authorities. I am appending the text of the e-mail invite I’m sending out, which I hope will be of use in describing the event and which you may wan to send out to others. Thanks to all here who have been so helpful and important in bringing this event closer to being a great day! “Dear BSF is a huge project and many of us are making decisions which will affect education for the foreseeable future, and beyond. With so much at stake, is it not time to sit down together and share what we have found out so far, about BSF and ICT ? This is your invitation to do just that. This is an independent event. There is no sponsorship and the format of the day will be open, wide ranging and designed to meet the needs of those in the room. The day will be run by skilled hosts who have no financial interest in any part of the BSF / ICT project. It will be a breath of fresh air, an enjoyable day during which you will enrich your understanding of ICT in BSF. We hope it will allow you to make wise choices to ensure we all get what we want – the best outcomes for our schools and our children. So far most of the people committed are from schools and LEPs, but also Steve Moss of PFS. We invite anybody with an interest to come – individuals, small and large businesses, BSF, politicians and others. It’s a unique opportunity. Your commitment to attending will shape the day and contribute to the outcome for others. There is limited space so if you want to attend your are urged to e-mail now to reserve a space. Places are available from just £55. More information and the booking form can be found here. futureschools.eu If you have any questions call / email / or skype 07866607321 / 0208 133 1738 skype ID : styloid. [email protected]”

Im keen to get word of this event round - sadly some of the networks I was hoping to to carry it have not done so yet. I need to get the messege to Heads, LEPS, and pre LEP local authorities. I've have some e-mail addresses of those involved - but am aware that there are a lot I dont have. Im asking you either to e-mail me email addresses - ( for use once only for this event - used confidentially and allowing you to remain anonymous) or to forward the text below in this mail to those who you think will want to hear about it. Thanks. Peter Martins "Subject : ICT within BSF : How do we achieve the best outcomes for schools and Children from this opportunity? If this question is of interest to you, then I invite you to participate in an event in Birmingham on the 6th March. More information and the application form can be found here. futureschools.eu It is being organised by Futureschools.eu – which is an independent, non profit making body which has no connection with BSF, PFS, or any large company or commercially interested body. This event can’t be compared with the conference The Guardian is running in conjunction with PFS later in March, which has sponsors, speakers and limited interaction. In contrast, we offer a very open structure supported by a team of hosts who are experienced and can make this day a really rewarding experience for us all We are free of sponsors, have no podiums and keynote speakers will be absent. Our event is designed to be more inclusive and exploratory. We will “slow things down” so that space for learning can arise, and, through finding a common understanding, move forward to get what we all want - better outcomes for children and schools. Its important to have a wide range of perspectives in the room, and although this is primarily for school staff and management, local government and LEPS, it is also open to anybody. This is a unique event - I really hope you can come and look forward to meeting you. Space is limited so book soon. Places are available from just £55. You can reserve one by e-mailing me : [email protected] If you know of others who may be interested please forward this on to them. Viral spread of information is amazingly powerful and I hope you’ll help by passing this on to your colleagues and professional network. Any questions please call me – I’m on 07866607321 / 0208 133 1738 or skype ID : styloid. Thanks Peter Martins"

BSF and ICT Here is your chance to meet and talk about ICT in BSF. Some time ago I posted some questions to edugeek about an event around ICT and BSF. There was quite a lot of comment at the time and after a lot of preparation, I am pleased to invite anyone interested to an event in Birmingham on 6th March to discuss “ICT within BSF”. See futureschools.eu for more information and the invite. I have taken your comments to heart, particularly in regards to cost. Places are available from £55, and I’ve budgeted for a couple of free places for suitable edugeek members. Currently, BSF is in the news daily and changes may be in the air. Who knows? But developing an understanding about BSF and deepening our sense of what’s important can impact this current process (and what will one day follow it) for the better. As such, this is the party not to be missed, because you will meet, talk to and listen to others for whom “how to get the best outcome for pupils and schools which BSF/ ICT presents?” is a very important question. It can’t be compared with the type of event The Guardian is running in conjunction with P4S later in March, which has sponsors, speakers and limited interaction. This is more inclusive and exploratory – and we will “slow things down” so that space for powerful learning can arise and, through finding a common understanding, help move the process forward to get what we all want - better outcomes for children and schools. So we have no sponsors, no podiums, no keynote speakers, a very open structure and a team of hosts for the day who are all excited about what this day could be, and who come with really really great experience. It important to have a wide range of voices in the room that includes school management, local authority staff, LEP employees, even maybe media, civil servants and MP’s, as well as P4S and BSF, and the major suppliers. So please send this out to your networks, and or print it out and hand it to school management so they may have a chance to attend. Space is limited to 70 places Any questions e-mail or skpye me : [email protected] skype ID : Styloid If you are called by this question - we really want you to come and join with us on the 6th, and help shape the outcome Thanks. Looking forward to meeting you. Peter Martins

Can anybody explain why the EIB is underwriting the investment of the big banks so commercial banks can take control of state assests which will be rented back to the state for the next 25 years ? H0w come when we were a poor country we could build schools within the local ecconomy ? Where loads of little schemes running locally delivered results through the local building ecomomy, and kept the money in the local economy. Now we are successful we decide to joint all the needs together under one umbrella which is so massive that only European money and complex funding with bankers and lawyers (and god knows how many civil servent) can get involved. (what do they cost and contribute I wonder) With the collapse of the £ - even our strongest national companies like RM will be easy pray to international take over-as they hold such irrevocable access to public cash for the next 25 years. Net result - our education system works for the benefit of some tosser in the Cayemen Islands, and money is hooved out the not just local economy but the national one. Has anybody noticed who now owns Northgate ?

I checked the link read the article and then found the chancellors statement. I searched for "schools" and found loads of info but nothing to suggest a cut in the BSF programme. All it going well with this "proven" value for money scheme. Well done Mr Byles. here is the statement. see for yourself. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/24_11_08_pbr_completereport.pdf

We are running a coach down to Bett from Leeds on the 1st 2 days of the show. We have a few free seats, available for edugeek members working in schools. PM me for more info or skype me my skpye ID is styloid cheers

This may not be the right place for the discussion - but "web 2" is going to shape educational ICT profoundly in the next few years. I have no idea how it will turn out or if it can deliver the things claimed of it. Maybe its covered by other areas such as VLE - but I'd like to suggest a new section here. Web 2.0 in Education & Profiles home is a good place to start if you don't know quite what I'm talking about. As I see it web 2 is original a product of the "techieshere" - and making big inroads into management thinking and practices. This site is a great example of it. And web 2 should be in all schools soon. Is web 2 the same as VLE, MLE?, how can the products of web 2 be used in education?, how to shift the mind set of school management and teachers to embrace it ? WTF exactly is Web 2 anyway ? How can you explain it to a 55 year old teacher ? For me these are important and interesting questions and I would love to invite you to explore these with other interested people here on this site. Cheers

I looked with interest at the Redland green stuff. But a deeper and more subtle informed opinion is also here. http://www.slideshare.net/naaceconfe...nk-bristol-la/ I think the two need to be taken together, for the picture to be clear. Its interesting to note that presentation about Redland green has been viewed 400% more times more than 6 presentations. This shows me that 1) edugeek probably is generating a lot of traffic on the site and 2 ) there is a real hunger to hear from informed users who are in the thick of it. Also the presentations from Lewisham are worth looking at Naace BSF Think Tank Lewisham They shows its not all bad and some BSF is delivering at a serious level.

Came across this today. Partnerships for Schools - Excellence in BSF Awards 2008 Please have a look at it. Am I the only one to find it deeply offensive and depressing? Especially in the light of today’s Guardian front page headline "£35bm revamp will produce generation of mediocre schools" I am wondering if some measured intelligent appropriate response can be made from this community. Can we have a discussion about it. Your comments and any ideas are welcome. Perhaps we could look to sponsor a delegate ? How we would gain from the expense of £210 to eat a cheese toasty with Mr Byles I dont quite understand, but a report on the goings on may be interesting, and would raise the profile of this community. You may wonder what this has to do with turkeys voting for Christmas. Well having said they are going to celebrate the new the innovative, the creative etc, the original, they had better come up with something pretty good. With increasing scrutiny of the BSF stuff from all quarters - whatever they come up may also be examined and exposed as phony, unproven, untrue, old hat and spin.

Will be very careful. Dont want to get sued!

Ive planing to put up a web site about BSF. Some will have seen my posts and concern about BSF. Ive not found any specalist site - it seems that the are a few intereted parties but no central place for discussion. If this is wrong I hope you'll tell me. BSF is a huge project and I hope to provide a big space for many options. As aprt of the site Ive made up a story - as may be told by a head in 5 or 6 years time. Id appreciate your comments, additioins and ideas to be incorporated. Please take a read of the below. The untrue future of BSF. As may be written by James Kirk – Head of The Halfords Schools, Small Bland Buggerishire, West Midlands. I did not really understand BSF when I first heard of it.. It was promising things we really wanted – investment in buildings, new ICT, access to cash, a step up the league tables and new facilities for the kids and staff. And on the other hand, it seemed to remove the school from the pubic sector including the building which was given to a construction firm and leased back. The purchasing of goods and services was not in our control anymore, we could only buy from a catalogue from one supplier, even though they were very much more expensive slow and often well out of date. After a while it came clear that we could not choose much about how the ICT system worked and all the ICT staff left saying that overall there jobs were being deskilled and they were prevented from makeing the system work was well as it did before. The replacement person - an employee of the company was ok but dim – and is incentiveised to buy as much as possible from the ICT partner in the LEP, who are his employers. The school was closed in the holdays and even I, the head can’t get access, unless we pay for out of service opening fee. When the ICT systems fail – as they often do – support is from a call centre in Northern Ireland. We never speak to the same person and communication and respect are less than ideal. The building itself is new. The quint old 1930’s red brick structure with tiled roof and arched windows and which at 80 years old was still working well - was demolished and replaced with a glass and steel construction. After 5 years it was shabby, carpets stained with chewing gum and threadbare. The high white (plaster board) reception atrium had been graffedited and holes punched though it. On sunny days the glass causes a very hot atmosphere – which would have been improved if Air conditioning had installed /correctly spec’ed / working / the cost of running it had been reasonable. Due to vandalism and poor design -on wet days it is damp, and the carpet was stained in many places from water getting through the discoloured ceiling. The major problem was the ICT however. The winning bidder after 1 year was bought out in a private equity deal and most of the old staff had left. It seemed that profits from the school were taxed in Monacco, so effectively money and jobs were vacuumed out of the local area and the UK economy. It since changed hands again and is now owned by the Royal Bank of Dubedu and they company was not keen to invest in the school. ICT Performance standards had been set in the original contract which at the time were ridiculous but now are disastrous. As they were based on old technology and when new technology came along it easily met them. But the ICT network still did not work, well not by my definition of it. The wireless network was slow and outdated, the broadband unstable and the equipment expensive and poorly maintained. Just to get a small repair took 45 minutes on the phone and several e-mails, and often was not fixed until the 4th or 5th visit. Most items are generally not repaired – they are junked and replaced at our cost – even when they are in warrenty, to make matters worse we have to pay an installation feel on top to the replacement cost. The staff moral was lowered as the nature to relationship became clear. It was about money. Not about education. Not about kids welfare. It was business. The building was a cash cow, and the tenants happened to be teachers and kids In an attempt to boost the funding for the school the head and governors had agreed further revenue generating activities on the site. A large corner of the playing field has been sold for housing and light industrial use, though we had to give 50% of the money raised to the LEP as we had to get their agreement. Also all corridors now had plasma dispays with rolling adds on them. And the future ? In a few years time the lease on the building will come to an end and it reverts back to the LA. We are seeing a drop maintenance and expect this to continue. the LA have no staff of their own and so we don’t know what will happen, and we don’t know who to discuss it with.. A further frustration is that we cant really find out who is responsible for what – and even when we do – people move on / go sick or things are reorganised. Many things we ask about go simply unheard and information about funding and cost is impossible to find out as it commercially sensitive. Between the LEP, BSF, P4S, and their suppliers and partners – the Dubedu bank, the ICT company, their subcontractors, the main contractor, and their subcontractors, their law firms, the architects, the local authority and the education department (itself re organised on average every 4 years and with the average Minister lasting 15 months)and other interested parties - the EU, Becta, and Mircosoft. It’s a total mess. There have been 7 suppliers in legal battles with each other over the life of the contract. We did get hold of some shocking confidential and relevant information – e-mailed to me by mistake - but had to hand it back under legal threat from the suppliers law firm Su Grabit and Runne The whole episode is now covered by a scary and binding agreement. So I could say more but cant. In effect I can say even less than I could before.

Cheers for the link. So much informed comment, and good points raised by a lot of people.

How do you cope with this sort of stuff and remain committed / motivated / positive in your job ? I've got no real idea. Its like bad news - we want to share it but after a while its easier to keep quiet, and not share the depressing a stuff. But thanks for posting it. Its a crap outcome, but if you dont share it somewhere it will just build up to be a cause if depression and ill health. I may sound like a nut but I really believe this to be the case. Your post raises so many issues about values, money and authority, responsibility and power, to name the obvious ones. If I can ask a further question which you may not choose to answer here - after a period of cooling down and reflection - what are the deeper conclusions can you draw out of the situation? Again - thanks for your post.

God forbid that anything should stand in the way of Microsoft. Where is your evidence with which you can support your narratiive ? It not there in my reading of your blog. The shrill tone has a ring of the stouge. And what does "education needs is affordable access to Microsoft technology, to promote shareholder value." mean ? And whats it got to do with my kids education ?

Petition Take a look at this – perhaps you’d sign it or comment. www.digistan.org: Hague Declaration Should this thread be here ?

Tim Byles is a Civil servent. What do you expect him to say ? His anwsers are mandarin - a language like english, but which carries meaing which can only be understood by non civil servents 18 months after its been uttered. I can feel sleepy impotance desending as I read it. I guess they are all trained it. But what does it say? motherhood and apple pie, we are big and powerful and we really care, you're small and you should leave the big picture stuff to us. I'm a reasonable man, with everyones interest at heart. Go back to sleep now and trust daddy to deal with it. we reply ......Zzzzzzzz

Thanks Joanne. I am glad you have found a way out, and am sorry that youve had to leave a job where, I assume, you had been happy and content. I think it’s a loss to education and the school I'm not sure what I’m saying. I have no master plan, no agenda for the destruction of BFS - as some have pointed out it is seen by many a good thing. Who am I to think I know when and how exactly to influence the process. And yes I do work in the private sector in ICT but Im not really wearing my company hat. I'm not looking to sell anything - but create a place for all parts of the organism to talk to itself and see what emerges. There is a lot interest in BFS and the personal evidence of how BSF effects on the lives and working of schools will be of interest to many. I'm not talk about a Westminster Conference - (which I’ve been to and was a heart stoppingly dull affair - £300 quite to here a minster bang on about motherhood and apple pie - that really was a rip off). I know I can do better that and deliver something of value. Good luck in your new role.

@broc Is it me or are you a bit itchy scarchy? I’m not picking a fight with anyone here, but so far you’re having a got at me for cynical self interest, and not having any background research and saying your im saying your "sitting around and doing nothing". My comment about not letting the bastards beat you we directed at Joanne, who has given up.

Of coarse its not over - BSF is wobbling like a 2m high jenga stack. the bricks can't be stacked much higher - and when it collapse or changes shape - we want intelligent reasonable experienced and honorable people to help reshape it. Even if it does not explode - there will be plenty of chances to change iTs course. Maybe I’m to optimistic - but the alternative is to let the bastards beat you. Who said you could have what you want without FIGHT ?

Sorry - but yes I agree.

But this is not a presentation - and I'm looking for feedback about my ideas nothing else. Sorry if its hard for you to understand. But then as some one has noted "dyslexia is a way of loaf". As a fully paid up loxdoxic I know its a handicap. My view is that - although there is carping about the cost and the spelling and me being in a big business and therefore (maybe) less worthy - you will all bust a gut to be there as its the only show in town of its type. Small world theory says you need to go to a distant part of the forest. There you can find new knowledge which brings value and status when you bring them back to the tribe. Some of you lot need to get out more ! Hopefully I will be able to invite you at a cost you can afford some time soon. No offence intended.

Well done for picking up on my grammer and spelling. Hope it made you feel good. While I think your within your rights comment - where is it getting you in relation to the steam roller that BSF is heading in our direction. Im very distressed that my atempts to engage with this group are nit picked. Top marks for alienating me.