deerwood

This really depends why it has been turned down. The usual reason seems to be not enough detail in the bid. In which case the Authority has to add the missing details and re-submit the bid. This would seem to be the case in Gloucestershire. "Mr Balls confirmed that Birmingham, Cumbria and Gloucestershire came close to being selected - but with some extra work in certain areas they are first in line to enter the programme at the next available opportunity." pppFocus.com

You are correct to say that Espresso allows you to take its content and use it in school by pasting into Powerpoint, Word, Movie Maker or any program that accepts cut and paste. However, that is only an entitlement to use the content. It does not mean that you have copyright (how could you have the copyright?). While you may use the content within your school as you wish, giving the content to another school that does not subscribe is not permitted neither is selling any of the content in any way. As for the VLE, you are entitled to use the content in any non-public areas of the VLE. I do not really understand why anyone would want to stop their subscription to Espresso. The content appears to be first rate, more content is being developed all the time and the school benefits from fresh up to date material broadcast each week. The company has recently bought out Channel 4 Learning and so now has access to a wealth of new content to re-purpose for educational use in primary and secondary schools. (End of advert!)

Are you still able to use Outlook to connect to a Hotmail account? The last time I tried, it failed and I was informed that free hotmail accounts were no longer accessible with Outlook.

Are you using IE7 by any chance? I have seen this problem with IE7 but do not understand why it happens. The 'workaround' seems to be to right click the attachment and then open it in a new tab. see here also http://www.edugeek.net/forums/showthread.php?t=13144

I have the new O2 Orbit2. It is basically the HTC Touch in O2 guise. The original poster requested GPS built in. True, the O2 Orbit 2 does have GPS but the CoPilot software is naff; the maps are outdated (my street isn't included though it was constructed 8 years ago!) and GPS reception is very flaky without an external antenna.

I don't think it is that easy. The only way to get a CRB check on yourself is to join an agency. Umbrella bodies cannot be used by individuals to get a check on themselves. see here; http://www.crb.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=289&qid=506 I think the whole system would be wide open to abuse if individuals, rather than employers, were able to get checks on themselves.

I wonder which version of NOD32 you are using? I agree that versions 2.5 to 2.7 were excellent but the latest incarnation version3 seems to hog resources and cripply slow machines.

Go for the free stuff only if you really must. You do not say whether the software is for pupils, staff or both to use. What phase or keystages would the school intend to use the mindmapping tool. Almost invariably, the best way to start is with pen and paper so that the concepts and principles of mindmapping can be got accross first. If you then wish to take computer based mindmapping seriously, you would need to consider the following programs; Mindmanager - the market leader, suitable for business, commerce, higher education and secondary education. Inspiration - leading 'educational' mind mapping program suitable for Juniors and upwards plus staff use. Kidspiration- Primary school mindmapping program 2Connect- from 2 simple, primary school mindmapping program with interesting collaboration facilities. There are, of course, others including Mind Genius and iMind. The latter follows the Buzan method best.

Quotes ... "It's the content not what it looks like that is important." "Surely the content is the most important thing not how jazzy it looks." Oh come on, guys, surely nobody seriously believes this. If something does not look good, then who is going to look at it or take any notice of it!? The problem with PowerPoint is that, in the hands on most of us, it simply does not look good and nobody takes the blindest bit of notice; ... NO MATTER HOW GOOD THE CONTENT. It is probably easier to create a better presentation without PowerPoint than it is with PowerPoint.

I think you can guess the answer ... after school, lunch times, before school, weekends and school holidays. ... I guess ICT co-ordinators should be grateful that they have network managers and technicians (unless, of course they haven't got them!)

To be honest, Fresco is quite old software. If you are having serious problems with it, I'd suggest looking at newer alternatives, maybe Dazzle, Revelation or the new Paint package from 2Simple, all of which do everything Fresco does and more. Have a chat with your ICT co-ordinator.

I guess I am in a fortunate position in that I go around many schols and can see different styles of ICT setups and working arrangements. What seems clear to me from these visits and it appears echoed in this thread, is that things work best when staff with different roles work together and recognise the responsibilities, skills and expertise of each other. In our modern schools things are constantly changing; sometimes slowly, sometimes too fast. These constant changes mean that people's roles and responsibilities also change. Several years ago, the roles of network manager or network technician did not exist in schools and those roles were carried out by the ICT co-ordinator (who was also a full time teacher and probably had responsibility for other AV aids). I'd guess that maybe some ICT co-ordinators have difficulty in letting go of previous roles and focusing upon ICT as a curriculum tool (which I'd suggest should be the role of an ICT co-ordinator).

But that was the installer program NOT the software itself. The errors SimpleSi seems to have encountered were probably due to trying to 'upgrade' from an earlier version instead of uninstalling the old version first.

Did it? Can't see any mention of crashes in that thread.

Crashes? Wot Crashes?

Just checked today and I notice there is a new service pack for version 9.5 of Smartboard software. Thankfully, you do not have to download the whole software package if you have already installed 9.5, just download the new service pack2 See http://www.smarttech.com/support/software/sb_win.asp

It's a great piece of software for English (literacy) and almost any other subject, especially as it's free!

We have rightly identified a lack of training as an obstacle to ICT implementation. Training is often overlooked when planning for new equipment or new approaches in ICT. Schools are often prepared to spend thousands of pounds on new hardware or software but very little on training. Which is a great shame and almost a disgrace when we consider that schools may be paying very little for the software by purchasing using elcs. Surely some of the money saved could be put toward training? Schools or LAs will often lok for some element of training to be included in the purchase cost. Which is basically a sound idea. However, such training is usually based around how the software/hardware works rather than how it can be used in teaching or how it can be fitted into lesson planning etc.. Even where a school has paid for training with its purchase, not all schools take up the training. Which is very surprising seeing as they have paid for it. Perhaps they cannot always see the need for training, perhaps it is not always possible to arrange the training (supply cover, twilight or staff meeting time not being available etc..), perhaps they simply forget that training is available. Consequently, there are probably a great number of software titles that lie in cupboards or hidden on networks that never get used or, if they are used, are probably not used as best they could be.

I think I'd take exception if you told me I had to wait ... If I've come to you with a problem, it's because I want it solved. Give me a time when it will be solved .. OK .. but don't tell me to wait! What is important is not that the whole system works 'perfectly' (do they ever?) but that ICT can be used to teach the pupils. If a teacher has a problem using ICT equipment for teaching, then that is priority. In my experience, any problem management system becomes an obstacle in itself. Ticket systems basically just seem to delay resolutions. Often problems are not mentionned because staff do not know how to use the ticket system (basically they just want the problem fixed .. why should they have to learn how to use a ticket system?). Tickets are then rated as urgent or otherwise by people who have not experienced the problem and non-urgent tickets just get pushed further down the queue as more tickets are raised, consequently a small problem gets left, gets worse or is simply forgotten about;-which is not a very effective system. It sometimes seems as if more time is spent working the system rather than solving problems. Basically, we shouldn't allow our heads to get too buried in the system that we lose sight of the purpose of the technology, which is to primarily to help pupils learn.

Hang on guys. Is anyone seriously suggesting allowing pupils, even primary pupils, access to gmail accounts? I have had a gmail account ever since Google first announced their service. To be honest, over time it has proved to be dreadful. I am especially disappointed with the lack of adequate spam filtering which means that each day I get 2 to 3 times as much spam as I do genuine mail. I'd suggest that this is certainly NOT a service to give to schools.

The latest update is actually a bugfix to the first 9.5 issue. Normally you would have to remove any old installation before installing the new but the bug fix update can be installed over a current version of 9.5

As I understand it, any materials to be purchased with elcs and any manufacturer has to be vetted and approved. So presumably someone has vetted and approved these ppoint files and the makers/suppliers? It is my firm belief that if any teacher uses their own time, skills, ideas and resources to produce educational resources, then they have a right to sell them if they so wish and, equally, a right to give them away free if they so wish. What is often less acceptable is that a school or local authority has a claim to such resources.

As an educational wordprocessor, Textease is great and I'd recommend it to primary schools and, possibly, KS3. One of its key features is the ability to import all many of files into a word processing document (including audio and video files), this makes it very versatiile for producing multimedia documents. It also has a very flexible layout system which can be a great tool for more creative pupils (and staff).

Can somebody give me an idiots' (I know my place) guide to ipTV, Television across an intranet? What does it involve hardware and software wise, and how easy is it to get up and running?

I agree with many of the comments already made. Try to draw up a plan to replace injets with colour lasers, which generally work out cheaper despite initial purchase costs. The only time to use colour inkjets is when you require good quality colour picture printing. In the meantime, have a printer set aside as a spare or backup, this could be a standalone machine you can connect to a workstation/desktop if needed oe it could be a printer permamently connected on your network. When a printer cartridge needs replacing, disconnect that printer and employ the spare/backup printer in its place. Remove the cartridge and pop down to your local Cartridge World to have it refilled. Put the refilled cartridge back into the printer immediately and then reconnect the printer. I find it is not advisable to have refilled cartridges 'lying around' waiting to be used, which is why I suggest refitting it immediately. Some branches of Cartridge World seem to do a collect and deliver service, ask your nearest branch and let them know you could become a regular customer. This process should work fine unless more than one printer 'goes down' st the same time. You may find that certain times of year produce higher than average demands upon printer ink; report writing time, for example. Try to anticipate this and make sure you have enough spare cartridges or backup printing, just in case!