CyberNerd

You only need students to be over 13 for the G+ accounts. You can turn off G+ in the settings. This is the Active Directory Sync: https://support.google.com/a/answer/106368?hl=en This is for signing up: https://www.google.com/a/signup/?enterprise_product=GOOGLE.EDU&hl=en&source=gafe-homepage-canvas-en#0

I just schedule all clients to run a shutdown at a certain time. Doesn't help with monitors though.

We found that there can be a lot of problems when hardware purchases are delegated to departmental budget holders. They tend not to plan in advance too well, and don't work out TCO's. It makes future upgrades a nightmare when MS or Capita demand you upgrade. IMO it is better to have a criteria for staff who would be eligible for laptops from a central pool.

yep. Sounds about right. Technically you can only get an inadequate. Ofsted inspectors don't understand the framework they judge schools on.

Gantter - web-based project scheduling made easy is pretty good and gets used here. It's online and links Google accounts.

We recalled all teacher laptops 3yrs ago and binned them. There was an initial outcry that everything would be 'impossible' and they 'couldn't teach' without them. That died down quite quickly after the rationale was supported by SLT. We provided permanent machines in each room. We encourage those who want to to bring in their own device. Most have ipads or other tablets. The cost in terms of man hours for support and cost of replacement is a lot less with fixed desktops.

Google apps accounts are free and you just use your Active Directory accounts once you've synced the accounts.

I just wonder, why no chromebooks? I'm quite new to chromebooks having set my first one up this week. It auto enrolled once wifi was setup, it is managed through policies and ran citrix, installed all the apps itself... it just worked out the box with minimal fuss. Seems an obvious choice for a google domain.

Yes the MIT courses really do take some dedication.

Thanks, I appreciate that. I'll have to discuss this with SLT, but it was the lack of accessibility for students that was historically one of our major sticking points on migrating to MSOffice. I'm still not sure anyone would be up for a full migration, but giving away a few thousand copies of Office can only be a good thing (provided I can set the default to OpenDocument Format).

problem is that we've been burned by this before, quite badly. Remember when MS started offering MS terminal services? - all of a sudden all of students could get 'free' access to MSOffice with a relatively cheap external connector license. Everyone was happy until they suddenly changed the licensing on Office. It impacted our organisation quite badly to the point that SLT moved us to LibreOffice and then Google apps. My worry here is that its a subscription based install, so whereas before we could ride out the problem using an older version of Office, this could end a bit more painfully and more abruptly.

Can I use this version on RDP? or do student *need* to use the subscription version installed on their local computer?

Surely you can just sign up and use the giveaway without actually using it? We certainly don't plan on using it until it gets as good as Google apps, but I'll happily sign up for 10,000 'free' copies of full office.

Ok, So I have some Office licenses (for staff), I can give away free ones to students after 1st Dec. correct?

You'll need to spell it out to me please If office 365proplus includes 5x licenses then does that mean students get free office or not?

They should start by demanding the kids do as they are instructed! All of our ICT teachers seem to hate this sort of 'management' software - they just seem to know which kids are working/on task and which aren't. Without even looking at their screens! It must come with experience because I can't do it!

So does this mean I can now run office over Citrix/RDP again like I could in the pre 2003 days?

You are just in time to start this one: https://www.edx.org/course/mit/6-00-1x/introduction-computer-science/1122 I looked at it last year but didn't complete it. Looks good though.

comware is dhcp relay server-group 1 ip XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX

Google Groups Collaborative Inbox https://support.google.com/a/answer/167430?hl=en

None of those things will be a problem whether you program the card or use the builtin code. All of the access restrictions will be done on the door system software - that will just query a database that holds the card number and the access permissions.

You don't *need* to, but you can program them if there is an advantage for your setup.

Apparently it's been completely re-written and is open source so you can create your own levels. Source code is here: https://github.com/Diogenesthecynic/FullScreenMario I found the source for this one too: Super Mario here: https://github.com/Univ-Paris-5-Super-Mario-Project/super-mario-univ-paris5 might make some interesting school projects

Anyone manage to sell @£4.50 and make £270 overnight?

We are about to put in external gates that work using RFID cards. We specified MiFare in the contract because that is also how our MFD fleet work. The company (who I don't recall the name of as the business manager dealt with it) assured us that our MiFare would be fine. Ours are 1k cards.