conehead

Looks a good price, £ 38.95 inc but including vat and delivery though, so still a bit cheaper than the main microsoft outlet,

Just looking at the cheapest way of getting Windows 7 for my daughter, she is a student with a valid academic email address, the problem being you get an email link, but at the £30 offer screen, there are only options to choose 64 or 32 bit disc which adds on an extra 9 quid, doesn't seem to be an option just to download the iso this way and get key directly from microsoft. The other option I have looked at are downloading a iso file directly like this (seems like digital river are an authorised agent) Digital River: http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65733/X15-65733.iso and buying the key from one of the sites online that claims to be able to sell keys via email, without discs if you have your own media for around 23 quid, but something tells me that this seems too good to be true, any thoughts?

I think we put too much trust on the safety on these HGVs bombing up and down the roads, I would prefer freight rail and smaller trucks on local distribution.

Thanks everyone. Hmmm, pretty much along the lines I was suspecting. The crossover between machines seem to be unavoidable. The idea was to make it easier when the younger kids are using the suite, for phonic work and word recognition progs. They do get the current lightweight stuff in a real tangle and the wires are easily broken. Some fat coiled wire durable sets seem like the best option. Cheers.

Has anybody successfully used wireless headphones in a ICT suite? 18 PCs in close proximity around 3 side of the room

I have a couple of schools that have bought this, the copy to disk space and link to the web menu on clients looks handy but I would like to restrict options so users can just run the software over the network, not install, and deffo not copy shortcuts for ALL the progs to their desktop The automatic resizing of the desktop to run the titles, but not returning to prerun setting on exit the progs is going to be a pain though!

Pretty much what I expected to hear, thanks. Just wanted to be sure there was nothing REALLY awkward. Time to stick the specs on

A mate has stood on his 13 in Macbook, cracked screen but all else seems OK. I've seen replacements on Ebay around seventy quid and found a replacement walkthru guide online that seems pretty standard. Are there any pitfalls I need to know about before volunteering to fix it for him?

I like this bit. BSF is a bit like buying a new TV – the new set looks great when you put in the corner of your sitting room, but it’s the programmes that actually make you want to keep coming back for more – and after a while, you forget that you have even got a new telly! If the programmes haven’t improved in the meantime, everything goes back to how it used to be.”

Some really interesting thoughts here, thanks to all .:) As well as agreeing with all the supporting arguments from you guys, I do think there's a whole new move in graphic novels for young people that can be really constructive in getting them engaged in learning. Books like the Manga Shakespeare editions and Bryan Talbot's Alice In Sunderand are fantastic examples of text and images together, that work splendidly on paper, and I think they would lose a lot if only available on a screen.

It seems that some new Academies are being built without traditional libraries. Much as I love ICT, I do believe there is no substitute for books and other written materials in hard copy. I'm interested in what other Edugeekers think about this trend? Anyway if you feel like I do, there's a petition online. Petition to: make school libraries statutory. | Number10.gov.uk

All the best of luck with the big step. One area I was going to ask about at the Edugeek conf and thought you may be able to investigate it now you will not be tied to an employer/LEA is union provision for techies! From my perspective no union such as Unison, or even the teaching unions that take associate membership from other school based staff have much idea about the actual jobs we do. If you could somehow form a Edugeek affiliation with a union that could combine their muscle and Edugeek's expertise in representing school based ict staff I'm sure quite a number of people would consider joining up. Just a suggestion, I'm sure you have a lot on your plate at the moment.

Some BSF companies use their own MIS, so your SIMS skills may be surplus to requirements, who are the bidders?

School building programme does not compute | Education | guardian.co.uk

The most revealing point was the statement that we should be aspiring to see ICT provision as a "5th Utility" service. That philosophy is so wrong headed for schools. I could make some milage by saying that using utility services such as Gas, with its over-cost escalating charges, poor customer relations, and mis-selling is perhaps not the best comparison, or indeed water sevices, which in my view under privatisation was a way of selling back to you what you already owned, but I suppose that's just my view. No, what concerns me with the "5th Utility" idea is the assumption behind it that there is a generic service that will suit all schools, the idea you can just pipe in ICT services. "industry standard" to me reads reliable but static provision, which is not what is needed in schools. Reliable is welcome but rightly or wrongly change in schools is constant, be it new guidelines on encryption of data ,or parental access measures that have to be put in place, or a new exam board with new software. All this is unpredictable and can't be put into a contract as we haven't got crystal balls. What is certain is the cost of implementing any unseen developments or innovation will be expensive and convoluted compared to a in-house solution.

Are you saying the SATS tests contracts were not profitable so they didn't mind losing the contract when it became clear they couldn't cope with the job profitably, or something more sinister?

Being in Bolton meant up to a couple of years ago I could go and pick stuff up directly from Dabs as well as Scan. Scan have always been OK when stuff had gone faulty, but it helps if you are near enough to sort it eyeball to eyeball, not used Dabs since it went BT.

Be my pleasure, there will probably be a couple of other bolton bods going and we did a bit of a car share last time. Let me know wherebouts you are by PM and we will sort something out.

I intend to come, very interesting and useful last year.

Looks like the poor loves at Uniservity have taken the Best VLE poll to heart:) I don't anticipate them killing the goose that lays the golden eggs with a full scale migration to Moodle, imagine the outcry! More likely that it will be a optional extra for those existing and more importantly NEW customers who want to host "in house" for speed and configuration/MIS integration ease.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Is there a prize

BBC NEWS | Education | Primary school subjects overhaul Sir Jim also argues that the primary curriculum needs to reflect changes in children's experiences and it should recognise that many young children have developed computer skills in their own homes. Primary podcasts He says the level of lessons in information, communication and technology (ICT) currently taught in secondary schools should now be taught to primary-age pupils. :D:D Such technology skills should also be used in other lessons, recommends Sir Jim. This could include using the internet for research, word-processing work and making podcasts. "Good primary teaching deepens and widens children's understanding by firing their imagination and interest in learning. One highly promising route to meeting the demand for in-depth teaching and learning is undoubtedly emerging through ICT," says Sir Jim. "The primary curriculum needs to be forward-looking."

It should happen as you think, but I would try to get it in writing from the HR dept where you are going to, also see if you are entitlied to carry over your past years in local government entitlement to an extra weeks holiday after 5 yrs service, or maybe that's become phased out now in newer contracts? Another important note of caution, has the area you have gone to had their pay and grading review yet? if not you cound be in for a nasty suprise soon. ICT staff around scale 6 seem to be getting downgraded when this comes around.

I imagine other hidden costs to Primary Schools will start to surface once Secondary Schools have been taken under a managed service. For example, are your broadband services cost aggregated out between a number of schools in your area? Once the Managed Service put in their own system and the Secondary opts out of the shared provision, it doesn’t always follow the charges for the remaining schools will go down proportionally, if at all! So the remaining schools may have to pay a much larger price for their share of the broadband service.

I know of plenty of schools where much of the data entry has been done already on Version V2.5 or even earlier, sometimes installed on a network location, for backup and multi user/location reasons. eyeProfile There is a lot of updated info now on this page for EyeProfile, including a utility for extracting data from 2.X and feeding it into 3.0, and some more technical instructions for the software. Thanks for the info Kev