Zoom7000

The answer here is no. We don't use SMART Notebook or ActivInspire. Our boards are mainly used for use with Google Slides. I've always used the ActivPanels and nothing but, however, I wasn't too happy with the v4, 5 and 6 range as it didn't offer any built in screen features unless you used the OPS input, which let's face it, most teachers never use! The BenQ came with built in casting for iOS and Miracast devices, as well as on screen annotation and a few other useful features. It also has a built in soundbar which is very good quality. Up until the release of the ActivPanel v7, I was a dead cert for the BenQ, however, the Nickel (which is the lower end of the v7 range) comes with a lot of the added features that the BenQ does. The only things that I can see that are missing, is the soundbar and palm rejection (you need to buy the Cobalt or Titanium ActivPanel to get palm rejection) So, they are very similar products. The question is, better the devil you know or go for new?

I'm looking at purchasing some interactive panels at my schools and have come to the choice of one of two models: BenQ RP6502 65" ActivPanel Nickel 65" Historically, I've always purchased Promethean boards because they were cheapest and no one else (barring Iiyama, but bad experiences there!) came close. However, I have had recommendations to check out the BenQ and I've been quite impressed. So the question is, which does everyone recommend and why?

At the moment, in the Admin Console, there isn't a split option for Google Meet and Classic Hangouts. If you want your users to be able to attend a Meet, then you have to switch on Google Hangouts. Doing this however, will switch on the capability for the students to use Classic Hangouts too as there isn't currently anyway to split the 2 settings.

No, this setting isn't available in the Admin Console. The stream has to be turned off per classroom, but can be toggled on or off by any teacher of the class.

No, live stream is a one-way stream. The viewers can only watch, there is no interaction with the presenter. The workaround here would be to use Google Classroom or a shared Google Doc to take questions from the students.

I'm going with 217

Yes, in the Admin Console, you need to browse to: Apps > G Suite > Settings for Hangouts Meet and Google Hangouts > Meet settings And then turn on streaming.

Just be sure to note that live streaming currently only works for users within the same domain. So you can't put a public link out and allow non domain users to watch the live stream.

If you don't work with a reseller and are still having issues getting approval and coming to the end of your trial period, send me a DM and I can reach out to my Google contacts to try and push this through.

Yes, there is a delay. I noticed it yesterday doing some similar tests.

Update, from Google

Just got this come in from one of our Google partner resellers: I haven't seen promotional material from Google as yet, but the company sharing this news is where I buy all my licenses from and are a Google Premier Partner, so it's great news nonetheless to support schools who might be purchasing more ChromeOS devices in order to prepare for distance learning scenarios.

I had to break the news to my teachers that Promethean were discontinuing ActivInspire back in 2016 (a decision they backtracked on) but it's pretty obvious that there is hardly any development going in to ActivInspire. We used to the news as a reason to push on with the change to Google Slides. A lot of teachers didn't like it, but I explained that we had to move this way to sustain ourselves for a financially insecure future, reduce our reliance on on-premise platforms and embrace 21st century cloud learning and productivity platforms. Those schools that did listen to this advice have a much easier distance learning transition than those who weren't willing to change. I've had many discussions with schools telling them that you can't just simply expect to set up a platform and then start using it. It's a process that requires training and active use to enable the cultural change required to move forward with it.

When using Hangouts Meet, only the organiser (which should be the teacher) of the meeting can invite other people into the meeting. If someone tries to join using the URL the organiser would have to allow them in. You can't just join without permission unless you have been invited. Also, the invite expires after the meeting time has elapsed. Hence, if students who had been invited try to join thereafter, it won't let them in. You can also lock down so that only staff can initiate Hangouts: In Apps > G Suite > Settings for Google Hangouts > Meet settings, turn "Let users place video and voice calls" OFF. This way, staff can create meetings, and students can join, but students can't create their own meetings. Also, Hangouts Meet can be set up with retention policies in Google Vault. So a Super Admin can do the necessary investigation if needs be. I think we need to appreciate that there are unprecedented scenarios and not everything is gonna be ideal. Most schools are trying to do the best of not so ideal scenario.

Check out this recorded webinar that the Google for Education team ran last week on how schools can get prepared for distance learning. I'd also check out this Wakelet from Clay Smith which has a great collection of resources on distance learning and coronavirus related resources. Clay has also offered to support where he can with schools working on a distance learning plan, so definitely reach out to him for further advice and ideas.

I'm putting together a webinar series discussing distance learning with G Suite as part of the Google Educator Group (@GEG_UK). We should hopefully have some sessions going next week! In the meantime, I'd advise checking out this recorded webinar that the Google for Education team ran last week on how schools can get prepared for distance learning. I'd also check out this Wakelet from Clay Smith which has a great collection of resources on distance learning and coronavirus related resources.

I think it's an issue with the default "Twenty Twenty" theme in WordPress. I've changed it to "Twenty Sixteen" and the font displays better now. Weirdly, bold is displaying too!

That doesn't explain why it does work when in edit mode.

I've set up a blog using WordPress. For my blog, I've been using the Google Fonts addon and selected a particular font that I want to use for the text. In this case, it's called "Imprima". However, if you notice, the font changes for any links, bold text or italic text. It only changes however when I publish the page. During edit mode, all of the text appears in the correct font. Any ideas what could be causing this?

I wasn't planning on this post being this long, but as I started to write it, it just went on and on but I enjoyed the memory. I've replicated it on my blog here. I remember my first experience using a computer was when I was in Year 5 in a school in Leicester back in 1992. We were the only class in the whole school that had a computer in the room. It was an Acorn Computer. We were all fascinated by this device that was something amazing that no one in the whole school (or outside of school!) had access to except for us. We would all be given 30 minutes "play time" to use the computer. At that age, I had a huge interest in art and drawing cartoons. We'd been working on an art project and when it came to my time to "play" on the computer, I launched the Acorn version of Paint and then began to draw out my art project on the computer. Suffice to say, I fell in love with computers at this point and my teacher was so impressed with what I’d done, that I got more and more opportunities to use the computer to exploit my "talent". From that moment onward, I knew that I wanted to work with computers and IT. We moved and settled back in London in the summer of 1992 and a year later I started at secondary school. I had a huge interest in IT by now and ended up taking IT at GCSE, then at college and then chose Computer Science at uni. I had a mixed experience with my degree. Most of our lecturers were terrible and utterly demotivating! I did enjoy the programming modules and I was actually very good at them. But, I HATED the networking modules! I remember I would vividly say, “I will do something in IT when I leave, but the one thing I definitely will NOT do, is networking!” What was I to know eh?! One day in my final year of uni in 2004, my friends and I were having lunch in the canteen, when a lady came over to us and said, “Would you guys be interested in coming to a 1 hour session this afternoon and help us with a research project? All we need you to do is answer questions on why you feel there are so few Asian people in teaching.” We looked at her and promptly told her that we were not interested. She then said “I forgot to mention, we pay you £10 for attending!” Suffice to say, we ran to the session! The session was actually very interesting. At the end, true to their word, we were given a crisp £10 note. As we were leaving they asked us if we’d be interested in spending 10 days at a school observing lesson as part of a programme called the “Student Associate Scheme”. Before we could have a chance to waver at the fact of having to spend 10 days in a school, we were told that we’d get paid £40/day. It was the easiest £400 we’d make in our lives! At the end of the 10 days, we’d go for a 1 hour evaluation session to share what we learnt and got a cheque (remember those?!) for £400. As I was leaving the evaluation, the tutor said “I have some money left in the budget, would you like to do another 5 days?” My eyes lit up at the £200 and I snapped it up. On my penultimate day at the school, I bumped into the Head Teacher. I spoke to her and told her that I was a final year uni student. I didn’t have a PGCE or anything, but I knew a thing or two about computers. Would she happen to have any summer work for me whilst I looked for a job post uni-life. She introduced me to the Business Manager, who introduced me to the Network Manager. I sat with him in his office whilst he awkwardly didn’t really know what to ask me. I then asked him what he was doing and he was struggling to deploy an MSI to a remote PC. I showed him how MSI parameters worked and he said, you’ve got the summer job! The summer job turned out to be a two week network overhaul project involving the decommissioning of the RM CC2.4 network and the implementation of a new vanilla Windows Server 2003 network with Windows XP clients. The school had called in a now defunct small company to carry out the implementation in full. I shadowed the lead engineer like a leech and watched his every single move like a hawk! At the end of the two weeks, the Network Manager told the Business Manager that he’d like me to stay till the end of the summer holidays to ensure a smooth completion of the project. Come September 2004, things were still a bit shaky with the usual new network teething problems and so the Business Manager asked if I would still carry on until the end of September. I had nowhere else to go, so of course I did. The previous Network Technician who was term time only, returned in September. She told me that she was due to start the Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP) and become an IT teacher at the school. It turned out that there was a chance that she wasn’t going to get accepted because she didn’t have a grade C in GCSE Maths. I went to see the Assistant Head and asked her if the technician didn’t get accepted into the GTP, could I do it instead, as I had a grade B in GCSE Maths. She said she’ll look into it and let me know. A few days later she told me that the technician had managed to do a GCSE Maths equivalent course and passed and so there wouldn’t be a position for me in the GTP. I asked her if the technician was leaving the IT Technician role, could I apply for that? That afternoon, an internal vacancy went up for the role of Network Technician. I applied, a couple of days later, I had probably the most “non-interview” in the world and I was given the job as I pretty much knew the network setup like the back of my hand! What started off as a two week contract for some work in the summer, turned into a ten year stay at the school, with some very valuable experiences of highs, mighty lows, but some very valuable learning experiences. So yeah, that’s how I ended up getting into IT! If I had to sum it all up as the “moral of the story”, I’d say... Be passionate about what you love and grab any opportunity that comes your way. You never know where it will take you! Be patient, keep working hard and success will come. It may take some time, but you will reap the rewards in the future! And to think, I was so close to becoming a teacher! 😂

I am delighted to share the news that last week I was recognised from amongst the top 50 personalities working in education technology in the UK as part of the #EdTech50 Awards as one of the "Ones to Note". Here's a snippet from the chief judge of the #EdTech50, Ty Goddard, of what the #EdTech50 is all about: "The Edtech 50 is a celebration of the people, products and projects shaping this dynamic and growing sector across the UK. EdTech is growing across Britain and Northern Ireland – supportive for educators, learners, and, if implemented well helps improve education. This EdTech sector needs bold and imaginative policy to support it, investment, super fast broadband; but above all it needs focus and passion from Governments to fully realise its potential for education, skills, new jobs and growth across our country." Ty Goddard, Chair, Edtech UK & Edtech 50 Judging panel Here's a link to the full #EdTech50 Yearbook for 2020: http://www.ednfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/EDTECH50-Yearbook-2020-.pdf Thank you to everyone for their support in helping me to achieve this recognition! Find out more about the Education Foundation and the #EdTech50 here: https://www.ednfoundation.org

We use Wizkids at my Trust, but I recently signed up another school with Wonde (wasn't available when I signed up) purely because of the cost.

I used one back in the day when they still connected to phones using the headphone jack! (Remember those?!) Now I believe they connect using bluetooth. My only query would be the payment fee. Perhaps the school would be better off looking at alternative readers just to see if they can get a better rate. Although iZettle has a certain polish around it with the app, which is nice and it's so simple. Also, just edited the title, to make it less "shouty"

I'll be there all day Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. I'm presenting on Wednesday and Thursday. This is the first year I won't be there on Friday as I'll be attending the Google Certified Innovator energiser in Central London, which I'm really looking forward to!

Did you mean a 1TB Hard drive?