mthomas08

I honestly thought they were already axed.... I mean.. I hardly see them and I don't remember the last time I saw some one eat them.

Depends really what you want to do with them. I'd say iPads but it's a lot of money. We currently use Google so we went down the route of Android. If you want simple 7" ones, look at Google Nexus comparisons. If it's simple day to day stuff - there's no real advantage to spending a fortune on iPads. Price range I would look at £150-£200. Don't go for the cheapest you can find because they will be a bit sluggish at times (think Tesco Hudl). We trialled it and it's not for long usage. I would also consider not getting a 7" one but the next size up. We had all sorts of issues with the small screen ones because some websites do not work well - especially in regards to online interactive activities. It will boil down to exactly what they want to do with them. Be warned: If a company says "it works on tablets" make sure you get that from more than 1 rep Don't expect everything to work on them Chargers are easily broken Charging ports are almost as easy to break - and when it's ruined it really is ruined - talking board replacements Easy to smash a screen Kids will install things they shouldn't - no matter how many times you tell them not to Factory reset doesn't always mean - factory reset. We had to send one back because the student did something incredibly weird (it effectively overwritten the factory reset - so no matter what.... P0rn apps were appearing). Just because it's a tablet doesn't mean it can be altered in such a way - we had to factory reset quite a few every month (similar to above - weird things were happening) We didn't lock them down because it's not what the school wanted to do (I would have) The Apps are not as 'brilliant' as some think - we had a few that replaced our software (netbooks) and they were deemed not worth the effort iPads are not immune to the above. Some would BYOD iPads and they too had very similar issues. After the tablets we did a U-turn and went to netbooks. If you have along list of questions - ping them my way. We attempted BYOD/ICT Schemes and have since pulled the plug. Although yours if on a much smaller scale. You may have much more success for a single group of them.

We imaged our W10 machines which usually is updated around 3-4 times a year. It really depends how many updates, software changes or even fixes come with the W10 packages. We also deploy updates via WSUS. There's been a few minor little issues which mostly has been down to Edge compatibility. Some desktop short alterations. So far it's been alright. We've currently got around 15% of our system on W10 at the moment. Although we have been testing it on/off since release.. I was hesitant because of the little niggle problems. So far it's been okay.

Currently playing Star Wars Battlefront 2. A lot of improvements from the 1st one but don't get me started on the 'buying' system that is currently shutdown. The amount of times I've been killed by players with purple cards (ability/stat boosting) is unbelievable. I've already spent around 65K credits (earned) and I didn't have the Pre-release date access at all. So far I've not gained a single purple and only very few slightly higher grades than normal. It's Fifa all over again where you need to spend money to gain the best players for multiplayer. It's incredibly hard to compete against players with better guns and better abilities. Luckily enough I've now got a 2nd grade upgraded gun to 3/4 main troopers. Far better and easier to kill with. Sadly it's all become a bit pay to win and there seems to be a rise of cheaters with no banning in sight (as far as I've seen). The usual ESP and even aimbots popping around where players who rolling/dodging and quickly popping 4 players in the head. I'm enjoying it though, just have to avoid peak time weekends because the lag really seems to hit servers.

We are considering blocking USBs and only allowed on a per basis otherwise they will be encrypted. Users will be responsible for them. Laptops will be Bitlocker Windows 10 - gives us the chance to stick W10/SSDs in them.

Although not as bad - 30 minutes. When I started in my current role, it could take a while on a 100MB network. Since upgrading to 1GB we had seen a massive boost in performance with SIMs. We find it still takes a moment but only because everything else is fast. SIMs takes up to 10 seconds for us - server and locally. We are currently having a few random memory crashes for certain users. Working with Capita on this one but even I am at a loss now on what the issue is. Edit: Also looks like you've tried the usual things we have. In the hope of solving our problems, we chucked a load (I mean a load) of memory in to the server.

Ofsted requirements and to cover your backs. In many years it's not often I hear "I knew that" instead it's "I didn't know that" even though it's on the website. Doesn't help that we've gone from sharing important information with a few tabs to showing tons of info with loads of tabs. Menus upon menus, lists of menus.. it goes on and on. Even the most tidiest of school websites can still be confusing for a parent who wants one piece of info. Social media - especially Twitter is short to the point and I like that. People would rather quick browse down a list instead of spending ages looking through menus which require endless clicking to find the one answer.

I think this is one of those common sense things. You generally check your blindspot/mirrors before opening up. I've always done it. I always watch out for cars, pedestrians and bikers. No different to turning in. I don't want my car scratched or torn doors!

One thing that solved all our IWB problems with USB cables is getting repeaters/active cables. So far this has solved the majority of our isses (don't know if this will help).

Think the first thing you might want to do is write a list exactly what you want. Maybe try and get a survey setup for all the schools. I worked at a school once that wanted to setup everything online similar to how Universities have it. You logon and gain access to the whole subject course with learning materials and assignments. One of those things that on paper makes sense with so few not having access to IT/Internet. We currently have a few here and we've just pulled the plug on RealSmart - quite a bit of money for a simple SIMs sync to google and simple platform to create shared resources. Probably didn't help their rep who arrived to tell us we can scrap Micosoft tomorrow to save £££ and it will be easy... (while sitting there with his MacBook) Moodle which is mainly used by ICT for their courses etc - It's simple, free and does the basics. G Suite which a few of our staff are using it to share files with students and now we've got back full control of it we will use Classroom in September. Also going to advise our students to use this instead of a USB stick (due to the amount of misplaced/damaged ones come through our door). We are also considering going cloud based for some storage/email - again free instead of purchasing expensive servers. Some staff are looking at Show My Homework to replace SIMs Learning Gateway due to the complex nature of passwords and not so fluid system (smooth) to use. Cheaper than SLG. Capita do SLG... and it's really not all that plus don't get me started on their password settings. It does link with SIMs well though..

8 pages of jobs here...: Projector replacements IT the revamped 6 classrooms Install 2 new IWBs Endless of server updates including sims/papercut Two lots of new laptops to sort out And all that covers about 1 page.

We are doing this next week. I won't lie but every time I click deploy I have my mind fingers crossed that all goes well. Rarely ever perform them outside of holiday periods so we can contact Capita asap and it's not the end of the world if it's not fixed in 2 minutes.

One thing we did was get a technician to check random lessons before and after. Any damages found during that time was passed on to the above with the teachers name responsible. Making sure the IT is in good condition helps a bit too but we're still burning through far too much mice/keyboards and unless the staff responsible for the rooms get their act together.. you're fighting a losing battle.

We've got Lightspeed but no issues but ours is not provided by the SWGFL because we went else where to save costs. Our old setup was provided by the broadband providers. It was all housed by them. Although it was at times useful having them as middle men at times if they had problems it caused outages with us.

We use a company called Orbital. They are very local to us and only about 20 minute drive. They were able to provide the same Lightspeed filtering system, Spam mail filters and a 200MB connection instead of 100MB. On top of that the main reason why we looked elsewhere was cost. We managed to save around 20%. We've also got more control over those systems with no real extra work load. They really know their stuff and have been fantastic support wise. The sweet cherry on top is we've got a backup wireless connection in the event some one cuts our main line. Interestingly enough when mentioned to our previous provider that we found a company willing to do "like for like" service their reaction was to not only cut their price but also offer us 300MB connection. When we asked a short time before this conversation they offered 200MB at around 25% cost increase. So you could probably guess we was not 100% happy over this and we did tell them. We can also provide Lightspeed reports much quicker because previously at times it could take minutes > hours and even days to get a single report off. This company also provided our telephones + provider. All good costs and not expensive. They seem very willing to do what it takes to get Schools on board which includes - cost saving.

We've got quite a few oldish i3's with some SSDs and they still work a treat.

Has any Schools been hit by this? It's been some years since I've heard the word outbreaks and education is usually in the mix. Seems this time around not the case?

Am I the only one that wants to say lucky devil? I'm not joking I actually enjoy this type of work. Not the first I've taken a job with little to no documentation. First thing: I'd do a full site audit: Equipment, age, working, state of rooms, cabling quality, networking and server standards. Second thing: I'd evaluate the type of problems everyone faces (great way to ask staff, HODs what their view is). Although they may say "it's old" you take that with a pinch of salt - you can work that out by doing the above. Server reliability, broadband and network speed. How long does it take to logon as a staff/student. Third thing: The budget available, what gets purchased every year, can you cut costs e.g. non branded PCs, cheaper ones through your own suppliers, cheaper contractors maybe doing cabling etc. Fourth: Printers, how much do they print a year, you can do a meter reading on everything (and with the audit you can work out how much they print a year on average) On the things that won't change e.g. system setup, server setup. I'd get some documentation how it was all setup, make sure you have backups of everything, you can easily get Group Policy reports printed etc. I don't have templates only reports to Governors/SLT I've prepared, audits, classroom evaluations, printing, cabling, networking and servers - all stuff I've done my self. This isn't to slate my guys though because they spent most of their time fire fighting/non IT tasks and nothing more because they lacked the time. I'm probably missing a load but on the whim that's what I can think of.

I'd keep it short and simple because they may not always have the time to answer 20 questions. (you've covered ll the basics though!) If I could get answers though: Do you feel you've got adequate equipment to perform your lesson? If not state which: e.g. Projector/IWB/PC Does the IT layout best fit your lesson? If not state how you would alter it Are there any IT related problems in other classrooms you generally suffer? If so state which room and what problem. What is the average wait time for IT issues to resolved once reported? To be fair I've already been working on a long list which I'd like to do a full survey on at some point.

We use PaperCut with Toshiba printers, you can use pin codes, bar codes or even biometrics (which we use so it ties to cashless catering). The biometrics though is the high cost solution which next time we refresh the equipment and need to replace them there's a chance we will revert to barcodes. It all goes to a queue and what ever printer staff/students go to they can use a finger and voila all their jobs they've sent. There's also an email to print - useful for BYOD. We're also looking at further costings which is why students are now limited to small amount of credit per 12 months e.g. £5 for Yr7/8, £10 for 9/10/11. If they go over it now it gets charged to the department that wants them to print (staff have to request this). The idea is it gets everyone asking students "do you need to print that". Otherwise you run the risk of students doing what staff do - print what they want regardless to costs - mentality. Once our oldest printer gets replaced we can also remove Personal Account Credit from staff and resort to Departmental Accounts. This forces the users to choose which department to bill for each job. As a result of budget cuts we've lost a lot of money next year and we are working hard to cut down printing.

As a Mac build it makes much more sense to stick to Apple. In the current financial climate though you may want to seriously weigh up the options for Windows. We are Windows and my IT budget has been cut, now for any expenditure people will need to provide good arguments not just "it looks pretty". For us we have a plan B to switch from Macs to PCs which would save us a lot of money. At the end of the day though it's up to those running the school not me.

I can personally vouch on this one. It takes years to develop something for everyone just to do a u-turn. Look at VLEs, a government forced idea which half pulled the plug on it when a new PM came along. I know a ton of Schools that are still now completely hesitant to go Cloud based not just because of change but having low broadband capacity/availability. I'd never string anyone up for taking the leap or not out of fear of wasting ones time. For us, it's a good option going forward and if it scrapped the idea of an internally housed SIMs.Net it's even better. At some stage we will have to consider replacing the server - something I am not looking forward to. Cloud is on the table for us like many but again I won't string anyone up for not taking the leap because there is no magic bean instead it will work for some and not others. As for SIMs, I can see us going to 8 as soon as possible.

We clear our profiles around every 3 months and even if we didn't it's not an issue for us. The only ones who may have issues are those who save a ton of work locally or keep copies locally of their USB drive data. Outside of Film studies (which now have a NAS drive) for us there isn't a reason why we can't swap out to 120GB SSDs throughout our network which is my plan in next years budget. No joke - plan on getting 200-300 of them.

Yes, as far as I know we've been educating students in the "internet" for over a decade before they had devices at home. We've been teaching them about E-Safety, online risks and that what they post is permanently online (in same way). Yet again showing how far behind they are to actually what happens in Schools. Perhaps they think we all still use blackboards and chalk.

What I do to get best prices, I go to 5 suppliers not the generic 3 to quote like for like. I choose the best 3 prices that have quoted and see if they can improve because others have beaten them on certain items. Once they get back I choose the best one and tell them if they've lost still on a few to match. 99% it works well and I manage to save a lot of money. Unsure if I'm allowed to say all the companies I usually do business with? because ICT are an EduGeek sponsor. Sorry ICT Dave