mthomas08

We've been talking about driverless cars for some years now. Yet still not here. We've been talking about EVs only for a while and still some way to go before we're even close. Best thing to do is wait and see. I highly doubt driverless cars are going to be the thing in 5 years time. We were supposed to have drone deliveries by now everywhere and I still see the same 4-5 drivers up and down my road on a daily basis (when I'm not working). EVs, there are still zero electrical charging points in my area and only the nice streets seem to be getting there. Only 1 EV car on my road and he charges it at work. Shall we discuss solar panels on our homes? EVs.. driverless.. delivery drones.. solar panels.. like all things they don't just pop up over night and I doubt very highly any of it is the norm within 5 years. Unless the government makes it law to avoid them... which even then seem to be delayed.. delayed.. delayed. Then remember who could win the next election and half of that will be thrown out the window. I'd be looking at 2035 for a real change in things at the earliest.

Latest game I'm on StarRupture. Very good so far and progress not complicated. Can't believe the low price tag.

For the harder type single player game there is Baldur's Gate 3. Never been interested in the tactical type turn based except XCOM series but this is really good. Absolute freedom too. Bellwright (and Medieval Dynasty) is good = medieval village builder. Planet crafter = explore/crafting/building Astrometica = space Subnautica Penkura = typical crafter builder with a nice sci-fi spin Generally all small Indie dev types. I I seem to be spending a ton of time on these types lately instead of the big budget games. End up replaying these over and over again plus they get free updates or still in development.

AI (albeit AI) told me certain aspects should be completed sooner. It clearly got the data from somewhere but magically vanished.... 2030 is a date on the DfE website. Even our governor knew about it and she runs the IT at a university and pushed for the SLT spot. She's been great for advice. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/meeting-digital-and-technology-standards-in-schools-and-colleges I'm not😇 Whole point is having IT knowledge and answers there within SLT working directly to HT/governors. I've had teachers managing us and wires constantly crossed... coming back to me.. back to SLT repeat 5 times... sometimes happens with SBM. Okay not everyone is capable of understanding T&L (let alone IT) or not interested which is a key part. SBM is in SLT, answers to HT/governors and attends all meetings and he understands T&L, has more knowledge of IT compared to nearly every teacher I've worked with. Yet issues are there. Don't get me wrong, not an impossible task but get the feeling it's easier for schools to employ head of ICT because within education.. teachers respect each other.. compared to support staff. How many times have I witnessed staff respect change when they realise the IT person is in fact.. head of ICT and/or SLT not just 'IT techie'. For us to be taken more seirous.. it needs to be us... sounds like i'm trying to persuade myself!!! Good question. I think Ofsted will be paying attention to it on some level, we already get that with internet filtering. Our DSL had to jump through hoops to make sure safeguarding hit 10/10. She had visitors from Outstanding schools and consultants. She had to update herself how we managed Lightspeed and needed a ton of stuff recorded.. documented.. and... well.. those pesky tick boxes. We now have a process for staff requesting websites to be blocked/unblocked and safeguarding checks through her. Honesty, should have been in place 10 years ago. As a result of what she did.. Ofsted recently praised our DSL/safeguarding on point. When previously it needed reviewing.. Only time will tell.................

So in continuing my work it turns out we need to meet Digital Standards by 2030? Does everyone already know this and I'm clearly not paying attention enough. Albeit this is AI written but... DfE Digital Standards Timeline to 2030 Now – 2026 (Foundation Stage) Appoint a Digital Lead in SLT. Create a digital strategy aligned with school improvement plans. Start asset register and cyber security training. Ensure filtering and monitoring policies are in place. 2026 – 2028 (Infrastructure Upgrade) Upgrade broadband to meet DfE minimum speed and resilience standards. Improve wireless coverage across all teaching spaces. Begin replacing outdated network switches for security and performance. 2028 – 2030 (Full Compliance) Complete all six core standards: Broadband Wireless Network switching Digital leadership & governance Filtering & monitoring Cyber security Embed digital governance into annual review and risk management. Ensure disaster recovery and business continuity plans include IT.

Ah yes.. the list.. EIS.... brings back memories. Perhaps we should get an email list back....... EduGeek is good and all but I'm always an email over a forum kind of guy. OP: I'll fill that out today hopefully!

Keep forgetting about this one. Thank you!

Someone did a great spreadsheet in another thread copied from the DfE government page. Plus there is secureschools.com which is free. Then a simple list of all the policies needed. Most available from the DfE gov page.

I played this with zero issues. No crashes. No problems. Very strange.

We are now heavily relying on Wonde..... and seems to be increasing as the months go by.. Seem to be sharing our MIS data with... everyone.

Not so far. All working since the last major outage.. start of term I think.

I can certainly +1 and more on this problem. The active HDMIs are almost perfect, I say this because one building has the occasional issue but I believe this is more down to damage and catching the cables behind the PC. We've had random drop outs with long HDMIs with the boost. We have this setup in about 30 classrooms and rarely have a problem. This is how we have the hall setup and not an issue (except again.. ball games and damages).

If you loved FFXI... you may end up loving this. I can't believe how good it is for the old style FF1-6 final fantasies. Expansions are there, originality, Dynamis and Sky. All the extra content too.

We use Asset Management from IRIS (not long purchased AM). Does the job. Very cheap 3 year deal I think we have.

Scary thought when you think about it. Cloudflare AWS (Amazon) Microsoft Google Govern what.. about 60% of the Cloud systems and 55% of internet traffic. I'm doing a little thing for the weekly bulletin and most of our external systems use those 4. With the school website being the only exception I can find hosting themselves. That joke about the internet being a tiny black box isn't far from the truth..

Put your name in the hat. Already had this discussion with my LM and he likes the idea and worded it to say the HT may like it. Just be honest and say.. it will take that person a ton of time to really understand the grasp of IT let alone what they need to do. BUT it does mean if you become the Digital Lead.. you need to put the SLT hat and understand procedures... protocols.... DL will need -to coordinate with IT -needs of training (based on feedback from IT) -have the ability to question and understand the answers with IT and liaise back to HT/SLT/Governors -risk assessments of IT (software/systems) -liaise with DPO/DLS in the aspects of IT -question the policies and understand them (there needs to be like 15+ I think last I checked) -asset tracked (not just hardware) Most of it needs reviewing annually and there is a much much bigger list which I'm working on now for the cyber security policy (DfE 37 pages). None of this is new though, all came from the DfE Digital Standards changes. There is another thread somewhere and an EduGeek put it in spreadsheet form. Highly recommend everyone use it. On top of that I'm using an online score system free to education. There are reasons we're seeing more higher titles + pay for Trusts, that person needs to lead all this and make sure everything is documented and set out. Just.. some schools are still miles behind....... The thing is, other depts doing things properly.. are asking questions.. like our Exams. There is a list of things we need to do here to safeguard exams.

Honestly thought all that was pretty much covered, except the 'Digital Leader' should be running the show and not necessarily us. Now.. who is the DL? Anyone.. hellooooo *echo*

Ah yes, the SIMs performance problems. I spent a lot of time troubleshooting that and you listed all the things I remember. Tried to do the reports via RDP just to see how it goes? Over the years we had report issues due to printers and microsoft office.

Our 3CX is hosted in the UK.

Single player and free FFXI Braver. Basically FFXI in a 2D setup, the attention to detail is impressive. I'm old FFXI player and lived on that for far too long. And.. it made me return to FFXI and sub. Not a lot a month. Almost like a single player now.

+1 for 3CX here with Yealink phones. I can't say how much we pay because its all included in our broadband package and that comes to about £8K. Probably peanuts because they are such good value.

I was actually disappointed with FF7 Rebirth. The constant minigames was annoying for me and the constant sense of Assassins Creed - go to an area. Unlock area by getting to locations multiple times. Go to new area and repeat. Still, the story was good. The look good. Tons of content. Sadly though.. not a fan of the combat system. Never have been a fan of hack n slash RPG types. Basically target a weakness until stagger. Phoenix Point: Played that, a lower budget version and alright (there's Xenonauts too). More like the original XCOM compared to the rebooted versions. I must admit.. I've been waiting for a new XCOM which seems to be ages.. loved War of the Chosen. The music. The cutscenes. The characters. Voice acting. Story. Base. Tactics. I think the only thing I missed was the freedom to build more bases etc. Bunch of demos released on Steam. Star Trek Voyager: Pretty good. Although it feels like a mobile game design. Totally be buying it. The Signal: Pretty good - craft/builder with an actual story. Samefor this. Must buy. Got about 6 others installed and need to try out when I find the time.

Astrometica - basically Subnautica in space with less space creatures and a more peaceful on exploring (low cost early access steam game). Development going well. Penkura - Another exploring/building/mining game with a Sci-Fi feeling. Development has really picked up in recent weeks (creator basically fell long term ill and mainly recovered). Planet Crafter - another build/craft. I'm a little obsessed with early access games lately. Been so disappointed with the big high cost games..... £70 to be bored and finish once or £15-£25 to get tons of hours of game play and return a few months later after updates. Even after full release like Planet Crafter, they keep updating it.. 1 bit of cheap DLC.. more free updates.

Although not a real major problem, I have noticed when I add new MCAS accounts.. it sits there.. and sits there....... and sits there. I generally only have this issue when adding all the new year 7 parents during June/July. Now it seems to do it while adding 1 parent account. In fact as I type this.. it's still going and going and going.

Same here!! Ah I see you replied here. Yeah.. I wouldn't bother.. I've had bad service.. then there is Civica...