mthomas08

I have an iPad at home and an Android Tablet. The only real difference to me is the fact that one App I use a lot which is Android only. THATS IT. Said it once, say again if you choose to go iPads just "because" you need a wake up call in your job. Our job is to evaluate what the Students and Staff will be using those devices for. If they INTERNET heavy then all you need is a device that can handle browsing all your daily sites. Which is usually anything above the very basic spec Tablet costing £120. Schools were very very quick to go down the Tablet route in the assumption it would fix all the problems they had with Laptops/PCs. We are aiming for Android Tablets this September, Staff have been using them for the last 8 weeks and only one issue so far (our wireless related). Once Students begin using them next week it will be good to see how it all goes. We didn't switch to Tablets lightly, it was a big discussion going on for the last 18 months and a lot of questions were asked. "And several board members said they should have asked tougher questions early on" Prime example of what's wrong, we knew exactly what was going to happen in switching to Tablets, we knew exactly the Software we will lack from Netbooks (windows).

Made me cry in laughter, not many comedians do that to me. Sad that he suffered from depression considering how easy it seemed for him to get others laughing. Brilliant actor and superb comedian. What more can I say.

Could still be asleep, the other half does for England. 48 hours is a good amount of time.

To be honest in my view Frog is one of the most customisable VLEs out there. I find other platforms/products missing much much more also compared to Frog. We currently use Moodle and are walking away from it due to it's basic level without really heading down the core development of it. Staff are not that happy with it and feel its very outdated. We have also started RealSmart which also looks a bit better and integrates well with Google it really is a step back from Moodle. I am also not happy with the way their "High horse" attitude came across when visiting our School. He was your very typical "Drop what you got and go to this" he wanted us to drop our exchange email because of its annual license cost (which is nothing), drop our windows user data servers and Moodle/School Website over night. With no thoughts on the repercussions. He then gave us his background - Ex Head of Music who has a MacBook and yes is very pro Macs. His IT knowledge was very basic so you can guess I wasn't impressed by him or his approach. The opinions on RealSmart by those who matter (teachers) though are still rather low. I think the path Frog is heading towards is very positive, just annoying you always have to wait for the massive development of it. Give it 3 Years and I will be taking a look at it for us.

Knew the rule changes wouldn't do anything to F1 and that goes double for the noise. We still get epic races, epic overtaking, strategy dependant results, crashes, mistakes, tantrums and Massa never taking blame for his mistakes. All those who threw their toys out of the pram about the whole noise fiasco probably have gone just as quiet.

We have plasma screens with Xibo. My plan is to replace our "What ever device we can find" with a decent machine. Plus it will be secure and locked in a cabinet - trunking and everything. We too are looking at an App https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/wellington-college/id837861378?mt=8 This School currently is using one, Boomerang Education although I have yet to do prices. Something for closer to September. We already have a text service but we really need to get parents email addresses on to the system. Only way to fix this is either get letters sent out or phone up parents all day. Also our website overhaul is in progress done by an external company which is fine by me so we can simply update it when and how we want.

That works both ways, attacking people for not *reacting the same* at this whole thing isn't any better. The strange thing is, if they used this information to prevent an actual plot we either A) won't believe them or B) Wont care. If something did happen like 9/11 I am sure everyone will be on the band wagon on how can we prevent it. Here's a serious question though; If an incident like 9/11 did occur and your families, those close to you, your friends perished but you knew for certain that this "non privacy" law could of prevented it - how would you feel? And no I'm not actually agreeing with the Gov on this one, I have made it clear how I feel but I am just not reacting the same way Oh and god forbid something like that does happen again in any Country.

Exactly. They are simply legalising what they have been doing for a long time. I wouldn't disagree with you at all.

As I said before no point throwing toys out of the pram at the moment. They could end up doing a U-Turn in 2 days, 2 weeks or 2 months. When the election comes it could be a new Gov in charge and do another U-Turn on it. I'm not willing to lose any sleep over this matter or raise my blood pressure because nothing will change what the Gov wants to do.

I thought I would correct you.

To be honest I would hold Ya horses. One of the reasons I am not quick to react with what the Government does is because a day later it could change. They can change their mind or like this get a new person in who can not only reverse the decisions but make things worse with different ideas. If I threw a tantrum each time something occurred I would probably have extremely high blood pressure and no hair.

Some one else who thinks they know better, will be willing to change everything to suit "their brilliant ideas" but nothing will change and Schools will be no better. I look forward to the next brilliant idea.....

Email your LM, CC the Head and Deputy Heads. I am very sure there is "Personal usage only" on the terms and conditions or the "Installed on your own device". May want to confirm but I am sure it was one of those two a while back when I last checked. The devices must be owned by the School including the music. Once checked you can add the "This is illegal" in the email. The question of "Need" will not matter to these companies and because your the system administrator it will fall on your head unless over ruled.

I don't hear anyone talk about it any more or complain about it, including the one guy who was seriously furious about it. Perhaps I just don't care enough to pay attention to those talking about it? Which seems unlikely. If your life was turned upside down (guessing you are being serious by what you are saying) then I don't know. That is unfortunate for you.

And here we go again. Already stated my argument, my points have been made clear. It's more like I am hitting nerves that people don't like. As I stated before people cried during the whole torrent and internet filtering - short time later it got forgotten and no one complains any more. If the Gov want to pick apart my internet history they will do so regardless. If they want to get a warrant to search that or my PC at home what can I do if they get one? Nothing. I can continue to raise up the issue that If you have nothing to hide. At the end of the day if we are talking about something illegal today that yesterday was legal after that it's the Gov can interpret something different. What's the result? the same. Sorry to say but I don't see a single part of my argument that was flawed, if I say I couldn't care less if the Gov monitor my internet access or not what's flawed about that. That's not arguing half lies, fact is half of me won't care at all. That's not your not place to pull apart, that's not your place to accuse of being flawed. That's not just my view that's my feeling behind it. My feelings isn't something that someone can question because its fact. The information I argued was very little because I wasn't arguing information. I am not arguing if the Gov should or should not do it. I am simply stating how I feel about it - sorry but don't see how that can be torn apart. If your view differs on that well, tough luck really because my view on it all and my feelings wont change. No one here has presented any information that has changed it except Tmd who seems to think more along the lines of my self but he seems to be arguing facts too not just his view.

@tcmd35 Think your hitting it better on the nail then I am. As always my posts being ripped apart now wonder why some don't discuss properly any more these days.

Not sure if I hit a nerve or something but as always people taking certain things out of context. I guess for me if they want to stick me in prison for life or export me they will do so regardless of how I feel or shout. Sorry but where in my post does it accuse you of doing something illegal. I was using a general quote like so many others are right now in this discussion. My attitude towards this law change has no real bearing on my life so why should I care? If they wanted to shoot me over something you think they will hide behind this law? Is it going to change anything if I throw my toys out like some did over the whole blocking of torrent sites and parental filters from service providers? If the government wants to do something they will do it and if its that much of a problem go march up London. And no I am not accusing you of throwing your toys out either before you turn that on me. If they want to sentence me to something I did which was once legal then again what can I do to stop them? Although if that's the case the stuff I do on the internet is the same browsing as the millions of others. So at the end of the day if millions of us are put behind bars they will be in the already over crowded prisons. Sorry but it may be a view that I don't care but it's half true, every law change is just like the world cup. It all gets forgotten 30 days later because no one cares any more. All we will have is the highlights in 10 Years time which not many people will watch. I don't know why people are getting so worked up over it.

This is kind of my feeling. As or the OP: Sorry but if you have nothing to hide then what is really the problem. I also hate the accusation of being "ignorant" to what is being done simply because I don't agree or disagree with you. This goes back to when Torrent sites were being blocked, Service providers had to give options to filter and all the other changes the Government makes regarding the Internet. The screams of liberties that were being made when Torrent search sites were being blocked..... I told a friend when it happened I really didn't care. Although in a less polite manner. My view is as long as the government isn't knocking on my door every 5 minutes telling me the sites I have visited. If Mr Cam who has no clue about IT wants a BIG HUGE "Access database" to store millions of visited websites every hour, let him. He will hire some one like us to set it up, maintain it and probably do log checking. Good luck to the poor person who sits there checking it on a daily basis. Good luck to him when it comes to checking how many torrent sites (the ones not blocked yet) get visited daily. Good luck to him for keeping all that in check. Bad enough doing it in a School with 1400+ users but doing for a nation??? Like many things that happen in this country it will get setup, some will scream freedom, some like me won't care and nothing will change. The end result will be everyone will forget about it and move on.

Got 1 my self next week, I started a list for him already and with our 4th techie they can pretty much shadow each other. 1. Random PC room checking (can also use timetables to check when they are free) for mice, keyboards and general servicing. 2. Re-imaging of Toshiba Netbooks, general cleaning and reporting what ones have faults. 3. Re-imaging of PC Suites that are not in use. 4. Projector cleaning on age old equipment. 5. Cable checks in certain classrooms/areas to report how untidy they are. 6. Prep work for the Summer jobs. @gtg93 I am in the same boat as you, been here for one year and our Asset data is now updated.

To be fair to Toshiba they have been pretty good so far with us.

We purchase ours outright and this is the costing on the new contracts/equipment we are looking at. Currently we pay 4p per colour and 0.4p per mono. The 3p/0.3p is a very good price. I was quoted for 5p/0.5p for a PRO Ricoh Colour printer but everything else below that model and other companies (Toshiba/ScanDB/Ricoh/EKS) had the 3p/0.3p prices.

I think it's always a good thing when a kid is fully aware what blocks their "games". Really does mean it's doing the job.

Total shocker on his death, brilliant comedian and not many of those left from the old days. Do miss the old comedies where they could say what they wanted without being hit by the press or other celebrities. Comedy these days is really starting to dip in my view, I grew up with every comedy out there from the young ones to faulty towers and not forgetting laurel and hardy. They did what they want what they saw as funny regardless if anyone else liked it or not. Exactly how comedy is supposed to be in my view. Rik was a perfect person from that era, he really didn't take it too serious and went with the flow of it all. All I can say is thank you for making me laugh to the point of throwing up.

Just in general, its not aimed at the CC issue but the problems people have with Apple products generally. Other people have brought along other problems in this thread including other issues that exist in other threads. And your right about a lot of School techies being on here, I have yet to visit a School who has never heard of EduGeek let alone signed up. Also aware of spies everrryyy whheerreeeeeeee

To be fair, neither did M$ when Schools were introducing the first lot of IT Systems. Nor does Google with their current products. Maybe in a few years time from all the screaming and shouting they too will improve like M$ had to. The amount of flame wars accusing M$ of being very poorly built for Schools used to be endless. Now those flames are shifting against Apple/Android. I remember when people used to go mad at the cost of volume licenses and having to spend a lot of money just to keep their systems updated with the latest OS. Now its spend a bit less to always have access to the latest (sometimes more too) software. They also got their act together in building an OS which didn't require buying a new PC.. (ahh... vista...such a .. OS..)