lindylou

Great news, Witch - happy Proud Mum Day Was good to see you at the conference, sorry there wasn't more time to natter.

That bar clearly says "More To Share"...and chocolate is always right! Nice to see students with manners.

Woah! - DoS attack System Status Information Service Status >>Update: 15:38 Our engineering teams have identified the cause as an external denial of service attack and are carrying out actions that mitigate the risk of further interruptions in service. The security and integrity of the network has remained unaffected throughout.<< Own up, who's upset who?

Done, 'cos I admire anyone taking on personal challenges. Good for you, and good luck!

MIS support officer at Dorset LA Salary: £19,621 - £22,958 Closing date: 02/03/2012 Reference: SCHMIS Employment type: Full time Location: Dorchester Establishment: Children's Services

That's right, the Sainsbury's is only 10 - 15 minutes drive or so from the airport, especially at 6.30am. It is on a usually busy dual carriageway, with roundabouts at each end of that section of road. A friend of mine lives very close to that store and I've been there several times when visiting her. The store coffee shop is unlikely to be open that early, but you might be able to get a take-away coffee and something to eat at the on-site petrol station.

Oh, that is a shame, what bad luck! Still, keep an eye on their website for more jobs. Groupcall seem to be busy so there may be more work come up soon. The location is almost ideal for you and the type of work is also well suited to your previous experience. Now you just need to get well again and get back out there.

Really sorry to hear you have been in hospital, hope you have a speedy recovery. Keep us posted how you get on with Groupcall or any other job you go for in due course.

No problem, I hope it goes well for you. I'd advise you read up on SIF as a standard, try here Welcome to the SIF Association. Forgive me if you do know about it already, but it would not harm to make sure you have the latest industry info. Let us know how you get on and have a good Christmas - I'm sure you will overcome the challenges of travel and job hunting, you just need to keep at it. I'm glad you found some occasional work with your friend. Cheers from a sunny but chilly Dorset!

Hi Davalav It's not a VLE company, but if your last post had anything to do with SIF agents, (exporting data from MIS to other systems) this job at Groupcall might suit you, and they are in Chigwell. Latest News on Groupcall Messenger, Alert and Xporter applications Product Support Technician Groupcall are looking for a Product Support Technician to join their growing team! This is a technical role based in the Chigwell office, offering a range of support services mainly to UK Education Authorities and Individual schools. The successful applicant will be required to assist the existing technical team, answer support calls, perform remote installations of Groupcall product sets and offer remote training services. Initially this role will focus on support for Groupcall’s flagship product ‘Messenger’. Key requirements include a great telephone manner, technical knowledge of desktop computing, database technologies and a tenacious & proactive personality. For more information on the role, or to apply email: [email protected] or call: 020 8502 7344. There is also a Product Support Manager post - same contact details. I support an RBC learning platform in Dorset (same LA as Witch). I can't think of any VLE firms with HQs in Essex, but if I can, I'll whip through some websites and check out locations. You could have a look at the exhibitors going to the BETT 2012 exhibiton look for VLEs under the Product Area option. There seems to be thousands of results, which can't be right, but you could skim the lists. Good luck!

A box of choccies to stop me telling your schools you're looking! (joking, honest)

Didn't you get the great weather around Easter/Royal Wedding up there in the North? Those were a great couple of weeks. I've be able to get the next two days as leave, so that's me catching some rays! Oh yeah, and it is glorious here, really warm, didn't want to come back in to the office after having lunch outside.

I agree - my RSI was all along my lower arm, into the elbow and it became painful to try and pick up anything. My caring employer (!) did the decent thing and got me one of these which solved the pain after a while. You don't use your thumb really, only to grip enough to move the mouse. If you are able to get an H&S workstation assessment, do so. The assessor can spot where the position of your arms/hands will be causing the trouble and be able to suggest the best kit to help you. I know cost will be an issue, but what price your health and future work capabilities? RSI is miserable to live with.

Some schools I support on SWGfL Merlin also use Google docs, the calendar etc, often embedded into Merlin so the children have a one-stop shop for everything. I'll PM you a contact at a Dorset First School that I know uses, or has used, some of the Google apps with children. He's into all kinds of web tools and apps to try in class.

My pleasure - glad it will cheer up somebody's day!

I spotted this yesterday - Teachers TV will relaunch as SchoolsWorld on 11 May and indeed on the Ten Alps site was this, where I assume we can expect the archive to appear from next week. Some of our advisors and consultants use the videos a lot in training courses, so they are very pleased about this. Hope it helps everyone else.

Salary: £25,472 - £28,636 (pro-rata) Initial 6 month fixed-term contract Hours: Full-time, 37 hours per week Location: Exeter Full details here

Happy to be of help. Looks like someone has answered you on the Voki forum, suggesting you go here. Seems to be a case of embedding the HTML code. I've only tinkered with Moodle myself, but have embedded Vokis into a Sharepoint based VLE with no trouble. Moodle must have a similar feature, but m'learned Edugeek Moodle users on here will be able to help more, I'm sure. Over to you, Moodlers!

Have a look at Voki . They have a Voki for Education option that will be worth investigating. Some of our LA advisors have used this site when training teachers. You can create free Vokis that don't require a log-in. If I recall correctly, once the avatar is created, you need to keep a record of the URL generated to use it in future - you don't get a .jpg or animated gif etc. It's a while since I used it myself, so do the usual checks. Hope it's not blocked in your LA!

And in the tropical enclave of Dorset ( t'other end from Witch!) we seem to have crept above freezing, may be even +2 C and now all that pretty white fluffy stuff is melting nicely. Just in time to freeze solid again overnight. I know, us in the soft south don't know we're born :-)

Oooh ooowww. Your poor thing! {{witch}} < Can't offer any advice other than the RICE thing (not being of the energetic persuasion!). Oh, and keep those two helpful chaps close to hand to carry you around :-)) Take care.

You're welcome. Sorry I didn't take time to see what kind of establishment you worked in - was in a rush! If you still need resources, I came across this site recently. Teach Today Again it is school-focussed, but the advice is sensible for teachers/lecturers teaching any age group, I would have thought.

Hi You could try the resources from SWGfL, the E-Safety policy booklet on this page has templates you could customise, I believe. The rest of the Staying Safe site might provide what you are looking for. If you are in a Dorset County school, as opposed to Poole or Bournemouth, PM me and I can give you contacts for our Safer Schools team or the IT Inspector who could offer more advice. HTH!

Belated birthday wishes, Witch - sorry I missed this yesterday.

Morning! Superfletch is correct, in the last week or so, application links to Moodle, SWGfL Easymail and KnowledgeBox have appeared in the Manage Modules area of Merlin Admin Tasks. There is also one for EducationCity, but I am not sure if that one is fully functional yet. Administrators choose the apps appropriate to their school, then teachers and pupils see a new icon called My Applications appear in My Place. The user fills in their usernames and passwords, plus domain name where needed and they have single sign-on to those apps. Admin users don't seem to get the My Apps icon though. I haven't written up the Help notes for Dorset users yet (my patch of SWGfL) and given it is the end of term and the system is down from tomorrow for the big summer upgrade, I hoped they wouldn't notice! Witch, give it a go with both your Moodle school and the other that plans to use Merlin and let me know if you have any problems. The SIF programme to link Merlin and SIMS has been rolling for some months and other MIS are under final testing. Please talk to your LA contact about their plans, I can only speak for Dorset. Hope that helps!