rdk

We use PaperCut. Staff laptops are on the domain and there has never been any problems printing to any printers. You can also plug a local printer in and it ignores it. We have 450 (soon to be 600) student laptops that are not on the domain (access all info via the web) and they use the PaperCut web client - connects to the server via the internet, kids have an account etc and it all works fine. Not as seamless as when computers are on the domain but it does work - more clicks for the user before printing is all.

Mavericks updates working fine on computers connected to the network (only half a dozen or so at the moment). However, we have had issues with VirtualBox not starting properly on the couple of machines that need it. Seems to be the only current issue.

I agree its been boring this year, but much as I dislike Vettel I don't see how you could conclude he is anything but a great driver. However, as I would like to see in the Tour de France I would like to see radio messages restricted to safety warnings only - let the drivers judge when to back off, when to try to pass, when to come in to the pits. I think its wrong to say RBR exploit loopholes as there is no such thing as a loophole (in my opinion) - there are rules and the cars are either within them or not. But I don't like the way F1 has become simply an aerodynamic formula rather than an engine formula. I'd like to see more variety with a rule for engines along the lines of "3 litres, 150 kg, 100 L of fuel per race" and let the engine companies decide what sort of engine to make within those constraints. The same for the cars - give a weight, a size, safety rules and let the designers compete on different designs. Someone might come up with an idea that is way out there and wins everything, but that happens with RBR anyway. Thinks six wheeled Tyrells, ground effect fans etc. Bring them back!

We went google a while ago and the last switch was turning off the old email and going to google mail. Praise and thanks very much outweighed the complaints. If SLT wish you to look at kids mail, couldn't you simply change their password and log in? The kid would know somethings happened, but maybe nothing would click (especially if they're innocent) and just come and see you and you could reset their password. Alternatively, there is a product Hapara Teacher Dashboard that we use (Hapara | Powering Google Apps for Educators) that will let you look in email, although we don't use that aspect of the product. What else it can do is fantastic, though.

One advantage now with macs is that every computer will have the latest operating system and the latest version of the applications, with no ongoing licensing costs after the machines have been bought. We have 500 + MacBook Pros for staff and students and everyone will have the latest OS and apps regardless of whether the machines were bought three years ago or our next 150 that will be bought in January. As for student software, we have found that the kids operate perfectly fine without Office (staff still have Office) using Pages, Keynote etc. There is an "industry standard" argument, but we're not particularly interested in teaching kids software, we're interested in the work they produce. Who cares if its Pages or Word the essay is written on? And if a kid can use Pages I'm pretty sure they could pick up anything they'd need in Word in a very short time if going for a job straight after school. The other direction works well - I'm sure anyone here experienced with Word could use Pages and produce more or less the same documents with basically no training and the use of help when stuck doing something complex. So we only give the kids iWork & iLife, and Adobe stuff if they need it for their subjects using our "site" licence. But Adobe is pricing themselves out of the education market anyway, in my view.

Those pictures beside the iPad are pretty amazing. I didn't realise how small it was.

We use Google Apps as the VLE. First we got a Apps for Education registration, made sure every kid had a logon (initially made logon essentially same user name and password as existing system) then one or two teachers started using sites/drive etc. After a while other teachers saw the advantages, and the kids started expecting resources to be available on the subject/faculty sites. The big advantage is its free, and can run in parallel with any existing system. I would recommend thinking through exactly how it would be used were everyone to buy in and make sure that teachers start using it that way from the start - ie which account owns documents (teachers or faculty accounts etc), naming conventions for sites, role of faculty co-ordinator vs individuals and so on. Then, any questions from teachers about "how to" do things online recommend them the google solution. Sites has a bit of a learning curve, so make sure you know the ins and outs first. After the first few subject sites were made we made faculty sites with links to the individual sites. Then we mapped them so http://english.ourschool.vic.edu.au (for example) goes to the English site (just a page) which has links to the individual year level sites. After that we put the links to these on our website here: Subject Websites | Killester College (most will require logon, but Science for instance is open to look at). Science faculty has one site with all the year levels combined, which is different to English. But kids know that mapped science/mathematics/humanities addresses will take them where they need to go. This was not forced on anyone, but simply modelled then suggested and supported when staff wanted to work online. So much so that after two years we're confident in telling staff that our old solution will be closing in six months and everyone expected to be on google apps, and we'll not have any backlash as staff can see how well it works.

Not exactly the same, but we went through a migration here. We had everything provided by something similar to your local authority, and the email etc was rubbish. We registered a new domain (xxx.vic.edu.au) and used that to sign up for Google Apps for Education. When we had email and everything else working fine, everyone enrolled, we told staff that from date x all staff email would henceforth be to the new address. We left the old email in place, but did no migrating of existing mail. Over an hour one morning four IT staff logged onto the admin side of the old email and set all staff email to forward to the new address (~110 staff). So one morning staff had to use the new email (gmail but to our xxx.vic.edu.au address) but the old one was there for people to retrieve saved email and so on. As the forwarded was automatic no new email will ever arrive in the old account. We have said the old email system will remain for one year then be turned off completely, so staff have a year to update registrations etc using the old account, retrieve any saved email or addresses, update contacts with their new address and so on. But we did absolutely no email transfer for anyone (SLT included).

Look also at Hapara Teacher Dashboard - easy for teachers to manage classes, work submissions, giving copies of documents etc. We've just started using it in the last couple of months and teachers love it.

I've been thinking about this answer I gave - especially about creating a curriculum drive instead of individual faculty drives. If there was a curriculum drive, with shared folders within for each faculty, it would mean only the "curriculum" account could delete files. This probably wouldn't work - so faculty accounts would be the way to go, with the faculty leader having access to the folder to maintain resources etc.

Whenever anything is shared there is never a copy of anything - there is one instance of the file and all the shared versions, whatever folder they are in, are just pointers to that file. If the documents are in google doc format they don't take up any space - the number of such files is effectively unlimited. If you are using the drive folders as effectively online storage for Word docs or pdfs then there is a size limitation, but currently 30 gb per user so that's effectively limitless as well - just create another user in the unlikely event the space was filled. To create folder without logging into another account, create the folder in your account, share it with whoever needs the folder, then change owner to "curriculum" or "maths" or whoever.

Forgot to add to above that users need to create a file structure within "mydrive". Any folders shared with them can be dragged directly into mydrive, and then basically "shared with me" can be ignored.

Why not create an account an account "curriculum". Inside that account create a folder for each curriculum area. Share that folder with each appropriate curriculum area leader. Then the maths curriculum leader (for example) can share that folder with the people in their department. When a maths teacher (for example) creates or uploads a file to the maths shared folder, the sharing settings are maintained so that everyone has access to the document. An idea would be that anyone who creates a file within the shared folder change ownership of the file to "curriculum" so that it doesn't matter if anyone leaves. Working this way requires a couple of things (in my experience): 1) the curriculum area leader has to know what they are doing 2) staff have to let go of the "its mine but I'm sharing" mentality so that creating a document but changing ownership to curriculum recognises that the school owns documents people create at school 3) requires discipline from the curriculum area leader ensuring that their folder structure is maintained logically, and they insist ownership of resources added is changed to curriculum. Instead of an overall curriculum account you could do the same thing with individual faculty accounts - that's the way we do it but if we had our time over I'd do it the way described above.

We're with Google Apps. Teachers put resources on websites, collaboration through docs etc. We use "Hapara Teacher Dashboard" (which is tremendous) for teachers to manage student work in class.

I'm pretty sure you can't and you'd need to do it manually from the spreadsheet to get different graph types.

We have tried multiple times, with a setup similar to yours but Windows, and the answer is "No". There was always something that didn't work. Eventually we made each kid go back to the same computer to logon and do their work - the accounts kept the data separate. We then backed-up over the netwrok incase something happened and the machine needed to be re-imaged.

If you have a Mac handy try "Miro Video Converter" (not the player/suite).

Some year levels here have a BYOD policy, but it is only for accessing the net through our proxy/filtering software. There are no downloaded apps or shared drives etc.

We put Apple TVs in a new block of 12 classrooms this year. Staff are using MacBooks with OSX 10.8 and the airplay mirroring works great and staff love them. There was some mucking around with subnets but once setup they have been fine. Staff click the airplay icon on their MacBooks, then choose the room they are in. A code comes up on the projector screen, and once that's entered the mirroring is working fine. We found using the code system much better than passwords. So basically a big success and staff now want them everywhere, but trying to work out sound and everything when retrofitting to old projectors would be a pain - HDMI is the way to go.

Staff here have MacBooks and with OSX 10.8 it is possible to mirror the computer via an Apple TV. We are just finishing 12 new rooms and each projector has an Apple TV connected via HDMI, with some splitting of audio etc. When staff walk in and turn on the projector they can connect wirelessly very easily. We had the PD for staff for that today, actually. In all our testing streaming video works fine. The latest Apple TV software has made set-up a bit easier also.

If he's using a 13" MacBook I strongly recommend a projector that matches the native resolution of the machine, which I think would mean WXGA. This avoids any screen resizing and so on and is much nicer to use. Many new projectors have HDMI ports, and you can buy cables with mini display port/lightning at one end, HDMI the other so it is a one-cable setup for video and sound with no adaptors.

Some points form our experience introducing iPads: - teachers did not need an iPad to plan for ways for the kids to use them - teachers teach classes quite happily with kids using iPads and teachers using their laptops - the kids came up with much more creative ways to use the iPads than did the few teachers who were given iPads to prepare for their introduction - many of our carefully researched and selected education apps remain virtually unused - if possible in your school let the kids download and install apps at school so when something good is discovered they can share it with each other, but this inevitably means iPads full of games

Another vote for virtualbox here. Use it daily and works fine. As Carter said above - try it, and if you don't like it you haven't wasted any money, and if you do like it you've saved money.

Well actually in Victoria, Australia, most kids turn 13 in year 7, with the legally youngest kids turning 13 on 30 April when they are in year 8 (school year starts end of January). But yes, I know to be careful. It is even more important as google says they will suspend the accounts (including gmail, docs etc) of any kid who tries to register for google+ but is not old enough and it seems a pain to get it back.

I noticed this the other day and thought it interesting as we use google apps widely and most people will be logged in most of the time. We have a lot of our curriculum delivered via websites with embedded presentations and documents that are common for subjects/year levels. We've been looking at edmodo for teacher specific pages/info but hopefully google+ can do that for us - save having another logon etc. I'll have to do a bit more research but if we can have everything walled then could be what we're looking for. The 13 age restriction may be a problem for our year 7 groups whereas most kids will be 13 by yr 8.