garethEds

I'm not sure. I always thought it was to A-Level. Gareth

I'm not sure the pay is that good, but what they do get is a lot more free time to mark and prepare lectures (from what I know of my mates that are Uni lecturers). The main difference is that some have to prepare research papers every year as part of their contract. Gareth

Unfortunately a lot of ICT Teachers are like that. They see their subject and possibly their integrity threatened by those who know more. I'm not sure of any other subject where this is the case. Maths is maths, history is history - people might have more knowledge but in general nothing changes. ICT is different - new people, new ideas. I hate now knowing some things (which is why I come here). Threatened? Not really. It is something I tell my student teachers - if you don't know find out. Read, read and read again. I'm suprised that a lot of ICT teachers do not read ICT/Computing based stuff. Gareth

I agree with you totally here. How many teachers do not know their stuff in their subjects? I know a Media teacher who cannot video edit - but otherwise in my school the teachers know what their subject demands. I have one non-specialist ICT Teacher. She contributes a lot to the department. I help her with ICT (as is my job) and she brings new teaching ideas to the table from her 'main' subject. In the old days Heads of ICT used to do everything. Then the Unions got involved and created that list of ~23 things teachers should not be doing. This means extra people had to be employed. In my school every member of the SMT has some sort of secretary doing their work. Exams Officer has an Exams Secretary and so on. Waste of money. I still keep in with the ICT Support - often being second line. @rich_tech is our first line then I sometimes get involved if we need to discuss issues. LEA Support is our third line. Very rare does it reach the LEA. We have everything covered. In all fairness @rich_tech works hard. I know he is currently VPN'ed in finishing off the library rebuild for tomorrow morning. Yes yes yes - agree totally. Our school employs a lot of ex-pupils as LSA's. Help out if you can. I say this a lot on Edugeek but we are all there to benefit the pupils - if this means helping a fellow member of staff then make it so - but make sure you are given time back to continue your normal duties. If she didn't know the answers then show her. Gareth

I really advise getting on of the books listed in the sticky. Gareth

This is what I mean by PGCE students need more training instead of relying on their main degree. We need to be showing pupils how to help themselves and not be scared when they know more than us. I had a pupil lead a lesson the other day because he had done something in Scratch that I didn't even consider doing. He had learnt it himself at home by downloading Scratch and watching various YouTube videos. The kids thought it was funny but I took it as CPD. Gareth

Seems to be all sorted now. Not seen this capcha window since yesterday. Hooray. Gareth

My god guys - how do you do this stuff. Gareth

Seems this might be my fault. I didn't realise I couldn't add a url to my sig. WHy is that? I want to add Gareth Edmondson (garethedmondson) on about.me to my sig. Gareth

Apologies for posting so much in this topic. It's an interesting debate. Gareth

Personally I believe everyone should be one big ICT Team. That is the ethos I try and maintain in my school. The ICT Technician is an essential part of my department. I ask him when needed to contribute as I feel his knowledge can be used. It's a shame more schools do not do more of this. I see what you are saying here and agree of sorts - but as Head of ICT and ICT Coordinator everyone expects me to know how to use every single piece of softwrae in the school - to such a degree that I cannot master any of them. Yes I can work all the Office apps to a high degree, but should I have to learn Sibelius? It seems I do. So you may get teachers who do not know certain things but their knowledge may be elsewhere. An ICT Teacher is tough. In my school I am known as Mr IT (or Mr TG in Welsh). Gareth

I agree with you totally. Although I wish some of the PGCE students would learn to teach instead of relying on their 'main degree'. I had a student the other year who had a first in Computing but couldn't teach for toffee. Agree totally. Just be patient with the ones who do want to learn. Gareth

I remember doing something similar on the Acorn Archimedes machines in school (around 1992). I remember cracking Impressions 2.19 to run without a serial number and also opening the modem application !ArcTerm7 and changing the icons so they didn't appear on the RiscOS desktop. The poor computer teacher could never understand why her department phone bills were so huge. It was me dialling into the Arcade BBS. I miss those days. Unfortunately with the curriculum as it is I don't have the time to learn these things at the moment. It is a sad fact that I am currently teaching myself Visual Basic. I used to be able to code Pascal, BBC Basic and ARM Assembler (as well as Commodore basic on the Vic20 and C64) - alas I have forgotten all my pokes and peekes. Gareth

It hurts me to say that as an ICT Teacher I too am bored with what we have to teach. However the trick is to creatively decipher the National Curriculum document. I am bored - GCSE ICT is the same - even the new syllabus is the same stuff but in a different format. OKay we now have animation and more multimedia - but there is no programming. I program with my pupils in Year 8 - it is simple but it's what I can fit in. We look at Scratch and Kodu (okay not quite programming). This year I am introducing Arduino boards and .net Gadgeteer kits to the classroom - I wonder how they will go down. Our Year 12/13 have it tough as I am told to teach Applied ICT. If you think ICT is bad then try Applied. OMG! More databases and spreadsheets in Year 12. Year 13 is a little better but there is a massive spreadsheet project. Luckily my colleague teaches that. I teach the multimedia/gfx design coursework :_) Gareth

Let's not be so cynical - changes are happening. People are listening. David Cameron discussed the issues in a speech this week - he backed programming and reform: Prime Minister backs programming education reform | Game Development | News by Develop Gareth

Emma is a regular contributor to the CAS mailing list and cause: Computing at School :: Computing For the Next Generation ... So at everyone who has contributed their opinion here why not join up and voice your opinion in the group. Several people of note contribute including David Braben (Elite fame), and the creators of the Raspberry Pi. A lot of knowledge in the group and a seperate group for those interested in Artificial Intelligence. So come on - get those opinions in the right place. A change is coming - trust me. Gareth

Good morning, Trying to edit and save my signature. It lets me edit, and I can press the save button but if I change page and then go back to check my sig then the old one is still there. So it's giving the impression that it is saving when it is not. Cheers Gareth

A further update for those that are interested. @rich_tech discovered a problem where certain instruments were not playing in large orchestral pieces. He had installed the updated application, the fixes and the three CDs worth of sound content - which are labelled Sound Content 1, 2 and 3 (or something similar). A week had passed and @rich_tech was ripping his hair out trying to find out what was going on - he decided to shave his head to help :-) Nothing could be found on Google - but last night a post in the depths of a Google search said that a user had installed '4 disks of sound files' - 4 disks? 4 disks? We only have three disks!!!!! Turns out there are sound files on the main application disk as well. Oh yes indeed there are. We didn't know this and there was no label to tell us. We just installed the app from the network after copying it across. Anyhow if we had run the DVD as a standalone DVD then we would have seen the menu option that offers us the opportunity to install sound files. Oh dear. Never mind - it's all fixed now but beware - there are 4 content disks not three (if you are seeing the same issue as us). Gareth

Worked fine now when I tried to edit my sig. However my sig is not saving - shall I open a new bug report? Thanks. Gareth

When I try and edit my signature I am being showed a new window - a security one. It's asking for a Capcha code. (Hmmm cannot upload an image). Gareth

Just to add the congratulations to everyone who was behind getting back online. Browsing Edugeek is essential during XFactor but this weekend I sat there and watched them on TV. All I can say is - thank god the site is back online. Welcome back. Now please don't do it again. Gareth

Thanks everyone. Gareth

More news on the Sibelius front this week. @rich_tech has been working on it all week and we have decided it is a stupid program LOL. We have been forced to upgrade due to us moving to Windows 7 and now it looks as if we will be forced to upgrade the machines to 4Gb each (they are currently 2Gb) - just to play any of the high quality sounds that appear on the 3 DVDs that arrive with the package. The DVD's unpack to the 36Gb worth of sound files - it takes ages even when installing from a network store. In addition there is a new update out there. It works, but once you have installed it the update will not play the new sounds. So Sibelius have released a further update which you add on after you have installed the sounds. This corrects the issue and the sounds play. - Or will they... If you only have 2Gb and a large orcherstral piece only some of the sounds will load in. The rest will play through MIDI - creating an awful sound. I'm not amused with what Sib' have done. The software is now bloated and a nightmare to deploy (no MSI). Rant over. Gareth

Evening everyone, Putting this in hardware. Seems the right place. We have an Epson EMP-S1H projector hanging from the ceiling in my room. It is connected to a rather long figure 8 power cable. All good. Now this projector needs replacing but all the projectors I have looked at now have three pin. To save moving the mounting brackets we are hoping to stick with an upgraded Epson projector but this has a 3 pin Does anyone know of a figure 8 to 3 pin adapter that I can purchase? Many thanks Gareth

Swansea LEA use it across their domain for a single logon service. Gareth