geeky

Mobile devices seem to be the next order of the day. Currently we are looking into providing Internet access to pupil phones and other personal devices. We already provide access to 6th former personal laptops under our 'Guest' account, though this involves them changing their laptop settings. For ad hoc mobile devices then it will need to be transparent. It is not clear however, how this resource will transmit into teaching and learning. Has any schools got experience with any development projects using mobile devices effectively?

A general question on how your school website is updated and maintained. There does seem to be a range of ways - some schools have a dedicated Web Technician, some with their own Communication Officer who gets the news and updates the site without the need for involvement from the technical support team at all, ( once the site has been designed and setup e.g. in a CMS.) So just wondering how it works generally - who gets the news, who does updates the site, who proof reads items for spelling etc, who checks no rules are infringed e.g. pupil names and id's not used, etc etc. G.

Thanks guys. We have done the data cleansing bit - phew!!! So we think that is pretty much right. Am with it re the password thing - thats gonna be a difficult one How did peeps roll it out initially? Have heard some sent out user name and password (sent separately) to all parents in the year group. Others have sent a letter asking parents to register their interest and then sent a user name and password to those that registered. Others have written to parents asking them into the school for a launch evening to give a demo and then distribute the user name and passwords on the evening. G

Hey alllllll Ok - we are looking to roll out SLG after christmass. Wanna find out what others have done and what problems they have come up against. What was your roll up plan? How did you distribute the user names and passwords? Did you provide some training for parents? What was the take up? Did you do it by year group? What were the problems with parents accessing? Technical support? Please please tell me it alll went very smooth - not a problem in sight - parents all happy - and everyone lived happily ever after. Geeky

well thanks guys - lots of variation and ideas. It seems there is no particular model standing out. Someone did point out the use for laptops - and whether it is a teaching tool or admin tool or both. There is definitely a great deal more suppor required for laptops and a more costly option than teachers desk computer. The movement around the school causes problems as clearly carrying laptops underneath a load of books is not healthy - which is not obvious to all! We have wireless throughout - and has been sufficient for four years or so. However, staff do not use it correctly. Rebooting the laptop is also a task too far for some. While wireless works well, I am wondering whether the amount of potential interference from various things makes it a viable option to continue. We have hard wire around most areas and so would not be a major problem to lose but would be inconvenient for some staff. So who is going to predict what the future will be like for a teacher in a classroom?

Right - I am wondering what is the general consensus among other schools about staff laptops. I'm guessing most schools use electronic registration now so will need some form of computer to register. How many schools have ditched laptops for having a desktop on each teacher desk? ( PE etc would be the exception ). Are any schools planning on doing it? Anyone done it and gone back to laptops? Any schools think staff laptops are the thing and here to stay forever? The question is - would having a desktop on each teachers desk with SIMS and permanent network, projector connections be better in the long run over staff having a laptop each and connecting up to projector / network (if no wireless)?

Not sure how to delete a thread - put it in the wrong section.

OK Guys - nice easy one. We got 3 Com switches around the school - approx 35 - 48 and 24 ports. Mainly 3200's series - main switch 4950. 8 or 9 cabinets all star linked via fibre. We now have 4200Gs in most cabs so as the switches are not stacked but connected individually to the 4950 via gig ports on 4200. Problem is we are frequently getting switches randomly resetting around the school. This can be a power reboot - or the switch will not ping for a period of approx 30 seconds to a minute then returns to normal. We have had this for a time. We have tried a number of things but still do not have the answer. We know its not a loop. We have spanning tree enabled. Have ups and filters on some switches and cabs. The network traffic is not showing high - servers etc all on 1gb backbone. We have vlans (admin and curric) but configured ok. When a switch resets the workstations connected to it will give a bubble saying you are offline with an icon to restore connection. Pressing this synchs the connection and all is ok - though MS Publisher does not like it particularly! 2948 switches report frame discards occasionally but again nothing to show what the problem is. Utilisation very low usually. We sometimes get the domain not available but have recently found that UPnP protocol in Windows may be causing problems. Removing this allows the workstation to see the domain as normal again. Other issues such as pupils sticking chewing gum in network ports and partially disconnecting the network cable from the net socket will not be helping! So if someone could tell me which button to press that will fix it all then that would be great ;-)