pbrian49

It won't be until after half term so I will update later.

As far as I understand it, if we move to the Staffordshire based RM Unify there is a migration of our existing Kaleidos/sln2 content to the new platform. There will also be applications bundled with it, I don't know too much more though as I am waiting to go to a county presentation on the new offering. I can't imagine that RM would not offer a migration for existing Kaleidos users. Scotland have been using something called Glow which is based on RM Unify see here Glow Scotland » Migration of Glow to Office 365 – October Update This mentions migration of some componets of their existing platform

We are in Staffordshire and we will probably move over to a RM Unify based platform in the not too distant future. I would suspect that as it is a cheaper option, then our sln2 platform (Kaleidos based) would be phased out as more move to it. It looks a good option for us as it has the Microsoft 365 option together with LEA resources. Looking at how we use Kaleidos vs the potential of RM Unify I would think that the days of Kaleidos are numbered.

Don't know if these links help, but they give a bit more info about RM Unify. These were initially posted on our LP by our LEA. RM Unify BETT 2013 Star of the Show: RM Unify | Great Maths Teaching Ideas

Laptops were Acers, I don't think it was a problem with the laptops themselves, just that users were a bit heavy handed trying to push connectors in. They also used to break the usb ports by snapping off the plastic plate inside and bend the pins causing a short.

We took out laptops from classrooms some time ago and installed a staff pc in every class. The plugging in and out of vga cables for the projectors and network cables resulted in several laptops being broken due to the ports being damaged through rough handling and motherboards having to be replaced. Desktops now have vga cables screwed tight to prevent their removal and this works very well for staff.

Pm sent

Well done all, looking good.

Lehmanns in Stoke-on-Trent are authorised Canon repairers, they will also look at other makes too, including Nikon and Sanyo, I believe. They did provide us with an estimate of repair costs to a Nikon compact a couple of years ago. They will do SLRs too. Home - Lehmanns Direct

Just an update to my previous posts about banking deadlines, orders etc etc. Well, I emailed Tesco Head Office on Friday to complain and I have received a call today to say that I can now send my vouchers off for banking so long as they get them by the end of the week. Duly packed up 3,390 vouchers on off they went to Wembley a few minutes ago. For any one in the same situation here is the phone number 0208 7823304 that I was given. I said that several other schools were in the same situation and I was told that the deadline had been extended to this Friday.

Course was pretty straight forward, though I don't think I committed 10 hours a week. What I did enjoy were the projects - taking images for a particular theme and then posting them for other students to critique. You also learn basic editing as well as Photoshop Elements was included in the cost of the course. Many of the ex T189 students have been hoping that the OU would do a level 2 course in Digital Photography, but that hasn't happened. There is a very active T189 group on Flickr with ex students here Flickr: The T189 Past, Present & Future (Book or Song Title) Pool Brian

I agree with mitcheln, the OU T189 provides a good starting point, I did the original T189 when it first started. My kit, Canon 40D with a range of Canon lenses. L series are expensive but give fantatstic quality compred to the budget ones. Whatever DSLR you buy, beware the lens and accessory bug, as it will bite you!

That's what the cynic in me says to Nick. Also considering that I didn't request any DHL bags, they were sent to me a week before the in store voucher give away finished, they said they sent them based on our last year's collection. No pressure to use DHL there then!

I have emailed Tesco Vouchers for Schools on three occassions to complain about the inability to bank further vouchers once an order has been sent in as I think this is a bit of a rip off, especially since we were encouraged to use the free DHL collection service before the final closure date. Needless to say that I have had no reply and phoning the help line is a complete waste of time, either engaged or rings for long periods with no answer.:mad: We don't collect a vast amount of vouchers, but to loose out on banking around 1500 is really galling since on previous schemes we were able to do this. I guess the phone lines will be back to normal after July 3rd! Next step, a letter to Mr Leahy me thinks.

Just been able to log onto the Tesco site and there is a banking deadline of Friday 3rd July, can't find out how to bank vouchers once an order has been placed though. I have emailed Tesco to seek clarification as we have quite a few vouchers come in since we sent the order off.

I can't log in either, message says "this website is experiencing difficulties please try later"

Happy Birthday, don't drink too much:party: pop!

We have had a similar issue in the past with the powerpack failing, you could try swapping the powerpack from a board that is working to see if that solves the problem. One of our boards was cured by buying a new powerpack.

We had a projector and screen fitted to our hall in 2005, the projector is a sanyo PLC-XT16 (now out of production but this is the link to the pdf for the spec Instruction Manuals - SANYO EMEA ) It is mounted on the rear wall and back projecting onto a Da-Lite motorised screen which is fixed to the ceiling above the stage. Just found this - similar to what we have - its a big hall! https://commerce.computacenter.com/connect/primary/products/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441799630&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=282574488339709&PAGE_FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302024567&Site=Gov&bmUID=1236094121218 It was purchased via our LEA through Computacentre and has been trouble free since install despite daily use for assemblies. Just the occassional blow out of dust from the filters.

I am the sole IT bod in school, looking after 850+ users, 3 curriculum servers, 1 internet cache server, 1 D2D2T backup server. There are 200+ workstations on the network plus 25 interactive Whiteboards and associated kit and 25 teacher laptops. I work 35hpw looking after the curriculum side of things but also support the SIMS and admin if required. I also oversee the Learning Platform and maintain the school website.

Sorry to see MST go, I find Lanview very useful, in fact I am using it right now. Best wishes to the MST Team

We are on CC3 and currently create a intake folder in the student users structure, eg 2007 Intake and import all users from a sims generated csv file. They are imported as surname + first initial so Jo Bloggs becomes bloggsj, any duplicates are suffixed with a number so Jim Bloggs would become bloggsj1, Jane Bloggs, bloggsj2 etc. As they don't have year or class identifiers with them, the username follows them throughout their time in school and it is easier for them to remember and spell (sometimes!)

That's good news, looking forward to mine. Though I guess being at the north of the county it will be later rather than sooner. Told the wife we are having a 37" TV

Hi Jim I did better in round 2 and got a boost in pay after being told in round 1 that I would be losing money. Just waiting to see what happens on the COT3 now. have you had any dates at all for the signings?

I have used these in the past PCB-Plus - they are based in Derby. Unfortunately they no longer collect but will take deliveries to their location free. Computer Recycling - PCB-Plus