Starbug1

Is anyone else getting block pages on Arbor today, or had them previously? The error says the content "has been blocked because it does not comply with the acceptable usage policy"; see screenshot above. It looks like a Smoothwall issue, but it is generated within Arbor!

Does anyone use the site thirdspacelearning.com? This appears to be an AI powered site for "one to one" support, and has various onerous technical requirements, which seem to be difficult to meet, as we are struggling to get it to work reliably. I understand students cannot proceed if they do not have a microphone connected, and access granted for the site to use the microphone within their browser. Sometimes students get stuck on the microphone aspect, while other times they are stuck on blank/loading screens, and there have also been reports of poor performance. It could be a filtering issue, but we have whitelisted all the sites they have requested. If anyone has any experiences, tips etc, it would be great to hear from you. Many thanks in advance.

We use Wonde to sync classes, but is there a way for a teacher to create a custom Google Classroom, e.g. for an entire yeargroup, or for students who attend a particular club/activity, to forcibly add students to their own custom group? At present, they can only add students in a way that the student doesn't have to accept the invitation, but they want the students to be forcibly added, without the student having to accept (or being able to decline) the invitation. I found this https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-join-a-Google-classroom-without-the-code post which suggested that "Schools using Google Workspace for Education can auto-enroll students via their roster", but I can't find that option; am I right in thinking this may require "Google Workspace for Eduction Plus" or "Standard", which is the paid version, and not the "Fundamentals" option, which is the free one we have. I understand this could be done with GAM, but we're reluctant to go down that road. Many thanks in advance if anyone can help answer this.

Does anyone here use "Academy21"? Apparently we have a student using it for off-site learning. The student doesn't come into school, so we don't see them and don't see any errors first-hand. The first I heard of this site was when that student was unable to login; I was given a screenshot showing that Academy21 uses a URL beginning with "interhigh" that was blocked. I managed to get a full list of domains to allow, which included "interhigh.adobeconnect.com", "adobeconnect.com", "interhigh-my.sharepoint.com" and various others, which I whitelisted, and this enabled the student to login. Now they are logged in, but are stuck on joining a class, with a screen showing the following: "Connect LogoAdobe Connect. Troubleshooting Tips. Please wait a moment" I also asked if we could have a test account, so that we could login to the website as a student ourselves, and see what happens and get to the bottom of it, but that didn't happen, so it's very difficult for us to help. I emailed the Academy21 support address, which I did get a response from last time, but they are not responding to us, so I am wondering if someone here may have some experience with this and be able to point us in the right direction? I don't know anything about how/why this provider was chosen, and didn't know anything about it until I was told there was a problem, but if anyone is in a position where they are able to influence if any school uses this platform, based on my experience so far, I would advise against it! Many thanks in advance to anyone who can help us!

Thanks all, very useful to know.

Does anyone have any suggestions for privacy screens? Either monitors that have this built-in, or something that goes in front of an existing display screen, which will have the effect of only allowing someone who is directly facing the screen to be able to easily read what is displayed. The request I had was for two "monitor privacy screen protectors", however when I search for this, I find a bewildering array of options, many of which aren't rated particularly highly. Many thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Hi Yes that worked, thanks!

Our DT department use Tinkercad (https://www.tinkercad.com/) and we can access the site, however pupils are unable to create designs; staff can create things such as: However when pupils login, they just get a loading screen like this: I used https://get.webgl.org/ to check if WebGL is working and yes it is. The issue occurs when pupils are logged into the computers, but there is no problem when pupils are logged into Chromebooks! has anyone experienced this?

I have the exact same issue! @BKGarry did you ever get a solution to this? Has anyone else had this problem and found a solution? Many thanks in advance

We only had 1 user reporting it; I got the same error, so immediately reported it and asked on here, however however as soon as I did that, it has started working! So must have been a very temporary glitch.

Anyone else get errors such as "This page isn't working" "HTTP ERROR 500" when accessing Arbor, or is it just us?

Has anyone here migrated from SIMS to another system e.g. Arbor, Bromcom etc, and been unable to access SIMS, and also unable to access the helpdesk? The error I get is that "we have been unable to confirm that you are eligible to use this software...": We don't want to actively use SIMS now that we use an alternative provider, however we recently received a subject access request for data that we believe is in SIMS but not transferred to the new MIS. Does anyone know how to resolve this? I can log in to the SIMS portal but there is no way to log a ticket and the page contains various errors e.g. "An unexpected issue occurred. Refer to product documentation or contact support for more information"; I guess my login permissions are reduced because we are no longer licensed @SIMS_Customer_Support are you able to offer any assistance?

We are experiencing major problems with Smarttech MX interactive screens at our school. On some occasions the screen shuts down randomly, on other occasions the screen becomes responsive and you have to restart to get it to work. Smarttech refuse to come out and see us, and tell us to re-format the devices, which isn't helpful. Other schools within our Trust were going to get the same type of screens, but that's on hold now, as we have no solution in sight. Does anyone else have this problem? Does anyone have any method of getting Smart to actually come on site, and see the problems for themselves and actually come up with a solution?

We've got an issue with keyboards and mice being damaged recently. Does anyone have any suggestions for either more durable or more fixable keyboards/mice, that aren't excessively expensive? For example, some pupils like to peel back the button lid of mice; for some mice if they peel back the button, it will snap or warp the plastic, or break the mechanism and the mouse is then no good, however I have found that some models do allow you to snap them back into place e.g. some of the older Dell mice we had a few years ago were excellent for this; I was able to rescue many mice in this way. We can't afford expensive equipment, but equally I fear it may be a false economy to buy ultra-cheap items that easily get damaged (and/or that kids don't respect or don't like using), so it's a matter of finding the right balance between something inexpensive, but also reasonably durable and/or repairable, if there is such a thing? Any recommendations would be very welcome.

Thanks all. I suggested this software, and have not heard anything back, so I assume they are getting on with it!