John McLearweb2 | John McLear http://mclear.co.uk My mission: To encourage effective use of ICT in Schools. My main focus is on ages 3-11. Thu, 17 May 2012 21:14:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://primaryblogger.co.uk/?v=3.3.2 Primary School Web2 meetings http://mclear.co.uk/2010/07/20/primary-school-web2-meetings/ http://mclear.co.uk/2010/07/20/primary-school-web2-meetings/#comments Tue, 20 Jul 2010 17:38:50 +0000 johnyma22 http://mclear.co.uk/?p=1375 I have now completed my visits to Bradford schools covering some basics of being empowered by web based resources.  The meetings have usually lasted about an hour and have been relatively structureless & informal.

Considering their approach..

to identifying their pupils, parents(current and prospective) and teachers requirements for a learning platform.  Including showing the school example of how other schools are using web based technology.  The main idea of this is to get the school to think about what they want the web to do for them, not what they can do on the web.

Web based vs downloadable

I showed each school how to access to the Primary School Web2 searchable database which will allow them to search for web2 resources in the future when they are contemplating replacing a current legacy application.

I showed off Microsoft‘s Live at Edu showing how even the most pricey of apps are moving on-line and the experience is relatively high quality compared to a few years ago.

I explained why I believe web based is better than downloadable especially for mobile projects.  I also tried to explain the new method for distributing apps through systems such as Google Market and iStore.

Web2 after school

I covered some useful web sites and resources that are focused on extending pupils learning outside of the school gates.  The examples I used were Mr Thorne does Phonics and Primary Games Arena amongst others.

The biggest problem I faced during the sessions were the amount of sites that were filtered so access was not possible.  This is something all LA’s are working on and struggling with.  This problem wont be experienced at home so I suggested that the teacher/head continued investigating resources from the searchable database at home.

Summary

I enjoyed doing the sessions and I spent the last few minutes of the meetings asking the school if they thought the meetings were valuable.  Many schools have expressed an interest in pursuing things further with their own web based systems and all have said they will use some of the web based resources already available on the internet.  Nearly all of the schools were not aware of all the resources available and were amazed at the quality and ease of use of a lot of the sites I showed them.

It is worth remembering that these sessions are often required just as a way to introduce schools to the basics around web based technology and they aren’t meant to be a thorough session with direct outputs or goals.  I hope/think they went well and will probably run them again next year depending on funding from Primary Technology who funded all of the sessions this year.  I do hope that some schools begin exploring Web2 in more depth and begin working with the Education Bradford ICT team to embed Web2 into their whole school plan.

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]]> http://mclear.co.uk/2010/07/20/primary-school-web2-meetings/feed/ 0 An unpopular blog post – 7 ways to cut ICT costs http://mclear.co.uk/2010/07/04/an-unpopular-blog-post-7-ways-to-cut-ict-costs/ http://mclear.co.uk/2010/07/04/an-unpopular-blog-post-7-ways-to-cut-ict-costs/#comments Sun, 04 Jul 2010 14:52:11 +0000 johnyma22 http://mclear.co.uk/?p=1224 It is never popular talking about how schools can save money on ICT or areas where spending is just too high.  Sorry if you fall out with me on this one..  These are all suggestions, I don’t endorse any in any way, shape or form (this is mostly for political reasons…).

For the most part you get what you pay for, so any savings may mean a drop in quality and a negative impact on teaching and learning.  The conservative education policy is (we assume) run by people with more knowledge than myself so when they say schools need to spend less on ICT all I do is figure out how..

It is up to you to decide how they will impact your teaching and learning.


1. Printing

Potential savings in average 2 form entry school: £500

Yep, the ugly ink spewing beast is still costing even the smallest of primary school thousands of pounds every year mostly in toners and ink.  So how can a school save money?

a) Use a managed printing solution to reduce the cost per sheet and to restrict the amount certain users can print.

b) Use on-line collaboration such as email more effectively

c) Encourage parents to get on-line and use an e-newsletter / social networking

2. MIS support

Potential savings in average 2 form entry school: £2000

Why is it that one application costs nearly as much to support as the entire network full of applications used on the curriculum side?

a) Change your support provider to a more cost effective option

b) Use e-registration and remove the need to replace that nasty OMR

3. Internet connectivity

Potential savings in average 2 form entry school: £2000

Internet provision from Becta approved providers usually costs 2 to 4 times that from a local internet provider, this is because they usually bundle educational services into the package and/or tools to collaborative with other schools in your area.

a) Change to a local internet provider offering less bandwidth at reduced rates

4. Backups

Potential savings in average 2 form entry school: £250

Tape backups are horribly inefficient, unreliable and costly.

a) Use remote backup services

5. AV

Potential savings in average 2 form entry school: £500

Most schools have now spent up on purchasing interactive classroom stuff, replacement bulbs can cost up to £500 each

a) Maintain your projects by pro actively cleaning filters and performing regular maintenance

6. Software Licensing

Potential savings in average 2 form entry school: £500

Microsoft have now released their Office web apps so when you come to purchase new devices you can almost ignore the cost of Microsoft Office licensing.

a) Get familiar with Live @ Edu & Office Web Apps or Google Web Apps

b) Become familiar with the vast array of free web 2 tools for schools

7. Technical support

Potential savings in average 2 form entry school: £500

From personal experience I know a major cost of technical support is the time spent visiting a specific machine.  There are obvious advantages to having an on-site engineer.  Face to face support is still by far the best we have right now but that is because we haven’t really explored the realm of good remote desktop support for our curriculum networks as of yet.

a) Encourage your technical support provider to explore on-demand live remote desktop support and monitoring

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]]> http://mclear.co.uk/2010/07/04/an-unpopular-blog-post-7-ways-to-cut-ict-costs/feed/ 2 feed twister bites the bullet http://mclear.co.uk/2010/01/28/feed-twister-bites-the-bullet/ http://mclear.co.uk/2010/01/28/feed-twister-bites-the-bullet/#comments Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:12:00 +0000 Admin Admin http://mclear.primaryblogger.co.uk/2010/01/28/feed-twister-bites-the-bullet/ It looks like Feed twisters days may be numbered. Their site just takes you to a godaddy holding page.

Shame :(

Another web2 service waves bye bye to the interworld.

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]]> http://mclear.co.uk/2010/01/28/feed-twister-bites-the-bullet/feed/ 0 Web2 Primary School go go magic arms http://mclear.co.uk/2009/12/09/web2-primary-school-go-go-magic-arms/ http://mclear.co.uk/2009/12/09/web2-primary-school-go-go-magic-arms/#comments Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:57:00 +0000 Admin Admin http://mclear.primaryblogger.co.uk/2009/12/09/web2-primary-school-go-go-magic-arms/ Due to the success of the etherpad on schools web2 services I decided to create a searchable engine. It’s very easy to use, check it out here.
It’s nothing fancy, don’t expect much other than a simple way to find the right service for you. If it’s wrong then let me know. If you want to be able to search by subject, year etc. then please get in touch!!

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]]> http://mclear.co.uk/2009/12/09/web2-primary-school-go-go-magic-arms/feed/ 0 A to Z of Web 2.0 for Primary Schools http://mclear.co.uk/2009/12/08/a-to-z-of-web-2-0-for-primary-schools/ http://mclear.co.uk/2009/12/08/a-to-z-of-web-2-0-for-primary-schools/#comments Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:08:00 +0000 Admin Admin http://mclear.primaryblogger.co.uk/2009/12/08/a-to-z-of-web-2-0-for-primary-schools/ Direct Link

Please contribute!

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]]> http://mclear.co.uk/2009/12/08/a-to-z-of-web-2-0-for-primary-schools/feed/ 0 Education: A Web 2 World divided http://mclear.co.uk/2009/12/04/education-a-web-2-world-divided/ http://mclear.co.uk/2009/12/04/education-a-web-2-world-divided/#comments Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:08:00 +0000 Admin Admin http://mclear.primaryblogger.co.uk/2009/12/04/education-a-web-2-world-divided/
In this post I am going to try to understand why so many schools chose so many different web 2 products to enable teaching and learning.
What is a Web 2 educational product?
A web2 educational product is an on-line service or product that a school uses to increase teaching and learning and/or improve the teacher, pupil, parent or other third party experience. See Wikipedia for more info.
Is this blog post really just about Web 2?
Naw, but teachers (especially in the US) love the term so I stick with it. If I was going to be pedantic which I may indulge in slightly.. This blog post is focused on all applications a school will use, but focusing on online applications. I guess I’d call them “Hosted Web Services”, but that’s just me…
How many Web 2 products are there for schools?
Specifically Educational, 500+ but that doesn’t include any flash games or web sites that include content. The 500 is purely sites that provide an educational tool, such as School Email, Edu20.org. Here is a semi-comprehensive, semi-biased (as all things are) list.
Who advises schools on which Web 2 products to use?
Authorities, friends, colleagues, third parties, pesky sales folks. The list of influence on a schools purchasing decision is endless. I often get asked “But surely all schools use the same stuff?”. After a slow, inane chuckle, I find myself trying to explain the fragmentation of ICT and how under no circumstances school A will be a carbon copy of school B (Much to the dismay of politicians). You get used to it after a while..
Anyway… What matters is the motives of the person advising the school. In the past profit has played a huge part in the UK with millions getting pumped into schools to purchase services but this has (for the most part(excluding Harnessing Technology Grant)) dried up. I have argued before this is a good thing for schools but a bad thing for business. My main concern now is that schools will be naive to the calling of an open service and buy whatever seems right at that time, putting complete faith in the service provider.
Oooh Ooooh, an example! Yay.. So imagine you buy an email service, use it for 2 years then start getting a lot of spam. You don’t want spam, you also want it to look different but you are told it’s not possible. So you decide to change your email service. Sounds straight forward right? Unfortunately your previous provider can’t export contacts or calendar appointments or anything, you feel hopeless and instead of changing provider you stick with the service you are not happy with.. This is not cool.
My Call to you, if you are advising schools is to explain to them the long term impacts of purchasing legacy or “non open” software solutions that will not be transferable to another platform in the case of a loss or lack of service. Please.
Is it better to have more or less product options?
More is always better, surely? Imagine if everyone used a different file type for Documents instead of the familiar Google Docs and Microsoft Office. Imagine a world where where there is 200 different word processors. The important thing with all Web2 services it that they work to some sort of open standard, that way schools can easily trade data between organizations. Microsoft and Google have been criticised in the past for being slow to respond to this demand but have recently become leaders in many aspects. Other software companies are following suit and this is making for happier systems engineers.
Why is the Web 2 world in education so divided?
Because education changes from teacher to teacher, city to city, state to state, country to country. I understand non educators may not be able to understand this. Get over it, ultimately you have to put faith in the teachers to know what is best for their pupils.
When Web 3 comes along, how will it look in respect to the market place and the product options available?
Open, Transparent. I think truly in a Web 3 world we will be able to pass information from one service provider to another with one click. It is evident with the mass roll out of SAML Authentication systems across education that we will soon be “One person” on all services so (your School email will know you as the same person Google Apps does). Tying information at an organizational level and an individual level allows for a framework of information transparency.
There will be a lot more options available, but you will be able to try them for free, very easily, if you don’t like it, you can move on. Change will be much easier to manage and schools will move from being tied into one service to be able to swim a mass sea of categorized services tailored specifically to meet their educational needs.
Happy days!

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]]> http://mclear.co.uk/2009/12/04/education-a-web-2-world-divided/feed/ 1 Do we really need local servers? A Web2 school http://mclear.co.uk/2009/10/12/do-we-really-need-local-servers-a-web2-school/ http://mclear.co.uk/2009/10/12/do-we-really-need-local-servers-a-web2-school/#comments Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:30:00 +0000 Admin Admin http://mclear.primaryblogger.co.uk/2009/10/12/do-we-really-need-local-servers-a-web2-school/ While deep thinking my “Not a VLE” Project I began doing a topology graph for schools information and data flow, part of this process lead me into looking at processes that local servers do to ensure teaching and learning is continuous.
When I say that Primary School ICT is complicated, some of you may be shocked by just how complex it is. An average school may have just 2 servers and 50 or so clients but the amount of processes involved to deliver the perfect desktop experience is huge.

A simplified diagram of an average Primary School’s ICT from a process point of view:
Recently we have found an upsurge in schools buying EEE’s with XP Home and we have considered leaving Home on and seeing how they get on:
Here are the initial negative reasons why XP Home without a domain controller(server) is not suitable for a school…
(A Pupil may also be a teacher)
The problems:
  1. No Account restrictions – Pupils can break their device.
  2. No Centrally manageable Anti-Virus – Pupils may get a virus and the school wouldn’t know about it.
  3. No Windows update monitoring – Pupils may not have the latest windows on their device so may be at risk.
  4. No Authentication to printers – Pupils would not be able to 1 click print as easily.
  5. No ability to deploy software – Software would not be able to be “pushed” from the server meaning each piece would have to be individually installed.
The Fixes:
  1. No Account restrictions – Keep an image ready to restore from DVD/USB HD, this is not a complicated process and should be done as part of best practice anyway. All locally saved documents are remotely backed up using either Syncplicity, humyo or remote backup from Primary Technology
  2. No Centrally manageable Anti-Virus – An organization level web managed antivirus web2 application
  3. No Windows update monitoring – Teach pupils to periodically check for the latest windows update
  4. No Authentication to printers – Stop printing, use email, blog, etc.
  5. No ability to deploy software – Use web2 applications – Legacy applications could be supported by Thinapp or an app publishing platform?
The advantages to the Fixes:
  1. No Account restrictions – Increased Data protection as pupil information only lies on the MIS server (Which could eventually be easily hosted)
  2. No Centrally manageable Anti-Virus – Much easier for technical support providers to manage large number of devices and for schools to check status.
  3. No Windows update monitoring – Children will know how to update their systems in the future.
  4. No Authentication to printers – Record is kept of what/when is sent and we don’t waste paper/ink
  5. No ability to deploy software – Web2 applications tend to be available anywhere and do not require updating.
The disadvantages to the Fixes:
  1. No Account restrictions – Time spent in restoring devices and loss of local copy of data will mean a restore process from remote backup.
  2. No Centrally manageable Anti-Virus – Increased internet bandwidth usage
  3. No Windows update monitoring – Large updates could take a long time.
  4. No Authentication to printers – Email, blog systems could be abused.
  5. No ability to deploy software – Web2 companies and/or their hosting providers can have issues leading to downtime and unavailability.
The other angle to approach this from is a web3 angle which would be a cloud OS however for true data protection a school should always keep their own copy of any document they have worked on.

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