NEW FEATURE: PrimaryPad autoQue / Teleprompter

Ever wanted to make a movie and needed an autoQue? Well why not collaboratively write your script in PrimaryPad then export it straight to our autoQue tool?

We have released the autoQue tool under an open source license and we will be adding it to the suite of tools available through the safe search website.

Check it out now, visit this pad then click Export –> autoQue

PrimaryBlogger Updates

It’s been a long two weeks. We’ve moved PrimaryBlogger over to our new servers and hopefully you’ll now have a more stable and fast experience with your blogs. You’ll also see a lot of changes happening graphically and functionality wise to improve your overall experience of PrimaryBlogger.

Heres a list of the things we’re currently doing and are looking at for the future:

  • Soon, we’ll be starting polls and asking for feedback for any changes you would like to see or improve upon, be it themes, plugins or something else.
  • To improve overall speed of the site we’ve turned off some of the plugins we use by default, don’t worry you can still enable them in the plugins section in the wp-admin area.
  • We’ve added the ability to remove your user account if you so wish.
  • More spam fighting tools.
  • Use PrimaryBlogger to host your school’s website.
  • PrimaryBlogger custom themes.
  • New PrimaryBlogger website coming soon.
  • PrimaryBlogger Pro and other packages coming soon.
  • A better PrimaryBlogger support website coming soon.
We hope you enjoy everything we’ve done, let us know any feedback in the comments, Twitter, Primary Technology answers forum or by email.

Sounds like Glow is on the right path #EduScotICT

Sounds like Glow and Primary Technology share a similar vision about open technologies.  It would be really sad if they say “Yes we want to use open technologies” then adopt Google Docs, let’s hope that doesn’t happen!  Please people, try to remember than Open is not the same as Free, open means you have the freedom to do whatever you want, whenever you want with that piece of software.

I find it strange that so many Scottish schools that have access to the Glow blogs service still use PrimaryBlogger?  I assume it’s because PrimaryBlogger has a slightly more open feel and ability to be more creative.  I guess as Glow is part of a bigger service the government feel they need to attach certain policies and restrictions to it.  I don’t know the answer but it would be an interesting discussion to have if you are a Glow user and you use PrimaryBlogger.

If I was to be skeptical about one thing it would be about RM’s ability to manage glow.  In my experience RM tend not to consult with other small business’ about best practice when implementing new technology and I haven’t seen much of a commitment from RM to open source.  Do you know of any?  If so, please prove me wrong!

So I’m interested to see what Glow do, I wont be contributing to the date unless my presence is requested but I will be listening in and looking to see what exciting open-technologies are proposed!

Just finally, I want to give credit to some of the people working in and around Glow from a teaching and learning perspective.  Ollie Bray, Derek Robertson, Margaret Vass, John Johnston to name but a few.  Keep up the good work one and all and kudos to you!

Our contribution to collaborative writing

Since December 2009 we have been contributing towards an open-source project called Etherpad.  Open source projects can be described as free software that is free to modify, use and redistribute.  Etherpad has been the technology we have used for PrimaryPad.  Today Etherpad Lite finally reached Version 1 which means it’s ready for download and widely adopted usage.  We’re really proud of this achievement and we hope to support the project into the future.

Read more about Etherpad including the option to host your own