IT Services

IT Services — No Comments
4
May 11

Hampshire IT – ICT Forum Meeting

ict-strategic-forum-01Hampshire IT (the newly formed EdICT and IT Services) presented their vision for ICT and IT in education. At the forefront, Daniel Fearnley (Business Partner for Children’s and Schools), introduced a Star Wars themed presentation. Think about the date….. May 4th… be with you. For the record, and it is a personal opinion, you would be hard pushed to find more worthy lead persente, however a word of caution, proof of concept is currently being piloted with positive feedback so far.

Myth-busting was the start point of the presentation. Procurement, security and resilience were considered added value of a Hampshire IT partnership, with a subtle emphasis that Hampshire IT operate on a cost neutral business model. New for 2011, there are plans for dedicated account managers for all secondary schools and as an aspiration, all primary schools as well.

The Future

Money and agility innovation were identified as the key variables with schools called upon to create a ‘clampet’ style strategy. Schools need to know the direction they are heading, take account of the impact of ‘money and agility,’ and pull together.

The end goal, anytime, anywhere learning, true collaboration, flexibility and meaningful data, against a back drop of lowering costs, procurement compliance, security, reliability, and of course for IT to just work.

Futureclass Hosted School Service

Schools feedback highlight the need for

  • provide appropriate creative tools for learning
  • tracking performance of learners through accessible, reliable information
  • access to content and information in one place
  • intuitive and engaging
  • reliability and speed of service
  • continuous development

Andrew Martin presented a vision model with the user as the focus, be they (parent / carer, educator, school staff, practitioner or learner) both in and out of the classroom. A single sign-on (SSO) to a portal, leading to the Hosted School Service. A service that may or may not include messaging, Email, cloud ctorage, curriculum software, VLE and MIS. Is this the time to apply pressure for a centrally hosted Moodle service? Underpinning  all these services is the HPSN2 infrastructure, again underlining the importance of security and resilience. It was made very clear, it was not the intention of Hampshire IT for this to be a managed service but a partnership.

Benefits

  • Automatic updates to software
  • Backups of all data
  • Modular design, update when and where required permitting swap out IT failure model
  • Remote access (mobile and personal device access).
  • All hardware and software supported
  • Single point of contact
  • Smoothing the cost curve

All delivered in a 5 Year, flexible, tailored IT solution.

If you were not able to attend the forum, I hope this post fills in some of the gaps and prompts you to ask the Hampshire IT team some more questions.

More information can be found here.

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Popularity: 30% [?]

IT Services — No Comments
23
Jan 11

OfficeTalk a Step Closer

OfficeTalk was first demonstrated last year as part of Office Labs and getting any feedback from Microsoft has been impossible. I posted my hopes  for this tool back in August. Now we might be getting a step closer.

Office Labs Program Manager Quinn Hawkins has been quoted saying that OfficeTalk has passed the "funded incubation phase" and is being considered by product managers. What does that mean?

Well, Microsoft clearly think it has value but where it will appear in the myriad of Microsoft products?

Pass? Sharepoint – possibly. Outlook – possibly.

Would it be useful in schools?

I believe so. It would bring a ‘social layer’ to school communications and collaborative tasks.

When will it arrive?

Pass?

Cost?

Pass?

Look, I admit it, Very little about the product has been released but it is worth following. Here is ReadWriteWebs coverage here.

Popularity: 4% [?]

IT Services — No Comments
6
Jan 11

Remote Desktop Services

Remote Desktop Service (RDS), formerly known as Terminal Services, allows a user to access applications and data remotely. Our visit to Twynhams School further supported our intention to investigate this option further.

TerminalWe have been discussing Terminal Services here at Hamble College for over a year now, we have had remote access to user drives and shared drives before, however Remote Desktop as part of Windows Server 2008 R2 really improved the end user experience, add a little branding to the landing page and we were really pleased with the outcome. What is more the applications presented can be modified by user. Although we have allocated time and invested in hardware, but this service has been relatively straight forward to create.

What will we make available and how many staff and students do we expect to access this service? Our current offer is Microsoft Office 2010, User and Shared Drives,  and possibly (undecided) Sims. Probably subject software, for example Photoshop, the cost of which is a financial barrier to some of our students.

Our conversation is now firmly on the security of information and whether or not we can offer Sims access as part of the RDS. We aim to present this service at the next Leadership Team Meeting but I can not think of any good reason why it will not be adopted, but there is a need to discuss Data Protection issues.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Digital Learning / L4L — No Comments
5
Jan 11

CES Tablet Army

Independent Research company Forrester made a bold statement in light of the 80+ tablets appearing at CES this week….

e-reader sales to increase by 50% in 2011 to 15.5 million devices while tablet computer sales jump 130% from 10.3 million in 2010 to 24 million in 2011.

This can only shorten the timeframe for tablets appearing in schools and as part ofschool 1-2-1 programme?

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Popularity: 2% [?]

Digital Learning / IT Network / Leadership / Management / Teaching — 2 Comments
21
Dec 10

Coming Soon… Tablet PCs

google-calendar-iconEvery January, just four months into the current Laptops4Learning programme, our E-Resource Manager and I began planning, researching and procuring test devices for the start of the next academic year. Each year we remind ourselves, it is not about the device, but rather the teaching and learning that technology enables. It is supporting staff to rethink their role and redesign their delivery model, that matters most. It is getting the systems and communication right. It is secure and resilient IT infrastructure and wireless. It is effective deployment. It is not about the device, but I  just can’t help but be distracted aware of the acceleration of the tablet PC market.

Let first define our ‘space.’ It is not a consumer space, nor personal space, it is somewhat mobile / transient though. Studens moving between lessons and owning the device 24/7. It is most certainly a networked, organisation space. Students need access to their ‘evidence’ everywhere they go and our parents have requested more IT support. Although it is a space where Open Source opportunities are being explored, I doubt many schools have the capacity to be fully immersed in Open Source systems. It is a financially constrained space and therefore ‘the suitability of Ipads in Education debated’  is mute, given our budget of £300 inc Operating System, Software, Accidental Damage and Warranty. So the focus reverts to netbooks / laptops vs tablets or hybrids, more about Gloria later…..

With the space almost defined, let me outline why I am getting distracted. Microsoft rumours of numerous tablet models,  rumours of a version of Windows for the ARM processors, used in most smartphones. I am distracted by the potential of "pen and touch" computing. Finally, I am distracted by Windows 8, the first Microsoft OS since the tablet was reborn, due sometime in 2012?

I am distracted by Intel’s announcement that Atom processors will feature in 35 tablet devices from 15 brands in 2011. I am always focused on commitments to longer battery life – although standards are now well above the benchmark 5-6 hours needed for a school day.

microsoft-courierBut most of all, I am distracted by the ruthless competition for market share for tablets or slate PCs. That said, I am not particular distracted by single screen Ipad clones, but rather, dual screen clam shell devices (Toshiba Libretto and Microsoft Courier) and to a lesser degree slide devices (Samsung Tablet Gloria). With 3 years 1-2-1 procurement experience, I have grave concerns for anything with a hinge and severe reservations for anything that swivels or flips. Dual screen clam shells maybe the preferred form factor, I expect traditional tablet PCs will fit our budget space.

 

What does all this mean for schools 121?

It means that Chrome OS, HP WebOS, BlackBerry’s Tablet OS Gingerbread are great innovations in their own right but are unlikely to fit the school space. Unless you go the BYO route to 121 computing.

Tablets will abate the ‘handwriting issue’ concerns of parents, made more interesting by ‘pen and touch’ technology.

Tablets will raise the profile of Microsoft OneNote in your school.

2012-13 will be the year of the tablet for early adopters.

Popularity: 16% [?]

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