BBC iPlayer / on demand service

Well I've got my version of the BBC on demand player installed on both the desktop and latop machines, and now I'm busy playing (sorry - testing) it.

Good points:

• Clear images when watching the programmes. No blocky moments.
• Simple to use. Browse - choose - click - download - watch!

Bad points:

• Limited choice of programmes at the moment
• No access to archived material
• Once you start watching a programme it drops from 28 days to 7 days before expiry.

Suggestions:

• A facility to set all downloads chosen to a certain time (say 12am - 7am) like the old economy7 electricity package.

Overall, not quite as I expected, but it's still in beta mode and I hope it gets better.

SID's a no-show

Oh no - bad news. SID's busy. He can't come to school this term. We'll have to wait until the autumn before zapping the traffic with laser speed readers.
Shame.

Solo entry, second place!

From the BBC;

A grandmother won second prize in a cake-baking contest at a fete, only to discover she was the only entrant. Jenny Brown, 62, entered her Victoria Sponge into the competition and was initially pleased to have come second.
But she was left shocked when a friend revealed to her that she was the only person to take part.The contest was organised by the Wimblington Sports Committee and judges marked down the cake because it had indentations from the oven rack.
Ms Brown said: "My friend came over to me at the fete and said I had come second. "I asked her how many more entries there had been, but she just started laughing and said I was the only one. "I definitely wasn't annoyed about it."
Although the cake was not deemed fit to win the competition, Ms Brown said it was soon polished off with no complaints. Julie Dent, from the Wimblington Sports Committee, said: "The judges had an expectation and I suppose they didn't feel as though it qualified for first place. "This was the first year but the cake competition will become an annual event." She said her own baking was subject to another strange decision. "About 11 years ago I entered a show with some fruit scones. I was the only entrant but I came third."

Presentational Skills

Just returned home from a day looking at two potential virtual learning platforms that the county are going to be selecting from. To say they were completely different would be an understatement - but it's not the architecture that runs each VLE that was so different, it was the presentation of each one. One of them was slick, professional, full of demonstrations on what the VLE can offer, and then when questions were asked the answers were consise, on the topic and detailed.
The other one...well, it wasn't!

Oh boy, was it so not a good show! I wish now that I had recorded what was being said, so that I could now play it on the computer at half speed. I might be able to understand what the rep was racing through. And did I get to see how the product works? No - instead we were treated to a view of a site set up using it, then another, and another, and then another, oh and just for good measure another example!?!?!

Even better were the questions (when they finally stopped avoiding being asked any). When you hear answers like "We've got a data centre in London, I think", or "I don't know if the software has that built into it". They're supposed to be selling it to us - and they come across as not knowing anything about it.

Suprisingly, following the presentations, there seemed to be one clear winner. Which was a shame, because the other product looked friendlier, we just didn't know how it worked.

One size won't fit all

It's the learning platform discussion day today, as mentioned in this post. The more I have been thinking about a county wide learning platform, the more I think it won't work if it's a "one fit for all" option.
I'm going to put forward my views on a tiered system - ie full features for KS3 and above pupils, but a simple graphical interface for lower KS2 (and even KS1 if they are going that far).

For a change

All day yesterday the TV news has actually featured good news as its lead story, with the release of Alan Johnston. It meant that I was smiling when I woke up and heard it. It meant I felt happy driving to work, and I felt goodwill to others in the evening.
Makes a change from the normal feelings when the news comes on about war and terrorism.

Only took a half term!

My first job after moving schools was to get the school website up and running. It's only taken me over half a term to do it!!! But, it's now live and the kids love it!

I've set it up so that parents and the children can comment on the information added. I've also managed to sign the staff (and the school council) up to add their own stuff, so that I'm not left to do it all like has happened with previous school websites I've been responsible for.

You can view it here, and of course you could always cast your vote in the poll running on the site.

A visit by SID?

I've been given the task of planning the geography topic for a local traffic study around school. It's been the usual stuff so far - look at photos of the area, look at the parking, see when it gets busy, do a traffic survey, suggest improvements to the traffic flow, etc

However, I've also contacted the local bus company and the local council to see if they'll send someone in to school for the children to interrogate, sorry question!, over their transport policies.

Well, the council have contacted me and said that they might be able to send SID. SID is a speed indication device. Imagine the children standing with the laser gun, pointing it at the passing cars and shaming the drivers into slowing down. I really hope that SID can visit.

Sats back

I received a phone call today from my previous school. The science SATs had just arrived.
1/3 of them achieved a level 5, and the rest a level 4. Not bad. Must get a card to send to the school to congratulate them all.

Well done Kids :-)