| Digital - teacher | Education in a technological world

Image map for the VLE

Following on from my post about my ideas for how to proceed with the school VLE, here is an image that I created to show the six aspects that would appear on the portal page, with a brief description of how each area would function, as well as who could provide the service.

The latest on my masterplan...

Things have been moving along steadily since my last posting regarding creating our own VLE. 

After a chat with my HT, Google Apps is now set up and I hope to start testing it with a pilot group of children shortly to see how suitable it really is. I'm currently looking for examples of how other schools have been (and are) using Apps with their children, and just what it allows to be achieved.

iPhone 3.0

So it has arrived. The much anticipated and publicised latest version of the iPhone operating system has been released. After downloading it (fortunately before the apple servers cracked under the strain of everyone trying to update at the same time), I've had a bit of a play with it and have to say that it's made quite a difference to the speed. 

Dingle, Dangle, Dongles!

I've been thinking about mobile broadband recently. In fact, I've spent time thinking about it since I was at a conference and had a very stressful time trying to connect to their network only to find they had filtered internet access and almost caused me to abandon my web based presentation!

What is a Learning Platform?

I was sent a link to this clip from @carolrainbow. Thought I'd share it.

Watching this, I'm quite happy that (with the exception of the reporting to parents) we're there with our own solution! Everything mentioned is covered within the applications we've chosen :0)

Still working things out

My desire to create a LP ideal for the school (and, let's be honest here my sanity as well), is moving along. Google Apps has been upgraded to the education version, and - after a bit of a delay - the email service is now working without adverts showing up. 

Google Apps - an update

I've begun the process of getting Google Apps (Education edition) for school. There have been a few teething problems with the process; the Domain Host settings were a bit tricky to sort but in the end it was achieved and the domain has been verified by google.

At the moment we have google apps - standard edition. The differences with this is that it's limited to 50 users (we could request more if we wanted to), and it supports ads. The education version is ad free - always a positive when children are concerned.

Creating a bespoke Learning Platform

As I make the slow return to full time active work, I am beginning to think more and more about the Learning Platform situation for school. We were all ready to sign up to the expensive county-wide solution (hosted by Fronter) until we went to the first of two training days to introduce us to it. 

Activities Galore

Today I make my slow return to work - I am working this afternoon, marking optional SATs papers in school, and returning again on Friday morning to continue doing more of the same.