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Thursday, June 26, 2008 5:45 AM

Byron Recommendations? ... Online Information Card? ... Response?

Following this weeks publication of the Byron Review Action Plan , which aims to protect the safety of children online, Times Online reports that the worlds most influential firms have launced their online 'Information Card'. Note that its'...
Posted by AlanDay
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Monday, June 16, 2008 8:21 AM

Filmclub goes online

As previously posted , Filmclub launched last week. This is aimed at encouraging children to watch and learn, and was set up with support from the UK Film Council . Apparently 60,000 films are being, or have been made available to support 7,000 schools...
Posted by AlanDay
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Friday, June 13, 2008 8:32 PM

£250 Ethernet Cable??

Denon the high-end audio firm is selling an ethernet patch cable for, wait for it ... £250!! (normally around £5 or less). Apparently it brings out 'all the nuances of digital music', and has signal direction markings. Don't they know that...
Posted by AlanDay
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Friday, June 13, 2008 7:21 PM

Kent County Council bans anti-teen device!

Here's a technology snippet! The Mosquito Teenager Loitering Deterrent is a device that emits a high pitch sound that only young people can hear. According to BBC News , Kent County Council has decided to ban the devices, with Mike Hill OBE , Cabinet...
Posted by AlanDay
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Friday, June 13, 2008 6:38 PM

Display Energy Certificates - Go one better?

On reading the recent e-bulletin item on Kent Trust Web (Formerly Clusterweb) I note with interest that from the 1st October schools are meant to display a certificate that shows the energy usage per square metre. This means that every school with more...
Posted by AlanDay
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Tuesday, May 27, 2008 8:19 PM

Open Source! ... about to be taken seriously by Becta?

Becta are encouraging the use of open source software in its latest framework agreement for software. The four year agreement will start in October and replace the current software licensing framework that has been in place since 2005. Up to 10 suppliers...
Posted by AlanDay
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Saturday, May 24, 2008 3:34 PM

Post 'Byron Review'?

The Byron Report , Behind the Screen , and Grand Theft Childhood have all thrown their hats into the ring with research and recommendations for the safe use of technology by children; all agree that it is a complex area of research. There isn't much...
Posted by AlanDay
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Saturday, May 24, 2008 3:26 PM

Build Your Playspace

Merlin John pointed me at this kids consultation and my daughter thought it was cool! You get to build a play park whilst giving your views on playspaces. What a great way of getting kids opinions!
Posted by AlanDay
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Wednesday, February 06, 2008 7:12 PM

So, ... I'm out of touch?

My recent post, ' struggling with technology ' prompted an interesting comment from someone closer to the chalk-face than me, and I must admit it caused me to reflect. The essence of the comment is contained in the following excerpt. "That's all very...
Posted by AlanDay | 3 comment(s)
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Wednesday, January 30, 2008 7:52 PM

Shibboleth and Athens - descending into middle earth?

This is a post for the purists! Shibboleth is the open standard for identity and access management. It promioses Single Sign-On to resources, and data security. If you want to know how it works, CLICK HERE . Athens on the other hand is the old system...
Posted by AlanDay
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Wednesday, January 30, 2008 7:44 PM

Technophobe Teachers?

The following is an opinion from Andrew Pinder , Chair of Becta in an extract from an article in the Times 7Jan 2008 : "State schools spent £1 billion on cutting-edge information technology last year but 80 per cent of them are failing to make full use...
Posted by AlanDay | 2 comment(s)
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Friday, January 04, 2008 12:29 PM

Intel pulls out of One Laptop Per Child Project.

It would seem that a 'philisophical difference' between Intel and the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Project has ended in divorce. It was well known that whilst Intel was on the board of the OLPC project, it was also touting its own solution, the Classmate...
Posted by AlanDay
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Saturday, December 08, 2007 11:24 AM

Podcasting - quick wins for quality

I've been really getting into podcasting and also into adding audio to slidehare and voicethread shows. The latter are two excellent online presentation tools that allow the user to quickly narrate and publish PowerPoints and create stories based around...
Posted by AlanDay | 1 comment(s)
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Saturday, December 08, 2007 9:12 AM

Filtering? 'Control and Constraint' or 'Freedom and Fun'?

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales recently added to a long standing debate about the value of Wikipedia for research. Speaking at the recent Online Information Conference at Olympia, Jimmy is reported as stating that teachers who refuse access to wikipedia...
Posted by AlanDay
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Tuesday, December 04, 2007 5:57 PM

Minor handheld skirmish in Nigeria?

Two competing initiatives aimed at providing cheap computers to children in emerging economies appear to be slugging it out over the same turf. Abuja in Nigeria is where the action is ... apparently! The interesting thing is that two competing projects...
Posted by AlanDay | 1 comment(s)
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Monday, November 19, 2007 5:39 PM

Global Village? ... meet your neighbours!

Sometimes an online experience can be so poignant that I am lost for words. One of these was when the US Holocaust Museum used Google Earth to show the destruction of villages in Darfur.The latest is by French Photographer Yann Arthus Bertrand who aims...
Posted by AlanDay
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Friday, November 16, 2007 6:45 PM

'Cracking' computer ...

We have had some 'cracking' related news items this week. I say cracking because it brings together related technology stories spanning 60 years. The Colossus WW2 code cracking computer has been restored to working condition by the National Museum of...
Posted by AlanDay
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Friday, October 26, 2007 11:42 AM

"Piggybacking" school wi-fi theft - pair cautioned in Maidstone!

In this weeks Kent Messenger (Maidstone Edition) there is a story about wi-fi bandwidth theft from a school ... "Piggy Backing", more formally known as 'dishonestly obtaining an electronic communication service" is an increasing problem, especially as...
Posted by AlanDay | 2 comment(s)
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Thursday, October 25, 2007 8:24 PM

i-whiteboards - the benefits are clear?

Following outstanding claims for the effectiveness of interactive whiteboards in a recent Becta research report and highlighted by my colleagues on their Blog , I read the full report . Its very thorough, and offers some interesting conclusions if you...
Posted by AlanDay | 1 comment(s)
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Wednesday, October 24, 2007 3:03 PM

Microsoft referred to Office of Fair Trading

Hot on the heels of the EU fine , It would appear Microsoft are now facing pressure in the UK from Becta. The issues of the EU decision were complex, and arguably the act of forcing Microsoft to hand over its Intellectual property to competitors is highly...
Posted by AlanDay | 2 comment(s)
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