elsewhere

Essentially a Microsoft promo video on the NSW DET deploying Windows 7.

Are you interested in what is happening with the Digital Education Revolution in NSW? The DET has released a public web-site with lots of information like the machine specs and software. Also check out the slightly kitschy video:

The DER as it is unfortunately named, is about to hit NSW schools. This letter provides a convincing statement of what I’ve been thinking. In my school, equipping every teacher with a computer, projector and IWB (or even just the projector) – and a couple of days of professional development (formal or informal) would have been a better investment.

Given how stuck in the mud the DET seems when it comes to IT, moving their email to Google’s Gmail is intriguing.

The SMH writes that the government is not releasing details of which schools are currently most in needs of funding to better their ratio of computers to students (1:7+).

More worrying to me is that the NSW DET is dictating that NSW’s schools will spend any funding received on a specialised high-end educational laptop (which I suspect is something like the Intel Classmate). This might be a nice little machine, but it is not the ideal situation for every school and will create more problems in some schools.

I sat through a day long training course this year; the presenter’s laptop was set to go to screen saver after 5 mins of inactivity. I saw that screen saver so many times that day and it wasn’t even interesting.

For Macs, Caffeine is a little program that puts an icon in your menu bar. When active, it stops your Mac “from automatically going to sleep, dimming the screen or starting screen savers” – perfect for presenters (or teachers). [via MacBreak Weekly 70]