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Mike Herrity Profile |
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Dear Tom.. The things we think and do not say.. Thoughts on the populist appeal of deriding data.
Mike Herrity
I sit here at my laptop starting to write a response to a blog post I have just read in the full awareness that I am about to commit a form of professional twitter/blog based faux pas. On Sunday I woke to find no fewer than 3 separate emails from 3 colleagues (2 of whom were from my own school)passing on a blog post about the use of data in schools and the wider educational system. To get 20+ RTs on twitter about something which is interesting is far from unusual but to get three emails within a [read].
Posted: Sun, Jan 22nd '12 |
SharePoint Resource Booking System- video demo
Mike Herrity
Having used the SharePoint Resource Booking System at Twynham School for a year now I thought it was time to share this excellent solution. This product has been built by external developers but with Twynham School giving input on the functional needs for a resource booking system that could be used in education. In truth we saw it as a more narrow SharePoint Room Booking System which we would use for booking ICT rooms. It soon became clear that we could use it for a wide variety of resources in [read].
Posted: Wed, Jun 29th '11 |
The Personal Learning Environment. Moving beyond the VLE and SharePoint Learning Platform.
Mike Herrity
Over the last decade we have seen an enormous growth in use of technology within education. From the use of laptops and digital projectors to smartboards and VLE’s all of which have been aimed at improving learning. As a relatively new teacher I was shown my first ever VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) in early 2004, a moodle system which we began to use at my second school. I have often joked that as teachers we sat spellbound by a flash animation as the presenter seemed to promise us [read].
Posted: Mon, Jun 13th '11 |
A blueprint for outstanding learning
Mike Herrity
A Twynham School we are currently undertaking a review of the quality of learning within our school community. A key focus and surely our central purpose, is to ensure we increase the amount of outstanding learning which students are engaged in. I think this objective is far more important than a broader focus on outstanding lessons which can sometimes lose sharp focus on learning and concentrate too much on the quality of teaching. Although the two should be very heavily linked it is also th [read].
Posted: Thu, Jun 9th '11 |
My Site customization for the end user. SharePoint 2010 feature sneak peak.
Mike Herrity
One of the exciting SharePoint 2010 projects we are planning to show at our ‘Creating an effective and highly developed Learning Gateway’ webinar is a customization of My Site we have recently completed. Working with a large school district which serves 150,000 users we were asked to take a look at how My Site within SharePoint 2010 could be more user centric. The was a particularly exciting SharePoint development as the District accepted our idea of allowing staff and studen [read].
Posted: Wed, Jun 8th '11 |
Using SharePoint 2010 to create a highly developed Learning Gateway for education. Free webinar
Mike Herrity
Details: Mike Herrity and Dave Coleman will be presenting this webinar live on Wednesday 6th July at 7pm BST/2pm EDT
Sign up: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/670107128
Many of you will have heard bits of the story of Twynham School and our creation of a well-established learning platform using SharePoint. Through various case studies and presentations at conferences around the world over the last 5 years we have been very fortunate to be able to show our work creating compelling custom a [read].
Posted: Tue, Jun 7th '11 |
The future of textbooks in schools is digital.
Mike Herrity
One of the most frustrating elements of working in education and being a technologist is the lack of progress with digital textbooks. A whole raft of new curriculum changes have led to hundreds of new textbooks in the last few years but all of these were in paper form. What about digital resources? Publishers continue to look to traditional methods and maintain their market share by producing cd roms and inserting them in the back of textbooks to encourage future sales.
Amidst all this disappoi [read].
Posted: Thu, Jun 2nd '11 |
Windows 8 Preview at Computex 2011
Mike Herrity
Yesterday Microsoft gave us a first look at their latest OS, Windows 8 which is due to launch in 2012. This is a major upgrade to Microsoft Windows with Windows 8 featuring full touchscreen integration and a tile based interface for quick launching apps. The UI in particular takes its lead from Windows Phone 7 while the touchscreen features are a clear attempt to catch up with Apple’s ipad.
Check out the video below to see the Windows 8 features in the flesh. [read].
Posted: Thu, Jun 2nd '11 |
Generation Z and the social media revolution. What are our digital natives doing online?
Mike Herrity
The impact of social media on the students we teach in our secondary and further education establishments is undoubtedly significant. I have spent a little time this week during the half term break thinking about and researching the online behaviours of Generation Z and the role that these digital natives are playing in shaping social media. CBS have put together a useful inforgraphic video which highlights some key trends in social media use by Generation Z and it is well worth taking a few [read].
Posted: Tue, May 31st '11 |
New Dell XPS 15z Ultra-thin laptop.
Mike Herrity
After Dell’s failed attempt to rival Apple’s Macbook Air with the Dell Adamo they are back in the Ultra-thin laptop market. Check out this teaser for the Dell XPS 15z which is due for availability in June. Looks fantastic! [read].
Posted: Fri, May 20th '11 |
How do you quickly find your SharePoint content? Are you search or navigation driven?
Mike Herrity
Two weeks ago a conversation started in our development office about the most important feature of a SharePoint deployment to enable you to get to your content quickly. As we were mapping out a new development for a client it was clear that two dominant philosophies existed in the room. On the one hand a developer felt the SharePoint Knowledge Base landing page we were building needed just a simple search box on the page to create a Google style environment where you could instantly access every [read].
Posted: Thu, May 19th '11 |
How do we encourage our learners to think?
Mike Herrity
A few weeks I came across a video on TED which I was initially listening to in the background whilst doing something else. Within seconds I switched everything else off and became engrossed in the topic under discussion. In the video Dan Myer covers a topic which I feel we are all grappling with in Education: How do we encourage our learners to move from a formulaic ‘spoon- fed’ model of learning to a system where we actively encourage learners to enquire, devise and most importantly [read].
Posted: Mon, May 16th '11 |
Understanding the origins of learning language. Awesome TED talk and MIT research.
Mike Herrity
How do we learn a language from birth? This is something I confess I have never thought about in depth but with a 4 month old baby it is something I will soon be actively involved in supporting. This simply awesome talk from Deb Roy is well worth 20 minutes of anyone’s time as it takes you through the work MIT have been doing to understand the development of language in children. The model then builds to show the ways in which data can be analysed to show the impact of social networks on s [read].
Posted: Thu, Mar 31st '11 |
Understanding the problems with US Schools: Bill Gates says states think Big Money- little scrutiny.
Mike Herrity
Following on from my post yesterday which made a comparison between educational systems in the US and Finland there is a great talk from Bill Gates at TED. Although it appears a little of topic to start with as it looks at state budgets the big picture is really useful and soon the focus turns to the looming problem as an ever expanding deficit can only lead to swingeing cuts in education budgets. [read].
Posted: Mon, Mar 7th '11 |
Contrasting Educational Systems: comparing the US and Finland as models
Mike Herrity
As anybody in the US or UK will know there has been a profound amount of change in both countries educational systems in the last decade. Whilst ever increasing amounts of money have been spent both the US and UK have been sliding down the various educational league tables. Over the last week I have been looking in more depth at differing educational systems across the world and thought it would be interesting to share a few videos on this topic. The first is a short thought provoking video ou [read].
Posted: Sun, Mar 6th '11 |
Student views of the iPad2 and tablet revolution. Do we really just need a Dell Inspirion Duo?
Mike Herrity
As many of you will know yesterday was the launch of the latest Apple ‘must-have’ device- iPad2. During a lesson I was teaching a student started a conversation which surprised me a little. Seeing I had an iPhone as I checked the time one student asked if I was planning to but the iPad2. After suggesting that I would probably end up buying one as I have a technology addiction I was surprised by their response. When I asked if they would like to buy one the quickly responded that [read].
Posted: Thu, Mar 3rd '11 |
Xmas Video Fun: A grocers guide to new technology (digital natives not included).
Mike Herrity
I spotted this video on Engadget and it is simply priceless. A wonderfully scripted take on the use of technology terminology. Enjoy and Happy Christmas. [read].
Posted: Tue, Dec 21st '10 |
Dear Sony re: Qriocity streaming media failure. Please can you send me a postal order for £4.50
Mike Herrity
Dear Sony
I apologise for sending you a memo so close to Christmas, I am sure you are very busy. I am myself disappointed to be writing to you in my holidays when I should be having a break. However your lack of service this evening has forced me to put virtual pen to virtual paper to express my frustration. If you don’t mind indulging me for a moment I will add a little context to explain why you have angered me so much.
You see this memo stems from the fact that I am a huge fan of stre [read].
Posted: Mon, Dec 20th '10 |
The evolution of Cloud Computing and the changing anatomy of a Microsoft data centre.
Mike Herrity
Now for something a little bit geekier! Last week I was at a meeting at Microsoft’s UK base in Reading to look at a wide range of different topics. One of the agenda items was covering the cloud and as expected topics including Live@Edu and Office 365 were covered. One aspect of the discussion I did not expect was a presentation which showed the changing anatomy of the data centre. I managed to get some shots of the 5 current stages of Microsoft’s data centre evolution which I thou [read].
Posted: Wed, Oct 27th '10 |
Creating connected and collaborative learners. Where should their good ideas come from?
Mike Herrity
Over the last few weeks everywhere I go I have been hearing a recurring theme about the nature of successful learning which resonates with my own long held view. The word which best sums this theme up is ‘collaboration’. It seems as a society we are at last increasingly realising that growing our young minds through interdependence is just as important if not more so as fostering independence. Whilst watching a video by Steve Johnson I was struck by how important it is that we have [read].
Posted: Tue, Oct 26th '10 |
Dell brings the Netbook and the Tablet together. Creating a perfect learning device with Dell Duo?
Mike Herrity
As many of you will know I was (and still am) a big advocate of a the Netbook as an effective learning device for schools. Much of the fanfare around Netbooks has faded as the world has gone tablet crazy but Netbooks have not disappeared just yet.  Whilst I am also a big tablet fan and love the use of One Note in this format I still believe that the lack of a real keyboard will hold them back as devices in the educational market. There are of course flip tablets with a keyboard which can then [read].
Posted: Tue, Oct 26th '10 |
Cloud Computing with SharePoint 2010 and more. Office 365 brings a rich cloud experience.
Mike Herrity
It has been an interesting month for talk of Cloud Computing and specifically the availability of Office in the cloud. Microsoft announced a much needed upgrade to its BPOS and Azure offerings by launching Office 365. Using Microsoft’s extensive data centres Office 365 will bring together 4 key pillars of Microsoft’s productivity and communication tools in Office, SharePoint, Exchange and Lync. Whereas the lack of maturity within current cloud offerings was a barrier to moving resour [read].
Posted: Tue, Oct 26th '10 |
More thoughts on engaging the digital learner. Thinking at very desk.
Mike Herrity
Earlier in the week I wrote a post on Bloom’s Taxonomy and the digital learner. At the same time I put out a call for responses and have had so many thoughtful comments by email and on the blog. I wanted to share one in particular from Greg Wheeler which has been sent in today. He challenges the validity of Bloom’s and suggests a different way forward in engaging our digital learners.
His comment is below in full:
Thanks for the post on Bloom’s Taxonomy. It’s an incredib [read].
Posted: Fri, Oct 22nd '10 |
Voisse brings podcasts and presentations alive? New tools for audio assessment of learners.
Mike Herrity
Over the summer I shared a series of reviews on tools I have been looking at to use with students for creating presentations. If you missed these you can look at them below.
Prezi for engaging presentations which show overview and depth.
PptPlex which allows you to produce linear presentations which have ‘prezi like’ functionality.
Animoto for compelling videos on the fly.
Over the weekend I saw a new cloud based presentation site which flipped the primary focus from the vi [read].
Posted: Wed, Oct 20th '10 |
Rethinking the ‘Natives and Immigrants’ debate. Bloom’s Taxonomy for the digital learner.
Mike Herrity
Yesterday I wrote a piece on teenagers and the social media environment they are living in. This resulted in so many great discussions with various colleagues through twitter, face to face and on the phone. Matt huges also passed me a great prezi which I have looked at three times now and I think it would be really useful to pass it on. As I have often said, the students I taught 10 years ago are dramatically different to those I teach today. Whilst the class of 2000 were more digital immigrant [read].
Posted: Tue, Oct 19th '10 |
New SharePoint 2010 features for education. SharePoint School Reward System part 5.
Mike Herrity
Over the last few days we have looked at how different members of the school community view AA (reward point) data which is relevant to their needs within SharePoint 2010. You can catch up on the first 4 parts of this series below:
Part 1 Awarding individual reward points to students you teach.
Part 2 Awarding individual reward points to students you do not teach.
Part 3 The Head of Year View of year group AAs.
Part 4 The Tutor View of tutor group AAs.
In this section we are going to look at h [read].
Posted: Tue, Oct 19th '10 |
New SharePoint 2010 features for education. SharePoint School Reward System part 4.
Mike Herrity
In the last session we looked at viewing of AAs (reward points) for Heads of Year and Senior Leaders in SharePoint 2010 so that they could see the year group overviews. This can be seen on the right side of the image below. On the left side of the page below you can see an area called Tutor Group Overview.
By selecting the drop down on the left side this brings up individual students with their overall totals. Using this tutors can identify where individual students are under performing with [read].
Posted: Mon, Oct 18th '10 |
Texting, music, apps and social connectedness. Thoughts on teens and Social Media Revolution.
Mike Herrity
Over the weekend I have been dipping into various online feeds and giving some thought to where we are going within education, e-learning and the digital environment generally. If you want to check out the posts I have been writing you can find them here:
1. Cool websites for education- YT Time Machien. History research tool?
2. The Educational landscape of the 21st Century. Moving towards a new paradign in learning.
3. The origins of digital natives and e-learning. Internet arrives in 1993.
I [read].
Posted: Mon, Oct 18th '10 |
The origins of digital natives and e-learning. Internet arrives in 1993 and changes the landscape.
Mike Herrity
Yesterday I posted a review of a new site called YTTM, or YouTube Time Machine. Within the post I showed a future gazing video from 1969 which looked at what the Internet would soon look like. I had a response to the post from @andreacarr1 on twitter who posted a link to a similar video from 1993. The video clip was such a good reflection of what the Internet was in its earliest years for the consumer that I had to show it on the blog. For me it was even more memorable as I was at Lancaste [read].
Posted: Sun, Oct 17th '10 |
The educational landscape of the 21st Century. Moving towards a new paradigm in learning.
Mike Herrity
Earlier this weekend I spotted an RSA Animate created for a speech made by Sir Ken Robinson. The topic was changing educational paradigms and the challenge of creating a public educational system which matches the needs of our 21st Century world. They style of presentation mixed with the talk are very engaging and I found myself returning to the key themes over and over again during the last 24 hours. The video is fairly short and well worth investing the time to look at if you are interested [read].
Posted: Sun, Oct 17th '10 |
Cool websites for education- YT Time Machine. History research tool for students and schools?
Mike Herrity
One of the websites I have recently come across is YTTMwhich stands for YouTube Time Machine. The idea was thought up early in 2010 as a way of organising video into selection by years. Having seen the site on BBC’s Click I took a look and could see the relevancy for people looking back nostalgically at past years or decades.
The interface is basic and the site is currently in Alpha so it is likely to see improvements over time. It is nice and simple to use but I was instantly frustrated [read].
Posted: Sat, Oct 16th '10 |
New SharePoint 2010 features for education. SharePoint School Reward System part 3
Mike Herrity
In the first two session looking at the SharePoint School Reward System built at Twynham School we covered:
The interface which allows teachers give teaching and tutor groups an AA (reward point).
The interface which allows all staff to give an individual an AA (reward point).
Following on from these developments we needed to build interfaces in SharePoint 2010 which enabled teachers and students to see what was happening with the reward points. It quickly became clear that we needed to focus [read].
Posted: Thu, Oct 14th '10 |
New SharePoint 2010 features for education. SharePoint School Reward System part 2
Mike Herrity
In the first part of this series on Twynham School’s new online reward system I showed the functionality within SharePoint 2010 which enabled teachers to give reward points (or as we call them AAs) to students in their classes and tutor group. When we started trialing this solution back in June 2010 it quickly became clear that we had completely missed something. What if you took a cover lesson and wanted to give someone you do not teach an AA? This was also true of non-teachers and led us [read].
Posted: Tue, Oct 12th '10 |
New SharePoint 2010 features for education. SharePoint School Reward System.
Mike Herrity
In the last series I looked at Twynham School’s first new product for SharePoint 2010- the Online School Calendar. If you missed these posts you can find the first part here and the second part here. Our second product launch this summer was the SharePoint School Reward system which has been live at Twynham School for 5 weeks now. The idea for an online reward system was developed within out Student Council and I have written about their part in our SharePoint development in previous pos [read].
Posted: Sun, Oct 10th '10 |
SharePoint 2010 as an effective Learning Gateway
Mike Herrity
One of the topics I will be speaking a lot about this year is SharePoint 2010 and its position as an effective Learning Gateway in education. Last weekend I was fortunate to be able to present with my good friend Dave Coleman at the first SharePoint Saturday UK. The hour long presentation is captured in the PowerPoint below which I hope you find useful. Please do share it with others as the most comprehensive document on our work at Twynham School with SharePoint 2010 as a Learning Gateway.
Shar [read].
Posted: Thu, Oct 7th '10 |
test post
Mike Herrity
test post
No related posts. [read].
Posted: Fri, Oct 1st '10 |
New SharePoint 2010 features for education. SharePoint School Calender part 2- editing
Mike Herrity
Yesterday I showed our SharePoint 2010 School Calendar which helps simplify communication of all key school dates within a large educational institution. Today I wanted to show how easy it is to edit the calendar using the out of the box SharePoint functionality. On the Learning Gateway the calendar can be seen by any administrator with a series of tabs (see below). These allow the user to enter assemblies, activities, assessment schedules, meetings and planned staff absence from school.
By sel [read].
Posted: Wed, Sep 22nd '10 |
New SharePoint 2010 features for education. SharePoint School Calender part 1
Mike Herrity
One of the most irritating uses of SharePoint I have seen in education has happened at my very own school for the last 4 years. Each summer we start to put a calendar together in a word document for all the key events and activities in the school year. When this is compiled we put it in a document library which is not what SharePoint was meant for! As a result every time somebody wanted to check a date they would go to the staff home page, click through to shared documents and open the word [read].
Posted: Tue, Sep 21st '10 |
SharePoint 2010 all new features for Education. Whats new at Twynham School
Mike Herrity
As schools across the country are starting to settle down into a new year I thought it would be good to share the new features we have added to our SharePoint 2010 Learning Platform. Many of the new SharePoint solutions which I will be showing over the next fortnight have been developed at Twynham School for up to a year . Although all five new features have been made live over the summer for the return to work all our developments follow a tried and trusted methodology. We have always focus [read].
Posted: Mon, Sep 20th '10 |
The ‘third way’ in creating engaging presentations? PptPlex brings canvas functionality to PowerPoint
Mike Herrity
Over the last few weeks I have been looking at a few technologies which have appeared on my radar and which I think are worth sharing with other educationalists/technologists. In case you want to track back and take a look at the previous posts they are below:
Pogoplug for a great online storage system you can access anywhere.
Animotofor compelling videos on the fly.
Animotothoughts from Chris Thomson.
Prezi for engaging presentations which show overview and depth.
Prezi thoughts from twitt [read].
Posted: Thu, Aug 12th '10 |
Thoughts on ‘Death by PowerPoint and Prezi’ Responses from the blog and twitter
Mike Herrity
The last post on ‘Prezi- the end of death by PowerPoint?’ led to a good debate on twitter and the blog and I thought it would be useful to share what others had to say. I also have some examples from a few people which are worth sharing.
Nick Dennis an Assistant Headteacher @nickdennis commented
‘I agree that Prezi is not the solution but that is because the tool is not the main thing (Keynote and PowerPoint 2010 included) but the human behind it. Some of the best presentation [read].
Posted: Tue, Aug 10th '10 |
Prezi- the end of death by PowerPoint?
Mike Herrity
As many of you will know I have never been one to be on the bleeding edge of new technology. I tend to pick up things which have been around for a year or so when they are more mainstream and this is probably the case with Prezi. A few weeks ago I was in a meeting when I saw Prezi for the first time and it certainly caught my eye. Prezi is a reaction to the dullness of presentations such as those labelled ‘death by powerpoint’. It has zoomable functionality which allows the presenter [read].
Posted: Sat, Aug 7th '10 |
VLEs, MLEs and SharePoint 2010 as a Learning Platform- the series so far 1-12.
Mike Herrity
As we head to the weekend I thought it would be useful to link up the posts I have been writing over the last two weeks on VLEs, MLEs and SharePoint 2010 as a Learning Platform. So far we are 12 posts in to the 15 post series and you can get all the links to each post below. Posts 13-15 will continue into the next week.
Post 1 What is a VLE?
Post 2 How does a VLE support learning? (part 1)
Post 3 How does a VLE support learning? (part 2)
Post 4 Why should educational institutions consider imple [read].
Posted: Fri, Aug 6th '10 |
Features of a SharePoint 2010 Learning Platform- The power of search for learning (2 of 3)
Mike Herrity
In the last post we started to cover the elements of search which have the potential to impact on learning. You can pick up that post from here if you missed it. As well as different ways of refining searches today I wanted to look at federated search and the ability to instantly review search queries and results within the browser.
Federated Search
SharePoint 2007 contained federated search but this has seen improvements within SharePoint 2010. The key premise is the ability to search others [read].
Posted: Thu, Aug 5th '10 |
Features of a SharePoint 2010 Learning Platform- The power of search for learning (1 of 3)
Mike Herrity
A long running debate within our team at Twynham has taken place about the most important aspect of a SharePoint Learning Platform. Dave Coleman has always argued that search is the key attribute which makes the learning experience vastly improved within SharePoint. Although I did not agree with Dave that search was key with SharePoint 2007 it has made major steps forward in SharePoint 2010 and in many ways is now comparable with the same search experience learners will find with the Internet.
T [read].
Posted: Wed, Aug 4th '10 |
Features of a SharePoint 2010 Learning Platform- Tagging and Rating
Mike Herrity
Having looked at MIS and VLE integration it is time to move on to one of the more powerful and often underused features of a Learning Platform- tagging and rating.  This feature has made significant steps forward from SharePoint 2007 and in SharePoint 2010 it has genuine potential to support the learning process through reflection and review.
Tagging and Rating
In many ways the arrival of SharePoint 2010 has led to the liberation for end users who are now active participants. This is immedi [read].
Posted: Tue, Aug 3rd '10 |
Features of a SharePoint Learning Platform- VLE Integration
Mike Herrity
Another feature of a SharePoint Learning Platform is the integration of a VLE. The most common and best integrated solution for SharePoint is the SLK or SharePoint Learning Kit. This is currently being upgraded by the SLK co-coordinator Richard Willis for SharePoint 2010 and should be available in August.
At Twynham School we use an authoring tool called Author Expert which I will be covering in greater detail next week but here are some screenshots of what is possible. The first shows the abili [read].
Posted: Thu, Jul 29th '10 |
Animoto Review: Chris Thomson’s perspective
Mike Herrity
I had an email from Chris Thomson who is @electricchalk on twitter who wanted to post a comment on the blog but was blocked by his proxy. He has sent this to me by email and I thought I would post it up without editing.
Chris Thomson
http://www.electricchalk.com
I totally agree with you, Animoto in itself doesn’t have vast educational potential unless the work surrounding it  is purposeful.
I supported some work with a drama teacher in a school in Sheffield where they were doing a proje [read].
Posted: Thu, Jul 29th '10 |
Features of a SharePoint Learning Platform- MIS Integration
Mike Herrity
Having taken you through the differences between a VLE, MLE and Learning Platform I thought it would be useful to exemplify features of a SharePoint Learning Platform. You will be unsurprised to know that I will be using examples from Twynham School’s Learning Gateway to illustrate the different elements which can create a rich Learning Platform.
The first example is integration of what schools in the UK call an MIS or Management Information System. The classic example is our Online Report [read].
Posted: Thu, Jul 29th '10 |
Animoto Review: Engaging… but educational?
Mike Herrity
Another late night and another review of something interesting I have come across this year. As I was taking a tour of Twynham School with one of our visitors on the last week of term we popped into a lesson where the students were using netbooks in their normal classroom. The class were producing presentations to send to David Cameron and a number were using PowerPoint as I might suspect. The interesting thing is that many of the students had opted to use a different presentation that the Power [read].
Posted: Wed, Jul 28th '10 |
VLE, Learning Gateway or Learning Platform? Guest blog post from SharePoint MVP Alex Pearce
Mike Herrity
As I have been working through this series I had contact from SharePoint MVP Alex Pearce who I have worked with for over three years. He works directly in education on Local Authority wide projects and has recently been writing about VLEs, Learning Gateway and Learning Platforms. As I was writing a series on SharePoint in Education he kindly offered to add his own thoughts based on his experience.
Alex Pearce writes his own blog which can be found here
Guest post by SharePoint MVP Alex Pearce
In [read].
Posted: Wed, Jul 28th '10 |
What is a SharePoint Learning Platform? SharePoint in Education e-learning series post 6
Mike Herrity
Over the last two days we have been looking at the ideas behind VLEs and MLEs with the following posts if you want to catch up.
Post 1 What is a VLE?
Post 2 How does a VLE support learning? (part 1)
Post 3 How does a VLE support learning? (part 2)
Post 4 Why should educational institutions consider implementing a VLE?
Post 5 What is an MLE and why should you implement one?
This leads us to the idea of a Learning Platform- what is it? I have a third diagram to illustrate what a Learning Platfor [read].
Posted: Wed, Jul 28th '10 |
Pogoplug review: your own personal cloud storage
Mike Herrity
Time for a bit of non-SharePoint/Learning Platform talk. As those of you who have followed the blog over the last 18 months will know I am very interested in cloud computing and love gadgets. One of my first ever blog posts back in January 2009 was about a new device which was launched back at CES. The device was called Pogoplug and Robert Scoble made a big noise about it.
Having lost touch with Pogoplug since then I was pleased to come across their 2nd Generation version in PC World last week. [read].
Posted: Tue, Jul 27th '10 |
What is an MLE and why is it not a VLE? SharePoint in Education e-learning series post 5.
Mike Herrity
In the first 4 posts of this series so far we have covered what a VLE is, what common features it has (see here and here) and reasons why educational institutions should consider implementation.
Following on from this I wanted to look at the differences between a VLE and what we call an MLE or Managed Learning Environment. Perhaps the best way to start looking at the differences is to look at the diagram below.
Image taken from the Excellence Gateway here
A Managed Learning Environment moves b [read].
Posted: Tue, Jul 27th '10 |
Why should you consider implementing a VLE? SharePoint in Education e-learning series post 4
Mike Herrity
Posts so far in this series
Post 1 What is a VLE?
Post 2 How does a VLE support learning? (part 1)
Post 3 How does a VLE support learning? (part 2)
Having covered the main features of a VLE this leaves us with the question- why should an educational institution consider implementing a VLE? If you are seeking executive approval to implement a VLE there are 6 key arguments you can make:
Please not the first 2 arguments relate largely to further and higher education
Cost
It makes sense to start [read].
Posted: Tue, Jul 27th '10 |
How does a VLE support learning? SharePoint in Education e-learning series post 3 of 15
Mike Herrity
So far in this series on e-learning and the us of terms VLE, MLE and Learning Platform we have covered:
Post 1 What is a VLE?
Post 2 How does a VLE support learning? (part 1)
What other features does a VLE contain which support or manage the learning process?
4 Collaboration tools
VLEs can act as effective collaboration tools in both their use of communication tools mentioned earlier but also in the collaborative use of documents. Tutors can share and move documents and resources within learning [read].
Posted: Mon, Jul 26th '10 |
How does a VLE support learning? SharePoint in Education e-learning series post 2 of 15
Mike Herrity
Having established what a VLE or Virtual Learning Environment is it makes sense to look at what the core features are which support or enable learning. I have broken these down into 6 areas which are shown in the diagram from the last post.
6 Features of a VLE which support or enable learning
Controlled Access and Organisation
Information Dissemination
Communication Tools
Collaboration
Assessment
Analytics
Controlled Access and Organisation
One of the core components of VLEs is the ability to [read].
Posted: Mon, Jul 26th '10 |
What is a VLE? SharePoint in Education e-learning series post 1 of 15
Mike Herrity
So to start the series lets ask the eternal question- what is a VLE! A quick trawl on the Internet will show that people often use the term Learning Platform and VLE as if they are the same thing. Hopefully this series will clear that up and I will share both some of my thoughts and the excellent resources that are available on this topic. To start with take a look at this video on ‘What is a VLE’ which is a useful and quick way of summing things up. [read].
Posted: Mon, Jul 26th '10 |
This week on SharePoint in Education: What is a VLE MLE and Learning Platform?
Mike Herrity
Now that school is out and many colleagues have gone on a well deserved holiday I thought I should unleash a few series I have written over the last term which I have not had chance to post. This week I am going to focus on three key terms I hear at almost any e-learning conference I attend: VLE, MLE and Learning Platform. As many of you will know it is a pet hate of mine that these terms are used as if they are interchangeable and often with little understanding of what they mean.
What do the t [read].
Posted: Sun, Jul 25th '10 |
The benefits of building SharePoint websites
Mike Herrity
In the last post I showed a recent School website which has been built within SharePoint. The same school has also commissioned a separate website for their Sixth Form which can be seen below:
Why create your website in SharePoint?
In the last post I covered the changes in attitude as people are increasingly realising that SharePoint is an effective platform for delivering websites. There are a number of other key reasons why building a website in SharePoint makes sense.
The site navigation an [read].
Posted: Thu, Jul 22nd '10 |
The rise of the SharePoint School website
Mike Herrity
As part of my return to blogging this week I wanted to talk about one of the genuinely big trends in SharePoint. This is the rise in use of SharePoint as a school website. Although this trend and change in thinking still has a way to go more and more schools are seeing that SharePoint can create a beautiful website and be a powerful way to communicate with stakeholders. In the last 6 weeks alone I have taken 22 requests for SharePoint websites from schools who are using SharePoint as a Learning [read].
Posted: Tue, Jul 13th '10 |
An open letter to Viglen re: Virtualisation
Mike Herrity
Dear Viglen
How are you? I hope things are well in the land of building machines for schools. I also hope you don’t mind me writing to you to ask a few questions about the services you provide. We have recently visited a second school to arrange to install and develop SharePoint where your engineers have recently put hardware in. I wanted to ask a few questions as we may be misunderstanding what is happening but it seems like an unusual way to virtualise school server solutions.
In both th [read].
Posted: Mon, Jul 12th '10 |
SharePoint in Education Summer Term Review. The Blog is back!
Mike Herrity
This evening I decided I would do something I have not done in a while and write a blog post. I had realised it has been a while since I last wrote a piece due to the sheer madness of the last term but two and a half months was a bit longer than I realised! I thought it might be useful to write a review of what on earth I have been up to given that 73 days have gone past as we have had some interesting times.
May 2010
SharePoint 2010 is launched
The real focus for the month was the worldwide la [read].
Posted: Mon, Jul 12th '10 |
SharePoint 2010 New Features for End Users Part 3. Adding media to SharePoint 2010 pages.
Mike Herrity
So far in this series on end user features in SharePoint 2010 we have covered
SharePoint 2010 and the arrival of the ribbon.
Adding images to SharePoint 2010 pages
In this third part in the series we look at how end users can add media to pages in SharePoint 2010.
This video is best viewed in 720p
Related posts:SharePoint 2010 New Features for End Users Part 1 The Ribbon Commeth! In this first session we take a look at the...
SharePoint 2010 RTM Day. Take a sneak peek at 10 awesome end use [read].
Posted: Thu, Apr 29th '10 |
SharePoint 2010 New Features for End Users Part 2 Adding images to SharePoint 2010 pages
Mike Herrity
In the first session on this series of video posts on SharePoint 2010 we looked at the arrival of the Ribbon to SharePoint. The first post can be seen here.
In this second session I will show you how to simply upload an image directly into SharePoint 2010 using the ribbon.
This video is best viewed in 720p High Deifinition
Related posts:SharePoint 2010 New Features for End Users Part 1 The Ribbon Commeth! In this first session we take a look at the...
SharePoint 2010 RTM Day. Take a sneak pee [read].
Posted: Thu, Apr 29th '10 |
SharePoint 2010 New Features for End Users Part 1 The Ribbon Commeth!
Mike Herrity
In this first session we take a look at the Ribbon in SharePoint 2010 and the ability to add and manipulate text on a SharePoint site.
This video is best watched in 720p High Definition
Related posts:8 Basic SharePoint Features for end users. Part 8 In the final part of our video series on the...
8 Basic SharePoint Features for end users. Part 3 In part 3 of our series on basic features for...
8 Basic SharePoint Features for end users. Part 1 As I have covered on this blog on numerous occasi [read].
Posted: Tue, Apr 27th '10 |
SharePoint 2010 RTM Day. Take a sneak peek at 10 awesome end user features for SharePoint 2010.
Mike Herrity
As many of you will know today is the RTM (release to manufacture) of SharePoint 2010 and the starting point for many schools to consider migrating from SharePoint 2007 or moving from non-SharePoint Learning Platforms. For our team at Twynham School it is a special day as we have actually been working with SharePoint 2010 since December 2008 on Microsoft’s TAP (Technical Access Preview). This means we have helped been able to help shape and develop the latest platform through Alpha, B [read].
Posted: Tue, Apr 27th '10 |
Introduction to SharePoint 2010 event now full! Second date now added- Monday June 14th
Mike Herrity
As many of you will know we are running a free event called ‘Introduction to SharePoint 2010′ on May 14th. Unfortunately this event is now full but I am pleased to confirm we have managed to secure a second date which will be on Monday 14th June. This event is already starting to fill up so please do make contact by email at mike.herrity@twynhamschool.com to book your place.
Details are the same as last time (except the date) which are:
Microsoft UK have sponsored the event through [read].
Posted: Mon, Apr 26th '10 |
Free SharePoint 2010 Event on May 14th 2010. Places filling up- who should attend this event?
Mike Herrity
Just a quick update to say the ‘Introduction to SharePoint 2010′Â Â event I blogged about yesterday is filling up fast with 70% of places taken since this morning. Do please get in touch and get along by sending me an email to confirm your place(s) to mike.herrity@twynhamschool.com
Who should attend this event?
The main reason for this post is I have been asked this question a dozen times this morning so I thought it might be a good idea to expand on my last post with more clarity!
R [read].
Posted: Fri, Apr 23rd '10 |
Introduction to SharePoint 2010 Free Event
Mike Herrity
Free event for schools on Microsoft’s next generation Learning Platform
SharePoint 2010 is due to be launched on May 12thas Microsoft’s next generation Learning Platform. Many schools across the UK are currently using SharePoint 2007 and this event will help schools with their strategic planning, including when and why to consider moving to SharePoint 2010, regardless of whether you are planning to change this year or in the future. It may be that you are not using SharePoint at all but woul [read].
Posted: Thu, Apr 22nd '10 |
Microsoft Docs meets Facebook in the march to the cloud. Moving beyond web apps for SharePoint
Mike Herrity
This week has been very eventful with SharePoint 2010 being announced as RTM  (Released to Manufacturing) and due to be available to schools over the next few months in time for a summer upgrade. SharePoint 2010 is of course just one member of the Office family and one of the killer apps for SharePoint 2010 is the emergence of Office Web Apps. If you don’t know what Office Web Apps are they are basically free web based versions of the popular Microsoft Office suite with web apps for Wor [read].
Posted: Wed, Apr 21st '10 |
Creating school websites with SharePoint part 5. Using the power of SharePoint lists.
Mike Herrity
In this final session on SharePoint websites I have used an extract from a paper I did with Chris Mckinley, one of our developers. This looks at how SharePoint lists are used to create Prospectus and Open Morning bookin and the 6th Form Application process.
The request prospectus page and the book an open morning page are custom SharePoint lists. The prospectus request form sends the data to then list then takes them to the pdf download. The page itself was created using the site actions menu. A [read].
Posted: Thu, Apr 15th '10 |
Creating school websites with SharePoint part 4. Creating subject portfolios and student rich media.
Mike Herrity
Click here to see the first part in this series on creating SharePoint websites
Click here to see the second part in this series on creating SharePoint websites
Click here to see the third part in this series on creating SharePoint websites
Â
 In the last session we finished with a shot of the courses carousel which is shown below and can be seen live here
When students select a subject from the carousel they are taken to the subject home page which consists of a brief introduction, more [read].
Posted: Thu, Apr 15th '10 |
Creating school websites with SharePoint part 3. Creating beautiful ‘non-sharepointy’ looking sites.
Mike Herrity
Click here to see the first part in this series on creating SharePoint websites
Click here to see the second part in this series on creating SharePoint websites
One of the real challenges with SharePoint is how do you make it look beautiful like many normal websites? This is an area we wanted to develop and the decision to make a new, more visual and edgy site to engage older teenagers in June 2009 gave us an opportunity. As with our main site the 6th form site was designed by an external agenc [read].
Posted: Wed, Apr 14th '10 |
Creating school websites with SharePoint part 2. Easy editing of pages.
Mike Herrity
Click here to see the first part in this series on creating SharePoint websites
Perhaps the most powerful argument for schools who have SharePoint as a Learning Platform to move their website over is the benefits of cost and time. Using SharePoint to produce websites means that key areas such as latest news can be updated without any technical skill. The image bellows shows a simple interface for adding text and images which is as easy as adding to a word document.
When this is completed the la [read].
Posted: Wed, Apr 14th '10 |
Creating school websites with SharePoint part 1
Mike Herrity
During 2008 and 2009 we have moved beyond the creation of internal Learning Gateways to the creation of external anonymous access websites. The first project was our main school website which was being redesigned in the summer of 2008. Moving the site into our SharePoint set up was a big challenge but the benefits for many schools are clear as they can save in hosting costs. More importantly moving websites into SharePoint allows them to be updated by chosen end users without the need for develo [read].
Posted: Wed, Apr 14th '10 |
The importance of Student Design in shaping your SharePoint Learning Gateway- E-book serialisation.
Mike Herrity
The other recent example from the Student Council is the recent work they have done on the design of our reward system. Student’s recently presented their views on how we could use the Learning Gateways to make the system more relevant, engaging and appealing. The image below shows a balsamiq mock-up they have completed to show how the system should look and work.
This post and the rest of our work at Twynham School is available in an E-book called
Twynham School Learning Gateway 2007-10 whic [read].
Posted: Tue, Apr 13th '10 |
The importance of Student Voice in building your SharePoint Learning Gateway- E-book serialisation.
Mike Herrity
One of the reasons we have been able to keep making progress with our Learning Gateway has been the continual evolution of the system. Central to this has been the constant feedback from staff and parents but, most importantly, the students. As you will have seen earlier we run Student Council groups throughout the year focusing on culture, teaching and learning and technology. All three of these groups have impacted on the Learning Gateway throughout the last three years. Very recently the Head [read].
Posted: Tue, Apr 13th '10 |
Speaking on SharePoint and the Learning Gateway at SharePoint Saturday DC #SPSDC
Mike Herrity
I am pleased to announce that I will be speaking at SharePoint Saturday in Washington DC with my good friend Dave Coleman on Saturday 15th May. We will be speaking on ‘Creating an effective and highly developed Learning Gateway for education with SharePoint 2007 and 2010′.  We will be picking out most of the themes from my recently released E-book and also launching our SharePoint 2010 demo site which we hope will be useful for both educational and non-educational institutions.
As [read].
Posted: Thu, Apr 8th '10 |
E-book version 1.1 now available with slideshare and webparts details!
Mike Herrity
Version 1.1. 25th March 2010 available here
Just a quick blog to update you on the development of the E-book which I launched on Monday. Thank you for all the feedback I have received so far which has been really helpful. I have made some minor updates and cleaned out a few spellings and font changes. In terms of the two biggest changes they are as follows:
The E-book is now available through Slideshare.I am conscious that many people have come back saying to download from Scribd they need an ac [read].
Posted: Thu, Mar 25th '10 |
E-book launch and three year anniversary of Twynham School SharePoint Learning Gateway
Mike Herrity
As a number of you will know over the last month I have been serialising parts of an E-book I have been writing. The E-book entitled Twynham School Learning Gateway 2007-10 is launched today, exactly three years from the first piece of work we did with SharePoint at Twynham School.
Over the last three weeks I have managed to cover the first 5 Chapters of the book which now reaches to 7 Chapters and 6,000 words. With over 60 screen shots the E-book is very much a visual illustation of our work so [read].
Posted: Mon, Mar 22nd '10 |
Twynham School Learning Gateway 2007-10 Chapter Four Part 1- SharePoint Design
Mike Herrity
One of the last changes we have made to our Twynham Learning Gateway focuses on the design of the sites. The original sites were almost entirely undeveloped and an example of these is shown below.
In February this year we decided it was time to take a serious look at the overall design to create a more professional and blended look across all the sites. This is the first time we have outsourced any work for our internal gateway and the best investment we have made in the three years. For this w [read].
Posted: Thu, Mar 18th '10 |
Twynham School Learning Gateway 2007-10 Chapter Three- Student Learning
Mike Herrity
One of the key engines of our Twynham School Learning Gateway is the student learning areas. These began on March 22nd 2007 with the development of our Revision Gateways based on the structure shown below.
Our Revision Gateways took off very quickly and led to us building full subject sites later in 2007 so that students could easily navigate across all subjects and within all areas. The top level of our subjects sites can be see below with our Technology home page.
Having navigated one click [read].
Posted: Thu, Mar 18th '10 |
Twynham School Learning Gateway 2007-10 Chapter Two part 3- Student collaboration sites
Mike Herrity
Students running or taking part in the Student Council can also communicate their current work with all students through the Learning Gateway. The Student Council has three sub-committees which focus on Teaching and Learning. Technology and Culture.
Student Council Teaching and Learning site.
One of the key areas of student support work at Twynham School is our SOS or Stamp Out Substances programme. This aims to support and advice students who have any concerns about substance misuse. The team [read].
Posted: Wed, Mar 17th '10 |
Twynham School Learning Gateway 2007-10 Chapter Two part 2- Student Access to the Library
Mike Herrity
Student Access to the Library
Students can directly access the school library system through the student page of the Learning Gateway. The library site contains recommendations through a ‘Book of the Week’ system along with a current summary of the student’s current and previous lending. Students automatically receive updates informing them of when their books are overdue. Students can search for books online and reserve them through the system so that they can be collected at their conven [read].
Posted: Wed, Mar 17th '10 |
Twynham School Learning Gateway 2007-10 Chapter Two part 1- The Student Gateway
Mike Herrity
The Student Gateway
When we started to build a Student Gateway and discussed with students what they wanted we were a little surprised when they said- ‘the same as the Staff Gateway’. Students liked the clean simplicity of the icons and wanted to get rid of the right navigation bar altogether. They also wanted as little writing as possible on the page and the addition of a Picture Gallery. For students most of their time on the Gateway is spent in the Learning Areas- subject and revision sit [read].
Posted: Wed, Mar 17th '10 |
Twynham School Learning Gateway 2007-10 Chapter One part 9- Tracking data with the analysis pyramid
Mike Herrity
Tracking data with the analysis pyramid
One of the key challenges for schools with the importance of outcomes and league tables is the quality of data analysis and an appreciation of a school’s strengths and weaknesses. At Twynham we have used the Learning Gateway as a vehicle for the instant analysis of both Reviews and Reports throughout the year but also public examination results. Not only does this data system provide a powerful tool for senior leaders to analyse headline data it allows m [read].
Posted: Tue, Mar 16th '10 |
Twynham School Learning Gateway 2007-10 Chapter One part 8- Staff training and development
Mike Herrity
In addition to collaboration sites the Twynham Learning Gateway supports staff training and development. As a training school we support trainee teachers and make a wide range of documents and videos available to support the development of outstanding teaching.
Our Leading Edge work includes video training on effective whiteboard techniques.
Related posts:Twynham School Learning Gateway 2007-10 Chapter One part 4- Staff Media Library One of the sub sites of the Staff Gateway is...
Twynham Sc [read].
Posted: Mon, Mar 15th '10 |
Twynham School Learning Gateway 2007-10 Chapter One part 7- Staff Collaboration
Mike Herrity
Staff Collaboration- sharing resources and ideas
SharePoint is of course famous for being a collaboration platform and as well as the wide range to tools and resources staff regularly use the Twynham Learning Gateway to share and work on projects. A few examples are shown below with the first being a collaboration site for our current review of Key Stage 3.
The site below is our Teaching and Learning site.
Related posts:Twynham School Learning Gateway 2007-10 Chapter One part 1- The Staff Ga [read].
Posted: Mon, Mar 15th '10 |
Twynham School Learning Gateway 2007-2010. The story so far and what’s coming up.
Mike Herrity
As you will hopefully have realised I have been serialising an e-book which will be launched next Monday, March 22nd.
So far I have covered 6 sections of chapter 1 which you can read back as follows:
The Staff Gateway Homepage
Class and Student Data
Staff Alerts
Media Library
Cloud based software
IT room and hardware booking
To follow on from this during this week I will be releasing posts three times a day covering the remainder of the e-book as follows:
Monday 15th 1pm Staff Collaboration- [read].
Posted: Mon, Mar 15th '10 |
Twynham School Learning Gateway 2007-10 Chapter One part 6- IT room and hardware booking
Mike Herrity
IT Room and Hardware booking
With 12 IT suites 8 of which have some open booking facility and dozens of pieces of bookable hardware the Twynham Learning Gateway allows efficient management of resources for IT support staff. The Room and hardware booking facility allows staff to identify and select a resource to use up to two weeks in advance. The process is automated so that staff simply click on the time and resources they wish to book and fill in the basic details.
Related posts:Twynham Sch [read].
Posted: Sun, Mar 14th '10 |
Twynham School Learning Gateway 2007-10 Chapter One part 5- Cloud based software
Mike Herrity
My Programs
Staff and student access to software away from school is always an issue especially when the software is subject specific and unlikely to be owned by individuals. The Twynham Learning Gateway overcomes this by making software available from the school servers. Staff and students simply need to go to the ‘My Programs’ section of the Gateway and open the relevant software.
The software is made available through terminal services.
Related posts:Twynham School Learning Gateway 20 [read].
Posted: Sun, Mar 14th '10 |
Twynham School Learning Gateway 2007-10 Chapter One part 4- Staff Media Library
Mike Herrity
One of the sub sites of the Staff Gateway is the Media Library. Over the course of three and a half years the Twynham Systems Team have digitised over 5,000 video and audio clips and these are made available to staff both within the school and at home via password protection. The use of the Media Library is now widespread with televisions and DVD players a thing of the past across the site. Teachers access the media simply by clicking on the asx files shown below which brings up a media player.
[read].
Posted: Sat, Mar 13th '10 |
Twynham School Learning Gateway 2007-10 Chapter One part 3- Staff alerts
Mike Herrity
Staff Alerts- cover and lessons not registered
One of the key quick wins when launching the Staff Gateway was the ability for staff to gain access to crucial information. Every morning by 8.15 a.m. any cover requirements are entered into the MIS system and instantly appear on the Staff Gateway. If a member of staff has cover on the day this will be shown both within their timetable in the correct period and below this in a separate ‘Cover’ web part with full details.
In addition to this when [read].
Posted: Sat, Mar 13th '10 |
Twynham School Learning Gateway 2007-10 Chapter One part 2- Class and Student Data
Mike Herrity
Accessing timetable and class data
Below the quick links, icon and data bars teachers are directly displayed their timetable which shows the current teaching day which can be expanded to show a two week view.
From here the teacher can access class data in one click and individual student data in two. Clicking on the class name instantly brings up the following page with core data about the students in the class. Again student names have been removed.
Individual Student Data
Clicking on the da [read].
Posted: Fri, Mar 12th '10 |
Twynham School Learning Gateway 2007-10 Chapter One part 1- The Staff Gateway
Mike Herrity
The Staff Gateway is built with functionality and efficiency in mind. One of the key pieces of feedback from teachers is frustration at the time it takes to get access to data and confusion at the number of systems they have to use. As a result we have built a simple and intuitive interface where access to data and resources is always available within 3 clicks.
Top Navigation
Where possible icons are used to create a more visual interface and the icon bar allows staff to get to their most use [read].
Posted: Thu, Mar 11th '10 |
Twynham School Learning Gateway 2007-10. Serialisation on SharePoint in Education.
Mike Herrity
Â
Firstly, I hope you dont mind indulging me this morning but a little context is needed.
Twynham School is about to reach its three year anniversary of working on e-learning in education with a Learning Platform. Lots of things were already happening when I arrived in September 2006 on the e-learning front: the school had SharePoint for staff and student gateways; podcasting was very well developed especially in languages; streaming media was in place; a wide range of web technologies were be [read].
Posted: Mon, Feb 22nd '10 |
An open letter to Samsung re: Samsung N510 issue. My mobile is switched on.
Mike Herrity
Dear Samsung
thank you for getting back to our supplier regarding the issue with your faulty Samsung N510’s within 1 working hours of me sending you the first open letter. This is indeed a very speedy response and you saved me the cost of a stamp which I am sure will please our school finance officer who is currently doing her frantic end of year sums. My nan did after all say, ‘Michael, look after the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves.’
 Our supplier has [read].
Posted: Fri, Feb 12th '10 |
An open letter to Samsung re: Samsung N510. Lessons from the Prius.
Mike Herrity
Dear Samsung
As you will know we have recently become customers of yours through our purchase of netbooks, specifically the Samsung N510. Since October we have purchased two sets of these Samsung N510 netbooks with three years warranty. My rationale for purchasing your netbooks is well founded given your reputation in this category but not without challenges. Our school has only ever purchased Dell machines in the last ten years due to the reputation they have established in the school as a prov [read].
Posted: Wed, Feb 10th '10 |
SharePoint Products and Solutions: Muhimbi
Mike Herrity
One of my favourite SharePoint companies at the moment is Muhimbi. I came across them during 2009 via twitter and found them to be one of those companies who have created something special- really useful products which meet a clear need. Since then they have extended their product range further and have a number of high quality products, three of which I wanted to share with you today. The great news is the first one is free!
SharePoint Infuser
Have you ever added a custom content to a Shar [read].
Posted: Tue, Feb 9th '10 |
Snow days and the effective Learning Platform. Staff connecting with the Learning Gateway.
Mike Herrity
Does the Learning Gateway support staff working when the school is closed.
Of course the Learning Gateways are used by both students and staff and so one of the other questions is did staff find it helpful on the snow day? The Gateway contains a separate area for all our staff including support staff to get key notices, look at their timetable, search for a student and access relevant data about them and whole classes and access key school documents. As well as this they have staff only subject [read].
Posted: Thu, Feb 4th '10 |
Snow days and the effective Learning Platform. What happens when you further engage students?
Mike Herrity
What happens when you further engage students in aspects of the Learning Gateway?
One interesting thing about the timing of the snow day is the fact that it followed a major launch the day before. On Wednesday 6thJanuary we launched our new Online Options system to the whole of year 9 in assembly. We have had an Online Options system for three years at TwynhamSchool but a new build aimed at further engaging students with a face lift and new videos was quietly made live on Monday 4th January. Aft [read].
Posted: Thu, Feb 4th '10 |
Uploading a video to SharePoint 2007 in seconds
Mike Herrity
A quick post to show you my favourite feature on some of our new SharePoint solutions. The video below shows a system we have built which allows you to upload a video to a SharePoint page in seconds.
Related posts:Video week on SharePoint in Education Well in the madness of educational life it has been...
8 Basic SharePoint Features for end users. Part 3 In part 3 of our series on basic features for...
‘Apologies for the blanket email’ and staff briefing. Will SharePoint 2007 not [read].
Posted: Wed, Feb 3rd '10 |
Snow days and the effective Learning Platform. Students connecting with the Learning Gateway
Mike Herrity
Closure day 7th January 2010. How did students connect with the Learning Gateway
On Thursday 7th January when the school closed the notice on the website reminded parents and students that the Learning Gateway was available to support students with their study during the closure day. Whilst we do not expect students to use just the Learning Gateway as they had homework and textbooks available the Learning Gateway hosts a rich range of learning resources to support students. With A-level and GCSE [read].
Posted: Wed, Feb 3rd '10 |
Snow days and the effective Learning Platform
Mike Herrity
The following series of posts on our recent snow day will cover:
Part 1 The use of Twynham School’s SharePoint website during a snow day
Part 2 Does the Gateway support students with their learning during a snow day?
Part 3 What happens when we further engage students with the Learning Gateway?
Part 3 Does the Gateway support staff and allow them to work during a snow day?
The use of Twynham School’s SharePoint website during a snow day
January 2010 saw a turbulent start to the yea [read].
Posted: Wed, Feb 3rd '10 |
Twynham 6th Form site in SharePoint part 4 of 4
Mike Herrity
Part 1 of this series can be found here
Part 2 of this series can be found here
Part 3 of this series can be found here
In the final post on this series we look at the final parts of the Twynham 6th Form site in SharePoint. This includes the video demonstration of Admissions, Newsletters and the ‘I joined’ video clips.Â
Twynham 6th Form site in SharePoint part 4 best viewed in 720p
Related posts:Twynham 6th Form site in SharePoint part 1 of 4 During the autumn term the develo [read].
Posted: Tue, Feb 2nd '10 |
Twynham 6th Form site in SharePoint part 3 of 4
Mike Herrity
Part 1 of this series can be found here
Part 2 of this series can be found here
In part 3 of the series looking at the Twynham 6th Form Site we look at the additional features in the bottom navigation. This video covers the following sections: Student life, Gallery and ‘Getting to a Top Uni’.
Twynham 6th Form site in SharePoint part 2 (best viewed in 720p)
Related posts:Twynham 6th Form site in SharePoint part 2 of 4 Part 1 of this series can be found here In...
Twynham 6th Form [read].
Posted: Tue, Feb 2nd '10 |
Twynham 6th Form site in SharePoint part 2 of 4
Mike Herrity
In the second part of our series on the Twynham 6th Form site built in SharePoint we look at the courses carousel. This also covers the underlying architecture of the SharePoint subject sites and shows the powerful editing functionality which can be used by all end users.
Twynham 6th Form site in SharePoint part 2 (best viewed in 720p)
Related posts:SharePoint as a feature rich and beautiful website One of the projects our development team have been working...
SharePoint Best Practices Post [read].
Posted: Mon, Feb 1st '10 |
Twynham 6th Form site in SharePoint part 1 of 4
Mike Herrity
During the autumn term the development team at Twynham spent some time on one of their favourite projects- building external websites in SharePoint. The challenge on this occasion was simple- to take a beautifully designed site and prove that it could maintain its beauty when built in SharePoint. The website in question is undoubtedly the school’s most important- the 6th Form site. This is our key marketing tool for what has become a 400 strong 6th form and any failure to produce somethi [read].
Posted: Mon, Feb 1st '10 |
Social Computing and SharePoint 2010
Mike Herrity
One of the significant improvements in SharePoint 2010 is in the Social Computing section. Whilst I don’t want to contradict myself with my post on SharePoint 2010 and the Lost Generation I do believe that there have been some significant improvements over SharePoint 2007. At the end of the day what we have in SharePoint 2010 is what we have. If I think social computing then my SharePoint expert would be Dan McPherson who owns Zevenseas, a SharePoint consultancy in Holland. I heard him spe [read].
Posted: Sun, Jan 31st '10 |
‘Apologies for the blanket email’ and staff briefing. Will SharePoint 2007 notices bring them to an end.
Mike Herrity
A fairly simple post and perhaps only interesting for education people. Like many schools we have a staff briefing system where all the teachers get together 3 times a week at 8.35 for 5 minutes to give out any notices. All three schools I have worked at have done this on Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week. Alongside this method of communication and unlike my other two schools Twynham uses email voraciously and my inbox will typically get between 40 and 100 emails per day depending on day of [read].
Posted: Sun, Jan 31st '10 |
Camtasia Studio version 6 with High Definition
Mike Herrity
Over the last week I have done a lot of video demonstrations covering the 8 basic features of SharePoint 2007 for end users. I really enjoyed making the series and know the demos have already proved very useful for many people but one thing has frustrated me- video quality. I use Camtasia for screen recording and love it but have often been frustrated by the output when recording a full screen. On Friday I managed to get round to something I should have done a while ago- upgrading our Camtasia v [read].
Posted: Sat, Jan 30th '10 |
8 Basic SharePoint Features for end users. Part 8
Mike Herrity
In the final part of our video series on the 8 basic SharePoint features for end users we look at Dave Coleman’s favourite feature- search.
Searching for a document on a SharePoint site
Related posts:8 Basic SharePoint Features for end users. Part 3 In part 3 of our series on basic features for...
8 Basic SharePoint Features for end users. Part 2 As we head into the weekend here is part two...
8 Basic SharePoint Features for end users. Part 7 To finalise the document management section [read].
Posted: Sat, Jan 30th '10 |
8 Basic SharePoint Features for end users. Part 7
Mike Herrity
To finalise the document management section of the 8 Basic Features of SharePoint part 7 covers deleting a document on a site.
Deleting a document from a SharePoint site
Related posts:8 Basic SharePoint Features for end users. Part 3 In part 3 of our series on basic features for...
8 Basic SharePoint Features for end users. Part 2 As we head into the weekend here is part two...
8 Basic SharePoint Features for end users. Part 5 So far in the series we have covered 4 basic... [read].
Posted: Fri, Jan 29th '10 |
SharePoint as a feature rich and beautiful website
Mike Herrity
One of the projects our development team have been working on at Twynham School is the build of a new website. As you will know we love using SharePoint for everything and it is no surprise that we have been building Internet facing websites in SharePoint. We have already built our main site in SharePoint last year but as our development team of Chris Mckinley, Darren White and Rob Brown develop significant skills in SharePoint we wanted to push what we could do.
The real challenge was to create [read].
Posted: Thu, Oct 22nd '09 |
SharePoint 2010 five first thoughts for education
Mike Herrity
This week I am in Las Vegas with over 8000 people who are attending the Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2009. This is the flagship launch for the public beta of 2010 which will be available by the middle of November for people to play with. For myself, Dave Coleman and the team at Twynham we have had a long and detailed exposure to SharePoint 2010 as we have been very fortunate to be on the TAP programme. This is the Technical Access Preview which has been running for a year now. Along with jus [read].
Posted: Tue, Oct 20th '09 |
Slideshare and the web 2.0 world
Mike Herrity
In the last post I included a couple of videos to the blog using an embed code from YouTube, the site synonymous with a web 2.0 world. One other site I regularly use for embedding resources is Slideshare, the document presentation sharing site. How many people are using this service? I only use it as an easy way to pull the presentations through on my blog but never really thought about how many people go directly to the site to see presentations. The 10 Power Points I have uploaded on Slid [read].
Posted: Sat, Oct 10th '09 |
Student safety with Online Learning: Twynham School Case Study
Mike Herrity
Around 6 months ago Twynham School was involved in a sequence of videos for BECTA on the value of Online Learning. I have never seen these until one of the developers at our school showed them to me this morning. They were posted by BECTA on YouTube in June with little fanfare (or anyone telling us). I will not bore you with all 4- you can get those from YouTube here if interested. This is the ‘are they safe online’ video.
If you havent see the original Twynham School video that wa [read].
Posted: Thu, Oct 8th '09 |
Windows 7 Early Adopters’ Forum for schools. Director’s Cut special- Dean Close School
Mike Herrity
Perhaps the only real disappointment from the Windows 7 Early Adopters’ Forum today was missing one presentation. With 5 people lined up to present we unfortunately got to lunch with 3 sessions completed when Nyall Monkton from Dean Close School had to leave. Nyall has very kindly sent his presentation to me this evening and I would like to add it to the collection on this blog. If you will consider this the director’s cut which no one, even those at the meeting, have seen. I am sure [read].
Posted: Wed, Oct 7th '09 |
Windows 7 Early Adopters Forum for Schools. Top Reasons and top tips for deploying Windows 7.
Mike Herrity
The Windows 7 Early Adopters’ Forum has proved to be a great event today with some fantastic collaboration between schools and Local Authorities across 7 Counties. The mix of 20 people sharing their experiences of deploying Windows 7 in a variety or environments proved to be invaluable for all those who attended. As a wrap up to the event I asked the group to reflect on what we had discussed and come up with two lists to share with people. The first was 5 top reasons to move to Windows 7 a [read].
Posted: Wed, Oct 7th '09 |
Windows 7 Early Adopters’ Forum for schools. Lodge Park Technology College.
Mike Herrity
Our final session wrapping up the Windows 7 Early Adopters’ Forum for schools was led by Stephen Peverett from Lodge Park Technology College. His presentation focused on the position of his school having rolled out 2 ICT suites so far.
If you would like a downloadable copy of this presentation email me at mike.herrity@twynhamschool.com
Windows 7 at Lodge Park Technology College
View more presentations from mikeherrity.
Related posts:Windows 7 Early Adopters’ Forum for scho [read].
Posted: Wed, Oct 7th '09 |
Windows 7 Early Adopters’ Forum for schools. Warwickshire County Council and Schools.
Mike Herrity
Our third presentation of the Windows 7 Early Adopters’ Forum for schools was led by Anthony Lander, the Senior Systems Engineer at Warwickshire County Council. Anthony brought a wealth of knowledge which will be really useful for all schools but particularly County Councils who will be looking to deploy from a central location out to schools.
If you would like a downloadable copy of this presentation email me at mike.herrity@twynhamschool.com
Warwickshire County Council and Schools with W [read].
Posted: Wed, Oct 7th '09 |
Windows 7 Early Adopters’ Forum for schools. West Hatch School presentation.
Mike Herrity
Our second presentation at the Windows 7 Early Adopters’ Forum was from Alan Richards. Alan has a significant pedigree having worked at Long Eaton and is now building one of the best networks in the country at West Hatch School. His presentation had a strong focus on the use of deployment technology so if WDS, SCCM and MDT 2010 mean anything to you take a look at the presentation below.
If you would like a downloadable copy of this presentation email me at mike.herrity@twynhamschool.com
Wi [read].
Posted: Wed, Oct 7th '09 |
Windows 7 Early Adopters’ Forum for schools. Twynham School presentation
Mike Herrity
Today is our Windows 7 Early Adopters Forum for Schools running from Microsoft Reading Campus. We have schools from Dorset, Northamptonshire, Essex, Cheltenham and Leicester along with Warwickshire and Lewisham Authorities sharing their experiences of deploying Windows 7. The majority have deployed to whole schools with others are running Windows 7 in a number of classrooms. Dave Coleman kicked off with Twynham School’s experience of deployment in the summer and his presentation is shown b [read].
Posted: Wed, Oct 7th '09 |
Friday Funny- could we do this in SharePoint!
Mike Herrity
Although I never normally post silly stuff I couldnt help myself when this went around the office and some wag said ‘do you think we could programme it through SharePoint!’
Have a great weekend.
No related posts. [read].
Posted: Fri, Sep 25th '09 |
Using SharePoint as a tracking system to support Online Reporting to Parents.
Mike Herrity
One of the things many schools have moved over to in the last few years is full registration of tutor time electronically. Increasing numbers are moving over to also electronically registering individual lessons as part of the Online Reporting to Parents agenda. We are now a year into compulsory registration of lessons online having decided to make this data available to parents through our Parent Gateway. The big issue of course is teachers forget to register lessons. I certainly did yesterd [read].
Posted: Fri, Sep 25th '09 |
Windows 7 Early Adopters Forum- October 7th
Mike Herrity
Like a number of schools in the UK we have started a relatively early roll out of Windows 7 and now have over 500 machines running on the new OS. This has not been an entirely smooth road and at times Dave Coleman and his lieutenant Neil Hodgkinson have undertaken much quizzical arm folding and even occasional chin stroking. I am pleased to say that by the end of the first school week log in speeds had dropped to below 1 minute across the site. Before we got to this speed (due to changing the w [read].
Posted: Wed, Sep 23rd '09 |
SharePoint Survival Kit for Teachers
Mike Herrity
A few weeks ago we completed the roll out of SharePoint at Frogmore Community College in Hampshire. Since June we have been moving their school website over to SharePoint and creating a Learning Gateway for launch at the start of this school year. Our visit in early September was during a school inset day which was set aside for training on and resourcing of their Learning Gateway. To start the day we had to train the entire staff of 85 teachers and support staff on the basics of SharePoint [read].
Posted: Mon, Sep 21st '09 |
Microsoft Songsmith free for Education
Mike Herrity
Last week I wrote an post about an innovate piece of software called AutoCollage. This photo montage tool came out of Microsoft Research Cambridge and is an excellent piece of software which is free to all schools. Well it seems that the educational giveaways just keep on coming from Microsoft with another of their research products, Songsmith which has been made available to education for free from this morning.
Microsoft Songsmith lets you create a complete song without any knowledge of mu [read].
Posted: Thu, Sep 10th '09 |
The Social Media Revolution and teenagers
Mike Herrity
Earlier today I posted a blog on The Social Media Revolution and wrote some thoughts on why we need to adapt to the changes that currently are and increasingly will affect the way we communicate and interact. The Social Media Revolution is a crucial change in society which has a major impact on our role as teachers supporting students in a learning environment. Most of the people reading this blog are likely to be focused predominantly on the Online Learning aspect of schools and the impact [read].
Posted: Sun, Sep 6th '09 |
The Social Media Revolution and impact on schools
Mike Herrity
The summer is now officially over as schools have had their influx of students and next week is the first full week back throughout England. One of the biggest changes we are experiencing at Twynham school is managing a large increase in our Sixth Form over the last 3 years and we are close to approaching 400 17 and 18 year olds enrolled last week. One of the big challenges I think schools face with all students aged 11-18 but especially those of Sixth Form age is making online learning relev [read].
Posted: Sun, Sep 6th '09 |
AutoCollage for school events-parental engagement
Mike Herrity
One of the Microsoft tools which I have been wanting to test drive for a few months is AutoCollage. This product came directly out of one of the Microsoft Research Labs in Cambridge and uses a range of sophisticated technology to recognise faces and pick out the most interesting bits out of a collection of photos before blending them into a photo collage. Clearly this has huge potential in education with schools taking hundreds if not thousands of photos a year from trips, extra curricular a [read].
Posted: Wed, Sep 2nd '09 |
Your GCSE Results in 10 hours or in 10 minutes? The power of Reporting Services and SharePoint.
Mike Herrity
As those of you who know me personally will be aware two of my passions are technology and data! For a History teacher this is fairly unusual but these are also two of my key roles in school as an Assistant Headteacher- e-learning and data. During the last week I have been very busy making sure all our systems will be ready with Windows 7 installed throughout the site and three refurbished computer rooms (two of which the contractor still hasn’t finished). Even more demanding should have [read].
Posted: Thu, Aug 27th '09 |
Edit your SharePoint content Offline with ease
Mike Herrity
Earlier in the day I wrote about the free product Colligio SharePoint Reader which allows you to access your SharePoint sites when away from Internet access. This is a fantastic resource and you can download it from here at no cost. At the same time you may be looking for a product which not only allows you to access your SharePoint sites but also enables you to edit them offline and then sync back to the server. Colligo has covered this with their product Colligio Contributor.Â
Colligio Con [read].
Posted: Wed, Aug 26th '09 |
Connecting effectively with SharePoint Offline
Mike Herrity
Yesterday I started a new series of product reviews by looking at the excellent RSSbus SharePoint Web Part which helps you to connect to hundreds of sources of data and place them in your SharePoint environment. Continuing with the theme of SharePoint Product Reviews I wanted to look at the issue of access to SharePoint 24/7 and anytime/anywhere. One of the biggest issues here is how do you stay connected with your SharePoint environment without Internet access. The increasing availability of [read].
Posted: Wed, Aug 26th '09 |
RSSBus SharePoint Web Part and free license.
Mike Herrity
I have had plenty of positive feedback on the RRSBus Web Part for SharePoint from the post this morning. Thank you for those who also pointed out the dodgy background music which I missed as I had my machine on mute so hadn’t noticed! Apologies. If you are like Chris, one of our developers, having watched it today you might have wanted some useful audio. I am pleased to say that RSSBus themselves have posted a video today which is fairly useful. Chris has also kindly agreed to put together [read].
Posted: Tue, Aug 25th '09 |
View data from hundreds of sources in SharePoint.
Mike Herrity
Well over the last few weeks I have been taking a well earned break from front line education whilst playing with bits of SharePoint here and there. One of the things I have been focusing on is looking in more detail at SharePoint Products on the market which will significantly enhance our Twynham SharePoint development. One of the most impressive is a product called RSSBus WebPart for SharePoint. This tool is simply fabulous and allows you to integrate a rich and wide range of data into SharePo [read].
Posted: Tue, Aug 25th '09 |
Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 in schools
Mike Herrity
Â
One of the biggest changes many Network Managers will make in schools during the next 12 months is likely to be updating their school’s Microsoft OS from Vista (or even in many cases XP) to Windows 7. Last Friday saw the release of Windows 7 to many schools who have the Schools Agreement and some will be moving over during this summer break in the next 3 weeks. To support with this I am pleased to say Microsoft Education UK have put on an event next Friday. This will be a mix of techni [read].
Posted: Wed, Aug 12th '09 |
Media Streaming in SharePoint. Part 3 of 3
Mike Herrity
Now that we had all of our media files in one location it just came down to the delivery method and media library look and feel which you can see below in the screenshot of our media library. The gateway page show below is made up of 3 elements: the media document library; a search box and a recently added list.
Â
The only thing left to add was the delivery method, this could have been a list with hyperlinks to the videos but the best solution we found was ASX files and example of which can be [read].
Posted: Mon, Aug 3rd '09 |
Media Streaming in SharePoint. Part 2 of 3
Mike Herrity
Following on from yesterday, at Twynham School we have been delivering our media resources online since 2005. The development which has taken place in the last 3 years has been delivering digital media  through SharePoint.  When looking at how to deliver media through SharePoint the first thing we discovered was the lack of resources available and in fact the only book we could find on the subject was Windows media services resource kit. This book proved invaluable in providing a set by step [read].
Posted: Fri, Jul 31st '09 |
Media Streaming through SharePoint. Part 1 of 3
Mike Herrity
Guest blog post by Dave Coleman Network Manager at Twynham School
Over the next few days I will cover media streaming and how we deliver all of our digital assets through SharePoint. In the presentations that we give on our learning gateways this subject always gets a good reception as this is a great way to engage staff in the whole gateway experience. Before I get into details I thought I would take you through the media streaming journey.
The way we deliver media streaming through SharePoin [read].
Posted: Thu, Jul 30th '09 |
Preview 200 types of file in SharePoint 2007
Mike Herrity
Have you ever wanted to look at a file in SharePoint to see if it is the document you want before opening it or saving it for editing? Have you ever tried looking at a file but it wouldn’t open because it was unsupported? Well I may just have the answer for you. Over the last few weeks I have been working with a company which makes a SharePoint Viewer which I think is excellent. It works as follows:
List of Documents in SharePoint
The list of documents above may be typical of any SharePo [read].
Posted: Fri, Jul 24th '09 |
Windows 7 RTM announced and available to schools on 7th August
Mike Herrity
It is officially the end of term in the UK (the last schools finished today) and for Network Managers 90% of the development work they wanted to do is now possible in the Oasis that is the summer holidays. The next three and a half weeks should be relatively quite for most systems team in terms of teacher interference until the week of 17th August when schools turn their attention to A-level results and then GCSE results the following week. The great news from Microsoft is Windows 7 has gone to [read].
Posted: Wed, Jul 22nd '09 |
Branding your SharePoint sites to engage primary school students
Mike Herrity
In the post I wrote (very quickly) yesterday I put two examples of branding for SharePoint sites to engage younger students. One of the challenges for primary and junior schools when creating a Learning Gateway with SharePoint is how do you make it appeal to students aged 4-11? The key is to make SharePoint look less like SharePoint by applying branding. This is a relatively simple process and although branding your SharePoint will cost a little money it is far more likely to gain high user ad [read].
Posted: Wed, Jul 22nd '09 |
SharePoint Branding for younger students
Mike Herrity
Before I sign off….. One of the installs we are currently completing is for a local primary school. One of the challenges here is to make SharePoint more visually appealing for younger age students. Today we received a few ‘mock ups’ from a local designer who wanted to provide us with some samples. They are both very different but I thought I would show them to you all and take some views. The samples are just the graphics which our developers will put into SharePoint. Any thou [read].
Posted: Tue, Jul 21st '09 |
SharePoint in Education goes technical this summer
Mike Herrity
The summer holidays for schools are either started or due to start tomorrow across the UK. With this in mind and my impending trip to Jordan and Syria I will take a break from blogging until 17th August. This leaves 3 weeks when I know many of you will still be around especially those network managers who have a very busy 6 weeks prepping for next year. With this in mind my partner in crime and good friend Dave Coleman (Network Manager of Twynham and IT Consultant) has agreed to take up the blo [read].
Posted: Tue, Jul 21st '09 |
Learning Gateway Conference and User Adoption
Mike Herrity
The Learning Gateway Conference is running today and has been a fantastic success. There has been a great range of great presentations on both tracks and good engagement with excellent questions from the audience. Myself and Dave were very pleased to be asked to speak separately on two different topics with Dave covering how you extend SharePoint. The topic I was asked to speak on is my favourite- user adoption. Over the next 4 sessions I will cover the 1 hour presentation I gave today on the bl [read].
Posted: Wed, Jul 15th '09 |
SharePoint in Education Roundup for July
Mike Herrity
I am conscious there has been a lot of blogging going on in the month of July with 20 posts in 13 days. I thought it would be useful to summarise the topics I have been covering in this time while I take a breath so people who have not had a chance to pick a thread up can navigate easily to it. I am off to present at the Learning Gateway Conference tomorrow and will start a theme on User Adoption in SharePoint then. In the meantime feel free to look at the following posts which I have put into t [read].
Posted: Tue, Jul 14th '09 |
SharePoint 2010 Unleashed- find out more
Mike Herrity
For all who are using SharePoint in their schools and organisations today was a big one. SharePoint 2010 has officially reached the Technical Preview stage and is on the road map to arrive with us in full release in the first half of 2010. We have been fortunate to have an insight and input into the new version of SharePoint during the first half of this year and look forward to supporting the development of what will be an exceptional product. As someone who loves the current version of SharePo [read].
Posted: Mon, Jul 13th '09 |
Windows 7 Latest WPC09. 7 Key Features for 7
Mike Herrity
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference is now under way with a Windows 7 Demo. This has all been seen before but a reminder from Microsoft of the Windows 7 Key Features.
Consistency through the preview window.
Task bar is your space to use e.g excel can be locked to the task bar.
Jumplisits enable you to get key documents loaded quicker.
Drag and drop documents directly into Outlook which instantly become attachments.
Snapping gives side by side comparison with ease.
Internal links in Outlook [read].
Posted: Mon, Jul 13th '09 |
Office 2010, Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2
Mike Herrity
The 3 products above (including SharePoint in Office) are perhaps the most important for a Network Manager who predominantly uses Microsoft products. Want to know about the big changes taking place with these products in the next 12 months? Well there is a fair chance that the best way to do this is check out the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2009.
World Partner Conference
Today the blogosphere came alive with news that Microsoft released extensive details of Office 2010Â before remov [read].
Posted: Mon, Jul 13th '09 |
Teenagers can blog. So how do we harness it?
Mike Herrity
As many of you know I am a big fan of twitter (you can find me @mikeherrity) and wrote a post on the value of it for teachers a while back which you can find here- To Twitter or not to twitter? Now the ultimate dilemma for me on twitter is the arrival of students I teach. I managed 3 blissful months before the first one followed me and now there are at least 20 in my followers, mainly from the 6th Form. In the end I have decided on a policy of not blocking but not following back to avoid being [read].
Posted: Mon, Jul 13th '09 |
Windows 7 RTM in time for school summer install
Mike Herrity
How many machines in your schools already have Windows 7 RC on it? At Twynham we have at least 20 laptops with Windows 7 as their primary OS given how stable it is. As you can imagine Dave our Network Manager is desperate to get all our machines onto the full Windows 7 version this summer. He was as you can imagine very disappointed when news came out that this would not be available until October, missing the crucial summer season when 90% of work is done on the network. The good news is Micros [read].
Posted: Sun, Jul 12th '09 |
Tim Berners-Lee and the coming of digital natives
Mike Herrity
A while ago I wrote about my experiences of watching the change in children as they moved from being digital immigrants when I started teaching 10 years ago to those who are now in primary schools and are definitely digital natives. If you didn’t read the article about my 5 year old nephew and his use of technology it is still the third most read blog post and can be found here Digital Natives coming to a school near you.
This week we have been celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Worl [read].
Posted: Sat, Jul 11th '09 |
Online Reporting to Parents Student Details
Mike Herrity
One of the Web Parts we have completed for Online Reporting to Parents is the Student Details. This has been available all year but I have not blogged about it as I would only be able to show you a blur given these are personal details. One of the developers at Twynham School has very kindly created a mock up to show the look and feel of the Web Part which can be seen below.
Student Details Web Part
The Web Part is intended to be a simple reference for teachers when searching students so that th [read].
Posted: Sat, Jul 11th '09 |
SharePoint and Office 2010 are you getting ready?
Mike Herrity
So I shouldn’t be diverting from my blogs covering Online Reporting to Parents but a quick trawl of twitter before I call it a night has me thinking of SharePoint and Office 2010. This is in production and a public beta looks likely at the end of the year but the blogosphere is claiming Beta 1 will be announced on Monday at the Partner Conference.
Whilst I don’t want to get in to the speculation it made me think- how many schools who currently run SharePoint 2007 have SharePoint 2010 [read].
Posted: Thu, Jul 9th '09 |
Online Reporting to Parents licensing in SharePoint
Mike Herrity
Yesterday I started a new theme looking at Online Reporting to Parents using SharePoint. If you haven’t read my previous article it makes sense to pick it up here first before reading this one. In my role as a SharePoint Consultant I have been to over 100 schools this year and many of them are looking to setup SharePoint or extend it by offering access to parents and Online Reporting. By far the biggest question and confusion surrounding this is the issue of CALs or Client Access Licen [read].
Posted: Thu, Jul 9th '09 |
Online Reporting to Parents Web Parts.
Mike Herrity
As we approach the end of the school year I thought I would return to a really important topic which will be top of the agenda in the next school year. I am of course talking about Online Reporting to Parents which must be completed by all secondary schools by the end of the next school year. At Twynham School we produced Online Reporting to Parents Web Parts for SharePoint two years ago before the government agenda. We have now made these available for sale in a partnership with Salamander Soft [read].
Posted: Wed, Jul 8th '09 |
Streaming Media Web Part for SharePoint
Mike Herrity
To finish of this section on Streaming Media in SharePoint I thought I would show you a more visual way to set your media on the page. In part 1 I covered the basic concept of Media Streaming and part 2 showed a demo of our use of asx wrapper files. Of course this works really well but can further add to the document library feel of SharePoint. To overcome this we have created a Media Web Part for SharePoint so that our users can play video directly in the page. Take a look at the video below wh [read].
Posted: Wed, Jul 8th '09 |
Media Streaming in SharePoint part 2
Mike Herrity
Following on from my earlier blog on Media Streaming in SharePoint I thought I would put out a Camtasia Video showing the ways in which we present video. The key to placing media throughout our SharePoint site is the use of asx wrapper files which link to our media server. At Twynham we have one central repository for these files, The Media Library, which is administered by the Network Technician who digitises clips. The Media Library is only available to staff who can then place individual clip [read].
Posted: Tue, Jul 7th '09 |
Media Streaming in SharePoint for user adoption
Mike Herrity
Dave Coleman is a wise and venerable man of SharePoint at our school and in the UK scene. An advocate of SharePoint since the early incarnations in 2000 and a loyal supporter through 2003 and MOSS 2007. Although we have overseen most of the development of Online Learning at Twynham School together with our team there is one area he can take credit for alone. The most interesting thing about this development is it has had one of the most significant impacts on staff user adoption and everywhere w [read].
Posted: Tue, Jul 7th '09 |
Samsung NC20 and Windows 7 v XP load times
Mike Herrity
Over the last few weeks I have decided to set up another blog site to focus purely on Netbooks and their impact in Education. For the time being I will keep you updated on what is going on over on the new site while it gets established. My full reasoning for setting up a sister site to SharePoint in Education called Netbooks in Education is explained here.
Click here for Samsung NC20 Windows 7 v XP
My second post on the new site looks at some work the Systems Team have been doing at Twynham to p [read].
Posted: Mon, Jul 6th '09 |
Reporting Services Integration in SharePoint 6 of 6
Mike Herrity
To wrap up this session on integrating Reporting Services in SharePoint I thought I would run a demo showing all 5 stages of the data analysis package we have produced using a Camtasia video. Below you can see the transition from GCSE Headline to All Department Analysis, Department Level Analysis, Class Level Analysis and Student Level Analysis.
For best viewing of the video please enlarge!
Â
Reporting Services is an extraordinarily powerful tool to support teachers and middle/senior leaders i [read].
Posted: Mon, Jul 6th '09 |
Reporting Services Integration in SharePoint 5 of 6
Mike Herrity
Having reached the class level of our data analysis tool created in Reporting Services, teachers are able to complete their analysis in September with a rich vein of data shown below.
Individual Class Analysis
When teachers look at those students who underperformed in their subject one of the most important questions is why. This could of course be obvious to the teacher as the student lacked motivation, had poor attendance or did not complete the exam properly. One other factor could be that th [read].
Posted: Sun, Jul 5th '09 |
Reporting Services Integration in SharePoint 4 of 6
Mike Herrity
Moving into Middle Leader and Class teacher analysis, yesterday we were looking at the department table which is pulled through Reporting Services into SharePoint. This is shown below and enables the Head of Department and Line Manager to examine differences in outcomes between individual classes.
At this stage the Head of Department may want to drill into an individual class to look at the reasons for particularly strong or weak outcomes. They can do this simply by clicking on the class code o [read].
Posted: Sat, Jul 4th '09 |
Reporting Services Integration in SharePoint 3 of 6
Mike Herrity
So far in this series we have being looking at the use of Reporting Services integrated into SharePoint for use by Senior Leaders to examine the performance at whole school and department level. Yesterday we looked at the All Subject analysis we do at Twynham School which is shown in the table below.
All Subject analysis in reporting services
From here the tool we have produced is particularly useful for looking at differences in performance between classes. This is where the Subject Leader sho [read].
Posted: Fri, Jul 3rd '09 |
Reporting Services Integration in SharePoint 2 of 6
Mike Herrity
Yesterday we looked at accessing data directly from within SharePoint using the very powerful tool Reporting Services. At the top of the pyramid of data we had senior leaders (and indeed all members of staff) being able to quickly pull up Headline data shown in the table below.
The next stage for senior or middle leaders when results are in is to look at department level data to see how each department has performed. In the table above the top right corner contains the word GCSE. By clicking o [read].
Posted: Thu, Jul 2nd '09 |
Reporting Services integration in SharePoint 1 of 6
Mike Herrity
One of the tools I have most wanted to talk about over the last few months but haven’t got to is Reporting Services. This is an astonishingly powerful tool for sharing and communicating key data in a school. At Twynham we have been using Reporting Services 2005 for 3 years to provide a rich stream of data which enables both teaching staff and middle and senior leaders to ensure our students are on track to fulfill their potential and make maximum progress. Since last summer we have taken [read].
Posted: Wed, Jul 1st '09 |
The Effective use of technology to support learning
Mike Herrity
One of my favourite moments in education is going to visit a classroom of an Outstanding teacher to see exceptional learning. At Twynham we are fortunate to have many excellent teachers and one of the very best is Helene Tulodzieck who is an AST working in the French department. There are so many things I like about visiting her lessons but perhaps the two things that strike me most are the atmosphere and the use of technology. I think each classroom of an experienced teacher has an atmospher [read].
Posted: Wed, Jun 24th '09 |
SharePoint Conference 2009
Mike Herrity
My final CPD tip for the week is perhaps the most exciting, powerful and challenging to pitch to your Headteacher, line manager or CPD co-ordinator. The SharePoint Conference 2009 is taking place this year in Las Vegas from October 19-22. It promises to be the most useful piece of CPD you will attend in the next school year for one key reason- it is the launch point for SharePoint 2010. If your school has come a long way with SharePoint 2007 and wants to unlock the potential of SharePoint 2010 [read].
Posted: Sun, Jun 21st '09 |
SharePoint CPD tailored for Education
Mike Herrity
Continuing on the training and CPD theme, have you ever wanted to go to a SharePoint conference but felt it might be a waste of time because it had no or limited focus on education? This is a constant issue with many large SharePoint conferences being largely business focused and giving some value but at a real cost. Well fear not because there is an excellent one day conference in the UK in the near future and its all about education and the use of Microsoft’s Learning Gateway!
Our [read].
Posted: Thu, Jun 18th '09 |
Customising the SharePoint look and feel
Mike Herrity
Something very interesting is starting to happen to SharePoint at Twynham School. People are starting to play with it in a deep and meaningful way! The best bit about all this is I am not referring to our developers. We have been using SharePoint for years under the stewardship of Dave Coleman our Network Manager but really strong development started in March 2007. Since this time we have gone for a very locked down approach with Dave and his team controlling the navigation and layout. This has [read].
Posted: Wed, Jun 17th '09 |
Achievement Show 2009 Presentation
Mike Herrity
The Achievement Show is up and running in the last 10 minutes and dozens of leading schools are now presenting throughout the Emirates Stadium. If you havent been able to make it this time I thought I would upload my presentation which will be running in the Technology Theatre from 11.45am. Consider this pre-release material!
Achievement Show 2009
View more OpenOffice presentations from mikeherrity.
Related posts:The Achievement Show 2009- still time to book I have been a little remis [read].
Posted: Tue, Jun 16th '09 |
The Achievement Show 2009- still time to book
Mike Herrity
I have been a little remiss in not keeping up to date in sharing some of the excellent CPD which is taking place at the moment. By far one of the best value for money opportunities is taking place next week at the Emirates Stadium- the notice is short admittedly but maybe you can make a Monday morning pitch to your Head!
This Tuesday 16th June 2009Â sees the second annual Achievement Show held by The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT). This is an exceptional event which showcases th [read].
Posted: Sun, Jun 14th '09 |
One Note in Education the catalyst for netbooks
Mike Herrity
If you are new to One Note as an application then it might be useful to start by explaining exactly what it is. One Note is a note taking package which allows information gathering of text, notes, audio and video as well as web capture in a continuous format without the boundaries of page breaks. At the same time it allows people to work together as multiple editors to enable multi-user collaboration. In its original form One Note was devised for ideal use with tablet technology and in many ways [read].
Posted: Fri, Jun 5th '09 |
Asus T91 and the coming of the tablet revolution.
Mike Herrity
This week we have been covering the revolution starting in schools with the use of netbooks and the potential they offer to fundamentally change learning. In early January ASUS announced another step in that change with the production of a tablet netbook, the ASUS T91. It has been a long time coming but news filtered out in mid May that an early June release was likely and yesterday proved to be that day. I am a big fan of ASUS although the build quality of Samsung has led us down the NC20 route [read].
Posted: Thu, Jun 4th '09 |
The best netbook for an education context?
Mike Herrity
Just before half term I was having a look around to see where we are with netbooks and came across something a little different from normal. Dell have done the hard work and thought about how to adapt a netbook to suit the educational environment. There may be more companies that have already done this but this is the first one which stood out to me. Although I am not recommending the product yet as I haven’t see it in the flesh or put it through the ultimate testing and feedback- students [read].
Posted: Wed, Jun 3rd '09 |
Netbook price crash continues.
Mike Herrity
As many of you know I am a huge fan of netbooks and think that over the next 3 years they will have a decisive impact on the Education sphere. Some 5 weeks ago I promised a three parter on netbooks which never appeared as the fog of war which is exam season descended. I cant help but return to this topic but the blog posts will not be the same. This is largely because the netbook market changes so rapidly, perhaps more than any other technology. I would however like to focus on four areas thi [read].
Posted: Tue, Jun 2nd '09 |
Back on the SharePoint trail in Seattle
Mike Herrity
It has indeed been a while since I last wrote and just looking at the blog I havent posted in the whole of May. For our team at Twynham the 5 weeks after Easter and before May half-term has been unbelievably busy with so much interest in SharePoint/netbooks/Online Reporting to Parents and so much more. It is great to see so many schools in the UK now making real strides with their online learning platforms.
This week myself and Dave are very fortunate to be visiting Seattle to spend some time [read].
Posted: Mon, Jun 1st '09 |
SharePoint Service Pack 2 Install Guide
Mike Herrity
It has been over a week since my last post and the very busy time of the year for teachers has begun with coursework submissions and the start of the heavy exam season. This has been one reason for my lack of posting since the summer half term began. The other reason is that you have clearly had a lot to read from our SharePoint Best Practices Posts so I thought I would allow an ‘operational pause’ in proceedings while everyone took stock. In fact we have enjoyed huge numbers of peo [read].
Posted: Tue, Apr 28th '09 |
SharePoint Best Practices Posts wrap up so far.
Mike Herrity
Well we started the Easter break at the excellent European SharePoint Best Practices Conference in London. This was a fantastic session and so far we have produced 8 posts which you can get to directly from here as follows:
Joel Oleson on avoiding failed deployments and newbie mistakes
Joel Oleson’s Keynote- 3 key messages
The file server is dead! Long live the SharePoint!
The Power of Search with Federated Searches
Building Capacity into your SharePoint setup
Planning for failure in your [read].
Posted: Sun, Apr 19th '09 |
SharePoint Best Practices Posts- Day 8 of 10 Reasons to create ‘Custom Site Definitions’
Mike Herrity
Guest Post by Darren White SQL/SharePoint Developer
Note from administrator Mike Herrity: Apologies for the unusual font today. This post was published with this font and despite my best efforts will not be corrected! I love Word Press 99.9% of the time! I did not want to remove it and break a link in RSS.
One session that I attended at the SharePoint Best Practices Conference was titled ‘Designing & Deploying Enterprise Branding Solutions using Custom Site Definitions’ The aim of [read].
Posted: Fri, Apr 17th '09 |
SharePoint Best Practices Posts-Day 7 of 10. Improving your SharePoint Performance
Mike Herrity
Guest post from Darren White- SQL/SharePoint Developer
One of the sessions that I attended at the Best Practices Conference was titled ‘Go Live! Launching your MOSS Publishing Site’. It went a long way to addressing one of the biggest problems with a large SharePoint setup, performance. One of the biggest challenges surrounds keeping the load time of your pages to a minimum so the end users are not kept waiting. To find out how big your improvements will be you can use a tool cal [read].
Posted: Thu, Apr 16th '09 |
SharePoint Best Practices Posts- Day 6 of 10. Planning for failure in your SharePoint setup.
Mike Herrity
Guest post by Chris Mckinley- Senior SQL/SharePoint Developer
An occasional day in the Systems Office at Twynham School
The System’s phone rings…
“Hello IT.”
“The system has lost all my files!”
“Where we’re your files stored?”
“On the Gateway”
“OK, do you know where on the Gateway?”
“Oh! Don’t get technical I don’t understand all this VLE stuff”
“Where did you last see the files?”
 [read].
Posted: Wed, Apr 15th '09 |
SharePoint Best Practices Posts, Day 5 of 10. Building Capacity into your SharePoint Setup.
Mike Herrity
Guest post by Chris Mckinley- Senior SQL/SharePoint Developer
Imagine a scenario for an educational SharePoint setup as a development team….
SharePoint is installed, setup and configured seamlessly with the public drives made read only. Staff and students are uploading and collaborating and together with the systems administrators and SharePoint they ride into the sunset and live happily ever after…
Of course this is not how it happens, as Joel Oleson said in his keynote SharePoin [read].
Posted: Tue, Apr 14th '09 |
SharePoint Best Practices Posts, Day 4 of 10. The Power of Search with Federated Searches.
Mike Herrity
Guest post by Dave Coleman- Network Manager Twynham School
One of the sessions from The Best Practices Conference was titled “Implementing a search infrastructure - Do’s, Don’ts and considerations” presented by Daniel Wessels. The aim of the session was to show the power of the search UI in SharePoint. It is often overlooked as a major tool in SharePoint and this is because of a lack of awareness of federated search and how to configure the search options within it.
At T [read].
Posted: Mon, Apr 13th '09 |
SharePoint Best Practices Posts, Day 3 of 10. The file server is dead! Long live the SharePoint!
Mike Herrity
Guest post by Dave Coleman- Twynham School Network Manager
Is the file server dead? The man in this video clearly thought so!
One of the sessions I attended last Monday was Joel Olsen’s input titled, ‘Help me kill my File Servers….’ This is really well timed with the work we are doing at Twynham School as we are currently moving away from network Home Drives to the use of My Sites with students and staff. When I became a Network Manager at Twynham School in 1999 I adopted a [read].
Posted: Sun, Apr 12th '09 |
SharePoint Best Practices Posts, Day 2 of 10. 3 key messages from Joel Oleson’s Keynote.
Mike Herrity
Today I want to focus on 3 key messages from the Keynote Joel Oleson gave which represent a challenge to us moving forward with our SharePoint deployment. These may not be relevant to all but for us the focus on developing our SharePoint strategically and ensuring appropriate structures are in place are key to moving forward effectively. I have pulled 3 slides from Joel’s excellent key note here- the whole PowerPoint is viewable from my previous post, directly from slideshare or Joel’ [read].
Posted: Sat, Apr 11th '09 |
SharePoint Best Practices Posts, Day 1 of 10. Avoiding failed deployments and newbie mistakes.
Mike Herrity
Well it seems a long time ago but it is actually only 72 hours since the first European SharePoint Best Practices Conference kicked off in London. The three days were very intensive with 63 possible sessions to visit and our decision to send 4 colleagues was fully justified with so many inputs available. Looking back at day 1 we arrived for the Keynote with Mr SharePoint, Joel Oleson, running the opening session. Joel presented an overview of the 10 factors you should consider when deploying Sha [read].
Posted: Thu, Apr 9th '09 |
SharePoint Best Practices Conference 10 days of posts. Blogging on the biggest European event.
Mike Herrity
It is the Easter Holidays at schools in England for 2 weeks and I have taken a mini break from blogging for a few days. Most of the blogging I have done this year has been pitched towards education with a SharePoint context but not heavily technical. For the start of the Easter break 3 of our SharePoint technical team and myself have come to London to the European SharePoint Best Practices Conference. I thought I would use this opportunity to do something a little different and so have asked t [read].
Posted: Wed, Apr 8th '09 |
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