Comments

By robert, March 1, 2010 9:57 pm

Following the posts I’ve read by Doug Belshaw and others, I had a think about which software/websites I use on a regular basis.  I try to match my software at home and work since it makes me more productive – but I’m sometimes limited by the fact we run clunky old Windows XP on our school laptops.

Firefox

I know Chrome is quicker but every time I use Chrome I end up moving back to Firefox.  I love the extensions/plugins available for Firefox and have a very similar set on both home and work computers.

Firefox extensions I have on both PCs.

Live Mesh

I tried Dropbox but first I became annoyed when it kept syncing MS Office temporary files (because I work straight out of my drop box).  Then I exceeded the amount of space they offered for free – but I only needed around 4-5Gb storage and I’m not paying for 50Gb that I’m not going to use.

I moved to Live Mesh and it works flawlessly.  Files are synchronised between my work folders and home and school, and updates happen without any user intervention.   Add a net book to that mix and it becomes even more useful (also allowing you to remote control another PC on your ‘Mesh’).  You can also access your files from your Live Desktop should you find yourself working on a different PC.

Office 2007 and 2010

The new ribbon interface.  You either love it or you hate it.  I love it – and now I’m used to using it I couldn’t go back to the old version of Office.  I am the only member of staff at my school running Office 2007 (and I use the beta of Office 2010 at home) and I hope to convert my colleagues at some point in the future! 

GMail (Google Mail)

Feature rich, spam free and hosted in the cloud, Google Mail is useful because I can access my email from any computer (and also from my phone/iPod etc).  For those who don’t like web email it supports POP3, IMAP and SMTP so can be used with a desktop email client if you prefer.   Although I tag my emails, the search feature comes in useful for finding those emails where you only remember snippets of information.  I use Google Mail as a client for my work based Exchange mail, and prefer the interface to any of the desktop clients I have tried. (The to-do-list whilst basic is pretty handy too)

Google Reader

I started using Google Reader to keep track of blogs and news sites I like.  Google Reader pulls in RSS feeds and can then be accessed from anywhere.  Interesting articles can be emailed to friends, or shared with other users (and mine are even imported into Facebook!).   The addition of Google Buzz added a new layer of functionality to Reader and you now see articles/posts that your friends (who you follow) have shared.  Google Reader keeps me up to date with educational and news feeds.

Windows Live Writer

Part of the Live Suite available free of charge from Microsoft.  This is a useful piece of software for writing blog posts offline (and publishing them to your website).

Other software/sites

Google Calendar (I’ve tried lesson planning again this year using Google calendar. I kept it up for a over half a term but still ended up going back to a paper diary).  The SMS reminders are useful for reminding me of appointments when I’m not near my email.

Twitter.  I have a PLN (personal learning network) on Twitter but I’m still not convinced that this is a must-have tool.  A significant majority of people I follow are broadcasters rather than being interested in a two-way conversation, and most don’t reply to tweets directed straight at them.

What software do you use every day?  What software couldn’t you do without?

Comments

By Rob, December 29, 2009 10:13 am

Look at this offer for a Macbook from the Apple store in the US for Students.  Google tells me that $728 is £458.  Even with VAT the price would be £526.  Care to guess how much it costs in the UK Apple store with student discount?  That’s right – nearly 50% more!

Perhaps if we could buy Macs at these prices in the UK they would have a bigger market share (Apple – pay heed and stop your price fixing!)

(Originally published on Tumblr)

Comments

By Rob, October 2, 2009 2:01 pm

As a special education teacher, I teach groups who have very poor social skills.  One of my responsibilities as a science teacher is to get pupils to work together, both to improve these social skills and their science skills.  Problems I face at the start of the lessons include pupils sorting themselves into inappropriate groupings, or pupils moaning “I’m not working with him/her”.  I stumbled across this piece of software and decided to give it a go.

The software is freeware and available from here.  Installing is a breeze (assuming you have administrative privileges on your computer).

First you enter the names of your groups.  You can save lists to reuse at a later date, or temporarily delete names from your list for absent pupils.

The shuffle button is good fun, students can see their names being mixed up, and hitting it again stops the process.

All you have to do then is click on the hat to select names from the list.  The dropdown arrow next to the hat gives you the option to select individuals or pick pairs.
 
The hat comes up and you see (complete with drum roll) names popping out of the hat.  The pupils know that these groups are randomly selected and are more accepting of the outcomes.

One of the groups I use the hat with asks at the start of every lesson “Are we picking names from the hat today?”  What an excellent way of getting pupils to work together – and it actually works!

Comments

By Rob, August 11, 2009 12:53 pm

I placed an order with Ebuyer.  I’ve used them before because they are cheap and service has never been a problem.  I decided to use them for an urgent order – I only had a one day window for delivery but they had never let me down before.  I paid their premium for next day delivery, and all the items on the list showed as allocated so I assumed the order was on track.

I waited in the next day, and started to become concerned by lunchtime that my order hadn’t arrived.  I checked the order status page and it told me that my items had been allocated, to be delivered by today (the delivery date).

I contacted E-buyer and it turns out that one of the items was out of stock despite being shown as allocated.  I had not received an email or message anywhere that would let me know that E-buyer had failed to meet the delivery schedule (agreed when the order was placed).  Had I not have contacted them myself I would have been totally unaware that my order was not proceeding as it should.

I have posted below the response I received from E-buyer.  It shows a distinct lack of accountability or responsibility for the order problems and only a passing apology for messing me about and causing me to waste a day waiting in for their delivery.

I can only advise others to proceed very carefully if they place an order with E-Buyer that they need urgently.  Clearly E-buyer have issues with their system that need to be fixed (like notifying would be buyers that their items are out of stock).  Caveat emptor!

Final word from Ebuyer

Thank you for your response.
We have developed a suite of Order Management Tools that are unique and provide you with the ability to manage your order right up to the day before delivery.
Our intent was to provide you with as much information up front to avoid confusion on how your order would be fulfilled and within what timeframe.
We wanted to make sure that the tools worked in an intuitive and
informative way to online buyers so that you knew exactly where you were every step of the way.
Upon selecting an order from the Orders screen you will be in the ‘View Order’ section. This screen will give you the overview of the order, detailing billing and shipping addresses, the order line status and price and your overall order status.
The ‘Order Progress’ tab shows you a graphical image of your order progress making it simple to understand where each part of the order is every step of the way. If a block is green then your order has passed that status successfully, if it is red then your order will need some attention from you. Each block will offer information on each status with text to explain exactly what status your order has reached.
I apologise however for any inconvenience or annoyance caused and can confirm that the order is cancelled.

Have you had a similar experience with an online company?  Should we accept poor service as the price we pay for cheap goods?   Personally I think it is possible to have both but very few companies seem to be there yet!