Alex Pearce's SharePoint Blog

I got sent an article the other day which is on Twynham School who have implemented SharePoint 2007 in their school and used SQL Server 2005 Reports to give students and teachers live access to reports, timetables and grades etc

Have a look at the article and leave any comments you may have.

I personally think that have done a great job and look forward to meeting up with the guys from the school.

Download and view it here. Click Here

 
http://www.twynham.dorset.sch.uk/

I've decided to change the name of my blog.  Here at SharePointBlogs was my first blogging site but have decided to create another blog station at http://ajp-blog.spaces.live.com/.  Why?!!  Well I don't just work on SharePoint!  As an IT Pro I work with several products mainly all the products in the Microsoft Learning Gateway and feel I want to blog about these too and the share my story with you all.  So Alex Pearce's Blog has moved and this is my dedicated SharePoint blogging site which will also be mirrored at my own blog.

So!!  The new name!  Wanted something creative – but no good at that – wanted something relevant to both SharePoint and the education industry I work is – so…I welcome you to 'Alex Pearce's SharePoint Blog'

Don't be afraid to contact me or leave me comments…

I've just updated my MOSS server to service pack 1.

I read up on upgrading my MOSS servers and looked into if anyone had any affects of upgrading with SharePoint Learning Kit installed and couldn't find anything.

Well my environment didn't have any problems after the upgarde and SLK works fine. 

Useful link of upgrading

/erickraus/archive/2007/12/12/moss-service-pack-1-and-office-2007-service-pack-1-released.aspx

I was asked by Viral T (Microsoft SharePoint Evangelist) to write a few articles for the Technet Industry Insiders Blog.  My first one is on SharePoint Learning Kit and SCORM.  Hope the next one will be on the Microsoft Learning Gateway.  Please read and leave any comments 

http://blogs.technet.com/industry_insiders/archive/2008/01/29/introduction-to-scorm-and-sharepoint-learning-kit.aspx

I've had a few people recently ask me where I would recommend putting the My Assignment Web Part?  With in the pupils My Site or somewhere else?

Well it depends on how you intend to use your site.

Personally – I have it within the pupils site where they can also see announcements, calendar, documents and other custom lists that are relevant to my pupils.  As for the staff – they are the same.  They can access all the information they need from the staff site including the My Assignment Web Part.  If your a pupil your IE home page takes you to the pupil site so they receive all the information straight away

I have been to schools recently that are using the My Site as their home page instead so pupils can access their My Documents and using RSS and Content Editor Filter to deliver the information from other areas with their SharePoint environment.

So where is best?  I don't think there is a write or wrong answer – its all about your configuration, individual schools needs and training/awareness.  If you let your users know where its going to be – they will find it.

Well BETT 2008 has closed.  Day 4 was very good but also very quiet.  We still filled the stand when we were presenting the Learning Gateway which I am very happy about.

This was my first experience working with Microsoft and I have to say I have had a great time.  The people with in the education team are just great and I also loved the tech guys on the tech desk.  I would like to take this oppertunity to thank Microsoft Education UK for inviting me down and hope to be involved again next year!

During my presentation entitled 'Connected Learning Gateway' we showed how my school has been using SharePoint to connect parents to data. It was shown on BBC TV on Wednesday and we also used it in our presentation.  Click Here to see the video/report in action.

I would like to mention a few names as thanks

Neil – Thanks for inviting me and supporting my school
Leighton – My fellow presenter – thank you so much
Gordon and Ray – Thanks – your great
Eileen - thanks for the presenting tips – Click Here to her blog <– must read
Viral - Legend – Click Here to see his blog <– must read
And the rest of you – Thank you so much for a great week.

A few photos

This is the presentation stand – every presentation had this amount of people – amazing to see.

The demo area

The tech desk!

I'll off to rest my feet – still hurt after 4 days of standing on the demo stand.

Updated 22nd January

Well its coming to the end of day 3 of BETT and I've spent the whole day giving demonstrations not just on SharePoint but also the other elements of the Microsoft Learning Gateway.  There are some people who want to know how exchange and office communications server 2007 can be intregrated and delieved throught sharepoint.  Also got some questions on Unified Communications and how they can work within the school.  The main trick is to take the business process and look at the your school processes and how technology can be used to help.

Lots of questions on the price of SharePoint 2007 (MOSS) for a school.  Its simple – can you put a cost on how much sharepoint can help a pupil in their learning?  Is there a cost of a pupil education?  I talked about how if I go and turn a server off in my Microsoft Learning Gateway (the sharepoint server) my school would not be able to teach – is there a cost to that?

1 day left – hope to have a look around at some point – not had chance but have lots of contacts to help develop Sharepoint in Education and also talking to Samsung on some hardware developments.

Also got a lot of content to blog on and how silver could be used to site on top of a educational sharepoint site.

Today has been really busy and have spoken to lots of you who are using SharePoint in your school.  Its great to see what you are doing, how you are using the software and other the aspects of the Learning.

I've started talking to different leads about setting up a Microsoft Learning Gateway forum in the same way as the SharePoint User Groups.  The TechNet team here have agreed to help out in venues and marketing of events that we will hold.  If your interested in getting involved please do send me a private message.

When I get time I will publish some slides on the Microsoft Building Schools for the Future which is a great silverlight application.

Also met Sir Bob Geldoff today who owns shares in another company here.

There are more people expected tomorrow so maybe more celebs.

I've just finished my first presentation and it went well even though the mic died 3 times and the slide clicker didnt work.  But never mind. 

I've not had chance to look around yet but hope to over the next few days.  Had a few requests for demonstration on the Microsoft Learning Gateway.

There are some great Microsoft technical evangelist here so come ask them a questions if you have problems.

There are some great stands here and from where I'm sitting now I can see Channel 4, BBC, Apple and Serco.

Things to look out for if your coming.

Building School Future presentation on the Microsoft stand

Demonstrations by Hillcrest School, Kind Edmunds 7th School and Phillip Morant on the Microsoft Learning Gateway and Office System 2007.

Hope to see you.

I will be presenting my sharepoint solution at the British Educational Technology Show (BETT)  in London, Olympia from the 9th – 12th January on the Microsoft stand. www.bettshow.com

We are presenting the Microsoft Learning Gateway (Read Earlier Post) and my focus is on SharePoint and how it is being used in my group of schools.  Come watch my presentation called Connected Learning Gateway and please do come and say hello and I will be more than happy to give you a full demonstration of all the aspects of the MLG.

I'll post of a few sharepoint solutions I'll see as some of the largest sharepoint sites are in Education.

Hope to see you there.