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School wins IT award with RISC OS By Chris Williams. Published: 10th Apr 2006, 01:04:26. Upgrades to 4.39, uses helping hand from Apple Macs A RISC OS powered school for deaf children has won further recognition for its use of computers and technology. Knightsfield School, in Hertfordshire, received the Becta ICT mark, making it the first school for deaf children to do so. The state school, which teaches pupils from the ages of 10 to 18, also received a Naace mark in early 2005. Again, it was the first special school for deaf children in the country to receive this mark in recognition of high quality teaching of IT. Save for a collection of Apple Macs, Knightsfield use some 40 RiscPCs running RISC OS Adjust. Over the summer, they upgraded to RISC OS 4.39, and swapped their A3020-powered 'electronic notice-boards' for A7000+ ones. In addition, a new RiscPC with a large hard disc was purchased to store images from CD-ROMs. Deputy head Sharon Pointeer said: "We are about to put a USB card into one machine in every classroom for compact media card readers and digital cameras, as Mavica cameras now use memory cards as well as floppy discs, and use of such things is growing. We also hope to make use of pen drives for the pupils to bring work in from home." The school bought an A3 laser printer for its technology classes, and now has modern projectors in every classroom that can be plugged into computer monitor sockets - allowing the teachers to use their VirtualRiscPC-powered laptops with them. The school has for now shelved plans to use a Microsoft Windows server, which would involve the RISC OS computers connecting to a central PC using Remote Desktop in order to use software such as Internet Explorer and various educational packages. Recently, examination body QCA has encouraged a new system of 'on-screen testing' for future school children. With this, tests are marked as the child takes them on a computer, and the software driving it can automatically alter the questions to match the ability level of the child. Sharon added: "I have given up the idea of using a Windows server and Remote Desktop for the time being, although I am under pressure from QCA because of the on-screen testing due for 2008. It seems an extreme expenditure for the sake of the ten pupils per year involved in the testing. "I do confess to purchasing additional Macs, including a Mac mini which shares a keyboard, monitor and mouse with a Kinetic RiscPC. By creating video CDs of the classwork we do, we can transfer the results in MPEG format for the kids to watch on the RiscPCs." Sharon took part in the assessment of the Becta ICT mark for Knightsfield, and found that many of the requirements were more suited to the teaching of non-special school pupils. One of the guidelines, for example, requires "almost all pupils to have reached a high level of confidence, and can further develop aspects of their ICT capability independently". She explained: "I had some difficulties when making judgements against some of the criteria, as with the best will in the world, our school is a special school, and some of the pupils will never be totally independent learners however hard they or their teachers work. "However I had a number of long conversations with the Becta people about this, and eventually we were awarded the quality mark. I hope that they will be rephrasing some of the criteria to make them more accessible to special schools in the future." Links RISC OS in education Discussion Viewing threaded comments | View comments unthreaded, listed by date | Skip to the end I'm very pleased to hear this, especially as we supplied a lot of the software they're using several months ago. This includes Schema2, Compo, Studio24Pro, ProArtisan24, Mr Clippy and a load of clip art. Congratulations. It shows that where "easy to use" is paramount RISC OS is still a very viable choice. apdl on 10/4/06 7:36AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ] I attended Knightfield to do some training on RiscCAD for Sharon, other staff and a class of pupils. I was extremely impressed with the facilities. Well done Sharon and everyone else concerned. demondb on 10/4/06 8:00AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ] Great to see another school using RISC OS in such a positive and rewarding way. Good work there Sharon, it must be so pleasing for the students to gain such a high level computer literacy skills on RISC OS. Congratulations. Steve. Sawadee on 10/4/06 8:57AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ] Fantastic! It's great to see RISC PCs still being used in such a positive and relevant way today!!! RickCB on 10/4/06 9:08AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ] Is the on-screen testing HTML or Java based? If so, lets hope O3 is able to drive it. Making national standard examinations run on OS-specific software would be pretty silly, right? timephoenix on 10/4/06 10:02AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ] Dont think it's either. Seems to be a PC application. We've got it running on our grotty PC network. Some of the teachers don't like it, because it simulates a fictional application suit, ie. not MS Office. It is clever what it does, what with it marking what the kids actually do. But is contencious as to what it really proves, other than that most kids are already brainwashed into the MS way of doing things. What is amusing is how exausted kids are after an intensive 50 minute session, against the clock, without their favourite little games and the 'real' internet for their usual recreation. niftybit on 10/4/06 12:01PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ] Top marks to Sharon and the School - I'm impressed! harmsy on 10/4/06 6:22PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ] Congratulations. To see a school focussed on education as opposed to Micro$oft training is heartening. The pressure to conform to the 'training' model will be immense (I've been there) so all the best. You are doing the best for the children - a fact that the education systems currently (here in Aust also) ignore as they attempt to indoctrinate rather than educate. rmac on 11/4/06 1:56AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ] Please login before posting a comment. Use the form on the right to do so or create a free account.

Login Username Password Create a new account Forgot your password? Search this website This week's poll Recent developments have left me feeling... Assured ROS will appear on new hardware 55% Pleased OS desktop features are being developed 10% ROL and ROOL will eventually kiss and make up 5% App developments are critical 10% Dave Holden sleeps easy at night 19% Discuss this | Archives Featured articles Wakefield 2009 wrap-up, photos and video The weekend's RISC OS event has been and gone and we've got the rest of our lives to look forward to. Here's a round-up of extra news and Drobe's show-related coverage and some photos taken from Wakefield 2009 - plus a video from the show floor.  16 comments, latest by AW on 29/4/09 7:41PM. Published: 27 Apr 2009 RISC OS 5 pictured running on ARM Cortex-A8 kit Picture exclusive - This grainy photograph shows a port of RISC OS 5, sourced from the RISC OS Open project, running on a Beagleboard - a device powered by a 600MHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor with a built-in graphics chip. The port, developed by Jeffrey Lee with help from Uwe Kall and ROOL staff, is seen as a major breakthrough for the shared-source project as it proves the OS can be ported to new hardware without the need for a large team of engineers.  75 comments, latest by rjek on 30/4/09 3:15PM. Published: 25 Apr 2009 Open documents from Windows-using pals with handy online tool It can be a pain when someone sends you a file that can only be opened on Windows, Mac OS X or Linux - but with the help of a free-to-use website and NetSurf, Paul Stewart reveals how these documents can be viewed on RISC OS.  6 comments, latest by AW on 8/5/09 12:12AM. Published: 19 Apr 2009 Useful links News and media: Iconbar • MyRISCOS • ArcSite • RISCOScode • ANS • C.S.A.Announce • Archive • Qercus • RiscWorld • GAG-News Top developers: RISCOS Ltd • RISC OS Open • MW Software • R-Comp • Advantage Six • VirtualAcorn Dealers: CJE Micros • APDL • Castle • a4 • X-Ample • Liquid Silicon • Webmonster Usergroups: WROCC • RONE • NKACC • IRUG • SASAUG • ROUGOL • RONWUG • MUG • GAG • RISCOS.be Useful: RISCOS.org • RISCOS.info • Filebase • NetSurf Non-RISC OS: The Register • The Inquirer • Apple Insider • BBC News • Sky News • Google News • xkcd • diodesign

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