Please find below a set up of updates on our project: |
News Updates:
Developing Education Infrastructure As A Service (EIAAS)
Imagine a system where the entire education needs of Irish students are managed centrally. What if their online presenace was secured, updated and managed from the day they start secondary school to the day their finish third level? What if the Dept of Education oversaw all aspects of ICT infrastructure by providing all resources centrally to schools? Consider the provision of best practise!!! Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) creates a level playing pitch for all students, regardless of family income status, the nature of the school nor the location of the school. VDI allows schools to save money on investing in fast-depreciating infrastructure. VDI is a new way of thinking. VDI is future-ready and when adopted on a large enought scale, it provides huge economies of scale. We have a system already running in Ireland that is the envy of other education boards yet for some reason, it has not been adopted by mainstream education. Various submissions by this author and his colleagues have fallen on deaf ears by varios decision makers and stakeholders in Irish education. Depsite many invites to view VDI in action, there has been very little feedback received. We have a plan that can transform education .... yet a long-term master plan to develop education infrastructure as a service is not gaining traction. Are you in a position to help develop VDI and EIAAS in Ireland? If yes, then we'd love to hear from you. Please review the attached to get a bigger picture of what our hopes and aims are. |
BGS working with Ascend Cloud Solutions to develop a pilot program with VDI in Cork schools.
Watch this space, BGS is delighted to be associated with Ascend Cloud Solutions to runa pilot program to test Virtual Desktop Infrastructure in schools in Cork city. The goal of the study is to showcase the benefits of cloud-based VDI in secondary schools. This is a worl-first and we hope that it will prove to the key stakeholders in Irish education of the benefits of VDI in eduation. |
| Attachments:
Advantages of VDI.pdf
VDI Overview.pdf
VDI Summary.pdf
Developing Virtual Desktop Infrastructure in schools.
Please find attached an updated plan to help with a plan to develop Virtual Desktop Infrastructure in education. The goal is to make Ireland the best of the best for ICT in education. Imagine a system that gives more for less! We believe that VDI is a future-proof, cost-effective ICT infrastructure that will benefit teaching and learning. |
| Attachments:
VDI for Education 17th July 2020.pdf
Something to think about!!!
Have a look at the attached PowerPoint and consider the points being raised. Imagine if a system existed that would help teaching and learning, help school management and all could be provided for a lower costs to the state .... then cloud-based VDI is worth considering! |
| Attachments:
VDI for Education June 2020 A Summary Of The Key Points.pptx
Imagine an ICT system that ticks all of the right boxes!!!!
To whom it may concern, The following article outlines some of the benefits of adopting a cloud-based ICT infrastructure in education in Ireland. (A 5 minute read that may change your mind about ICT in education!) Imagine a system that can be all things to a school ... supporting teaching and learning, a system that requires less personnel to manage and very importantly, something that, if done on a large scale, can save the state huge sums of money. Does this sound too good to be true??? This system is here .... and we have seen the benefits of a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure system in our school for the last c.5 years. In the most basic of terms, imagine a new type of ICT system that moves away from the traditional c.25 PC's in a room with constant maintenance required for every device and then factor in the cost of replacing these devices every 3 to 5 years. Consider a new system that is centrally managed, where every user can log on from any device that can access the internet. Applications can be added or removed depending on the needs of the student or class, updates are overseen elsewhere, and with a cloud-based system, the entire system is managed by a third party. This new system enables a second life to devices that would have otherwise been dumped. Our own school has c.240 devices and the vast majority of the devices currently been used are more than 8 years old and have been sourced from firms who were about to discard them. Recently, we have been able to link our system, via Raspberry Pi devices to our server. In our case (and since we sourced monitors for free), we can create a computer room for only a few hundred euro. (See attached images) Advantages of the system include: •The system is a
server-based system which manages user accounts allowing use to various
programs.
•The programs are managed
and updated centrally.
•The user can log in from
any device.
•All work done is saved
securely.
•Old PC’s no longer need to
be replaced as the server does the data processing resulting in no need for
schools to spend money on PC hardware.
•The system is bigger,
better, faster, cheaper and more manageable than anything else available.
• The system is a win-win
arrangement for the state and all schools. Ours is a proven working model that
has greater demands by more users, using more programs than ever before. We would like to hear from people interested in adopting this system in their schools or who would simply like to find out more. In our own situation, we were lucky enough to have the support of a local ICT firm who wished to use our school as a test case to use virtualization in education. Our system has become bigger and better, with greater demands by more students using an infrastructure that is run be fewer staff than before. Our past pupils request to keep their students accounts as they find our system better than what they use in many third level colleges. We built our system from the 'bottom up'. We manage our system internally but our goal is to create a cloud-based system that can manage the accounts of students in schools the length and breadth of the country. Our focus is providing the best system to enable our students, teachers and schools to reach their full potential. We are not a business, we are not interested in profit-making, our goal is to inform school management and principals to make an informed decision on a new, cost-effective system that will transform education in Ireland. For more information, please review a recently published article in the Irish Education Matters academic journal: Please find attached also a .PDF which describes an activity that we would like to undertake if funding was available. If you would like to find out more or have a query, please do not hesitate to contact myself or Darren Platts. Emails: tcollins@bgsmail.ie - Trevor Collins dplatts@bgsmail.ie - Darren Platts |
Description of Generation 2 of VDI : Cloud-based VDI
The attached presentation was given at the 2018 annual general meeting of the Joint Managerial Body's ICT advisory group in June of this year. This presentation gives an overview of cloud-based VDI action and also highlights the many advantages of the system over the traditional system. This new system requires a change in the mind-set of people who manage ICT systems in school. To a certain degree, it reverts back to the very old system of having a main-frame computer and terminals linked to the central device. In the Generation 2 / could-based VDI system, the central server that manages the applications / software / accounts is now in the cloud! Sounds easy??? ..... the beauty of the system is that is all the user needs to know. They can log-on from any device with a user-name and password. The school determines which software / applications that the student or teacher can use. The documents created are saved on their account. The real beauty of the system is in the background. More accounts, with greater demands with more applications can now be managed externally. (The school pays for the service and there is a huge economoy of scale available with the greater the number of accounts resulting in a lower cost per account.) |
| Attachments:
VDI - Past Present and Future.pdf
HEAnet Conference talk Nov 2017
We are delighted to have been asked to speak at the HEAnet conference which takes place in Galway in early November. Our talk is based on 'Our story' which outlines how we transformed our school from the traditional 'computer classroom' to using a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure system. (See attached presentation) We sahll also be giving the first large-scale premier of what we believe will be the future of ICT education .... Flexilabs. Watch this space .... you've heard it first! |
| Attachments:
HEAnet Conference Presentation.pdf
Meeting with key stakeholders.
We expect to meet the Minister of Education & Skills and other key local stakeholders over the next few days to highlight the advantages of using Virtual Desktop Infrastructure as a key core element of the future of ICT both as a platform and curriculum over the next few days. We hope to be able to mention that a change in policy to encourage large firms to donate old technology into schools would be a win-win for all concerned. Fingers crossed!!!!! |
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