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On Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:04:10 +0000 (GMT) Gordon Henderson wrote: > On Mon, 18 Jan 2010, Grant Sewell wrote: > > > On Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:52:24 +0000 (GMT) > Gordon Henderson wrote: > > > On Mon, 18 Jan 2010, tom wrote: > > > > > My girls primary school (150 headcount) appears to be going to pay > > > Â25000 for BB over the next couple of years!! > > > I haven't approached the head for exact figures but this sounds > > > horrendous. Any comments - I've obviously done the really > > > expletive on pretty comprehensively myself. > > > > That'll be the SW Grid For Learning then... A govt. quango > > outsourced to ... er, I think.. RM? who just hand the cash over to > > BT ... > > > > They privide a heavilly filtered feed, often via leased lines - last > > time I looked, it was 2Mb (each way) to a primary schools and 8Mb to > > secondary, but I suspect they've raised the speeds since then. (I'd > > like to at least hope they have, anyway). It's all part of a big > > private network managed by BT (or was). The expensive part is the > > "last mile" to the school, especially if it's using traditional > > leased line technology (be that copper or fibre) and the cisco > > routers, etc. > > > > Looking at ADSL - you might look at a good business package - or > > two. One for the admin side of things and a totally separate one > > for the teaching side. If theycan get 8Mb, then a good business > > quality service would probably be OK - at Â30 a month depending on > > data usage. I can't see that a primary school gets up to much, but > > I'm a bit out of touch these days (and the only one I have anything > > like hands-on experience with is the local Steiner school and they > > may not be representative of a mainstream primary school) > > > > However it's probably the filtering that they sell it on - keeps > > the kiddies squeaky clean and all that. > > > I understand that it can be time consuming finding websites and > > adding them to a filter list that Schools can use, but surely > > there's another way? Is there not a way for Squid to subscribe to > > an externally available filter list? Maybe a centrally available > > list that Schools can subscribe, contribute to and locally override > > if necessary/desired? > > Why don't the teachers educate them into knowing what's right and > what's not, and supervise them? Because we're too busy following the ever-changing Government guidelines on silly things. (I don't teach primary, but I did train for secondary and now teach tertiary.) I do agree with you, to a point. However, educating children that there are things they shouldn't be looking at on the Internet is only going to peak their interest and is therefore completely counter productive... think of it like wet paint - if you tell someone the paint is wet, they have to put their finger in it just to see; if you don't tell them anything then they'll complain when they put their finger in it by accident; if you prevent them from even being able to put their finger in it then they'll complain a bit but most will just get on with not putting their finger in it. Grantedly there will be those that look at it as "the nanny state" and infringing their civil rights, but those people will always exist. Grant. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html