[LINK] "Ultranet" overdone

[Jan Whitaker]

'Massive fail': technical glitches upset ultranet training day

Megan Levy
August 9, 2010 - 1:52PM

A training day for teachers to familiarise themselves with a new 
virtual-classroom project has been hit with major technical glitches, 
with many staff unable to log on to the new system.

Victorian state-school students were given the day off today so their 
teachers could be trained on ultranet - a $77 million online network 
that will give parents round-the-clock access to their children's 
lessons, homework, results and attendance.

However, many of the state's 42,000 teachers and principals 
experienced problems when they attempted to log on this morning, 
while those who could access the system reported that it was running 
extremely slowly.

One caller to Radio 3AW said teachers at Melton had simply abandoned 
the training session and gone home, while others turned to Twitter to 
vent their frustration.

"I think when it is working the #ultranet will be fantastic but let's 
not try and sugar coat the massive #fail today has been!," one tweeted.

"Who's idea was it to have the whole state test the #ultranet? Lot's 
of grumpy people here cos it ain't working," another complained.

Education Minister Bronwyn Pike acknowledged there had been problems 
with the ultranet, but said another pupil-free day would not be 
scheduled to make up for lost time.

"What we hoped is that we would be able to get it up and running for 
every single teacher on this day," Ms Pike told Radio 3AW.

"Clearly, that has been something that has been slower than we 
anticipated. We expect that it will be up later on today but there's 
a lot of meaningful work that teachers can engage in."

Ms Pike said it was "unfortunate" some teachers had decided to 
abandon the training sessions, adding that they were not complying 
with their responsibilities as teachers.

"There's a lot of material that they can go through without even 
being logged on," she said.

The ultranet, which has been introduced to 350 schools, can be 
accessed by students, teachers and parents.

A memo sent to all schools this morning read: "The Ultranet network 
is experiencing technical difficulties and is currently unavailable. 
Technicians are working to resolve the issues with the Ultranet as 
soon as possible".

This story was found at: 
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/massive-fail-technical-glitches-upset-ultranet-training-day-20100809-11swn.html 




Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

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