Free Wifi for schools (in Scotland)

Ollie's also mentioned the underused wireless vans from Young Scot, vans that come with WiFi and 30 laptops. They're sitting unused in a garage in East Lothian. What a great idea for some mobile blogging and podcasting projects!

Comments

[Eva Forbes]

Would these vans be available (with support!) for activity days for example?

Eva

[Ewan McIntosh]

Absolutely! I've never got them out but if you cannot find the contact get in touch - I'm sure someone in East Lothian will know.

[Hamish]

I got this from the physics sputnick group.

Apologies to those - the majority - who are nowhere near the route proposed for 'Lab in a Lorry' when it next visits Scotland. Maybe there will be another visit in the future.

This is a message that I have received indirectly from IoP HQ:

"We are definitely going to come up to (you) Scotland for the w/c 15 May, however, due to the cost involved we will not be able to go much further north than Fort William.

I have asked for additional funding from Qinetiq who requested the lorry to go to the Hebrides to make this into a two week tour - however, they will not make a decision about this before 1 April.

Therefore, what I can do is start to put together a tour schedule for schools between Edinburgh and Fort William for the w/c 15 May. I do have a database of schools who have requested the lorry in the Edinburgh region and but would you be able to use your schools network to look for schools who may be willing to host the lorry on route to Fort William? I suggest that we stop at two schools in the Edinburgh region (which I can source) and three on the way up to Fort William.

We can stop at one school per day and accommodate 18 students per hourly session. We usually manage 5 sessions a day so can reach about 90 children at each school. Further information about the experiments we have on board and information for volunteers and hosts can be found on our website www.labinalorry.org.uk

I am sorry that I cannot offer you a full two week tour at this time, but I am doing my best to free up funds to make this possible."

If you are somewhere near to the route between Edinburgh and Fort William. I'm not sure which route is planned exactly - perhaps it will be determined according to expressions of interest (within reason) - and would be interested in Lab in a Lorry coming to your school during the week in question, please contact Elizabeth Jeavans at the Institute in London elizabeth.jeavans@iop.org or Euan Macintyre on 07900 217 680

I hope that the week in question is not swamped by exams and thus inappropriate. We were not consulted about the choice of dates.

Good wishes

[Ollie Bray]

Hi Eva, Activity days are just the sort of thing Young Scot would like to use to promote this type of resources. The van is called the Space Bus, info from their website states:

'The Young Scot Sp@ce Roadshow

In partnership with the Scottish Executive Safer Scotland Campaign, we operate the Young Scot Sp@ce initiative - a Young Scot satellite van touring Scotland, setting up mobile 'cyber-cafés' in a variety of youth-friendly locations. The roadshow visits school and youth centres, running sessions on topics relevant to young people, as well as shopping centres and other public events when the Sp@ce internet café allows young people to register on youngscot.org; see what Young Scot has to offer and also have the opportunity to surf the web'.

Best way I have found to book is to telephone them direct and ask to speak to one of the spce team Tel: 0131 313 2488.

Hope this helps? Ollie

[Eva Forbes]

Thanks for that advice one and all. I'll give them a phone. We have 3 activity days at the end of May. It sounds like a fun activity.

Cheers Eva