Installation & Setup
It comes on a single DOS-format floppy and takes around 320 kb to
install, and the files must be on the internal drive. As well as the disc,
you get a 34 page A5 sized manual that is superbly clear and easy to follow.
It takes you through the setup, Topic and pupil data entry, National
Curriculum records, and reporting.
That's just as well, as there's no on-line help built into the
application.
What's It For?
Nstore5 is somewhat of a specialist application, being designed
for teachers in UK schools, and so is going to be of limited interest to
those not involved in working in that environment. Perhaps the best way of
illustrating the purpose of it is to quote from the introduction in the
manual:
"Nstore has been specifically designed to help teachers with National
Curriculum record keeping and reporting, and this version runs on the Psion
Series 5 palmtop computer.
It allows you to keep detailed records on up to 1296
pupils (depending on the free space available on your palmtop), and their
achievements on the latest (1995) Level Descriptions in all National
Curriculum subjects from levels 1 - Exceptional Performance.
In addition, you can keep a record of up to 32 Topics and the Level
Descriptions they cover. Special facilities are available which can then:
If any of that is relevant to your job, and you have a Series 5 of Geofox One, then this is an application you really should have. As well as this version and the original Pocket Book one, there are also compatible applications for RISC OS and Windows, which just about covers the field of potential users.
In Use
If you've used the Pocket Book II equivalent, then you'll know
what to expect. It has been designed to make use of the pen in most areas,
and that includes it responding to taps on the screen as well as the
toolbar.
The main screen allows you to set everything up, and there are warnings to
think hard about that before diving in, as you can't change the format of
the data later to add extra subjects unless you overwrite the existing data.
The Main Screen
It is also possible to delete a child(!), although it turns out that only
removes their record from the file, leaving room to add another one.
Currently, it isn't possible to move pupil data between classes in the S5
version, and until that facility is added, it has to be done remotely by
connecting to a desktop machine running the full version of Nstore.
H.S. Software tell me that allows any combination of subject data to be
transferred, and even for scores to be averaged across teachers if needed
(e.g. for I.T. in secondary schools)
The National Curriculum recording aspect is the major purpose of
Nstore, and it does that with a series of graphical codes. In the
example below, the boxes with the triangle show that Jane has "performed
this activity without aid", whilst the empty boxes indicate that she
hasn't "experienced this activity". There are two intermediate stages
as well, with one and two sides of the triangle completed, and space for
recording SAT, exam, and classwork scores.
A Pupil View for One Subject
Report Writing
Of course, all this is somewhat incomprehensible if you're not a teacher, and what Jane's parents really want is for the school to turn it into something more useful for them. Nstore will do that too, giving an on-screen report which can also be exported as a CSV file to be printed out from a desktop machine. Having seen the reports the children of the Woodthorpe household come home with, I recognise some very familiar phrases that have turned up on them from time to time!
An Example Report Generated Automatically
The pupil data can also be exported and imported, allowing records to be shared between the desktop and palmtop machines.
Conclusions
I know that many teachers have come to rely on the power and
sophistication of earlier versions of Nstore, and this one seems set
to build on that with the S5 and Geofox One. You can see more about all the
different platform versions of Nstore on the H.S. Software Web site and
Nstore5 costs £49·95, or
£24·90 when bought with the Acorn
or PC version.
As mentioned earlier, a basic version of PsiRisc can be bought
with NStore for £22·00.
This will not cope with long file names, nor does it have any conversions,
but customers can also subsequently upgrade to the full version at a reduced
rate.
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