Glossary of Terms

This glossary of terms has been compiled to explain some of the terms, acronyms and abbreviations used throughout our website and publications.

Go to:  A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

A

ADSL - Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line. A form of Broadband Internet Connection, provided over standard copper telephone wires. An asynchronous connection provides faster download speeds than upload speeds, so is not as well suited to two-way services such as video conferencing. See the ADSL service section.

Advisory Board - The SWGfL Trust Advisory Board consists of the 15 Senior Officers with delegated powers from member Local Authorities (LA) representatives, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a clerk. Supported by two advisory groups and the Trust Project Team, the Trust Advisory Board make decisions about the day to day running of SWGfL projects. For more information, visit our Trust Advisory Board page.

AWH - Advanced Web Hosting. Our Advanced Web Hosting service is an optional upgrade to our basic web hosting service which gives establishments greater control and flexibility over their web identity. Find out more about our Advanced Web Hosting service in our Web Hosting guide.
 

B

B&NES - Bath and North East Somerset council.

Becta - British Educational Communications and Technology Agency. Becta is the Government's lead partner in the strategic development and delivery of its e-strategy for the schools and the learning and skills sectors. Visit the Becta website at www.becta.org.uk.

BETT - British Education and Training Technology Show. Britain's biggest educational ICT event, bringing together the global teaching and learning community. SWGfL will be present at this years event.

Board of Directors - See Directors.

C

CDCS - SWGfL Content Delivery and Caching System. An optional service which helps to maximise the benefit of the Internet by utilising bandwidth more effectively to provide an improved experience for the user. For more information, visit our Caching System services page.

CEOP - Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre. CEOP works across the UK and maximises international links to combine police powers with the dedicated expertise of business sectors, government, specialist charities and other interested organisations - all focused on tackling child sex abuse. We are working closely with CEOP to ensure that we are consistently providing a safe internet service to the young people who use it, and to help educate students in the South West about how they can use the internet safely and effectively. For more information, visit the CEOP website.

CLEO - Cumbria and Lancashire Education Online. The Regional Broadband Consortium representing Local Authorities in Cumbria and Lancashire. For more information, visit our 'SWGfL & The NEN' page.

Connect - See SWGfL Connect.

D

DfES - The Department for Education and Skills, a government department dedicated to improving and promoting lifelong learning for all. Visit the DfES website at www.dfes.gov.uk.

Directors - The South West Grid for Learning Trust Board of Directors consists of a total of 15 directors (one director representing each member LA). The board of directors are responsible for the successful running of the Trust, and ensuring that the Trust's legal and financial obligations are met. For more information, visit our Board of Directors page.

E

E2BN - East of England Broadband Consortiun. The Regional Broadband Consortium representing Local Authorities in the East of England. For more information, visit our 'SWGfL & The NEN' page.

EMBC - East Midlands Broadband Consortium. The Regional Broadband Consortium representing Local Authorities in the East Midlands. For more information, visit our 'SWGfL & The NEN' page.

F

There are currently no glossary entries for this letter.

G

There are currently no glossary entries for this letter.

H

Helpdesk - Based at their Headquarters in Abingdon, the SWGfL Trust Helpdesk (Managed Service) Team is operated by RM Education PLC on behalf of the Trust. The Managed Service Team support the Trust and our customers in ensuring that any problems with the SWGfL service are identified and rectified in a timely manner, in providing information to help customers get the most out of their SWGfL service, and in handling any change requests that customers may have. Telephone 0845 3077870 or e-mail support@swgfl.org.uk
 

I

IWF - Internet Watch Foundation. A charitable organisation which seeks to rid the Internet of illegal material such as child pornography, criminally obscene materials, and those which may incite racial hatred. The IWF encourages the Internet community to report the finding of any such material. For more information, visit the IWF website.

J

JANET - Joint Academic NETwork. The network dedicated to the needs of education and research in the UK. It connects the UK's education and research organisations to each other, as well as to the rest of the world through links to the global Internet. In addition, JANET includes a separate network that is available to the community for experimental activities in network development. For more information, visit the JANET website.

K

There are currently no glossary entries for this letter.

L

LA - Local Authority. A local government entity, usually a council.

Learning Platform - A combination of IT services that support teaching and learning. Through a learning platform, hardware, software and supporting services are brought together to enable more effective ways of working within and outside the classroom. For more information, visit our Learning Platforms pages.

LGfL - London Grid for Learning. The Regional Broadband Consortium representing Local Authorities in London. For more information, visit our 'SWGfL & The NEN' page.

M

Managed Service Team - See Helpdesk

Mbps - Megabits per second. A measure of the speed of an internet connection.

Merlin - See SWGfL Merlin.

MLE - Managed Learning Environment. A range of information systems and processes that support learning and the management of learning within an institution.

MTN - Making the News. A free online publishing system for schools, hosted by the National Education Network (NEN). Text, images, animation, video and audio can be easily submitted to the MTN website via a simple-to-use submission form. For more information, visit our MTN support site.

N

Naace - National Association of Advisors for Computers in Education. The professional association for those concerned with advancing education through the appropriate use of information and communications technology. For more information, visit the Naace website.

NCSL - The National College for School Leadership. Provides learning and development opportunities and professional and practical support for school leaders at every stage in their career. For more information, visit the NCSL website.

NEN - The National Education Network. A dedicated education network, harnessing the power of broadband technology to deliver unique content and services, enabling our users to share learning resources at every level, to deliver a personalised learning experience in the classroom. SWGfL is one of 10 Regional Broadband Consortia which make up the NEN. For more information, visit our About the NEN page.

NGfL - Northern Grid for Learning. The Regional Broadband Consortium representing Local Authorities in the North of the Country. For more information, visit our 'SWGfL & The NEN' page.

NWLG - North West Learning Grid. The Regional Broadband Consortium representing Local Authorities in the North West. For more information, visit our 'SWGfL & The NEN' page.

O

There are currently no glossary entries for this letter.

P

Portal - The SWGfL Regional Education Portal, was a web-based, collaborative teaching and learning system provided to SWGfL by Ramesys. This system has now been superseded by SWGfL Merlin.

Project Team - Based at Belvedere House, Pynes Hill in Exeter, the SWGfL Trust Project Team is the group of staff that are centrally funded by the 15 member LAs to manage the business and projects as proposed by the Trust advisory board. For more information, visit our Project Team page.

Q

There are currently no glossary entries for this letter.

R

RBC - Regional Broadband Consortium (Plural RBCs - Regional Broadband Consortia). A consortium of Local Authorities, who have chosen to aggregate their funding, resources and expertise in order to provide internet connectivity, online resources and applications to their schools, generally at a lower cost than they would otherwise have paid as an individual authority. SWGfL is one of 10 RBCs nationally; for more information, visit our 'SWGfL & The NEN' page.

RM - RM Education PLC. A company dedicated to supporting the ICT needs of teachers and learners. RM provde and support the 'managed service' that our customers receive from us. For more information, visit the RM website.

RSS - Really Simple Syndication. Put simply, RSS is an alternative way of pushing our dynamic website content (such as news and events information) out to our users and partners, to use and manipulate as they wish. For example, you can add our news feeds to your RSS News Reader and be updated as soon as we add new stories, whether or not you are accessing our website. For a detailed explanation of RSS, visit our guide to RSS.

S

SDSL - Synchronous Digital Subscriber Line. A form of Broadband Internet Connection, provided over standard copper telephone wires. A synchronous connection provides equal download and upload speeds, and so is better suited to two-way applications such as video conferencing. This is the standard broadband service that SWGfL supplies to its customers.

SEGfL - South East Grid for Learning. The Regional Broadband Consortium representing Local Authorities in the South East. For more information, visit our 'SWGfL & The NEN' page.

SEN - Special Educational Needs. Children with special educational needs (SEN) all have learning difficulties, or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn than most children of the same age. These children may need extra or different help from that given to other children of the same age.

SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. A protocol for sending e-mail; users of our SWGfL Mail service can optionally upgrade to our secure, filtered SMTP feed to ensure that e-mails sent from their establishment are filtered for inappropriate content. For more information, visit our SMTP Services page.

SW-ITched On - SWGfL's previous termly magazine, keeping our users up-to-date with the latest SWGfL news, events and service developments. Archive copies can be found in the SWGfL Connect Archive section.

SWGfL - South West Grid for Learning. The Regional Broadband Consortium representing Local Authorities in the South West. For more information anout us and what we do, visit our About SWGfL page.

SWGfL Connect - SWGfL's termly magazine, keeping our users up-to-date with the latest SWGfL news, events and service developments. Current and previous issues can be found in the SWGfL Connect section.

SWGfL Merlin - The name of SWGfL's Learning Platform. For more information, visit the SWGfL Merlin Learning Platforms pages.

T

There are currently no glossary entries for this letter.

U

UKERNA - United Kingdom Education and Research Network Association. The trading name for the JNT Association, which since 1994 has had responsibility for the management of the United Kingdom's Higher Education networking programme. It manages the operation and development of the JANET network, which links the UK's education and research organisations to each other, as well as to the rest of the world through links to the global Internet. For more information, visit the UKERNA website.

V

VVC - Short for Video Conferencing. For more information.

VLE - Virual Learning environment. A software tool which brings together resources for curriculum mapping, delivery, assessment, tutor support, communication and tracking.

W

WMnet - West Midlands Net. The Regional Broadband Consortium representing Local Authorities in the West Midlands. For more information, visit our 'SWGfL & The NEN' page.

X

There are currently no glossary entries for this letter.

Y

YHGL - Yorkshire and Humberside Grid for Learning. The Regional Broadband Consortium representing Local Authorities in Yorkshire and Humberside. For more information, visit our 'SWGfL & The NEN' page.

Z

There are currently no glossary entries for this letter.