User Groups

The SMS Project of the Ministry of Education invites school staff to join one (or more) of the following user groups based around each of the SMS commonly used by schools. The groups are intended for all users of the SMS in a school, which includes technical/IT support, school management/leadership, office/administrative staff and classroom teachers.

The groups are to serve schools' needs and we hope you will: ask questions for other users to answer; share ideas and thoughts; identify the strengths of the application and the best ways to gain benefits from these; generate consensus on what improvements you would like the vendor to make; and share on issues. The SMS Project is interested in school experiences, so we will also participate in the groups.

While we have initiated the groups, your active participation is required to make them successful and to ensure they serve your interests. We intend to pass over the management of the groups as soon as there is sufficient interest and activity from users. Note that the membership is open so you can expect that some members joining the list will include: users of other SMS; vendors; Ministry staff; and unfortunately, spammers. Note that there are very few controls placed on anybody that joins, so please act responsibly. The controls can be tightened but we trust you would all prefer more freedom.

Joining User Groups

Use the following links/addresses to send a blank e-mail with the word subscribe in the subject line to each of the groups of interest:

etap-users-group-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

ies-users-group-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

integris-users-group-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

kamar-users-group-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

musac-users-group-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

pcschool-users-group-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

schoolmaster-users-group-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

synergetic-users-group-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

You should receive a confirmation e-mail to which you just need to click reply and send. If the confirmation message fails to appear within 30 minutes then it has very likely been intercepted by your spam filter. Have a look for it in you spam box/folder.

Please ignore all the hyperlinks in that confirmation e-mail (they only work with a yahoo login), unless you have such a login or want to join so you can access the on-line features.

In some rare cases where you do not receive any confirmation message please contact sms.project@minedu.govt.nz and we will try to sort out what has happened.

Once you have replied to the confirmation e-mail you will receive a welcome e-mail telling you that you are now a full member of the list and can start posting. It also contains detailed instructions on how to participate in this list.

We trust that you will benefit from these groups.