AR Desktop FAQ’s
Now that AR Advantage is really taking off in our region I have been receiving lots of questions about my plans for the old desktop products. So I thought this short post might answer the common questions and help you plan what to do in your school.
When you say, Desktop Product, what do you mean?
The term desktop basically means the software you have installed on your computers and local area network across the school. AR Advantage the new version of the product is a fully hosted internet accessed tool.
The desktop versions are:
Accelerated Reader – v5.1 or v6.3x
STAR Reading – v2.2.1 – no other version is applicable to Australia or New Zealand and is not supported in this region
Can I continue to use the desktop products?
Yes, you own the software and the quizzes associated with that license.
Will the desktop products continue to work?
Yes, but as computer operating systems develop over the coming years these old pieces of software will become harder and more expensive for you to maintain. If you are in a Western Australian school on the 100 schools project (or whatever the new name of this project is) or in Queensland on the MOE you will know that AR v5.1 has created you lots and lots of headaches. This is basically because AR v5.1 was written in 1999, long before managed operating systems were even thought about.
If you have Windows 7 or MAC OS X computers you will know that AR v5.1 is really clumsy on those computers.
Will there be new desktop versions of AR and SR for Australia and New Zealand?
No, the current versions are the LAST versions that are being created for the desktop market in Australia. There is no further development occurring on the desktop version for this market, new features released for the AR Advantage system will not be included in the desktop versions.
Will I be able to buy quizzes in the future?
Yes, the AR Quiz store is still operating and I have no plans to shut it down. All the Reading Practice Quizzes and Literacy Skills Quizzes released in Australia will continue to be released into this system.
In the next week or so I am announcing the release of Vocabulary Practice Quizzes, more to come soon. These types of quizzes will NOT be available to AR Desktop customers. Your software will not run them and as such they will not be added to the AR Quiz store.
If you want more information on the AR Advantage upgrade you can view this site – www.ARUpgrade.com.au
I am more than happy to answer any question you have to help with the decision to upgrade or remain with the old desktop product. You can email me at david.linke@edalliance.com.au or call me.
