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Issue 10 - 2016 │T1 │W6

Secure Proxy Authentication News item

As announced in term 1’s Technology News for Schools, the changeover to Secure Proxy Authentication (SPA) is progressing well and has started rolling out to all secondary schools. As your school is scheduled, you will receive an email to:

  • the Principal
  • the school email account and
  • the nominated ICT Contact(s)

two weeks prior.  Because there are important tasks that each school must do to alert students and staff of their scheduled cutover date, it’s essential that an active role be taken to prepare all users.  It’s particularly important to carefully manage the BYOD fleet that might be coming into your school as the coming changes will impact their access if users have not prepared. See the SPA announcement for more details - including the implications of SPA on Dropbox client for Windows and Mac - and keep an eye out for the notification email.

Computer recycling / eWaste News item

For those schools that have recently purchased end-user computer devices through discretionary funds or recently received their T4L devices, you may want to consider recycling your old computers. The department has an arrangement with each of our end-user computer device vendor partners on contract for a 1:1 e-Waste recycling program. You will need to contact the relevant partner to arrange a booking for e-waste collection from a central location in your school that is easily accessible by a courier. Please note that this service is typically only available at no cost to the school between 30-90 days after the delivery of new devices. To book in your recycling pick up, please contact the relevant NSW DoE Partner.

Wi-Fi Service Accounts Tip item

As schools receive new mobile devices in their T4L rollout, here’s a timely reminder about using your school’s Wi-Fi service account for any shared devices.  Back in August 2014, an email to the school account provided the username, and another to the Principal’s account provided the password for the school’s Wi-Fi Service account. This account is useful for any school with Aruba Wireless setup – i.e. all high schools and SSPs and any primary school that has invested in Aruba Wi-Fi. It has been specifically provided to allow for school-owned mobile devices to authenticate to the Wi-Fi – to make that initial connection. It is not a portal access account, nor an account for accessing the internet. It saves the need for a teacher to put their personal logon details to authenticate to Wi-Fi on school-owned laptops, iPads or tablets. More details on this fact sheet.  If your school cannot track down the account details, you can request it be re-sent via service desk.

Future-focused learning  Peer item

A new ClassMovie shot at Information Technology Directorate at Eveleigh, highlights how two schools are implementing future-focused learning for students. Covering both primary and secondary settings, it discusses effective pedagogy and utilisation of technology and space. It features Camdenville PS and Campbelltown Performing Arts HS.  Click the image below to watch their ClassMovie.

Click to watch this video

YouTube / My Maps in GAFE  News item

Following completion of the approvals process, the department’s Google Apps for Education (GAFE) for students and staff will have new apps added shortly.  For staff, the YouTube app will be turned on, allowing staff to publish videos using their portal account rather than needing to use a personal Google account.  For both staff and students, the My Maps app will be turned on, allowing users to create custom maps to share and publish, including:

  • Draw lines, shapes, or placemarks on the map.
  • Import geographically-specific data including addresses, place names, or coordinates
  • Organise maps with layers to hide/show content
  • Style your content with different colours, placemark icons, and line widths.

We’ll alert you when these apps are available.

ICT equipment deliveries Tip item

Courier deliveries occur all the time and schools sign off often without checking the shipment.  But when it comes to deliveries of computers and other ICT equipment, it’s very important that the boxes are counted and inspected before sign-off.  Visible damage to a carton may indicate that it has been dropped, which may have damaged the equipment inside. Courier damage should be noted. Don’t sign for significant damage or incorrect box counts.

Office 2010 opening O365 News item

A Windows update delivered by Microsoft at the end of 2015 introduced a problem opening Office 365 files using Office 2010 programs installed on Windows computers.  Choosing the option in Office 365 to “Open in Word” or “Open in OneNote” would generate an error, “Something went wrong”.  This problem was acknowlegded by Microsoft and a subsequent patch was rolled out to all Windows PCs this week to rectify it.

Office 2016 free for home use News item

As mentioned in the week 3 issue, all staff and students can now each get up to 5 free licences of Office 2016 desktop from their DoE Office 365 page. It is best to download this outside school hours. 

Get MS Office 2016

Clean-up of DETNSW domain Tip item

As announced in this term’s Technology News for Schools newsletter, a new regular monthly clean-up process of the DETNSW domain will see computer/ device records disabled then deleted after six months of no activity at school. This will help to keep your UDM and FMR up to date and relevant. But it means that in particular, staff that have school notebooks at home will need to remember to bring them to school at least once per term and logon to the network to ensure they are recorded as being active. Failure to do so could mean an F12 build is required to re-join DETNSW, and that could mean data loss.

Click here to view this infographicclick image to view/print this infographic

So where’s Google Forms? Tip item

Following the story in last week’s Technology News for Schools, teachers have been trying to access Google Forms in their Google Apps for Education (GAFE) in the DoE Portal.  While you could assume it’s one of the apps in the list when you first open GAFE, it’s actually not there.  Here’s how you get to Google Forms – feel free to share these new skills:

  • Open the Google Apps console from DoE portal (you’ll find it under My Learning Tools)
  • Click on Drive
  • Click the New button at the top-left, then More, then select Google Forms.

Internet filtering at home Link item

Schools are often approached by parents wondering what options there are to filter internet access at home.  At school, access is filtered for students according to their year group to so that undesirable and inappropriate websites cannot be viewed. This is achieved through the department’s enterprise filtering solution provided by Blue Coat.  But did you know the same company offers a free domestic filtering service? K9 Web Protection is a free web filter and parental control software for home Windows or Mac computers. K9 “puts parents in control of the Internet to help them protect their children”.

Rural / Remote opportunity News item

We’ve highlighted the ICT journeys of multiple schools by sharing their ClassMovie through this newsletter over the past year. The Department of Education invites Rural and Remote schools to participate in a case study to document and share their experiences in online collaboration. Schools will receive funding to support the development of a ClassMovie documentary that highlights the school's journey. Successful schools will gain free access to the ClassMovie platform for the development of one movie and receive funds to support release time for staff to develop the documentary. This is a great opportunity to share how online collaboration is making a difference for your students. Find out more!

Problems with F12-building? Tip item

Do you have a device that persistently fails to complete the F12 Rebuild process? To allow us to quickly troubleshoot the problem, it would assist greatly if in logging a service desk ticket, you could:

  • Include the device brand, model and serial number
  • Confirm that you’ve tried two or more times
  • Confirm if it has ever F12-built OK in the past
  • Note at what point the failure occurs with photos, logs and error codes captured and included
  • Confirm you are attempting the F12 with a known working port and cable that was successful before
  • Confirm that you’ve had success with other devices of the same brand and model or not
  • Advise if there is anything else unique or unusual about the fault

Your help with this is greatly appreciated.

More T4L news in Week 9

Information Technology Directorate publishes T4L news for schools three times every term. Remember to share each issue with your staff!

NSW DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION - INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DIRECTORATE