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Issue 62 - 2020 │T2 │W9

 

Link - access past issues in the archive




Read magazine.T4L issue 8 now! Our subject spotlight issue includes great tools for great wins!

 

 

 

 

ICT PLUS - Release 2.9 updates News item

When was the last time you checked out the new features in your school's ICT PLUS tool? We've recently added some great enhancements that came about through feedback from schools:

  • Device Location – For Windows managed devices, we now display the B/L/R location (Building/Level/Room) for each device from UDM. This info updates once a week in ICT PLUS, so check in on Fridays for updated data.
  • Historical Network Usage – You can check your usage over the past three months. The current bandwidth cap for your school’s WAN & Internet @Edge gateways is also shown.
  • Devices table has a date filter for columns with a date value, and the table shows additional options in the “rows per page” selection. Column widths have been adjusted to remove unnecessary white space.
  • Multi-sited Schools - Schools with multiple sites now can check the Network Usage in each of their sites - those schools will now see a tab for “Main Site” and “Sub Site 1” to show the relevant graphs for each site.
  • Search by Site Code – Developed particularly for our field operations users, if you have access to multiple schools in ICT PLUS you now have the ability to search for schools by their site code (school code) in the school picker.

Finally, we’ve also released an improved Help & Support page in ICT PLUS. This page provides a greater understanding of what ICT PLUS offers, to allow you to best to use the site. It now includes FAQ, Data Sources information, a Data Glossary and User Guides. Want to know what else we’ve improved since you’ve last jumped in? Visit the Roadmap page in ICT PLUS.

ICT PLUS has had some great new updates! Make sure you check them out.

Notebook devices on EdBuy News item

Acer, Dell and HP are all experiencing supply issues at the moment due to increased global demand for mobile devices, with many countries still working and learning from home, due to the COVID-19 situation. As a result, they all recently removed unavailable products from the department's EdBuy catalogue. This includes both Windows and Chromebook devices. They have advised that some products may return in July, with others expected in August/September. We’ll keep you updated in upcoming issues of news.T4L as devices become available again. Both Microsoft and Apple currently have mobile device stock available. Schools are reminded that they must not buy computer devices off-contract without obtaining approval first. Please complete the Alternate Supply Request form process via EDConnect. The option is listed under the Procurement section on the online form.

Many vendors have no stock of mobile devices

Top 5 tips for digital citizenship Info item

Tim Creighton is a Learning Design and Development Advisor in NSW DoE and in this video, he shares five excellent tips that are suitable for all students and staff when it comes to staying safe and being respectful and responsible when online. The Office of the eSafety Commissioner defines a digital citizen as "a person with the skills and knowledge to effectively use digital technologies to participate in society, communicate with others and create and consume digital content". With more devices in the hands of children, it's so important to arm them with skills and knowledge about the online world they join into. Please share this quick video with your students and staff and also use the many helpful resources available at the department's Digital Citizenship website.

Chrome OS v80 for Chromebooks News item

Since ITD launched its Chromebook Enrolment facility, over 48,000 school Chromebooks have been enrolled into the DoE Google domain! Following a successful pilot to test and confirm compatibility in our environment, we commenced the release of Chrome OS v80. Along with important security updates, this version includes several cosmetic enhancements to the user interface and better touch features when running in tablet mode. Chrome OS v80 started rolling out to enrolled Chromebooks on Thursday 18 June. Each Chromebook will automatically download the update from Google and then install it. This occurs in the background with no impact on the use of the Chromebook. A restart will be required to complete the installation.

ChromeOS v80 to be rolled out!

Why some O365 tools don't work Info item

Microsoft Office 365 is a constantly developing and growing cloud-based platform that's been available across NSW DoE since 2015. It's a tightly integrated platform offering file storage, Office applications, multi-user real-time collaboration and user/team management. Some users have reported that certain O365 tools don't work fully in our environment. For example:

  • The Meetings and Calendar options in Microsoft Teams are missing
  • Microsoft Planner and To Do don't let you effectively schedule events and notify users

The reason for these and other missing functionality, is the department had already established email and calendaring services for staff, provided by Microsoft Exchange servers hosted at the NSW Government Data Centre. All Outlook email and calendars for staff are hosted on-premises. Office 365 expects all users to be on Exchange Online. NSW DoE has commenced a long process that will eventually see all 200,000+ staff mailboxes migrated to Exchange Online. This will ultimately enable that missing functionality on our Office 365 service. Click the infographic below to find out more.

Preparing for the move from Microsoft Exchange on Premises to Online

ICT Thought of the day Fun item

ICT Thought - The creators of Photoshop could have had a lot of fun - if they didn't tell anyone

 

 

 

 

SharePoint Spaces now available! News item

SharePoint Spaces is a web-based, immersive platform, which lets you create and share mixed reality experiences. It's now part of the department's Microsoft Office 365 platform. Schools in NSW are starting to use it to add a new dimension to their classroom by using 2D and 3D web parts to create mixed reality content. Building a space is a lot like building a modern website - that is, you create the space and choose a structure, background, and theme. Then add web parts for your 3D objects, 360° images and videos, 2D images and text, and more. The stem.T4L team produced some fantastic resources to help schools get started with producing their own mixed reality environments, which are suitable for stages 3, 4 and 5. Watch this quick video to see how SharePoint Spaces can be used at your school and visit the link above to find out how you can start creating your own!

SharePoint Spaces webinars! PL item

Are you interested in learning more about SharePoint Spaces and in particular, creating portfolios of mixed media types? Laurens Derks from the stem.T4L team is presenting a quick, 40 minute webinar this Thursday and again next Tuesday, where he'll demonstrate the process and answer any questions you might have! Don't miss out on this excellent opportunity to learn about this exciting new content creation and delivery platform! Choose from these two webinar sessions, which are suitable for both primary and secondary schools:

Please let your teachers know about this webinar and register a spot to get the URL for your chosen session. Also, make sure you visit the T4L Events page to find out about our other great PL offerings.

Join us for one of these great SharePoint Spaces webinars!

Standardised.Logon kicks-off News item

Today sees a further 120 schools introduced to a standard logon for DoE devices, applications and services. We also have over 400 new change champions leading the way for their schools, testing the logging on to systems and applications using their email address, ahead of the rest of their school. Thank you to everyone who has taken part in one of the three User Logon Experience Project (ULEP) pilots. We now have over 10,000 school staff as well as 9,000 corporate staff, who only need to remember one way to log on to most DoE applications and services.  We will be rolling out a standard logon to all remaining schools later this year and will announce a date shortly. Please visit our ULEP intranet pages for more information.

The Standardised Logon schools pilot is underway!

MFA starts on 24 June! News item

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) will be here from 24 June. Hopefully you have already set your personal email address in Staff Portal and confirmed it's entered correctly. This is essential to successfully receive your security codes for access to your personal information.  From 24 June, your mobile phone number can also be checked, so you can access MFA codes via SMS.  From that date, you will see a new menu item in Staff Portal, on the dropdown box when you click on your profile icon. Manage security settings is where you will find your personal details such as your personal email address and mobile phone number. MFA Security codes will only be sent when we detect an attempt to access your personal details in Staff Portal and/or your Personal Profile in SAP ESS - where you save your bank account details.  Unique security codes sent to you expire after 10 minutes.  If you have no personal email address or mobile phone number stored, and you attempt to access your personal details, you will be prompted to call EDConnect on 1300 32 32 32 and they will guide you through the process. You can find more information on MFA on our Secured.Logon intranet pages.

A new Manage Security Settings option will appear in all staff portals on June 24 to support MFA

eT4L Tier 1 updates Info item

As part of the regular maintenance by ITD of the fleet of eT4L-built Windows desktops, laptops and tablets in schools, the next cycle of Tier 1 application updates is scheduled to be automatically deployed. The Tier 1 applications that will be upgraded in this cycle include:

  • Adobe Flash Player - 32.0.0.371
  • Adobe Reader DC - 20.009.20063
  • Google Chrome - 83.0

eT4L Config Manager upgrade News item

A scheduled school holidays period upgrade of Config Manager will affect all school eT4L servers from the morning of Monday 6 July through to the afternoon of Wed 8 July. Please avoid any UDM software deployments or F12 device builds during the maintenance window. Click the image below for a larger view.

Click for a larger view of this graphic

 

More news.T4L in Week 3!

Information Technology Directorate publishes three issues of news.T4L a term. Remember - share each issue with your staff!

What great ICT initiatives have been working at your school? Share you story with us at T4LNews@det.nsw.edu.au

NSW DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION - INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DIRECTORATE