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Issue 43 - 2018 │T4 │W6

 

Link - access past issues in the archive

STEMShare kits on Catalogue News item

Have you been using one of the STEMShare Community Kits in your school? Is your school looking to buy some equipment for continued future use? As part of the STEMShare Community journey, we have been working hard to ensure schools are able to purchase the STEM kit equipment at a great price. As a result, most of the STEMShare Community equipment can now be found on the DoE Catalogue. At this stage Primary VR Equipment is not on the catalogue but will appear soon. Kits can be purchased as a whole, with the same content as the trial kits, or individual equipment can be purchased in numbers as required by your school. Browse the DoE Catalogue to discover what's on offer. For more information about STEMShare Community visit our Interim Library!

Where to find the STEMShare equipment on the DoE Catalogue

Do you lock your PC overnight? Tip item

Some staff that tend to use the same eT4L laptop or desktop PC all the time, have developed a habit of just closing the lid of their laptop so it goes to sleep, or locking their computer overnight (Win-L) rather than shutting down or logging off. This is convenient because it means they can instantly resume work from where they left off by unlocking, rather than waiting for start-up and/or logon. But doing this all the time as your standard daily practice includes significant risks:

  • There is a possibility of data loss from the desktop/My Documents caused by the Windows User Profile clean-up
  • Windows updates deployed in the background will never finish installing
  • Applications deployed via UDM won't install if there is a pending restart required for those updates

It's very important that all eT4L PCs are restarted regularly - at least once a week. Please advise all staff.

Shut down your eT4L PC at least once every week!

Save your HP laptop batteries! Tip item

In class, we need our device batteries to last as long as possible during the day. With the long Summer vacation coming up, it's good to be aware of a standard design feature of modern laptop batteries. After storing devices for several months, batteries may not work and cannot be recovered. Batteries will slowly drain, even when the computers are powered off. But if left long enough, the batteries can reach a point where they will no longer function and cannot be recharged (by design, for safety reasons). When new computers arrive, the batteries are set to "shipping mode" to minimise battery drain and allow the battery to remain viable for longer. However, once the device has been powered on, it automatically exits shipping mode. Please read the RESOLUTION section for instructions for placing HP Chromebook and Windows laptop batteries back into shipping mode to allow for longer shelf life.

Update to Windows 10 1709! Info item

What an amazing achievement with schools building almost 40,000 eT4L computers with Windows 10 v1709 since it's release just 5 weeks ago! But we still have more that 220,000 Windows 10 computers running the older v1607. 1709 is an important stepping stone to the future of Windows and Office updates in schools and it's important that we update all compatible devices as soon as possible. The rebuild can either be started by the regular F12 boot process, or remotely using UDM – as long as the device is connected to a working network port via cable. Do SAP and ebs: central work with Windows 10 v1709? YES! Should we also rebuild our Windows 7 computers? YES! When should we consider rebuilding our computers? As things start to slow down with the end of the year, set a plan into action and rebuild EVERY student computer and as many staff computers as possible so you can start 2019 with Windows 10 v1709!

It's time to F12 your computers to Windows 10 v 1709

T4L TV: Google Sites explained PL item

Kim Sutton from Google joins the T4L team's Stu Hasic for a quick chat and demonstration of the new Google Sites, with a discussion about different ways it can be used at school with your students. We'd all like to develop our students to be creators, rather than just consumers of content. Google Sites delivers powerful, but simple web publishing tools and it's all right there ready to use in their G Suite service! This quick video will help you get started.

Click to watch this video on T4L TV

G Suite & Chromebooks webcasts PL item

Google for Education are running two 45 minute webcasts to help teachers with "Getting Started" and then "Diving Deeper" with both G Suite for Education and Chromebooks. For many schools and teachers, Chromebooks are very new and unfamiliar. Why are Chromebooks the most commonly used device by students in schools in the United States? Why is the ACT government in Australia providing a Chromebook to every high school student? Why have more than 500 schools in NSW enrolled over 23,000 Chromebooks in the DoE Google domain? If you'd like to find out, register for these two sessions to help clear up some of the mystery and see how Chromebooks perform as devices built for education when accompanied with G Suite.

  • Getting Started - 28 November, noon-12:45pm
  • Diving Deeper - 6 December, 6:00-6:45pm

ICT Thought of the day Fun item

ICT Thought - If Microsoft keeps up its current Windows naming system, eventually we'll get back to Windows 95

SAP Fiori mobile app goes LIVE News item

The SAP Fiori mobile app for smart phones and tablets is now available for Principals and School Administration Managers. It provides quick and easy access to the Fiori Inbox to approve common SAP Fiori transactions on-the-go. This delivers improved productivity and makes it easier to keep up with urgent, or time critical approvals. The App works on Apple iOS versions 10+ and on Android OS versions 5+. Pilot schools feedback included:

  • "It is a very convenient and timely application"
  • "It's great being able to approve items when not at school"
  • "Approvals can be done on the phone more easily"
  • "It's straight forward to use and the same as doing the transactions via the Portal".

Users can install the app on their phone or tablet from the App Store or Google Play - full details are in the SAP Fiori Mobile Application User Guide found on this page.

The types of requests you can approve using the SAP Fiori app

Forgot your DoE password? News item

It's hard to believe, but from time to time, people have trouble recalling things accurately. Passwords are a common example. To make it easier to reset your own password, there's a new option under the Log In button on the NSW Department of Education website - education.nsw.gov.au - which can be accessed from anywhere. To use this option however, you must first have set your three secret questions and answers in the Staff or Student portal, in your profile.

Forgot password feature added to DoE website

Worldwide Intel chip shortage Info item

A worldwide shortage of commonly used Intel processors is impacting computer vendors and particularly notebook products. For schools, HP's stocks of certain contracted models have been sold out and are now on back-order, awaiting processor shipments. Over 99% of this year's T4L Rollout orders have been shipped already, however, a few schools are still waiting for their EliteBook 840 G3 orders. Discretionary purchases of the ProBook 430 and the EliteDesk 800 Mini used for MoCOWs, are also on back-order. Stocks of the ProBook x360 and Chromebook 11e are very low at present, but there are plenty of ProDesk and EliteDesk SFF desktops and monitors available now. Intel expects the shortages to continue to at least the end of 2018. Please consider this situation in your upcoming technology plans.

Adobe CC 2018 for eT4L Macs News item

eT4L built Apple iMacs and Macbooks can now have Adobe Creative Cloud 2018 deployed via self-service using the Managed Software Center. This is accessed via Go...Applications...Managed Software Center...Software. Please note however that:

  • Only device admins (as set in AMU) can install the Creative Cloud 2018 apps from Managed Software Center
  • Installing CC 2018 apps will NOT uninstall CC 2017 apps- they will need to be manually uninstalled if desired

The new Managed Software Center

T4L TV: Scratch inventor interview News item

What would your 15 year old self have asked someone as awesome and inspirational as Mitch Resnick? 15 years ago, Mitch led the team at MIT that invented the Scratch programming language that is used in schools across the world. Scratch is an ideal introductory language as it makes creating interesting programs relatively easy, and is a stepping stone to other basic and more advanced programming languages. The T4L Team recorded an interview with Mitch presented by two awesome young reporters from Greystanes High School. They asked all the hard questions and got to the core of what inspires Mitch, what drives Scratch and what the future of this awesome graphical coding interface might be! If you missed Mitch's speaking tour in Sydney, watch this great interview!

Students from Greystanes High interview Scratch inventor, Mitchel Resnick

T4L Power Up! this December PL item

What's T4L Power Up? Starting in Term 4 2018, Information Technology Directorate and our partners are delivering regular hands-on tech events in various centres across New South Wales. Supporting school-wide change in the effective utilisation of technologies, T4L Power Up! is empowering teachers with a deep dive into Apple, Google or Microsoft educational products and services. Join us at one of our upcoming events! The first event is this week at Alstonville, but in December, there will be two more events at Australian Technology Park - Eveleigh and Mount Ousley Public School. Details and registration form at the T4L Power Up! site.Find out more about our T4L Power Up! events

More news.T4L in Week 9

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

Share your story in news.T4L - just email us at T4Lnews@det.nsw.edu.au

NSW DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION - INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DIRECTORATE