Quick BYOD connection guides

The great IT staff at Model Farms High School have put together four handy guides to show students how to join the DETNSW Wi-Fi using a personal device (BYOD). Being a Secured Internet Edge (I@E) school, just like more than a thousand others in NSW, the guides also show how to access the Internet by signing into the I@E web page. The four separate BYOD guides cover:

• Windows 10 notebooks and tablets
• Apple MacBooks
• Apple iPads and iPhones
• Google Chromebooks

Because these guides are designed for student use, they refer to signing on via their firstname.lastname@detnsw username. If staff are using the guides to join their BYODs, remember you need to use your full email address when asked for username. For schools that are not yet on I@E, the Wi-Fi join instructions are the same, but you need to set Automatic Proxy in your internet settings. Thanks to Model Farms High for sharing these tips!

Is your school taking on BYOD?

The department's review into the non-educational use of mobile digital devices in NSW schools is complete and NSW has taken action to address its recommendations. A new Student Use of Digital Devices and Online Services policy is now available. It covers student use of smartphones, smart watches, tablets, laptops and any other device that allows connectivity to the internet and applications. It applies to both school owned and personal (BYO) devices. The policy builds upon the important work in schools, teaching young people to use digital technology in safe, responsible and respectful ways, as we prepare students for life beyond the classroom. Each school will work with their students and local communities to implement the new arrangements. Schools will be expected to update their existing school procedure, or develop a new one during 2021, to reflect the new requirements. An interactive form is available to assist schools with this process. The Department's Digital Citizenship platform provides further information and support for schools and has been updated to reflect the new policy, with new content. The full review, links to other useful supporting resources and contact details are at the department's review webpage.

Join in for Safer Internet Day!

Tomorrow, February 9 is Safer Internet Day, a day that will be celebrated in over 170 countries! For 2021, the theme is "together for a better internet" and in conjunction with the eSafety Commissioner, we have developed some resources to help empower both you and your students! Register your class or school for an incursion webinar on Tuesday February 9 or Thursday February 11, where your students will learn how to:

• identify trustworthy information about current issues
• detect fake news and sponsored endorsements
• recognise the harm caused by misinformation online

And just for teachers, take a listen to the latest edition of the Virtual Staffroom podcast featuring a special guest from the Office of the eSafety Commissioner.

Free MS School Transformation

Microsoft are again running the Microsoft School Transformation Program (MSTP) for NSW DoE schools in Terms 1 and 2. It's a way for schools to take advantage of a FREE, professional learning program for school leaders, teachers and support teachers to build their capacity to transform their school, by better using the technology they already have access to. The program is delivered entirely online, meaning ALL schools from across NSW are eligible to apply! Keen to learn more? Check out the workshop dates and register your expression of interest! All details can be found at https://bit.ly/nswdoemstp - please share the link with staff at your school! Registrations close this week on 12 February!

How to get MS Office for home 

In the past, DoE users could get Microsoft Office from two different places for their BYOD and/or home computer. The On the Hub (Kivuto) version of Microsoft Office was free for students and a once-off small fee for staff. Following the removal of Adobe products from the Kivuto portal in late 2020, plans are now in place to remove the remaining Microsoft products as well. Did you know you don't have to pay anything to get MS Office for use at home? The desktop copy of Office obtained from your DoE Office 365 portal, is free for both staff and students and is tied to your DoE user account. It needs to be signed into, to stay licenced. Therefore, when you leave and lose your DoE account, it will stop working and you will lose the access (and all your files in OneDrive). You can install this on up to 5 Windows and/or Mac devices and this version of Office WILL update to the latest available automatically. An alternative solution for making Windows 10 Education (operating system) licences available for staff and students is currently under development.

Have any staff left your school?

At the start of any new year, it’s important to clean up access and permissions granted via AMU. Otherwise departed staff will continue to have access to your school’s resources from their new site. This could include the ability to reset your student and staff passwords, access your eT4L file shares and be members of your school’s email distribution lists. It’s best to remove these permissions BEFORE they start at their new school. Once they start at their new site, staff will disappear from your main AMU lists, but your granted permissions will remain for them. If they have disappeared from your AMU list, click the “View & Add Staff not at this site” link at the bottom of AMU, to find them. Then remove their access from the various applets in AMU. If they are not shown there, but report they still have access, an EDConnect call will need to be logged to remove them from your site totally. Casual/temporary/relieving staff that have left will need to have their access removed from the various applets in AMU, then removed from the “Casual – Search / Remove Staff” list in SMU.

Have you changed schools?

It's always recommended that staff take a backup of all their files before leaving a school. Your DoE user account is fully transferable and will work at your new school. But one of the traps that staff find when they've moved schools is that the contents of your personal home folder (U:) were not automatically transferred and stay behind on your old school's eT4L Server. As a result, when you sign in at your new school, you get a brand new U: drive which is empty! So how do you access your old home folder contents so that you can copy them to your new U:? Let's say for example that your DoE user ID is Meghan.Markle2 and that the school code of your previous school is 6482. Log onto any Windows PC at your new school, open Computer and in the address bar at the top, type in: \\detnsw.win\6482\staff\_Meghan.Markle2 - except, replace the school code and the user ID with yours. Take note of the _ before the user ID. It should open your old home folder and you can copy all the files and folders from there to your empty U: drive. Then delete your content from the old school's server.

More news.T4L in Week 6!

Information Technology Directorate publishes three issues of news.T4L a term. Remember - share each issue with your staff! If you don't receive email notifications whenever new issues of news.T4L are released, why not subscribe?