Adobe Enterprise Agreement

NSW DoE has just finalised the renewal of its Adobe Enterprise Agreement for the next five years. This excellent result ensures that NSW public school students and staff continue to access industry-standard creative multimedia software at school and home. Some students may have noticed in recent months that their work-at-home Adobe software licence renewals were only set for short periods. This was due to the grace period between contracts, but shortly this will be rectified as Adobe update their online distribution channel through OnTheHub. Remember, students have access to Microsoft and Adobe software at home for free. DoE staff can access Adobe software for a very small annual cost. More details on the agreement in our next newsletter.

DER infrastructure closedown

The DER-NSW program commenced in 2009 with the final rollout of laptops allocated to secondary schools in 2013. While most high schools have been migrated to eT4L Services and away from old DER systems, the current plan is to shut down DER DIP servers later this year. Schools that plan to hand over remaining DER-imaged laptops to students will need to graduate them before the end of Term 3. Please check the DER how-to documents on the intranet. Schools in line for eT4L migration will have their DER DIP functions transferred to their eT4L server prior to shut down. Secondary schools still considering eT4L services should start planning for taking on all DER WiFi reconfiguration and ongoing management as well as a device management solution.

Still got DER-built laptops?

If you are at an eT4L school, all managed devices built via F12 get their Windows system and security updates via CM12, not the Windows System Update Service (WSUS) that was on the old DER DIP server. DER laptops that have not yet been F12 rebuilt may not be receiving Windows Updates via CM12 if their system center client is not correctly functioning. The recommendation is to rebuild all DER laptops when the school is migrated to eT4L. For schools not yet migrated to eT4L and still using laptops with the old DER image, it’s time to unlock the BIOS and consider how to join them to your own school domain so that they can be managed and get their necessary updates.

Virtual Opportunity Classes

A new ClassMovie by the Dungog Community of schools shows how they created a Virtual Classroom for Gifted and Talented students. They are using Adobe Connect and MS Office 365 to overcome the tyranny of distance and give GAT students from multiple schools the opportunity to thrive and excel without the need to enrol in distant schools with opportunity classes. Click the image below to watch their ClassMovie.

Managed iPads and Wi-Fi

The trust certificate for the DoE Wi-Fi service was renewed and updated on Friday May 27. This is an essential part of maintaining security on our mobile network infrastructure. While most mobile devices acknowledged the new certificate and allowed users to accept it via a simple pop-up, iPads managed by Apple Configurator did not. As a result, many iPads at schools lost their Wi-Fi connection and refused to reconnect, because they have been setup to only allow Apple Configurator to make such changes. The resolution for this issue is to accept the new certificate on the Apple Mac that hosts Configurator and then re-sync all iPads using the updated Configurator. You will need to know the admin password for the Apple Mac computer.

Oliver – Build 8

Softlink released a new version of Oliver, Version 5 Build 8.004. It includes multiple upgrades covering new features, accessibility and security and designed to deliver better performance and wider support for modern browsers and HTML5. The interface has been redesigned which provides a smart, contemporary, simplified look with a range of colour schemes to suit a school. Some of the new features applied to the new Oliver system include:

Product-wide support for tablet-sized screens

Sample images for reports

Google cover images

Ability to terminate selected loans

…and many more

Build 8 has successfully been deployed in the first 15 pilot schools and it is planned to update all existing Oliver schools by end of term 3. Schools going live from the start of Term 4 will get the Build 8 version of Oliver. Further information about Oliver and Build 8 are at the School Library intranet site.

Current ICT challenges

ITD are currently investigating and working toward resolving the following reported intermittent incidents:

DoE proxy server intermittent and regular credential popups occurring during peak loads on some but not all devices
F12 PXE Services error – “No boot filename received” as well as other error messages
“Red Screen” failed F12 builds happening randomly
Delayed UDM software deployments

It’s important when schools are having ICT issues that they log incident tickets with EdConnect on 1300 32 32 32 or submit online queries via the EDConnect intranet page.

Office 2016 deployments

Since Office 2016 for Windows was made available for easy remote deployment in eT4L schools from May 24, in just the first ten days, a total of 13,140 installations successfully occurred. In some cases only one or two test deployments were made, in others, the entire school fleet was updated. Occasionally, Office 2016 fails to deploy. Investigating the status of the deployment request in Fleet Management Reports may show PCs with an error: "The content download cannot be performed because the total size of the client cache is smaller than the size of the requested content." – a workaround fix for this issue has been produced.

O365 Sway/Office Mix webinar

Following the Office 2016 breakfast webinars held in weeks 6 and 7, a third webinar will be run between 8:00-8:30am on Wednesday 15 June, focussing on Sway and Office Mix. Gather your teaching team in front of a large screen with speakers, sign into this free Adobe Connect session and join into the chat to ask questions and share experiences. Click to watch the half-hour recordings from the Office 2016 and the OneNote 2016 sessions.

OneNote Staff Notebook

Recently added to the DoE Office 365 environment, OneNote Staff Notebook allows teachers in your school and even across multiple schools to setup collaboration spaces. You can use them to keep staff meeting notes, plan out school initiatives and develop cross-grade lesson plans. Or you can have a Staff Notebook to create a content library to share school policies and procedures, course materials and other resources in a read-only compendium. You can even build staff member notebooks which are private notebooks for sharing between team leaders and individual teachers to track classroom observations and professional development. Here’s
a useful guide to help with getting started.

Return to Base or Swapout?

The Interactive Solutions catalogue from DoE Procurement Services contains many great interactive peripherals for the classroom including projectors, IWBs, LED touch panels and audio solutions. Some products are offered with a swapout warranty, while others have a Return to Base (RTB) warranty. There can be a big difference in price, but there’s also a big difference in value. RTB warranty means the school is responsible for de-installing the faulty device, packing it, shipping it, and then replacing it when it finally returns. Swapout means the vendor will book a time with the school and send someone to de-install and replace the faulty unit on the spot.

AwesomeDrive for Chrome

With two cloud storage solutions provided to students and staff it’s reasonable to try to stick to one for the bulk of your files. So what if you like Google Drive’s storage, but prefer using the MS Office products? Well there’s a great way to integrate the two. The AwesomeDrive for Google Drive extension for Chrome browser brings MS Office to your Google Drive so there’s no need to manually download your Office files nor upload them after editing. Just one click to open and edit your Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. Andrew O’Halloran from Canterbury Boys High has even made a quick video on how to use it with your DoE GAFE account.

Using Facebook Safely poster

Facebook might well be blocked at school for valid
reasons, but it doesn’t mean we can ignore that it
exists nor that our students are prolific users of the
world’s largest social network. Here’s a useful poster you can print and hang in your classroom so while they are at school and off-Facebook, they can consider how it can be used appropriately.