Upgraded Internet service

Information Technology Directorate (ITD) has recently launched a new second Internet link as part of its commitment to continual service improvement for schools. Over the past twelve months, significant changes have been implemented so the department’s staff and students can enjoy effective and reliable access to educational content. This is despite the ever-growing demand that challenges like BYOD introduces. To help explain our journey over the past year and prepare us for the further improvements still to come, we’ve published a video for schools.

School Router replacements

Commencing in Term 2, ITD’s program to replace school network routers saw 902 school sites successfully completed. This program will continue throughout the course of Term 3 with a further 926 school network routers being replaced. ITD is working in partnership with Telstra and The Frame Group to complete this work. On Monday 18 July, all schools included this term were notified by email to the school and principal accounts with a request to complete a brief online form. Over the next several weeks, The Frame Group representatives will be making contact with included schools. If you are contacted by a representative of The Frame Group, please assist by providing them with the requested information. The Frame Group representatives will clearly identify themselves and will carry identification at all times whilst on school sites. It is anticipated that minimal disruption will occur during the replacement program works.

Windows 10 in eT4L

As advised in our last issue, Windows 10 is coming and progress is developing well. Some tidbits:

The platform is called Windows 10 Education (rather than Enterprise)

Internet Explorer 11 will be the default browser to support DoE corporate applications

All users can customise Start Tiles.

“Reboot of the Nerds”

60 Minutes recently presented a story of how “digital technology will soon be central to our economy and just about every job of the future and our children need to be honing their skills now”. It’s an interesting story worth sharing with your teachers as we aim to engage students in STEM and provide them with the
opportunities they need to develop as problem solvers and critical and creative thinkers. Click the image below to watch the video in a new tab.

Training for Google Apps

Some staff (and students) may have already discovered the great Synergyse training system for Google Apps. Synergyse is an extension for Google’s Chrome browser and it needs to be added through the Chrome webstore. Once added, the icon for the training will appear in your toolbar next to your account icon when using Google Apps. Recently, Google acquired Synergyse and announced that it is being given a new name – Training for Google Apps and it will be included natively in Google Apps when used with any browser. Until that’s formally launched, Google has made the updated extension available for use by schools.

Google Maps satellite imagery

Both Google Earth and Maps were recently updated with major improvements to their satellite imagery. When NASA launched Landsat 8 in 2013, it started capturing images with greater detail, truer colours, and at an unprecedented frequency, capturing twice as many images as Landsat 7 did every day. And with so many millions of images, Google took the clearest pixels to stitch together a cloud-free and seamless image of our planet. These excellent tools for geography bring the world into our classrooms.

Quizzing with Google Forms

Another recent upgrade sees the ability to create and run self-marking quizzes using Google Forms. This great tool has always been useful for collecting survey responses and producing tallies and charts from the results, but now you can also easily build quizzes to use in class. Once you have created a question on your form, click Answer Key and select the right answer, add points value and even include answer feedback for both right and wrong answers. Simple!

New DoE STEM resources site

The NSW Department of Education has recently launched a new STEM resources site to assist schools to deliver quality STEM education for all students. This includes:

raising expectations and enhancing the quality of student learning in STEM
fostering quality teaching and leadership in STEM
illustrating innovative ways of delivering STEM education

Actively engaging students in authentic and challenging STEM learning experiences, creating learning environments that foster innovation and creativity is fundamental to the success of STEM education in schools. NSW DoE has initiated several STEM projects during 2015 and 2016 and highlights these at the website. ITD is committed to providing quality ICT systems and support services to augment the delivery of STEM education in NSW schools.

DER closedown update

In week 6 last term we advised plans are in place to closedown the back-end DER infrastructure. At this stage, this is scheduled for September. While this has no major effect for secondary schools already on eT4L, for those not yet migrated or those opting to self-manage, old DER services will cease to function. The table below indicates the actions required before the DER closedown. Further advice will be provided directly to the few schools that opt to self-manage.

Adobe Acrobat DC for eT4L

All new computers built and rebuilt via F12 or from UDM will now have Adobe Acrobat DC included. The user interface has been redesigned, but most functionality is easy to master. To assist, Adobe has an online learning and support site for the new program. There is no need to upgrade older PCs from Acrobat X1 Pro at this stage, however if Acrobat DC is required on any specific PC, an F12 rebuild will be necessary. Any important files stored locally will need to be backed up first.

Social Media Masterclass

The Schools Communication and Engagement team provide communications support, training and resources to principals and school staff. During terms 3 and 4, they are offering a variety of face-to-face courses in venues across NSW. The Social Media Masterclass helps schools with using social media to better engage with the school community and beyond. Other courses are also on offer to complement the school’s engagement strategies. Their website contains full details of the courses available with bookings made through MyPL@Edu.

MS Sway and accessibility

Sway has been a part of our Office 365 service for staff and students for almost a year. It’s a simple way to easily create engaging, eye-catching interactive reports, presentations, and more which flow neatly across all desktops, tablets and smartphones, but accessibility wasn’t a strong feature. Microsoft has been working on several new enhancements to help users with vision, mobility and cognitive impairments use Sway in their personal and work lives. They’ve published a post to explain all of these new features.

Me, Myself and Eye

Me, Myself and Eye is an interactive educational resource on childhood vision impairment for Australian children, their families, schools and the community. Users can to explore different settings, experience different images and learn about the unique tools and equipment that children with vision impairments use for assistance. It provides children, with and without a vision impairment with information and knowledge in a fun, interactive, accessible way.

Truth be told

Truth be told is a new online learning resource which embeds future-focused learning and models the authentic use of Office 365 and Google Apps for Education in the classroom. The resource is part of the Collaboratus series being developed by Learning Systems. The learning requires students to analyse a range of personal stories told using different media, draft an individual personal story, and then persuade their peers to produce their particular story idea. Throughout the learning, students engage in significant self-reflection and provide peer feedback to their teams.