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Issue 38 - 2018 │T2 │W9

 

Link - access past issues in the archive

T4L Awards - WINNERS! News item

We assembled a judging panel representing ITD, the Primary Principals Association and the Secondary Principals Council as well as the department's Learning and Business Systems directorate and an external industry representative. Their task - to review all of the fabulous entries received and determine the winners of T4L Awards across ten categories for 2018! These awards recognise and celebrate leading and innovative practice in the use of technology by a NSW public school or teacher. The award winners in each of the areas are not only inspiring and leading change locally, but are also leading or participating in online and physical communities of practice that develop the skills of the teaching profession and inspire organisation-wide change. Click the image below to see each award and to reveal the inspirational 2018 recipients and watch their stories - as well as those schools that were highly commended. Congratulations and well done to all!

Click to see the 2018 T4L Award Winners!

...and join us at the CIO's Technology in Schools Conference! We have organised a great day of professional learning and sharing in store with a fantastic day on 13 August. We'll be hearing from and showcasing the work of all of our wonderful T4L award recipients at this special event. With keynotes by Chief Information Officer, Stephen Loquet as well as a special guest presenter, this event will celebrate the inspirational technology-based teaching and learning happening in NSW Public Schools!

Get Minecraft EE from Term 3! News item

We've been teasing you throughout Term 2 with the great video stories from some of our schools that participated in the Minecraft Education Edition Early Access Program. Now finally, from the start of term 3, the pool of licences will be made available for all schools to access and get Minecrafting with their students! Take some time between now and then to process the opportunities and check out the following resources:

  • DoE Minecraft Intranet Site: This contains all the details to get you and your students creating and innovating with Minecraft Education Edition. You'll need to read all this information before embarking on your Minecraft journey. It outlines technology requirements, how to obtain licenses, links to the Yammer community and so much more!
  • Minecraft Education Edition Global Site: Teachers from around the globe including those in the early access program have been working hard to produce some awesome resources to assist everyone to get Minecrafting.

The time is now to start planning your students' adventures in Minecraft! Finally, keep your eyes peeled for the release of an Australian resource that the T4L team are working on with the gurus at Microsoft - due out before the end of 2018!

Get your students using Minecraft Education Edition from Term 3 2018!

Immersive VR and children Information item

Are you curious to learn more about Virtual Reality (VR) in the classroom? Keen to understand the affordances, at the same time as being aware of the precautions you need to take with this technology? NSW DoE's Technology for Learning (T4L) team is proud to present an in-depth literature review for teachers and a summary infographic by an awesome team from the University of Newcastle. Spearheaded by Dr. Erica Southgate and launched at EduTECH two weeks ago, this is the first in a series of FUTURE.research productions from the T4L team. Take a peek and stay tuned for more! Both resources are now at T4Lengage!

Students engaging in virtual reality

School-based Office 365 Groups News item

Office 365 was made available to all students and staff via the DoE Portal in early 2015. Since then, schools have been managing access to their collaborative content in Office 365 by entering student and staff names, one by one to assign memberships. Following work to better integrate DoE's Active Directory groups with our Office 365 environment, schools are now able to use the same year and staff-based groups they use for other services. To help explain how to apply your school-based groups in various Office 365 apps, we've published this new fact sheet.

Accessibility and inclusion Link item

Creating accessible content is everyone's responsibility. Implementing any of the following technologies and strategies in the classroom aligns your practice with Australian Professional Standards for Teachers 1.5, 1.6, 2.6 and 7.2.

  • The Accessible School is a free iBook by Kurt Klynen & Luis Perez. In it, they share tips and tricks from some of the most innovative educators in the world on using the iPad and other technologies to maximise learning in an inclusive classroom.
  • Microsoft Accessibility Features is a Sway document that outlines all of Microsoft’s accessibility features available on Windows 10 and Office 365.
  • Equatio is a cross platform app to easily add equations, formulas, graphs and more to G Suite for Education apps as well as Microsoft Word. It is great for making mathematics accessible. Start with the basic free teacher version.
  • How to Create Alternative Text - Alternative text (also called “alt text”) helps ensure all students can access and understand visual content such as images, charts, and graphs. It especially assists those who are blind or visually impaired, or who may have other physical or cognitive disabilities.

Accessibility and inclusion

T4L watchLIVE this week: Adobe Professional Learning item

Another informative vendor webcast is on again this week as part of T4L watchLIVE - with Adobe presenting a session that will answer a common question. For many years, schools have been able to deploy the full Adobe Creative Cloud suite, or the cut down Adobe Photoshop and Premiere "Elements" applications to their computers. But what is the difference? Which is more appropriate to use for whatever purpose? Dr Tim Kitchen will be joining us from Adobe to answer these questions and more. Set your reminder and gather your staff for this Adobe webcast at 3:30pm on Wed June 27. Remember, you can also visit the T4L watchLIVE site after the event to watch past webcasts on-demand.

Our next T4L watchLIVE event is with Adobe!

SBS Insight: Screens at school Link item

An episode earlier this month of the popular SBS forum show called Insight focused squarely on an issue faced by schools across Australia - how much is too much screen time? As more devices are used by students every day for their education, this forum discussed the experiences and practices of multiple schools and their students. This highly recommended resource could easily be used as a discussion starter among teachers and students at your school. Suitable for all ages.

Click to watch this episode of SBS Insight

 

ICT Thought of the day Fun item

10 years ago, raising your phone meant you were trying to get a signal. Today it means you are taking a selfie.

New Staff and Student Portals News item

As part of our digital transformation, a new portal for staff, students and extranet users is coming in term 3. Why this change? The portal is moving onto a new upgraded platform which will introduce a mobile responsive design to improve your user experience and the way we deliver information online. The migration to this new platform is the first step in the ongoing development and enhancement of our DoE Portals. So what is changing? All portals will have a new and mobile friendly design. In short, the portals will now be easy to access and use from any device including smart phones and tablets. When will it happen?
Following a pilot launch at the start of Term 3, to test and ensure it meets the changing needs of our organisation, we aim to roll out the new portals across all users in stages. We will keep you updated on our progress. For now, here is a look at the new Staff Portal!

The new DoE Staff Portal is coming in term 3! Click for a larger view

REMINDER: Portal logon screen Information item

EDConnect has recently been receiving calls that users are unable to logon to the staff portal. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the users were adding @DETNSW to their User ID. Previously, the logon screen would ignore that incorrect format and still allow the logon. As part of a recent change that moves our systems further toward Single Sign-On, the portal logon screen now no longer ignores the incorrectly added @detnsw and will reject it. The logon screen shows the expected User ID format. Please remind all staff of the correct User ID format for the portal logon screen. NOTE: For logging onto Windows at school on eT4L computers, @DETNSW still applies.

When asked to logon via THIS screen, do NOT add @detnsw to your User ID

Staff mailbox size increases! News item

Following preparatory work conducted by ITD recently, a significant increase in staff mailbox capacity was applied for all school staff from Friday, 22 June. This will address the demand for email storage for schools as usage continues to grow. The new email storage limits are as follows:

  • School Principals and sub-Executive - 25GB
  • Other teaching and school admin staff - 10GB

A much bigger email inbox for all staff!

Display Name changes in email News item

With the display name changes that occurred at the start of Term 2, which simplified the way School names appear in the Global Address List (GAL) and on email messages, a similar change will now be applied to all staff and student display names. From 23 June, names in the GAL will change:

  • Previous display name - O'Reilly, Jennifer
  • New display name - Jennifer O'Reilly

This means you will need to search for email recipients by typing their regular name, searching by first name then last name. For teachers with access to the student address book, you will see their display names updated progressively from 23 through 29 June. This adjustment to our email system brings the department's systems in line with global e-directory standards. Please advise all staff at your site of this change.

Updating your old SWS site News item

In case you missed this important advice in SchoolBiz two weeks ago, the department is starting to actively migrate all websites from the legacy Liferay School Website Service (SWS) to the new Adobe Experience Manager SWS. Schools will now be automatically migrated unless they choose to opt-out and take the path of customised build. Please read the SchoolBiz article and linked information to understand your school's option.

interactED: Dubbo and Coffs News item

Join us at interactED:Dubbo (term 3) or Coffs Harbour (term 4) for a comprehensive day of networking and learning organised into three streams:

  • School Leadership for school executives
  • Technical Coordination for ICT coordinators and TSOs
  • Using Technology for classroom teachers

Places are limited to 100 per stream, so get in quick and visit the interactED site for more details. You'll find the complete agenda outlining the three streams and a link to register your place at one of these great events. The registration fee of just $35 covers morning tea, lunch and event costs. 

Save the Dates! interactED is back in terms 3 and 4!

Too many OneNote choices? Tip item

Confused by the difference between OneNote Class Notebook and MS Teams with Class Notebook? What about understanding how to setup Class Notebook in Teams? Here are a couple of great infographics shared by T4L's very own Pip Cleaves!

Click for a larger image Click for a larger image

Access DoE email on iPhone/iPad Tip item

Many staff have a personal Apple iPhone or iPad, or have recently bought a new one. A frequently asked question has been, "How can I access my department email on my Apple device?"
While there are quick reference guides that EdConnect can point you to, it can still be a convoluted process that many struggle to complete. To make the process as easy as possible, the T4L team have published a new, easy to follow guide which simply works. Click the image below for full instructions.

Click to setup DoE email on your iDevice

Don't miss Brekkie next week! Professional Learning item

Following our two on-location Brekkies held at the start of June, we're back at Eight Central School in ITD for the next episode to kick-off July! Gather your staff and join us for the latest news, tools and tips from the T4L team and our special guests.

Brekkie is live on July 4 at 7:45am?

More news.T4L in Week 3

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

NSW DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION - INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DIRECTORATE