ICT Services 4 Education

 

School ICT News Bulletin No. 278 - 15/02/2019

Published by ICT Services 4 Education

eBulletin Items

  1. SIMS Spring Term Support Session
  2. Changes to Groups settings
  3. Important Information regarding procuring IT equipment
  4. Safeguarding Technology Expert to visit Norwich Community Sports Foundation - March 5th 2019
  5. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Service Desk Opening Hours - February 18th to February 22nd
  6. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Powering Off Core Network Equipment Over Half Term Period

1. SIMS Spring Term Support Session

6th March 2019

Time - 9.30 – 12.30

The Hewett School, ICC, Hall Road, Norwich, NR1 2PW **Please do not use the Cecil Road Entrance**

Free to attend

 

Booking is available via SLA Online -  http://s4s.norfolk.gov.uk/

Support Session for those schools on the Norfolk Hosted Platform supported by ICT Services 4 Education.

The session will be hosted by both ICT Services 4 Education and Capita.

 

Audience

  • School Administration Staff

Outline

  • GDPR related – deleting proficiency in English/new bulk delete routines/housekeeping
  • General Quick tips (some new staff attending)
  • Discover – look at attendance and also dynamic groups (will incorporate behaviour/achievement)
  • Attendance reports – look at one of the new reports, school report, Threshold report (and how to pin to shortcuts)
  • Attendance letters/certificates
  • Hosted schools – Looking at number of users for licences. Explorer tile and importing photos
  • General FAQs

Any queries please contact ICT Services 4 Education -  ict@norfolk.gov.uk

 


2. Changes to Groups settings

In May 2019, the Settings section of Google Groups will be changing to make it easier to manage groups. Settings with similar functionality will be combined. And some settings that are rarely used will be removed.
 
These changes may affect your existing groups and groups you create.
 
What’s changing
 
  • Member management settings—Settings for adding, approving, and inviting users to groups are being merged into a single setting for member moderators.
  • Content moderator settings—Settings for approving posts, deleting posts, and locking topics are being merged into a single setting for content moderators.
  • Content metadata settings—Settings for adding and changing tags and other metadata are being merged into a single setting for assistant content moderators.
  • Rarely used settings—Some rarely used settings are going away.
 
What you need to do
 
Verify that people who manage members or content have the right permissions:
 

 

If you do nothing

Settings for your groups will be updated to match the new controls. Also, users' permissions might change, depending on their current settings. As a result, some users might gain or lose permissions unexpectedly.
 

3. Important Information regarding procuring IT equipment

We would like to make customers aware that we are starting to see some price rises on IT equipment. Suppliers are advising us that the uncertainty around Brexit is starting to have an impact on pricing.  Unfortunately, this is something beyond our control but we are working with our suppliers to try and reduce the impact to yourselves

We have also been made aware, via the same channels, that there is a worldwide shortage of Intel Processors due to high demand, which is causing a backlog and delays. Due to this, stock is being procured by large companies and prices are rising. We are currently estimating 6-8 weeks delivery lead times for new orders. If your school requires any urgent replacement of equipment, please let us know as soon as possible and we will try to source limited channel stock. In the meantime we will continue to monitor and seek alternative sourcing routes.


4. Safeguarding Technology Expert to visit Norwich Community Sports Foundation - March 5th 2019

We have been approached by Trust Elevate to invite teachers, parents and children from Norfolk schools to an event in Norfolk. This event is being organised by the FA (Football Association), who are joining forces with Trust Elevate to empower parents in a digital age. You will be invited to participate in the first trial of its kind between the FA and Trust Elevate where we will test the solution and ask for feedback (this requires no prior technical knowledge on your part). Your opinions on what can be done to keep your child safer online are critical to the development of technologies like the Trust Elevate solution, enabling a safer environment for your children in a digital world. The trial will be a part of an hour long session which will also include a talk from Dr O'Connell. 

 

Areas that will be covered during the session:

 

  1. Get expert advice on the opportunities and challenges related to digital parenting:
  2. The social networks and live-streaming apps your children use: how they access them/ time spent online/ who they interact with
  3. Taking and sending pictures: helping your child navigate demands to post photos online
  4. The online games children play and who they play them with online
  5. The risks children take and how they perceive their own risk online
  6. Use of devices and how much information we share - protecting your child’s privacy online

 

As part of this milestone event, you will learn about the latest technology tools that have been designed to protect children from online risks and potential dangers. 

 

Who are Trust Elevate?

 

Dr Rachel O’Connell is joining the event as the founder of Trust Elevate, a digital parenting solution that enables parents and guardians to communicate directly with online platforms and apps (Football Association, Facebook, Lego, Roblox, Minecraft). Due to the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation, companies are required to obtain your consent before processing a child's data.

Trust Elevate enables you to provide or revoke that consent at any time, giving you the ability to engage in digital parenting because you will know and be able to control which apps your child can and cannot access. This will afford parents and guardians with oversight of the content that their child is interacting with while ensuring their child interacts with children within the same age band and restricting access to only age-appropriate content.  

 

Their website is as follows - https://www.trustelevate.com/ where you will be able to find out more information, including Rachel’s background in the safeguarding area.

 

The event is being hosted at the Norfolk Community Sports Foundation (at Carrow Road, home of Norwich City FC) on Tuesday, March 5th between 6.00 pm and 7.00 pm, with refreshments being served at 5.30 pm.

 

To register for this event, or for further information, please email - internetsafetyeventnorfolk@trustelevate.com


5. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Service Desk Opening Hours - February 18th to February 22nd

To reflect the reduced demand on the Service Desk over the half term holiday period, we will be changing the hours so that the desk closes an hour earlier. The desk will open at 08:00 hours, as it does now, but will close at 16:00. This will be effective from February 18th to February 22nd.

 

Normal opening hours of 08:00 to 17:00 will resume on Monday, February 25th.

 

For more information please contact the Service Desk on 0845 303 3003 or ict@norfolk.gov.uk


6. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Powering Off Core Network Equipment Over Half Term Period

 
We would like to ask schools to refrain from turning off the power to the core networking equipment over the forthcoming half term period. Core networking equipment includes routers, switches and servers, often in a wall or floor cabinet. These devices are monitored by ourselves and Updata and turning off the power results in false alarms. This could result in your school incurring a charge for an engineer visit.
 
 
 
Services Affected:                 Schools Internet, email and any service accessed via the internet
 
 
 
Services Not Affected:          All other school systems which do not require access to the internet
 
 
 
When:                                   18th February 2019 - 22nd February 2019
 
 
 
What You Need To Do:
 
If there is no alternative to powering off the communications cabinet and core equipment then please contact the Service Desk to advise us in advance
 
 
 
For More Information:
 
Please contact the Service Desk on 0845 303 3003 or ict@norfolk.gov.uk

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