SCHOOL ICT NEWS BULLETIN No 116 - 07/11/2007

Published by Children’s Services

E-SAFETY AND E-LEARNING CONFERENCE

JOHN INNES CONFERENCE CENTRE 30TH AND 31ST OCTOBER 2007

340 delegates from 185 schools across Norfolk attended this year's e-safety and e-learning conference which was opened on the first day by Fred Corbett, Deputy Director of Children’s Services, and Lisa Christensen, Director of Children’s Services on the second.

Delegates attended keynote speeches, workshops, and one-to-one surgeries. On each day, exhibitors were present from organisations including Securus, Dell, BECTA, and Norfolk Constabulary.

The main themes of the conference were:-

• E-learning: using appropriate technologies to support learning and raise standards
• E-safety: using technology appropriately and keeping children safe

The keynote speeches were delivered by Ruth Hammond, Safeguarding Project Manager BECTA; Professor Steve Molyneux, Director of Learning Lab; Stephen Carrick-Davis, CEO Childnet International; Richard Allen, Support Consultant BECTA.

Attending delegate’s comments received included:-

• Very stimulating – lots of issues to look at
• Informative/scary/exciting
• Useful, imaginative and made me think about what my school needs to focus on
• Very worthwhile
• Steve Molyneux was particularly inspirational

We hope that you found the conference informative and enjoyable and we would like to thank you for attending.

Follow up events and workshops will be arranged to offer opportunities for further learning and development the details of which will be made available to you shortly.

All of the presentations from both conference days will be available on the ICT Solutions website

If you would like to make any comments about the conference, for example the format, speakers, or venue, please fax your evaluation form to us on 01603 475660, or contact James Cushing or Wendy Norman on 01603 475622/475661.

Author: Glenn Carter

Service Desk Opening Hours

Due to customer feedback, ICT solutions has extended the availability of the Service Desk. The Service Desk will now be available from 08.00 -17.00, Monday - Friday.

We will be monitoring this change in opening hours and its impact on improving our support to you. As always we welcome any feedback you have on this change.

Author: Glenn Carter

Blocking executables on removal drives

We have created a page showing how to block file types like *.exe on removable drives using Windows group policy. This is so that USB pen drives can be used within schools, without the potential security risk of users running their own software. The page can be found by searching for USB on our website.

Please note that this is not the easiest of tasks and does have an element of risk. This should only be attempted by experienced network technicians or please contact ICT Solutions for assistance.

Author: Jay Zelos

Norfolk Primary Tracking Tool

As published on MI Sheet 174/07, the primary school tracking tool is available. It can be found by searching for Tracking or by looking on the A to Z under T for (The) Norfolk Primary Tracking Tool.

Author: Jay Zelos

e1 - New Look and Feel

We have been notified by Pearson Phoenix that there will be a significant upgrade to e¹ from 31st October 2007 onwards.

For more information, go to details of the new look and feel by clicking here.

There are now over 20 schools using e¹ in Norfolk. If you would like more details, please contact Carole Barwell on (01603) 475647.

Author: Glenn Carter

Adobe PDF Vulnerability

ICT Solutions encourage all schools to update their version of Adobe Reader to the latest version of 8.1.1 to ensure they are protected from any security vulnerabilities.

To determine which version of Adobe Reader you are using, open Adobe Reader and select the Help option, then select the About Adobe Reader option. The latest version of Adobe Reader can be downloaded from http://www.adobe.com

http://www.adobe.com/

Author: Jay Zelos