Issue 87 - Term 3 Week 3

Primary schools across NSW have used Foundation fonts for teaching handwriting for decades. Usually, schools would buy a site licence for NSW foundation fonts and install it on their Windows or Mac devices. Those fonts would then be available in their locally installed applications. But as schools moved to the cloud for creating and storing their work, it was never possible to use them in their Google Workspace apps  - until now.  Google recently added a fantastic update into Google Workspace making NSW Foundation font available for the first time across Docs, Slides, Sheets and any other app that allows you to change font! For your younger students, you can even make Foundation font the default font used whenever they start a new document. So the big question is, how do you add them for yourself and how can you show students how to do it for themselves? Just watch this quick video below!

Is your school a user of the Canvas learning management system (LMS) or interested in procuring it? The department has put in place an ICT Agreement with Instructure which allows schools to acquire Canvas and Canvas Studio licences. Instructure’s standard helpdesk support is included at no additional cost.  Under the ICT Agreement, Instructure is required to charge NSW public schools at fixed prices for these licences on a per student basis, for both new users and renewals. For new Canvas users, the necessary implementation services also have agreed pricing.  For existing users, the agreed pricing applies to your next annual renewal. Pricing for Canvas Catalog licences or 24/7 helpdesk support are not included and will need to be negotiated directly if desired. Interested schools should contact Connie Murphy of Instructure directly: cmurphy@instructure.com or phone: 1300 663 653.

An odd error with Google Classroom appeared from the start of term 2 and while not all users saw it, it frustrated those students and teachers that it did affect. When some users clicked the Google Classroom link in their Portal, instead of Classroom launching, the 404 error shown below was displayed. Since every user accesses Classroom from the same portal link, the same result would have been expected for all users, but this was not the case. At first only a small number of users were affected, but as the first two weeks progressed, the issue became more common. Google advised it's best to access Classroom from its direct link at https://classroom.google.com and not from the tailored NSW Education link that was provided to us initially. The links in the Portals have now been adjusted. If your school is using any other links page or bookmarks which include Google Classroom, please ensure the link is adjusted accordingly.

The automatic monthly clean-up process of the DETNSW domain that was suspended in late 2021, was re-enabled from this term. All devices that have not been used at school for over 6 months have their computer / device records disabled to prevent logging onto the domain. Those devices will then be deleted from the domain a month.later. This process will continue to run monthly and will help to keep your UDM and ICT Plus records up to date and relevant. But it means that in particular, staff that have school notebooks at home will need to remember to bring them to school at least once per term and logon to the network to ensure they are recorded as being active. Failure to do so could mean an F12 build is required to re-join DETNSW, and that could mean data loss. If a device has been disabled but is needed, a service desk call can reinstate it. If a device has been deleted, it can be F12-rebuilt.

Over many years, we have all come to realise that the dynamic internet is an incredible and amazing technological advancement for schools. But filtering the internet service that is available to students and staff is a necessary aspect of safe and secure web browsing. Since we first delivered internet access to all schools in 1996, we've included filtering - anyone remember Cyber Patrol? Recently, the department replaced the long-standing BlueCoat internet proxy/filter service used centrally, with a new Fortinet service. Across NSW now, the majority of schools have Internet@Edge connections that use either a Palo Alto or a Fortinet filter running locally inside the school. Smaller schools that still access the internet via the State Data Centre, now access filtered internet through a centralised Fortinet proxy/filter. While the filters are mostly consistent, there are slight differences between the two web filtering services. The Internet Filtering tool linked in the Staff Portal, has now been updated and will report on the allowed/denied status of websites across all filter types, for each student year group. You can easily add this tool to My Essentials, if it is not already there. Please note that the tool is only accessible from school.

T4L and DART Learning are bringing you some amazing student-focused online events in Week 6 for Stages 2-4, to celebrate Book Week 2022! First up for budding authors and illustrators is Matt Stanton - together with the T4L team. It's then the turn of zoologist Milly Formby on location, following migratory shorebirds around Australia. The third session is about connecting with community through storytelling. Each session features T4L tech experts showcasing tools for how your students can get started on their author journeys in the classroom. Register your classes now through DART Learning for these free Book Week events.

• Create a character with Matt Stanton and get techy with T4L! - Mon 22 Aug 2:00pm-3:00pm
• Join zoologist Milly Formby on her Wing Threads adventure and investigate non-fiction narratives with T4L - Wed 24 Aug 11:00am-12:00pm
• Connect with community through storytelling and creativity - Fri 26 Aug 10:00am-11:00am
   

Join Apple for this free online professional learning to explore how podcasting, app prototyping, and augmented reality on iPad can help your students experience just about anything they can imagine and connect their learning globally.

• With special guest Bryce Corbett, host of Squiz Kids, you'll go behind the scenes of this popular news podcast for kids and hear how schools integrate podcasting into classrooms.
• Learn how students use app prototyping on iPad to address community needs, and discover activities from the Everyone Can Code App Design Journal to get your school started.
• Hear how teachers are using the augmented reality app AR Makr on iPad to help their students connect to the world in new ways.

Book a free place now for you and other teachers at your school, for each series of three, 60-minute virtual workshops that run throughout Term 3.

Were you aware that Apple now have brand new on-demand training content for end-user support & device management? For IT support staff and ICT Coordinators at schools who are keen to improve their technical understanding of deploying & supporting Apple devices, there are now online courses designed to help:

• Apple Device Support 
• Apple Deployment & Management

This content will not only help improve your technical knowledge of Apple, but also includes great troubleshooting steps & knowledge checks. In addition to the training content, you'll find  associated exams that provide the opportunity to earn Apple's new globally recognised certifications for:

• Apple Certified Support Professional
• Apple Certified IT Professional

Check out the new resources, earn your certified badges, and share with your network!

With the great news above about Canvas, the vendor has shared an on-demand webinar recording to give interested schools a good picture of what Canvas is all about. But many schools are interested in finding out more about the Canvas LMS and how it’s been working in NSW public schools that have had it in place for some time. Stu Hasic from the T4L team will facilitate this presentation by:

• David Summerville and Stacy Lambert – Callaghan College
• Darren Ponman – Hunter School of Perf Arts

Together, they’ll help interested schools to understand what Canvas is, what features it offers, how it’s used by these schools and how to go about implementing Canvas at your school.  An opportunity to ask questions and get answers will run throughout the one hour webinar. So join us next Monday (week 4) from 3:30pm! Register your school's attendance now to get the online meeting details.

For many school staff, Microsoft Teams has only ever been used to attend an online meeting. But just because a school has chosen the Google Workspace platform to cover both their educational and office automation needs, there is one massive benefit of getting staff to use Teams beyond just meetings. The instant message chat built into Teams is very simple to use and offers so many time-saving benefits for you and for anyone who wants to contact you.  Every staff member in NSW has a Teams account. It can be run on a computer, tablet or mobile phone. You can quickly see if someone is online, offline or busy, send a message to anyone, or you can call them and even video chat. You can share files, and in the case of EDConnect, you can even share your screen to describe a technical problem and have it solved remotely. If you're not using Teams while working with others in the department, you're probably not being as efficient as you could be. It's really worth getting into for the chat function alone. Find out more about Teams.

Information Technology Directorate publishes three issues of news.T4L each term. Remember - share each issue with your staff! And if you aren't receiving an email notification as soon as a new issue of news.T4L drops, then you're missing out! So why not subscribe?