2025

Canva for Education is more than just free access to a suite of design tools and ready-made classroom resources. It’s a powerful platform for building the digital literacy skills our students need to thrive in the future workforce. As the nature of work and technology continues to evolve, students must learn to think creatively, communicate visually and adapt quickly to new technologies.

Canva empowers them to do just that, by giving them hands-on opportunities to design, collaborate, and express their ideas with clarity and confidence. It prepares learners not just for the jobs of today, but for careers that haven’t even been imagined yet. 

Check out the Classroom use resource to help inspire you when integrating Canva for Education into your students’ learning journey!

Microsoft To-Do is transforming productivity and task management for educators. It allows teachers to efficiently manage daily tasks and long-term projects. Features such as adding notes and attachments, as well as email reminders, will help you stay on top of your upcoming tasks.

With features like My Day, teachers can focus on daily priorities, while the Planned list helps organise tasks by due dates. Creating custom lists and tags, allows teachers to categorise and prioritise tasks according to their specific needs.

Integration with Microsoft Outlook ensures tasks sync directly with email and calendar.  

Real-time progress tracking and visual summaries make it easy to monitor task completion and productivity levels. For more information visit To-Do's support page.

From Term 3, schools must only purchase online learning tools from contracted suppliers listed on the Online Learning Tools Marketplace (OLTM).

How does this change impact me?

If your school is interested in using products that are not available on the OLTM, please email marketplace@det.nsw.edu.au with the names of the products. Suppliers will then be invited to submit an application to be included on the OLTM.

If you have an existing agreement for a product that is not listed on the OLTM, you can continue to use it until the end date of the contract. Once the contract ends, the product may only be used if it has been added to the OLTM. 

If the products you currently use are listed on the OLTM, no action is required! 

Free products

• Paid premium products with limited free access are included on the OLTM.
• Before using a free product in your school, refer to the department’s AssessedIT database to ensure the products are safe and to confirm if parental consent is required.

Products not covered by the OLTM

• Learning Management Systems (LMS)
• Student Administration products (refer the Administration Marketplace for Schools)
• Educational materials marketplaces (for example Twinkl or Teachers Pay Teachers)
• App store products

If you have any queries relating to the OLTM, please contact marketplace@det.nsw.edu.au.

After listening to feedback from our school community, many schools have been confused about the eWaste collection service offerings available and as a result, storerooms have been filled with older, out-dated computer equipment that is no longer fit for their needs. So, to help clear the confusion, we have formalised the process for eWaste.

Look at what you have that needs to be disposed of through an eWaste service and then complete these required steps:

1. To book the school for eWaste collection, please fill out the form here, using this handy eWaste Instructions PDF document.
   Note: If the eWaste collection is related to the Server & UPS Refresh project, select “Yes” in the project-related section.
2. Submit the form.
3. Review your email with your submission details to ensure all the information is correct.

NOTE: Currently, there is a backlog of schools requesting eWaste collection, and we are working with the vendor to try and progress through this backlog as quickly as possible.

For more information please email: Schools Infra Cyclic Refresh COR0835R8406.SchoolsInfra@det.nsw.edu.au

Thank you to all the staff who proactively applied for the correct privileged access for their role. Those whose access was approved, can now retrieve the administrator password for devices using the Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS).

For instructions and further information, refer to How to access your LAPS password and FAQs: Privileged access. If you experience technical issues, please log a ticket in EDConnect Online.

As Windows 10 nears its end of support, we are upgrading the "School Teachers Workspace" shared Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) to Windows 11 (23H2). Alongside this, we will apply a security hardening policy to the new Windows 11 AVD.

From 24 June, you will have access to both the old and new workspaces. Access to the old workspace will be removed after 29 June.

Looking for easy ways to boost student engagement and save time? Guided Activities in Adobe Express offer curriculum-aligned, creative tasks that blend explicit teaching with student-led learning. Perfect for flipped classrooms, they build independence, agency and critical thinking - without starting from scratch. Just pick, personalise and go! 

More resources are available via the ANZ Adobe in Edu K-12 site. 

Have a look at the June edition of the Adobe in Education Newsletter.  
 

“My favourite thing about EduChat is the Socratic questioning modelling within student mode. Great that teachers can test it in student mode and have a look at what that looks like.” Darren Ponman, Deputy Principal Hunter Performing Arts High School

If you are a teacher or staff member and would like to experience student mode, select ‘student mode’ in your NSWEduChat settings to switch to the student experience.

Student use of NSWEduChat is being trialled in 50 schools, and access has been enabled for all staff system-wide. Future decisions about NSWEduChat will be made in consideration of what we are able to learn from the experiences of staff and students in trial schools.

From Term 3 Week 2, the Windows 11 v24H2 feature update will begin progressively rolling out to all schools.

The Windows 11 feature update will be pushed to all compatible devices that pass the Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser.

The update will present like a standard security patch and reboot policy. It will silently download and install in the background and prompt for a reboot to complete, which can be deferred to the end of day. Reboot times can vary depending on device specifications.

New features include passphrases when using LAPS, and a slightly modified File Explorer experience, amongst other important security updates.

Great news, K-2 teachers! We’re simplifying how our youngest students log in! Soon, instead of using long usernames like firstname.lastname1234567, they’ll use a much simpler format: their initials and the last four digits of their student reference number—like JS1234!

This change is part of the K-2 Simplified Logon solution, and we want your school to be part of it! To get started, please fill out the registration form by the end of Term 2, to let us know when you’d like to start using these shorter usernames.

This new system will help our Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 students, log in independently, boosting their confidence and making classroom time more efficient.

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?