Northern Grid has signed a 5 year contract with BT and will be providing new, fast, affordable and robust broadband connections to schools across the North East of England. The update reports are intended to keep you informed about what to expect during the installation process and the services that will be included.

After several weeks of reviewing the award entries the judging is complete and the shortlisted schools have been invited to the awards ceremony on June 21st. Before the ceremony the schools will take part in an exhibition to showcase their entries.

Book your free place now to attend the event; find out more about what these innovative teachers and creative students have been doing, celebrate their success and learn how you can do similar things in your school. 

This is Northern Grid's favourite day of the year, we always leave impressed by the confident and articluate pupils.  It is an outstanding opportunity to be inspired and enthused about how technology can enhance teaching and learning.

The event is open to staff and governors from all schools and local authorities. Visit the event page for booking information.

The shortlisted schools are:

• All Saints VA CE School, Stockton
• Benton Dene School, North Tyneside
• Dormanstown Primary School, Redcar and Cleveland
• East Boldon Junior School, South Tyneside
• Firthmoor Primary School, Darlington
• Grange Primary School, Hartlepool
• Hadrian Park Primary, North Tyneside
• Jesmond Gardens Primary School, Hartlepool
• Longbenton CLC, North Tyneside
• Marden Bridge Middle School, North Tyneside
• Moorside Community Primary School, Newcastle
• Norham Community Technology College, North Tyneside
• Normanby Primary School, Redcar and Cleveland
• Openzone CLC, South Tyneside
• Sacred Heart RC School, Redcar and Cleveland
• Seaton Burn Business and Enterprise College, North Tyneside
• South Wellfield First School, North Tyneside
• St Aloysius Infant School, South Tyneside
• St Aloysius Junior School, South Tyneside
• St Mary's RC Primary, North Tyneside
• St Peters CE Primary, Redcar and Cleveland
• Valley Gardens Middle School, North Tyneside
• Whickham School and Sports College, Gateshead
• Whinstone Primary, Stockton
• Whitecliffe Primary School, Redcar and Cleveland
• Woodlawn School, North Tyneside

Northern Grid has signed a 5 year contract with BT and will be providing new, fast, affordable and robust broadband connections to schools across the North East of England. The update reports are intended to keep you informed about what to expect during the installation process and the services that will be included.

Northern Grid signed a contract yesterday (14th February 2012) with BT to provide broadband to Northern Grid schools for the next five years.

We look forward to working with BT to maintain and further develop our broadband and services.

For more detailed information download the Press Release, get in contact with the office or fill out an Expression of Interest form

Download Press Release

For winning one of our Teacher Awards last year, Stephen Ainsley from Harton Technology College in South Shields asked for us to develop a mobile app (specifically an iOS app originally) for the school. Stephen wanted an app version of their school planner – in other words, a digital version of a homework tracker, timetable viewer and school information database.

This article is intended to briefly cover the route we took when developing our first mobile application.

On November 29th schools from across the Northern Grid region came together at the launch event of the Northern Grid Leading Schools Network. Only 14 schools had been invited to participate in this network to work with schools which, like them, were doing exciting and innovative things with educational technology.

Northern Grid has been working with schools to provide broadband connections since 1999. Many people don't realise that when it started there was no technical infrastructure in place and our priority wasn't to provide the regional network but to work with teachers and local authority advisors to look at how the technology could be used to support teaching and learning and make a difference in the classroom. This clearly demonstrates that Northern Grid's two priorities were improving teaching and learning and working in partnership with schools. We continue to focus on these priorities and to provide support to all our partner schools.

This support is even more important now than it was when we started. There have been significant changes nationally and locally and much of the support that was previously available from Becta and Local Authorities has disappeared. Increasingly schools are being told that they know best about what is needed and that they should get on with it. While the freedom this gives schools can be welcome many schools don't feel that they have the knowledge they need and they are already strengthening relationships with their local schools so they can work together and learn from each other's successes and challenges. Providing schools with links, contacts that they can call on is the first purpose of the Leading Schools Network.

Northern Grid works to share best practice across our partner schools and the Northern Grid Awards are one of the ways we do this.

Most of the schools invited to be part of the Northern Grid Leading Schools Network have entered and won awards. Schools that haven't or that haven't entered in the last couple of years won't know that the awards have changed and improved. More of the judging takes place in school, with judges going out to talk to teachers and pupils about their projects.

Successful schools are invited to the awards ceremony and the best part of this event is the exhibition, all schools are given a stand where they can show their project, they get to talk to teachers, LA advisors, commercial companies and other attendees about the work they've done and it's wonderful to hear confident articulate pupils describing what they've done. Schools also get a chance to visit each other's stands and learn about other uses of technology that they can take back and try in school.

After the event Northern Grid tries to follow up as many of the successful projects as possible by producing case studies but they can never live up to the experience of going in to schools and seeing what is happening first hand. The is the second purpose of the network to identify, capture and present best practice in a way that is of benefit to the members of the group but also for other schools.

We already have a lot of knowledge and expertise to share but we don't have all the answers and the changing nature of technology means that there are always new things to explore so the group will also be able to identify new uses of technology that Northern Grid can support them with.

Northern Grid has expertise in web and multimedia development and can offer support for recording successful projects and is also able to work with schools to develop new resources and support materials

There is a vast amount of excellent practice in the North East region and as well as sharing this practice it is important to recognise and celebrate the success of outstanding teachers and schools. The awards do this very well and a new category in the last couple of years has been the Teacher Award, now renamed as the Practitioner Award as not everyone making a difference with technology in schools is a teacher.

In 2011 four practitioners were recognised as outstanding:

• Claire Hayden from Norham Community Technology College, North Tyneside

• Myris Groom from St Aloysuis Infants, South Tyneside

• Nicola Padgett from Normanby Primary School, Redcar and Cleveland

• Stephen Ainsley from Harton Technology College, South Tyneside

After the Awards Ceremony I tried to identify why these practitioners were outstanding and what they have in common and a list of these attributes is on my Blog (http://cljack.wordpress.com/teaching-and-learning/what-makes-an-outstanding-teacher).

This list is relevant for this group as these characteristics were important in identifying the schools we invited to be part of the Network. We wanted schools that have a clear vision, that are totally dedicated to teaching and learning and focussed on the needs of their pupils now and in the future. Schools that would support colleagues within their own school but also in other schools both inside and outside of the network. Schools that were always looking ahead to see what else they could find that would make a difference to teaching and learning in their school.

Northern Grid will provide schools in the Network with a Leading Schools Logo to recognise their achievements, they will be promoted on our website, through our newsletters and events and through other organisations we work with, including Schools North East. We often get requests from other organisations looking for speakers for regional and national events and will suggest our Leading Schools.

We wanted schools that would try new things and be honest in their feedback about the success, or otherwise, of new technologies. This honesty would also be important for Northern Grid as the fourth purpose of the group would be to work with Northern Grid to set priorities to provide valuable feedback on current services and how to improve them and to identify what we should work on in future. We also hope that when Northern Grid gets things right the group will promote our work to make sure as many schools as possible take up the services and benefit from our support.

The schools selected to be part of the network have all worked with Northern Grid, many have presented at our events, nearly all have won Northern Grid awards with eight of them winning, or being highly commended in, the Overall Excellence Award. The schools are recognised by their Local Authorities and nationally as using technology effectively. We currently have 12 schools in the network and, over time, we hope this network will grow to include other schools.

The current members are:

 For more information about the Northern Grid Leading Schools contact Christine Jack

A guide for ICT Team Leaders

Cloud Storage - is it safe to use?

Cloud based storage and online synchronisation offers individuals many benefits, one of which is removing the need to carry flash pens and portable disks around. The question that needs to be asked is what issues are raised by this increasingly popular and free service.

Google Apps and Live@Edu have storage space available as part of their email offering. An increasingly popular trend is synchronising online storage. Dropbox and SugarSync are currently two of the more popular. The services mentioned are all available at no charge but with limits be it limited storage, non-existent Service level agreements or limited control over the functionality or how it changes.

The main concern with Dropbox is the significant risk of breaching the Data Protection Act. Staff wishing to store personal information should not use a service that does not comply with the EU Safe Harbor agreement. The EU Safe Harbor agreement requires that personal data is stored in the EU or in other countries where we have set agreements. Dropbox is hosted in the US is non-compliant!

There are also security issues with free services, in June 2011 Dropbox confirmed that a programmer’s error caused a temporary security breach that allowed any password to be used to access any user account. If you decide to use this service it’s highly recommended you encrypt your files prior to synchronisation.

Web Browsers – Upgrade to Internet Explorer 9

IE9 is the most secure and best performing Microsoft browser it therefore is recommended that schools upgrade. Websites designed for earlier versions may not display correctly to resolve use a feature called Compatibility View.

To ensure IE9 can view all webpages correctly an icon titled compatibility view has been added. The icon normally looks like  and can be found to the right of the URL address bar. When selected, the icon changes to a solid colour , and from now on this website will be displayed in compatibility mode.

IE9 has simplified its design, most command bar functions, like print and zoom can be found by selecting the Tools button . Favourites and feeds appear in the Favourite Centre by selecting Favourites button . IE9 has added improved security and privacy options these include; ActiveX Filtering, Smartscreen Filtering, 128 bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL), Tracking Protection and Private Browsing.

Use ICT to improve efficiently and save money

ICT can be the catalyst for change, developing new working practices, automating existing procedures and facilitating innovation and creativity. Used correctly it can also save your school money. How can ICT reduce costs for the school?

Virtualisation

The concept of running multiple operating systems off the same hardware platform is not new but it is now mature and low cost. The virtualisation software allows the operating system and installed applications to share physical resources. On average one virtualised server can do the work of four conventional servers. Substantial savings can be accrued in reducing energy costs, hardware maintenance and software licensing. It is estimated a secondary school can save £10,000 - £20,000 a year.

Print Management

Schools are generally poor at managing print services. Vanilla Microsoft Server 2003 and 2008 deployments have limited print management capabilities, additional services are often required. Schools may not be aware of how many sheets of paper they use annually but it may well be over a million. Paper costs are only a small proportion of the actual cost, you need to consider energy charges, hardware purchase and toner replacement. Most large secondary schools can save £50K per year if they deploy effective print management. The Learning Platform is an ideal vehicle to reduce paper, improve communications, store documents and resources and has the additional benefit that document review can be audited.

Desktop Computers

Older desktop PC’s are very inefficient, replacing hardware can actually save the school money as well as improve user experience and system reliability. Whether you use old or new hardware configuration of the power settings makes a considerable difference to daily running costs. Windows 7 and OSX Lion have improved power saving features that allow you to switch off the display after period of inactivity or switch the desktop into sleep or hibernation mode after a set time has elapsed. All of the power configurations can be centrally managed from the domain controller using Group Policies.

Remote Access to School Network

Staff should not have copies of sensitive data on their own laptop on or off-site. Secure remote access provides on demand access to centrally managed services. The most suitable type of remote access solution is a SSL-VPN with two factor authentication. An alternative solution is Direct Access using Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2. A word of caution, many portal gateways deployed by schools have limited security and should not be used to allow staff access to the MIS system or any confidential data.

Securing Wireless – distinguishing myth from fact

A lot of expert advice on wireless security provides limited practical improvements in security and some cases the advice is simply dumb. Some prime examples of where general advice and good practice diverge are shown below.

Hiding the SSID

The SSID beacon is only one of five broadcasts sent by the wireless access point so disabling one of five makes the solution less user friendly and has no significant impact on security. Rather than hide the SSID make sure you change the default name as default SSID otherwise you are broadcasting to the world with a poorly configured device which makes it an easy target.

Disable DHCP

An attacker can find the IP range of a wireless access point in 10-15 seconds if DHCP is disabled. Using static IP addresses has negligible security impact and complicates wireless use. Leave DHCP switched on and use the security mechanisms that are available.

Antenna Placement & Signal Strength

It is often suggested that the wireless access point should be positioned to improve security and that signal strength should be lowered to ensure the signal is weakened and cannot be detected externally. This technique is the road to ruin for wireless solutions, antenna placement and signal strength adjustment changes need to be set for maximum coverage and minimum interference, never for improving security.

Use 802.11a instead of 802.11bg

The 802.11a protocol is not any more secure than 802.11bg; the protocol is simply a transport mechanism for wireless that works in the 5GHz band. Changing the frequency and transport protocol is equivalent to changing the colour of your front door to improve security

Enable MAC Filtering on the Wireless Access Point

MAC addresses are 12 digit HEX numbers which can be viewed by others in clear text with a sniffer application. An attacker simply reads the MAC address of connected device and replicates the MAC on their wireless card. Restricting access based on MAC addresses is management intensive and has limited ROI in terms of security gain.

Allow staff and students to bring their own ICT devices into school

The problem is that non domain devices cannot be checked to ensure they are virus free, have adequate security patches installed and have suitable software. The use of Network Access Protection and/or Network Access Control solutions can resolve this issue. Some schools deploy a thin client architecture which allows guest devices to securely connect but with limited functionality.

On 1st March 2011 Microsoft introduced a new licensing scheme for schools called Enrolment for Education or EES for short. This agreement is a low cost alternative to School Agreement Subscription service and ideal for a school that are looking at a technology refresh i.e. upgrading their workstation and server operating systems and Microsoft applications.

• EES single annual payment based on FTE staff count and the products you select.
• Choice of software include MS Office, Windows Upgrade and Client Access License (CAL) suites
• License additional software on all or selected computers e.g. MS Visio

A school that is not planning to upgrade their software in the next two years is better off retaining the Schools Agreement Subscription Service. The MS Select Agreement is a perpetual license that offers schools low cost prices for Microsoft software. The EES annual subscription model allows decisions on upgrading the operating system and applications to be made on the basis of Teaching and Learning need rather than on cost grounds.

Green Technology & Cutting ICT Spend

Saving energy, conserving resources and looking after the environment are everyone’s responsibility. Schools can contribute by considering many of the measures previously discussed; saving money and going green are usually one and the same. Some schools address many of the green issues by using technology efficiently and effectively some of the ways they delivered include:

• Replacing desktop computers with thin client PC’s and/or laptops
• Reducing the use of data projectors and high power equipment
• Liaising with the Network Manager as they have operational responsibility for ICT
• Increasing staff and pupil awareness using practical example of energy use and power consumption
• Moving selected ICT services, when appropriate, to the cloud
• Maintaining server room temperature at a steady 20°c

If schools require further technical advice or assistance with ICT contact Mark Vinnicombe on 01914611844 or email mark.vinnicombe@northerngrid.org

International Collaboration on Esafety

On Friday 21 October 2011 at 15.45 I Skyped with TeachMeet Kentucky at the National Corvette Museum where around 300 delegates had assembled to share and learn from each other.

Although my Friday was drawing to a close, simultaneously in Kentucky teachers were settling down at 9.45am to hear me speak about the challenges of communication technologies for adults who works with young people.  The feedback from the session was positive and I enjoyed the experience although presenting via Skype is more challenging than face to face. I can't see or hear my audience and I realise that it is the visual feedback as I'm speaking, that helps define the session and how to select themes to emphasise and expand. I think in future I may try to lose the slides and speak directly to web camera and see if that is a way to engage more fully with my audience.

Thanks very much to all who helped make Teachmeet Kentucky happen and for inviting Northern grid to particpate in an outstanding day of learning and fun.

 If you would like Northern Grid to support you then email support@northerngrid.org

Simon

TED is owned by The Sapling Foundation, a private nonprofit foundation devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader and there are thousands of videos to inspire, motivate and engage. Some of the talks may act as springboards for teachers to develop and further their own ideas while others will engage and stimulate many of our learners in our schools.

Northern Grid has been working with Northumbria Police to develop teacher resources within a web resource that contains a wealth of crime prevention information and personal safety advice aimed at youngsters. Issues such as alcohol, awareness, drug misuse and bullying are all featured on the site, with information on where to get help and what is and isn't legal.

More about ebeat

Young people, parents and teachers can now get information about Northumbria Police at the touch of a button after the launch of a new youth website.

Called ebeat, it's been designed with help from school pupils and teachers and features interactive sections, advice and information and a range of educational resources.

Resources available include specially developed lesson plans which teachers can use in school. The first lesson plan, covering alcohol awareness was launched earlier this year, with an interactive tie-in game also available on the site.

The second set of lesson plans have just been added and cover anti-social behaviour.

The new site also contains a wealth of crime prevention information and personal safety advice aimed at youngsters. Issues such as alcohol, awareness, drug misuse and bullying are all featured on the site, with information on where to get help and what is and isn't legal.

There is also advice on a career with the force, including how to go about becoming a Northumbria Police officer.

Web Services Team Leader Ian Sparham, said: "We're always looking at ways of making our information as accessible to as many as possible but before now we've had no dedicated site for young people.

"Teenagers can be a challenging audience to reach and that's why young people have been closely involved with the content."

"Our aim with the new website is to make it as interactive and informative as we could and we hope young people will go online, have a look around and let us know what they think of it."

The new website can be found at www.ebeat.org.uk

ebeat latest from the News Guardian

Youngsters go online with police

http://www.newsguardian.co.uk/news/local/youngsters_go_online_with_police_1_3838615?utm_source=getresponse&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=allschoolsnortheast&utm_content=SCHOOLS+NorthEast+Weekly+Update+-+Week+6

3 October 2011

Yesterday I delivered an after school esafety session for the staff at Southridge First School in North Tyneside. Their thoughtful and perceptive contributions showed that they understand the importance of this area of safeguarding and are ready to work together to develop policies to support all elements of teaching and learning in a safe and supportive environment.

Much of what I talk about during these sessions centres on how sharing of personal information and opinions is ‘normal’, and we shouldn’t be surprised if our learners and colleagues, on occasions, behave in ways that we would consider inappropriate. I have long maintained that the only way we will see a decline in inappropriate and bullying behaviour in the (social) media is by modelling positive behaviour for our very young children to learn and adopt.

If we can instil in our young children an understanding and ownership of privacy, personal information and appropriate communication of opinions, then we stand a much better chance of them growing up to be more responsible and empathetic participants in online (and offline) interactions. It is perhaps only then that we will see some secondary schools demonstrate the confidence to adopt more open polices relating to filtering and the use of personal and handheld devices for learning and recreation during the school day.

There is much work still to be done, and we need patience and commitment if we are to help our young people become responsible and considerate members of our increasingly sophisticated social networking opportunities.

Simon 

If you would like further information about Northern Grid's support for schools email support@northerngrid.org

or...The Importance of Ownership

A superb eSafety video from Northern Grids' ‘Protecting Adults Who Work With Children’ event.

TED is owned by The Sapling Foundation, a private nonprofit foundation devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader and there are thousands of videos to inspire, motivate and engage. Some of the talks may act as springboards for teachers to develop and further their own ideas while others will engage and stimulate many of our learners in our schools.

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