Bromley ICT Forum Blog

Hold on to your hats folks…it might be a bumpy ride next week 

Update 23/4/2008 

The Synetrix / LGFL Web Hosting upgrade scheduled for Thursday 24th April 2008, has been postponed in light of the pending National teachers strike, along with the current Email Hosting issue. Schools are reporting to us that they wish to communicate to parents, the affect of such a strike on their school, via this LGFL hosted service. Access will therefore be restored within the next 30 minutes. This upgrade has been re-scheduled to take place the following week, starting Tuesday 29th April, with a targeted completion date of Friday 2nd May. I hope that you agree that this is a sensible approach. Should you wish to discuss this further then please do not hesitate in contacting the Synetrix support team on 0870 300 4010

Message from Brian Durrant (LGFL Director)

Following the success of this event in earlier years, the London ICT Technicians’ Conference is this year being held in two sittings, morning and afternoon.  The very comfortable seats at the high-tech Auditorium within the BT national HQ are being quickly taken up, but as yet about 100 seats remain

The programme which is aimed at school network managers and details of venue and how to book are attached.  In previous years this event has been greatly appreciated and the preparations for this year will not disappoint.
We are particularly grateful to Penny Patterson and members of L2ICT Environment Group for all the thought and preparation they have put into arranging this conference.

We are also grateful to Atomwide which has agreed to sponsor the lunch for both the morning and afternoon conferences.

We look forward to seeing many of you there.Click here to download the program

For Network Managers and Technicians

This free article contains top tips to help you navigate your way around Windows 2003 with ease, saving yourself valuable time with:

• System shortcuts
• Advanced features
• Configuring taskbars
• Troubleshooting ‘Error’ messages

Click the following link

http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/w2k3/W2K3_tips.htm

As you are aware, the Government’s Harnessing Technology Policy requires all schools to have a fully functioning Managed Learning Environment by 2010.  Remember that an MLE is a combination of a Learning Platform and the school’s administration support package such as SIMMS and CMIS with both interacting with each other.

 There is a wide choice of Learning Platforms available for schools. Below are log-ins and passwords to two particularly interesting ones- the London MLE (FRONTER and the LGFL) and Frog Teach.  We want to provide you with the opportunity to see which would work best for your school

Continue Reading »

London ICT Technicians Update Conference 2007 - 17th March 2008 Following the success of the London ICT Technicians Conference held in March of this year, the London ICT Technicians Update Conference 2008 will be held at the BT Centre, 
81 Newgate Street, 
EC1A 7AJ on Monday 17^th March 2008. The last conference was highly oversubscribed, so in order to offer this opportunity to as many technical colleagues as possible we will be running this conference twice, using the morning and afternoon slots.  A light buffet lunch will be available. As with previous conferences, we will be focussing on short information and update sessions rather than the more traditional, longer presentations.  Some of the items that will be covered are listed below.  A full agenda of the day will be available prior to the event. 

• Sophos update
• e-Safety – technical solutions
• MLE update
• Equipment security

 This event always has a programme packed with valuable information for school technicians and relevant LA support staff and has been very well received by those who have attended in the past.  Details and sign up information can be found at www.events.lgfl.net

(Message from Ian Lehman - Technical Manager LGFL) 

Starting 6 November 2007, over a two week period, Sophos will be rolling out an automatic upgrade from SAV version 6 to version 7.

 During this time the LGfL Central Servers will be upgraded and in turn schools and LAs using the LGfL Sophos Service will automatically download the upgrade. This upgrade will not require end-user or administrative intervention, and will work just like our regular incremental updates.

A reboot will be requested but is only required in order to use the new capabilities in Sophos Anti-Virus for Windows, version 7. The protection provided by version 6 will be maintained until a reboot is performed. Knowledge Base Articles to help customers upgrade to the latest release are currently being updated and will be available ahead of the 6 November, linked to from the upgrading tabs on the enterprise and endpoint product web pages.

For any queries please do contact the support desk on 08700 636465 option 3 or email sophos@lgfl.org.uk .

Meeting of the Bromley Network Managers to be held at the The Ravensbourne School on Wednesday March 31st commencing at 2pm

Agenda

Learning Platforms-

Presentation of Microsoft Learning Gateway (Coopers Technology College) 

Presentation of Fronter

LGFL/Synetrix News

Other Items

Special thanks to Ben Musson and Paul Murphy for hosting this meeting.

Could you please make sure that you have sent an RSVP to andrew.ferrier@bromley.gov.uk by Friday 19th October?  This will help with catering.

I have been contacted by a few Bromley schools who have been less than happy with the support that they have been getting through the Synetrix Broadband services. Issues for concern include Webmail services (or lack of); inefficient FTP procedures for editing web pages and slow broadband speed.  Synetrix are also concerned about these issues and want to see them speedily addressed.  As a result I have arrnaged to meet with Account manager Jamie Rhone on Monday 29th October.

If ther are issues that you would like to me to raise on your behalf please email me  andrew.ferrier@bromley.gov.uk along with any eveidence such as job numbers. This will help in getting any issue resolved as quickly as possible.

In the meantime if schools are having problems with Synetrix they should do the following

1. Contact the Synetrix Support Desk (08703004010) or email servicedesk@synetrix.co.uk including my email in the Courtesy Copy. This will make it easy for me to keep track.

2. Log into their Talk2Synetrix Account. (If schools don’t have their login and password they should contact me and I will provide it to them.). This account allows them to keep track of the call’s progress. If schools are unsure about how to manage there account I will be more than happy to present a session for Katrina’s School Admin group or  any other HT forum

3, Failing any satisfactory response, please contact me at the EDC and I will chase up any issue.

Synetrix had carried out a major upgrade last Thursday 20th September which has has the unfortunate effect of throwing Bromley Schools off the webmail system.

I have spoken to Synetrix this morning and they assure me that they are working to resolve the problem ASAP. They also tell me that they have left instructions for schools to retest their email systems. These instructions are available at the schools talk2synetrix.com accounts.

For those of you who haven’t visited the site here are the instructions below:

Some trouble shooting advice that schools could do to help Synetrix diagnose the fault. Some sites are advising after following steps 1&2 webmail is accessible.

Schools will need to browse to webmail.domainename to enter their email.

1.) Ensure schools are not using a short cut to webmail as thge platform has been upgraded and will no longer work.

2.) Ensure schools are not using favourites to get to webmail.3) Hold Ctrl and F5 to clear cache and cookies
Does webmail work?

4) Reboot system
Does webmail work?

5) Open command prompt, type: ipconfig /flushdns
Does webmail work?

6) Within command prompt, ping webmail.schools domain name (what response are you getting?)

If you are still having problems please let me know via the blog

BBC online has a report highlighting the dangers of exposure from the light of projectors that are over 15000 lumens. The report points out that teachers and pupils can suffer eye damage through prolonged exposure and that schools need to make staff and children aware of the safety issues involved.

Read the report  below

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6253410.stm

Becta have recognised health and safety issues regarding the use of projectors and suggest that schools have the following guidelines in place as part of the schools ICT policy.

• No one should stare directly into the beam of the projector
• When entering the beam, users should not look towards the audience for more than a few seconds
• Users should keep their backs to the projector beam when standing in it
• Children should be supervised at all times when a projector is being used
• Use the brightness reduction facility on the projection when a presenter is standing in front of the projector
• Projectors should be installed as far forward as possible to avoid the projector beam entering the user’s field of vision
• It is recommended that guidelines are displayed, as a reminder, in areas where projectors are used.

Further information can be obtained by visiting Becta Web Site or by clicking on this link.

What type of precautions have you taken in your school to make teachers and pupls aware of theses safety issues? Share them in the comments area.