And so I take a quick interlude from my look at the recent Apple Workshops to think about a few queries some schools have raised in the last few weeks about Apple and Data Protection.

When it comes to their OS X devices (desktops and laptops) Apple have had some built in encryption for some time. FileVault was introduced in Mac OS X 10.3 and used to just encrypt user files. Not a perfect solution but the introduction of FileVault 2 in Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) we now have a solution to encrypt the whole drive. The ICO has raised the need to encrypt laptops so if you have personal data on your MacBook then you should seriously look at FileVault for encryption. There are other commercial offerings and solutions which cover a variety of platforms, allowing for better audit and control ... but yes, there are going to be at some cost. In the same way that BitLocker is a fantastic way to deal with the issue on Windows 7 laptops (which has been blogged about by the Microsoft Education UK team) then it is good to consider making use of the built-in tools provided by Apple.

When we come to Apple's mobile OS, iOS, and the newer devices being used (iPhone 3GS and later models, all models of iPads and iPod Touch 3rd gen and later models) then these are all capable of going onto iOS 5. By default these devices make use of hardware encryption. Apple say, "Data protection enhances the built-in hardware encryption by protecting the hardware encryption keys with your passcode. This provides an additional layer of protection for your email messages and attachments. Third-party applications can use the data protection APIs in iOS 4 and later to further protect application data."

The growing use of iOS devices as tools for Senior Leaders and teachers in schools will mean that sensitive emails and files are likely to be on these devices and so you need to take appropriate action to protect the data.

Apple do have a larger paper about iPad security and from my perspective it boils down to a few key facts.

1 - Set a passcode on your device. This will mean that should someone repeatedly attempt to get in then it will be wiped.

2 - Don't rely on a simple passcode. Whilst it is nice and easy to have a simple code of 4 numbers, it is not exactly secure. You wouldn't have a password of 4 characters for your desktop or laptop to log into your school network so why do it for a mobile device? If you look at your iPhone and check the pattern of smudges where your fingers type you can see where you enter it in ... and the direction of the smudge can make it easy to guess. Other mobile OS have a similar problem so it is nothing new.

3 - If you are using smart covers on iPads then make sure that you turn off the feature to automatically unlock when you open the cover. This sort of defeats the object of security. Fine for classroom devices but not for those with personal / sensitive data on.

4 - Tools such as the iPhone Configuration Utility (ICPU) allow you to create a profile for devices to change some of these settings. If you are creating settings for school devices or to allow devices to connect to school systems then you should look at this to force improvements. This will include password length, complexity, Autolock time period (I have mine for 1 minute and the maximum number of failed attempts to login before the device is wiped (mine is set to 4).

5 - Remote wipe should be available ... either via management tools within the school or if a personal device then via iCloud with Find My iPad.

Not an extensive list of how to deal with this and there are some other really pod guides out there, but hopefully this gets more people considering how they use Apple mobile devices and take a bit more care.

There will be more posts, but rather than the initial splurge of activity post-BETT I thought I would share ideas, opinions, what I saw, conversations I had, etc … but over a longer period … and it also means that I have the benefit of looking at blog posts from others too … and this year there are a plethora of posts!

I am pretty sure I can summarise the event pretty quickly …

From the point of view of a regular visitor / exhibitor … a few new things, not much of a change of emphasis (i.e. no sudden swings to IWBs, VLEs, tablets, content, $new_revolutionary_tech, etc) but more emphasis on showing use in classrooms / the difference it makes to a school.

Strategy … a fair chunk of the show was taken over by the idea that schools have to make the decisions now (a good thing) because there is no-one there to help them. I felt this is not quite true as there are a raft of people around to help schools … LAs still exist, communities of other schools are collaborating more, there are plenty of formal groups ranging from The Schools Network and NAACE through to think tanks and special interest groups such as Computing At Schools, and this is before we get to the amount of support and sharing going on via the exhibitors at the show. To some extent Mr Gove’s opening speech covered the importance of taking control of your own destiny and so on … but more on that in other posts.

Networking … for many this is the key to the show. We are not talking about the movers and shakers meeting in closed rooms, but innovative and exciting teachers / senior leaders / IT Support having a chance to meet with others of the same ilk, sharing ideas and projects. These range from people from the K-Team through to fellow EduGeek members. Sometimes it is a mutual friend who introduces people, sometimes it is the fringe events giving chance for people to find new connections (Collabor8 4 change) and sometimes it is the exhibitors joining the dots.

So, a hectic 4 days followed by a few weeks of picking through the various notes I made, videos and pictures taken, emailing new people I met and keeping in contact with old friends.

I will also try to link to specific blogs and articles I have found of interest during or post event … and looking forward to reading a lot more of how other felt about the show.

(Originally posted on http://www.grumbledook.org)

Developing a process

Whether you are using ITIL, FITS or other ideology / tools to help you develop a support service, you will find that you will borrow, adapt, use, tweak, refine and make wholesale use of a plethora of pre-existing examples of procedures. It is a simple fact of life that sharing and comparing procedures is more efficient than re-inventing the wheel in isolation.

However, you will find that there will be occasions when you have to create a process specific to your school and your school’s services. You may be the first school you know to move to a specific technology or to use it for a particular purpose, within the curriculum or for services involved in running the school. It is at this point you can fall back on two areas of support for such tasks.

Read More...

Most people recognise my avatar or variations of it and I am always looking for ways to tweak it a little, make it more interesting or relevant, but without losing the importance of this being my online representation.

However (and there is always a however), I am not the only GrumbleDook out there … and I was recently castigated via email for some comments which had been made by someone else. At this point I had to spend some time explaining that I am not an online poker player, I am not an urban photographer / artist, I am not American, I do not live in Brighton / Watford / Washington / Phoenix / Sydney / Hong Kong, and I have never played in a brass band.

Read more...

Read more

There are a number of good summaries and articles on the report already on the Tinterweb, most of which have many additional constructive comments so rather than re-hash the collective back patting which us going on I will instead talk about a series of points I raised about the report on a thread in Edugeek.

The title of this thread is The Open Source Threat because that is what it truly is. A threat … a threat to balanced judgement, a threat to looking at ... Read more...

In a short break from the course I am on at the moment I picked up a tweet to a blog post from our friend Spannerman2.

It makes for good reading and raises an important points about IT and ICT & Computing as subjects, about the lack of subject specialism in teachers of these subjects and about the amount of effort which goes into running (& locking down) a school network.

It does, however, throw stones. I don’t think stone throwing is any good at the moment in education. Read more here...

Many IT Technicians and Network Managers are now playing summer catch-up. That list of jobs that they had to do at the beginning of the holidays still seems a bit longer than they wanted or has had to be moved around a bit as other priorities have cropped up over the summer (including working out how to save money now the HT grant has been cut!)

Read more...

One of the areas we covered on the FITS : Advanced course (also known as the FITS : Manager course) was about financial management … but, as with all of the areas covered, it was not dealt in isolation. For all of us on the course it was a good chance to look at all financial aspects which impact on IT / ICT in schools.

(read more at Grumbledook Blogs...)

As most people will have seen Becta will be cut as a cost saving measure by the Conservative – Lib Dem coalition government. There is no published timescale on this but a number of people have said they have been told it is by November 2010 (myself included).

As with many others who have experienced working with Becta over the years I would like to thank the various staff there and others who have worked closely with them (and yes … that even means consultants). I have had the pleasure of having input from Becta in 5 roles...

(Read more at GrumbleDook Blogs)

Sharepoint and web 2.0

I’ve always wondered what it is about web 2.0 that people in education are so fascinated about. There are lots of articles out there about the history of the Web, of Darcy DiNucci originally coining the term (1999) and then Tim O’Reilly pushing the term in the O’Reilly Web 2.0 Conference in 2004. Google, Bing and Yahoo! them for more information or pop into your local library and dig out books like Where Wizards Stay Up Late (Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyons : Simon & Schuster, 1996 ISBN 0-684-83267-4). You will hear people talking about the read/write web, interactivity, convergence, folksonomy, mashups … the list goes on. Some of this will come across as buzzwords to a heck of a lot of people.

Some will take Web 2.0 as a lot of jargon (Sir Tim Berners-Lee has been quoted as such in fact) ... (Read the rest at Grumbledook Blogs!)

http://grumbledook.com/2009/12/06/innovation-management/

It would also be worth looking at TeachMeet EdTechRoundUp 2009 as there were so many ideas there that it is hard to summarise.

http://grumbledook.com/2009/11/29/fits-will-fit-all-your-needs/

(still not had that chat about WordPress integration)

With all respect to DB and AT ... B*11*cks

 

Becta put out the recommendation based on data protection guidance and esafety guidance from a heap of places and just collate it. Having a go at them for doing this is pretty pointless and hiding your head in the sands about wider issues.

 

1 - a kid emails a mate about something, who then replies but includes a mate outside of the school. The person outside of the school is an adult, and then now might have name, approx age (cause they understand that 09 at the beginning of the userid in the email means they started at the school in 2009) the surname or forename (so many schools have it as jbloggs or janetb) and they are also likely to get the forename from the email too. It is not about a single piece of data that makes it dangerous but when you string it together.

 

2 - People hate giving real, flesh and blood people a number as their identity. "I'm not a number, I am a free man!" I hear you cry ... well, how many of use know our NI number off the top of our head. I am pretty sure that ex-forces / police / etc can remember their numbers too! There is nothing wrong with introducing this to the kids as long as it is done in a timely, professional and sensible fashion. Roll numbers from MIS are fine ... if your school uses ID cards then get this number onto the ID card. If someone wants a password reseting then just ask for their card. Job done ... simples!

 

3 - When Becta (and others) give guidance or a framework too many people say "this is the way we have now been told to do it!" so they don't give too many examples anymore because people don't think for themselves and just point the finger if it is not right for their school. They just can't win. Before you have a go at the lack of examples about it why not say ... "hey, let's think of some ways to improve this!"

 

I bet that if I was to suggest we do this though we will get a slack handful that say something, but people are more than happy to jump on the bandwagon about BSF, job applications, salary scales ... I guess we all have different priorities.

Must chat with ZH about wordpress integration!

A quick break down of today.

1 - Mainly sorting out the demonstration Joomla site to show the Head and Business Manager tomorrow.

We had the firm that do our propaganda^Wpublicity materials (prospectus, letterheaded paper, etc) come in to look at a redisng of our website. It is aging and I have intended to migrate it but not had anywhere near the chance to. They showed their own CMS and whilst it is ok, it is not great leap. I have issues with the fact that they tried to play down Open Source answers and labelled Sharepoint as too complicated and needing a lot of training to understand what to do with it.

My response has been to set up a demo site, prepare it to show to a few people and then move it onto the RBC servers. 3 days ... and we now have a nice site which can be turned into an online presence for us to compliment whatever we end up doing with the Learning Platform.

2 - I have been trying to sort out an isue with our mail server not connecting to the RBC relay. After turning off all the AV / anti-spyware / IDS on the internal firewall it connects. No idea why it has gone down ... I can't see anything we have done, and I know that no config changes have happened at the RBC to affect it. Why I am working on it and not my NM? Because he has a young family and I would only have been sat at home whilst my wife marks work and plans lessons.

It has been a productive day, sorting out old photos, working out how best to 'sell' the school.

Tomorrow involves chats about the strike, but we have an extra training day tomorrow ... don't ask. We are all in but as much as I wanted to give the team some time for CPD a number of things have come up that means things will need to be moved around.

They have a suite of 15 Macs to image and a suite of 30 PCs. Not to mention security labelling them using SmartWater.

I will be preparing stats for a meeting with Heads of Year on Wednesday as well as chasing down people before Friday's Northants IT Managers' Meeting.