Every school is unique; filled with a diverse range of users, learning environments, and user requirements. That’s why Dynabook have developed a comprehensive portfolio of flexible, affordable, and easy-to-manage laptops for every aspect of education, to help schools meet the needs of all students, teachers, and non-teaching staff.

Education devices have to tick a number of boxes. They need the endurance to last the demanding school day, the quality components to ensure seamless learning, plus the right security that keep user data and school networks secure. They also need to be lightweight and compact enough for students and education professionals to carry between classes, home and school, whilst still being robust enough to withstand day-to-day knocks and drops.

A Dynabook device ticks all of these boxes. Built with education in mind and designed to take advantage of the benefits of Microsoft Education, Dynabook laptops ensure teachers, students and support staff stay productive, collaborative, and secure. And with impressive security features, such as their own unique BIOS, in addition to their industry leading reliability guarantee, Dynabook helps minimise hassle for school IT teams too.

Here’s our guide to the best Dynabook devices for your users.

For Younger Students: The Satellite Pro R40

A feature-filled entry-level device with Windows 10 Academic, the Satellite Pro R40 is ideal for creating a distraction-free and engaging learning environment. Offering quality and connectivity in a lightweight yet robust chassis, the R40 delivers affordability and longevity.

For Older Students: The Satellite Pro C50

This 15.6” laptop brings together premium design, performance and capability at an entry level price point. With up to 12.5 hours of battery life, and super-fast SSD storage, the Satellite Pro C50 is perfect for older students who need a reliable learning companion to help them tackle through the most challenging times in their journey through education.

For Teachers: The Portégé X30L

The worlds lightest 13” laptop weighing just 870g, the Portégé X30L delivers complete agility for teaching staff without compromising on performance. Featuring a powerful 10th Gen Intel® Core™ processor and a comprehensive set of connectivity ports, this device can empower educators to deliver lessons or carry out work from any environment with complete confidence.

For Administrative Staff: The Satellite Pro L50-G

The Satellite Pro L50-G is designed to deliver the latest technology at an affordable price point. Featuring a large 15.6” full HD screen and up to 16GB memory, the L50-G is the ideal companion for multi-tasking admin staff to power through their workloads.

Get more from your device with Stone

As an IT partner to education for over 25 years, and a Dynabook Platinum Partner, Stone are accredited to have the expertise to consult on, supply and support the entire portfolio of Dynabook devices. It also means we can provide a range of wrap-around services that help you get the most out your investments. Our value-added services include SCCM imaging, Autopilot, training, and software licensing, to provide you with a complete solution that meets your unique requirements, and is ready-to-use, straight out of the box.

You can find out more and view these and other Dynabooks here.

 

LanSchool and DNSFilter provide powerful digital safety solutions at education-only pricing

LanSchool is announcing a partnership with DNSFilter to keep schools and students safer from harmful online content and cyber threats, whether learning happens in the classroom or remotely. This partnership provides enterprise quality features at affordable, education-only pricing — building on LanSchool’s 30-year commitment to enhance student safety.

As one of the only AI-driven solutions on the market, DNSFilter uses up-to-date, global threat feeds rather than static threat databases, allowing it to detect and eliminate new threats in real time. The solution also helps schools become compliant with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) with one click. Additionally, schools can establish policies that block access to streaming media sites to manage bandwidth usage.

“Schools are constantly under attack from botnets, malware, phishing, and other threats. There’s also a great deal of harmful content on the internet directed at students,” says Coby Gurr, General Manager at Lenovo Software. “LanSchool and DNSFilter aim to support teachers and students alike — and that means working to eliminate online threats before they can cause issues.”

As a critical part of Lenovo’s worldwide education solution, LanSchool provides award-winning classroom management software with features like web limiting and thumbnail monitoring that help protect students from online dangers. “The addition of DNSFilter to LanSchool’s existing offerings creates an affordable ecosystem designed to enhance student safety,” says Rich Henderson, Lenovo’s Director of Global Education Solutions.

Additionally, DNSFilter offers a roaming client, allowing the school or district to enforce filtering and security policies regardless of what network the device uses. These remote enforcement capabilities make it easier for schools to safely support both hybrid and distance learning environments when devices are not on campus.

Through this new partnership, districts and schools can go beyond using block lists and are able to access powerful content filtering and threat protection solutions. “Our product is unmatched when it comes to helping keep schools secure, and we are proud to partner with LanSchool, a respected name in edtech, to improve online student safety,” says Ken Carnesi, CEO & Co-Founder of DNSFilter.

About LanSchool

LanSchool is a classroom management solution that empowers educators to guide learning, promote collaboration, and maximize learning time. With approximately 12 million global users, the solution is compatible with Mac, Windows, and Chromebook devices and can be cloud or locally hosted. For more information, visit lanschool.com.

With the disruption to education caused by COVID-19 creating an uncertain educational future ahead, it’s more crucial than ever that all school stakeholders can come together effectively to create a digital strategy that incorporates how edtech can be used effectively in-school and remotely.

Recent events have prompted the authors of the immensely popular ‘Guide to Creating a Digital Strategy in Education’ – Mark Anderson (ICT Evangelist) and Al Kingsley (Chair of a multi-academy Trust and MD of NetSupport) – to update the guide to take account of the new landscape schools now have to navigate.

A brand new section on Communication and Collaboration looks at solutions for remote teaching and learning, using video communication tools, and provides guidelines for children, parents, teachers and schools on how to get the best out of them.

In addition, the guide now includes case studies from schools who have implemented and embedded their own digital strategies, alongside others demonstrating best practice for data governance and GDPR, as well as approaches to digital safeguarding.

With an updated resources page, feedback from readers and top educators and experts to follow on Twitter, version 2 of the guide is set to be a must-read!

Click here to download the FREE guide.

Special thanks go to the following industry specialists for their contributions…

Karl Denton, James Donaldson, Ty Goddard, Traci Good, Rosie Kolster, Dave Leonard, Olly Lewis, Alan Mackenzie, Linda Parsons, Abid Patel, Henry Platten, Russell Prue, Coby Reynolds, Tony Sheppard, Thomas Slack, John Paul Szkudlapski, Ben Whitaker, Caroline Wright.

#ITjustworks is an event that focuses on digital strategy and celebrates the digital transformation journeys that schools have embarked on. Attendees will hear from global educators sharing success stories of digital transformation and how EdTech can and has really supplemented and enriched learning for pupils. The event will also outline the key steps and considerations needed to help develop a digital strategy in their own schools.

📅 Monday 20th July

🕘 UTC: 3pm

🕗 PDT: 8am

🕚 EDT: 11am

🕓 BST: 4pm

🕕 GMT+3: 6pm

🕐 AEST: 1am (Tuesday 21st July)

📝 Sign up here: www.bit.ly/ITjwSignUp

🎬 Watch live on YouTube: www.bit.ly/ITjw1

There are some great guest speakers lined up for the event:

• Rachel Coathup - Lead Teacher Technology for Learning, LEO Academies Trust
  
• Daren White - Learning Technologies, Marketing and GDPR lead, New Rickstones and Maltings Academies - GEG UK Co-Leader
  
• Ben Moore - Associate Teacher, New Rickstones and Maltings Academies - Global GEG Leader
  
• Peter Horner - IT Manager & Digital Learning Lead, Barton Peveril Sixth Form College
  
• Dave Leonard - Strategic IT Director, Watergrove Trust
  
• Stephanie Howell - Instructional Tech Coordinator, Pickerington Local Schools District
  
• Devin Rossiter - Academic Coach, Bakersfield Schools District - Founder, Outsider EDU
  

There will also be some exciting giveaways kindly donated by some of our event sponsors. What's more, the event is absolutely FREE!

• C-Learning
  
• NetSupport
  
• Wizkids
  
• EduGeek.net
  
• The Education Foundation
  

Please share the sign up details with all of the people in your networks, PLNs and beyond!

Look forward to seeing as many of you as possible for what promises to be a really exciting event and a great Google Certified Innovator project launch!

Follow Abid on Twitter: @abid_patel

Follow #ITjustworks on Twitter: @IT_justworks

Follow #GEGUK on Twitter: @GEG_UK

Follow #GlobalGEG on Twitter: @GlobalGEG

We are aware that many educational institutions in the UK are making decisions about lesson delivery for future hybrid/remote learning, especially in the context of the DfE’s guidance on school re-opening.

In response, we will be holding a Google Meet Roadmap Webinar on 15th July at 12:30pm to provide schools, colleges and universities with a clear picture on future features in Google Meet, highlighting those that will fall in free G Suite for Education and those that will be included in the premium offering, G Suite Enterprise for Education.

We hope that this proves to be helpful information going into summer planning months.

Watch on-demand at:

 

Digital Strategy Guide - Version 2 Out Now!

With the disruption to education caused by COVID-19 creating an uncertain educational future ahead, it’s more crucial than ever that all school stakeholders can come together effectively to create a digital strategy that incorporates how edtech can be used effectively in-school and remotely.

Recent events have prompted the authors of the immensely popular ‘Guide to Creating a Digital Strategy in Education’ – Mark Anderson (ICT Evangelist) and Al Kingsley (Chair of a multi-academy Trust and MD of NetSupport) – to update the guide to take account of the new landscape schools now have to navigate.

A brand new section on Communication and Collaboration looks at solutions for remote teaching and learning, using video communication tools, and provides guidelines for children, parents, teachers and schools on how to get the best out of them.

In addition, the guide now includes case studies from schools who have implemented and embedded their own digital strategies, alongside others demonstrating best practice for data governance and GDPR, as well as approaches to digital safeguarding.

With an updated resources page, feedback from readers and top educators and experts to follow on Twitter, version 2 of the guide is set to be a must-read!

Click here to download the FREE guide.

Special thanks go to the following industry specialists for their contributions…

Karl Denton, James Donaldson, Ty Goddard, Traci Good, Rosie Kolster, Dave Leonard, Olly Lewis, Alan Mackenzie, Linda Parsons, Abid Patel, Henry Platten, Russell Prue, Coby Reynolds, Tony Sheppard, Thomas Slack, John Paul Szkudlapski, Ben Whitaker, Caroline Wright.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics pervade every aspect of modern life. Commonly referred to as STEM, these fields are the drivers behind innovation, which is critical in our globalised culture that experiences constant technological, societal, and economic change. STEM enables us to revolutionise the way we research, facilitate growth, and overcome challenges, helping us achieve breakthroughs in medicine, combat climate change, build our economy and more.

However, there is a substantial skills shortage in STEM fields. Research has found that approximately 90% of STEM businesses in the UK struggled to fill vacancies last year, highlighting a staggering shortfall of over 170,000 skilled workers in this arena.

It has been stated this this shortage alone is costing the UK STEM industry over £1.5bn a year in recruitment costs, temporary positions, and additional training, as businesses desperately try to find and qualify candidates. And in a society that relies on new ideas and innovation amongst an always-evolving backdrop, roles in STEM are growing at an unprecedented rate that isn’t expected to slow.

In fact, it has been forecasted that new STEM roles will double within the next 10 years, with as many as 65% of today’s students expected to work in jobs that do not yet exist. And so, it’s essential that schools, colleges, and businesses unite to support STEM education and build the future workforce.

So, what’s causing this shortfall?

The Education sector operates within a challenging climate that’s often faced with budget constraints and limited resources, which can make it difficult to ensure all pupils have access to effective STEM learning experiences. And so, we are simply not fostering talent and learning in STEM to keep up with this growth.

That's why Acer have teamed up with the Royal Air Force, Tablet Academy and RAF Museums to launch the STEM Rewards Programme, which encompasses an exciting range of opportunities and funding support open to schools across the UK to help them access and enable STEM teaching and learning.

The benefits of Acer STEM Rewards for your school

By engaging with the STEM Rewards programme, schools can claim up to £4,700 of funded support*, a huge range of teaching and learning resources and rewards and cashback on modern Acer Windows 10 devices that connect students to their learning no matter where they are. With Acer STEM Rewards you can enjoy:

• Rewards up to the value of £500 with every classroom set of Acer devices purchased (25+ units), such as onsite STEM workshops, training, strategic consultancy or credit to purchase technologies for your school including robots and drones.
  
• Entry into a Prize Draw for students in your school to win in a 2-day residential “Cyber & Space” STEM trip at an RAF Museum, inclusive of overnight stay.
  
• Between £50 and £150 cashback per device when refreshed via Acer Upgrade Rewards.
  
• The Acer Reliability Promise –Money Back Guarantee, which entitles you to 100% refund of the amount paid if your Acer device develops a fault and is repaired under warranty within the first year.
  

Keep students connected to STEM education with modern Windows 10 devices

Acer have a huge range of affordable Windows 10 devices designed for dynamic learning environments – whether they’re in the classroom or accessed remotely. Modern devices powered by Windows 10 can help educators better engage students, facilitate collaboration, and develop the digital skills critical for their future in education and beyond, all while ensuring a safe and secure digital learning experience that’s assured by the always updated security features and multiple layers of protection.

The benefits aren’t just for pupils, but teachers too. Windows 10, Office 365 and Microsoft Teams provides teaching staff with a wide range of intelligent tools for lesson planning, marking assignments and simplifying administrative tasks. What’s better, Microsoft offers a completely free Office365 A1 package for schools, complete with Windows 10, which provides a customised hub for class teamwork using Teams, meaning it won’t impact your budget.

Take advantage of Windows 10 devices the Acer STEM Rewards Programme and create critical thinkers, increase science literacy, and develop the next generation of innovators. Simply purchase qualifying Acer devices and claim between £50 and £150 cashback per for an affordable device refresh that keeps your students connected.

Contact Stone for more information on how you can support your students with STEM learning experiences and enjoy upgrade rewards with Acer for Education.

*T&Cs apply. Please visit https://www.stonegroup.co.uk/acer-stem-rewards-programme/ for more information.

Did you know… if your school has a virtual (RDP) environment, you could provide a sense of continuity for your students by leading teaching and learning with NetSupport School while they’re working at home.

Many IT teams have already ensured their schools have a virtual environment for remote administration of their technology. The good news for teachers and students is that NetSupport School can also be run in this environment and used just as it would be in lessons.

Teaching and learning can continue as normal, with teachers interacting with students as if they were all sitting together in a classroom. For example, the teacher can monitor pupils’ progress and ensure they stay on task, as well as share their own screen, apply approved/restricted application and website lists to maintain focus and prevent access to inappropriate content, plus engage students with Q&A mode, surveys, student feedback mode – and much more.

Usually the school will have a link to their RDS environment on their website which both students and teachers can access. They simply log in (using their school credentials) as if they were back in school logging into their class computers. The teacher could either invite the students to join a room in NetSupport School or connect to a list of students.

Privacy is still protected however, as nothing is installed on any student or teacher device, plus once the teacher/student logs out, the session is closed.

In this time of remote teaching and learning, it’s a great opportunity to use a familiar tool to provide a bit of consistency for everyone.

To book an online demo to see how NetSupport School works in a remote desktop environment, click here.

It is business as usual for TASC Software and we continue to support all our schools during lockdown.

Requests for TALAXY demonstrations have been high which is great however organising webinars for multiple staff in individual schools has been difficult for many of our contacts; using TASC Software products in schools is rarely one person's decision. We want to make the processes as easy as possible and to assist, we have a demo site available - https://demo.talaxy.app - for all to 'have a go'. Login options are for parent/staff and pupil. As a progressive web app (PWA) TALAXY is compatible on any device with a web browser. Multi MIS, Multi operable, Multi device.

Most modules are available on the demo allowing you to take registers, log homework, chat, broadcast, behaviour, room booking, enter grades, create seating plans...and more (as staff). Parent view will present all options available including attendance, school reports, forms, consent, homework, parents evening booking, absence, detentions, extra classes...

To help further, Tasc are now offering schools free 30 days trials so you can use your own data, in your own time, making TALAXY more meaningful to you. Your MIS data will be seen in TALAXY once the trial licence has been released. TALAXY is cloud hosted on Amazon Web Server. Trials given will conform with GDPR.

Please contact Tasc for further details on:

sales@tascsoftware.co.uk www.tascsoftware.co.uk/talaxy

Stay safe

As former educators, parents, sons and daughters, the team at LanSchool knows how disruptive the impact of Coronavirus has been to so many across the globe. We appreciate that you are taking immediate measures to protect the health and well-being of staff and students, and we want to support schools during this uncertain and challenging time.

Many have asked if LanSchool Air can help support emergency distance learning plans - and the answer is yes!

LanSchool are offering additional complimentary LanSchool Air licenses through July 1, 2020.

These complimentary licenses are a turnkey e-learning solution that allows learning to continue without negatively impacting budgets.

Our hearts go out to all who have been affected by the outbreak. We are privileged to be your partner and part of the community. Please let us know how we can be of assistance. Together, we can overcome this challenge and create even better outcomes for students.

NetSupport Radio (from NetSupport, the global experts in school IT solutions and official broadcaster of BETT 2020) has invited educators, edtech experts and education specialists to discuss and debate a range of the hottest topics in education on a live radio show, broadcasting on 22nd of April from 7.00 – 9.30pm.

The show panellists will cover:

• 7.00 – 7.45 pm: The future shape of edtech – What have recent events taught us about the future shape of edtech in schools?

• 7.45 – 8.30 pm: School digital strategy, the dos and don’ts – What is a digital strategy and what are the pros and pitfalls to look out for?

• 8.30 – 9.15 pm: Supporting student and teacher wellbeing – The wellbeing issues schools need to look out for and how they can support both students and teachers.

Hosted by broadcasting legend Russell Prue, listeners can download the NetSupport Radio app to their smartphone to listen live – and we also encourage them to get involved on Twitter through the use of the #NetSupportRadio hashtag! A podcast of the show will also be available via the app, as well as previous features from throughout the year.

The educators, leaders, and edtech pioneers featuring on NetSupport Radio’s April show include:

• Al Kingsley, Managing Director of NetSupport, Chair of a Multi-Academy Trust

• Professor Jonathan Glazzard, Professor of Mental Health, Wellbeing and Inclusion in Education at Leeds Beckett University

• Deborah Millar, Executive Group Director of Digital Learning Technology at TEC Partnership

• Mark Anderson, Director of ICT Evangelist and former Senior Leader and Teacher

• Linda Parsons, Science Teacher and Educational Technology Lead at Deira International School

To learn more about the show, access the app and find out more about the panellists, visit: www.netsupportsoftware.com/radio-april/

If you administer, or use Microsoft Teams for remote learning then there is some great news!

Microsoft have reached out to us and have created a whole bunch of resources to help you better administer Teams, as well as providing a lot of very helpful links to other resources that are designed to give you the assistance you may require in your administration of Teams and for teachers using Teams for remote learning.

• Teams FAQ’s

• Best practices for school leaders creating teams and channels in Microsoft Teams for Education

• Teams ‘How To’ webinars

•

• Microsoft Security/Privacy Blog

• … and many others!

You can find all this excellent information within the PDF’s and the PowerPoint attached to this article. Please feel free to pass on the link to this article to any teaching staff you have that would find these useful, or send them the resources directly if you want.

If you do have any questions, or want us to pass on any requests to Microsoft for further information please let us know and we shall contact them for you.

Teams for Education_Getting Started_1-Pager.pdf

Microsoft Teams Remote Learning - Assets for EduGeek Readers (pptx)

Microsoft Teams for Education - Quickstart Guide (PDF)

 

**PLEASE NOTE THAT THE GOOGLE VIRTUAL OFFICE HAS NOW CHANGED AS THE DfE PAID SUPPORT PROGRAM IS TAKING OVER. YOU CAN STILL CONTACT GOOGLE TO GET VIRTUAL SUPPORT BY CONTACTING THEM VIA THIS WEB FORM HERE**

We know it’s an exceptionally challenging time for schools and, like many other school leaders you may be looking to improve or upgrade your distance learning provision over the Easter holidays.

The team here at Google for Education would like to help.

From April 16th, we will be offering Virtual Office Hours to help make the distance learning transition easier. Please register your interest below, and we will be in touch soon to arrange a session with one of our advisors. They will be able to answer all of your questions from advice on distance learning strategies to onboarding and technical set-up.

If you’d prefer, you can forward this email on to your IT Administrator who can sign up instead, and speak directly to one of our GfE technical admins.

Virtual Office Hours + Registration of Interest

We’re also organising a number of larger-group webinars which you can join, on various topics largely centred around teaching & learning remotely with tools like Google Meets. Click the button below to see what's coming up:

Webinar registration

Kind Regards,

The Google for Education team

We at Intelligence Hosting Services have had a think about how we can support the public sector during these difficult times and we're willing to donate some of our data centre space...

To help schools and colleges reduce their IT costs during the COVID-19 crisis, we're offering all educational institutions 10TB of Veeam Cloud Connect Backup and Recovery Disk Space for 6 months completely free of charge.

To take advantage of this offer simply connect your infrastructure by either installing Veeam Backup & Replication at your site(s), or using a Veeam Agent to connect stand-alone Servers or Workstations to our Off-Site Cloud Based Disk Repositories.

You can then (or we can help you remotely) backup your data via a secure AES256bit SSL Encrypted Tunnel over the Internet. All your data is held in our secure Tier 3 Data Centre here in the UK. We can even connect and backup your full Microsoft Office 365 Organisation like Mailboxes, OneDrive and SharePoint, giving you a safe off-site archive of all your organisational data, safeguarding you from potential disaster in case your onsite backup infrastructure failed in the event of an outage, data loss or a ransomware attack.

This offer can help schools save over £1400 and reduce management time for IT managers whilst they're busy moving and supporting classes online.

If you are in the education sector please get in touch on 0800 612 5031, email: sales@intelligenceHS.co.uk or visit IntelligenceHS.co.uk and we will get this up and running for you as soon as possible.

If you are new to EduGeek please be aware that we do insist that you use netiquette at all times and refrain from profanity as your posts will be removed should they be reported to us. We are a professional forum and pride ourselves on the quality of advice the EduGeek community gives out and we hope that you join in by sharing any helpful tips you might have.

Please note that you will have to be a member to see some threads and you can join for free here

The current Coronavirus related threads we have up and running are:

The Coping with Coronavirus in education: links, resources, tips and IT concerns thread here.

And the more general discussion thread here.

There is also a thread on ideas on what to do if confined to your home here (registered users only).

If you are unfortunate enough to be struck down there is also a thread for advice on how to keep yourself in the best way you can here (registered users only).

We have also collated the threads and any updates we get from sponsors and companies in the EduTech industry here and may add more as and when they are created.

Please contribute and help each other out during this period and we shall hopefully all see it through safely.

In the light of the Covid19 situation Google have very kindly contacted us to let you all know about the following guides and advice they have available for setting up G Suite and remote teaching:

Google G Suite for Education Quickstart IT Setup Guide

Google Education distant learning advice

Advice for teachers on teaching from home

For these and more helpful Google links, please read James Leonards post here.

Please feel free to pass these links on to colleagues and teaching staff if you are using any of these Google products.

If you have any questions about any of these or would like more information from Google, please post them below and we shall notify them on your behalf and post up any extra resources they send out way.

Technology is a key factor in effectively personalising learning to meet the unique needs of every individual. Research shows that personalised learning can maximise student success and help prepare students for the evolving future workplace.

To support personalised learning at scale, teachers need both the tools and time to put students at the centre of their own learning. With easy-to-manage technology from Microsoft Education and affordable Windows 10 devices, school IT teams can seamlessly roll-out technology that supports collaboration and tailored learning experiences for all students.

PCs powered by Windows 10 can also streamline back office and administrative tasks, saving up to 30% of teachers’ time, whilst keeping data safe with built-in security and the latest privacy features that address the most rigorous security and privacy demands of every school.

However, it can be difficult to ensure your estate is being utilised effectively to get the complete range of benefits.

That’s why Stone are offering free onsite training with a certified Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) for schools who purchase classroom bundles of Stone devices with Windows 10 before the 31st of March.

Those who take this opportunity, will work with their dedicated MIE on a number of key areas depending on requirements, such as developing personalised learning capabilities, incorporating tech in the classroom, and obtaining the full benefits of collaboration and remote learning found on Microsoft 365 Education and Teams.

And as so often in education time and money is often limited, every device comes with the full Windows 10 license at no additional cost, to provide a complete, hassle-free solution that’s ready to use straight out of the box.

Enjoy the opportunity to work with a Microsoft edtech specialist to determine the best approach to IT for your school, with onsite training on the comprehensive features of Windows 10, and create a tailored action plan that includes simple, practical steps to help maximise the value of your tech – now, and in the future.

Visit http://www.stonegroup.co.uk today find out more.

We at ESP are very pleased to go live with a UK salary survey, with the support of our friends at EduGeek.net.

Have you ever wondered if you are being paid correctly compared to your peers, not necessarily in your own team of course but compared to neighbouring schools or other education sections?

Do you wonder where your next career move should be?

Sure you can see salaries for new posts advertised, but do you understand the realistic expectations of salary and benefits once established in that post?

Or perhaps you just want a good nosey 😉

Our salary survey, which we intend to run every January around the time of Bett, takes an average of 2.5 mins to complete and will be totally confidential. No personally identifying information will be retained, unless you wish us to contact you. And we shall be publishing the results by early February.

It is designed specifically for non-teaching IT staff in all schools, MAT, LA and private support teams UK wide. Specifically where IT is the core of your role, we will be publishing a similar survey in the spring designed for Data/Exams staff.

Of course the more people that fill the survey in, the better the overall results. There are currently 18 questions with the last being a box for comments. If you enter your details and are happy to log your email with us, we will put you in a draw to win £200 amazon vouchers to be run just before we publish the results.

Go to www.esp-recruit.co.uk/2020-survey to complete the form and we will be using the #ukitedsalarysurvey for this and future surveys.

And if you are attending Bett, we hope to see you there!

If you have any of these drives and the firmware version is older than HPD8 you should patch them asap as when they fail all data is lost and the drive becomes inoperable.

HPE was notified by a Solid State Drive (SSD) manufacturer of a firmware defect affecting certain SAS SSD models (reference the table below) used in a number of HPE server and storage products (i.e., HPE ProLiant, Synergy, Apollo, JBOD D3xxx, D6xxx, D8xxx, MSA, StoreVirtual 4335 and StoreVirtual 3200 are affected. 3PAR, Nimble, Simplivity, XP and Primera are not affected.)

 

The issue affects SSDs with an HPE firmware version prior to HPD8 that results in SSD failure at 32,768 hours of operation (i.e., 3 years, 270 days 8 hours). After the SSD failure occurs, neither the SSD nor the data can be recovered. In addition, SSDs which were put into service at the same time will likely fail nearly simultaneously.

You can check your drives uptime by following these steps: Smart Storage Administrator (SSA) - Quick Guide to Determine SSD Uptime

For the full release notes along with drive models and fix please see: Bulletin: HPE SAS Solid State Drives - Critical Firmware Upgrade Required for Certain HPE SAS Solid State Drive Models to Prevent Drive Failure

Thanks to mavhc for the post with details.

Please find below an announcement from our sponsor PaperCut

This week we made our flagship BYOD printing feature, PaperCut Mobility Print™, a free standalone product.

Today we want to share why we did that.

First some background (in case you’re not familiar with what Mobility Print does).

Mobility Print enables easy printing from Chromebook, Android, iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Windows devices in any combination.

And here are the main benefits of using it:

1. No fees

2. No subscription

3. No extra software required

4. Auto printer and driver installation for Chromebooks/Android/iOS/macOS/Windows

5. Printing via the device’s native interface in any application

6. Easy self-setup to let users find shared network printers

7. Continuous updates pushed on release reducing ongoing maintenance

So that’s the official spiel. The “what”. But what about the “why”?

We built Mobility Print to provide an easy way for your users to print from whatever device they want. That was the main driver (if you’ll excuse the pun).

So after almost three years of Mobility Print being available as a feature of PaperCut NG and PaperCut MF, our product guys got to thinking, “How do we make BYOD printing easier for more people?”

And while it’d be awesome to sell lots and lots of PaperCut NG and MF, the reality is that many organizations only need to enable printing, not necessarily track it or control it. Google Cloud Print has been available for nearly a decade as a free solution, and we wanted to provide a free alternative.

The PaperCutter in charge of Mobility Print, Willem Groenewald, puts it this way: “The freedom afforded by BYOD printing is invaluable – we didn’t want to force people to jump into the deep end of print management or pay extra for something so essential.”

There’s an exciting enhancement around the corner, too. Early 2020 Mobility Print will enable users to print over the internet or from an untrusted guest network by sending jobs compressed and encrypted via PaperCut’s cloud service. And it’s also absolutely free.

As of writing, Mobility Print looks after the printing of close to 3.5 million Chromebooks, making it a leading Google Cloud Print alternative.

Add in the Apples and Windows and iPads and Androids and Samsungs et al of the world, and that’s a LOT of devices thoughtfully printing via Mobility Print.

Download Mobility Print today.

If you have responsibility for procurement and tendering services in your I.T. public sector role, you’ll know how crucial it is to get just the right service provider at just the right price. Squeezed budgets do not allow for much wriggle room for purchasing, so finding the right fit and saving money is asking the impossible, right?

Absolutely not. With Global ICT Connections your public sector entity will position itself in exactly the right spot to find the service you’re looking for at a cost that fits well within your expectations. What’s more you’ll have choice, no more looking at a handful of below par options, with the Global ICT Connections (GICT) platform you’ll have unbeatable access to the world’s stage.

Search our suppliers’ broadcasts and find out how much you can save

Competitive quotes and reliable suppliers, save up to 40% of your budget

It’s not just increased options and competitive pricing though, what gives GICT the edge is how seriously we take protecting our clients.

You should never find yourself in a position where your business is exposed and, on our platform, we guarantee just that, protection. All our members are fully vetted and feedback on their goods and services is always available. Our trained team is on hand to answer any of your questions and help clear up any worries you might have.

Sell your redundant I.T. equipment and generate revenue

Of course, with GICT it works the other way too. When you have old ICT assets taking up vital space in your buildings and offices, don’t give them away for a fraction of what they’re worth list them on our platform and claim some of your budget back. Get them listed to be wiped clean of data and once that’s complete you’re ready to go.

We give you access to approved buyers around the world and link you with potential leads in minutes. Taking control of how to dispose of your equipment and making money back has never been easier.

We can even help take the headache out of storage and delivery with our integrated logistics system, offering you deals you won’t see anywhere else.

The great news is it's free for public sector entities to register and use the service

The service is free to use if you work in a public sector entity, so register now and find out how can you save up to 40% of your budget and generate the maximum revenue out of your I.T retired assets.

'A Guide to Creating a Digital Strategy in Education' - out now!

For those of you on half-term, why not read NetSupport's new free guide to creating a Digital Strategy, available to download today, written by Mark Anderson (ICT Evangelist) and Al Kingsley (Chair of a multi-academy Trust and MD of NetSupport).

Every school identifies that it has a need for technology. And technology used in the right way can have a positive impact. But at the same time, with financial budgets and pressures on schools, it’s difficult to know – and choose – where those precious pennies are best spent.

With a well-developed digital strategy, schools can ensure investment along the way is made with an eye to the end game and, hopefully, mistakes can be avoided. As with every strategy, if everyone is on board from the beginning, it has a much greater chance of success.

The intention of the guide is to provide a brief overview of all of the interlocking stakeholders who need to play a part in delivering a successful digital strategy for a school, and focuses on the things they should be considering, the questions they should be asking and what, ultimately, they are defining as their measure of impact. This aligns very much with Ofsted’s new framework of ‘Intention, Implementation and Impact’ (known as The Three I’s).

With any strategy, its success is based on the time taken to co-produce, with all voices heard, and then ensuring it is sufficiently embedded so that it will remain effective and deliver impact over time.

Already have a digital strategy in place? Get in touch and let us know how it’s benefitted your school.

Download the free guide here.

Get NetSupport Notify for only £1 per licence!

NetSupport is offering EduGeek members an exclusive ‘back to school’ offer on its desktop alerting and notification solution, NetSupport Notify!

Until the end of September, members can gain NetSupport Notify for only £1 per perpetual licence!

NetSupport Notify is a solution specifically designed to help schools boost their communication and support their emergency and lockdown procedures. Using NetSupport Notify, schools can deliver one-way alerts and notifications to desktop users and large information panels in halls and foyers. Alerts automatically take screen focus, meaning they can’t be hidden, ignored or saved for later. The notifications can even be targeted to select groups and scheduled for maximum impact.

To claim this special offer click here.

Remember to order on or before the 30st September 2019.

You know the drill.

The phone rings, the email chimes, someone walks up while you're making a coffee.

"Hey, we've bought a new printer. Can you install it for us?"

And this is your thought process. This is what goes through your mind in the nano-seconds it takes to respond to that … question:

1. Please tell me it's networkable.
   
2. I hope its DHCP stack is reliable. It better work with a DHCP reservation.
   
3. What’s its duty cycle? This department has some heavy users.
   
4. What capacity toner does it have?
   
5. Oh, what if it's ink? Not sure our toner supplier does ink.
   
6. Did it come with PostScript support?
   
7. I wonder if it comes with a maintenance contract?
   
8. Duplexer? Media bypass tray?
   
9. Drivers. Please have a good driver package.
   
10. Hmm, user defaults. Hopefully I can deploy a sensible default with their admin tooling.
    
11. Oh no. Their department’s split between Windows and macOS, and they have contractors and a heap of new hires.
    

Nooooooooooooo ...

"Uh, sure thing,” you say politely. “When do you need it?"

"We have a product launch Monday. We bought the printer to deal with the orders. We've moved everyone to a new area so we can work together."

Of course, it's Friday 2pm. No one respects Read Only Friday.

"New … new area?" you stammer.

"Yep! On floor 5, the network was finished yesterday."

Maybe PaperCut can help with that cold sweat that's just broken out.

With PaperCut Print Deploy, all you need is a working printer, a reference machine to clone the print queue from, and the PaperCut Print Deploy client on a machine. Your weekend is still in sight.

PaperCut Print Deploy gets the right print driver and the right print queue to the right person in the right location, automatically.

By the way, Print Deploy is part of the latest release of PaperCut MF and PaperCut NG - version 19.1. So you don’t just get an easy-to-use print enablement solution, you also get the print management solution loved by thousands of schools and universities around the world.

Deploy a trial of PaperCut NG 19.1 right now for 40 days.

Since there are so many features within NetSupport DNA (the school Network and IT Management solution with Safeguarding and optional Classroom Management), we decided to create a

In addition, the video looks at the recently added contextual intelligence-based Risk Index that helps schools identify vulnerable students, as well as all of the classroom management tools that help teachers maximise teacher time and boost learning outcomes in a digital classroom. For those already using our classroom management solution, check out the latest updates here!

To book an online demonstration or enquirer about pricing, please click here.