CTIDTech

Do any of these options also offer MFA or 2FA for students? What's to stop someone using someone else's card/badge? If so is this an extra cost?

Good read and well worth noting! We MFA or 2FA all users (students as well) to access all their digital resources - Students use an image/PIn depending on age, Teachers use a PIN if they refuse refuse to use their phone, and everyone else authenticators. Took some training initially, but all on board now for everything! Much safer and another tick in the box!

There are many tools out there that can integrate with just about all technologies these days in the event that your MIS does not work with them! - I would do an inventory of all software utilised (if you do not already have this) by all stakeholders - staff, parents, students, governors, HR, Finance, housekeeping, catering etc. and then ask your potential MIS providers which they do/not integrate with - If you do this from the get go, or seek assurances by 'x' that these will be complete then you should have at least a little peace of mind and something to cling to if they let you down. You are in a much stronger position pre-purchase than after. I would also enquire as to whether you would have access to a central data lake at Trust level. This ensures that you do not need 15 separate data pulls from a software solution for all the different schools *and the associated costs that the software solution passes on to you which reduces risk and access! Hope this helps.

They can use the API and I know they are working on MAT level data! If you have the data lake option in Arbor this may help. I would call them and speak to someone there to get a definitive answer. I think Odyssey Education sell this in the UK and should be able to help.

We use AI tools all the time in many areas also - Questionnaires, surveys, general staff/parent engagement as well as many technical questions too as mentioned above- One tip I was given was ask it the worst questions to ask then ask it to rephrase these - it usually does a great job - Another factor is we all have to think of is copyright issues too - especially if publishing externally anywhere (however this is no different from anything else folks do today - just possibly more likely to beg steal or borrow)!

I think paying for access to our own data is pushing it a little! Keen to hear the final outcome.

To a point, there is an argument to say that with brute force attacks you can almost get you into any system depending on the sophistication of the attack and tool used. The QR code is encryped and no mention of the website to go to, it is simply to help the youngest learners easily access their resources which used to be kept in a teachers notepad at the front of the class and save time in the classroom which our staff wanted us to solve. We don't use it for older children...they can enter their details or use the Log in with MS button in our case. Staff also log in this way (not QR code) and use their MS authenticator (it's not a one size fits all approach) The images change in both location and also what they show every time too so is more than enough for us and better than none! Also, we now do account claiming through this too (started with staff) and now with students so we never have to email or share user details again on paper/using traditional methods so a win win for us.

What MIS are you using?

I think Cloudwise is for Google log in only into Chromebooks only ( ) whereas I think ClassLink can do Win 10/11 and Chromebooks using AD Azure or Google. https://help.classlink.com/s/article/Sign-into-Windows-with-QuickCards#:~:text=Click%20Single%20Sign%2DOn%2C%20select,need%20it%20for%20Windows%20setup) & https://help.classlink.com/s/article/Logging-into-Chromebooks-Using-ClassLink so really depends on what your users are using in school and at home? Let us know what you think of both!

Have you thought of an SSO layer to give you what you need? Just sign in once and hey presto - click the app they want and they are in?

Are you talking about monitoring on school owned devices only?

Which MIS are you using - Can you not ask them?

https://www.ess-sims.co.uk/products-and-services/sims-finance - Have you looked at this? We don't use it.

We met them at Bett and they have clients all over the world and they comply with GDPR etc

Not quite - THE QR code is the username and password - they don't need anything else! (We use this for younger children) For older we use Log in with MS. They are then asked to present some form of MFA - Image (Y1-4), PIN (Y4-13) or Authenticator (staff/admins) - You do not need to have to MFA enabled for students but we do for the reasons above. So they can operate independently. The MFA is just that, and the QR code gets them into the devices (Win and CB)and loads ClassLink straight away if configured or gets them into ClassLink where they can access all their resources from any device.