17 Oct 2023 Term 3 Holiday Networking Day
Our Term 3 Holiday Event was held at the North East Metropolitan Districts Language Development Centre, kindly hosted by Radia Lyon who along with Michael Power from Wanneroo Secondary College, did a stellar job at recording the presenters on the day.
Ricoh
Mike Barrett and Mark Henderson from Ricoh Australia spoke about the servcies they offer, not only in terms of photocopiers or multi-functional devices, but also around digital transformation, IT Services and Interactive Whiteboards. They highlighted the benefits of Papercut and how printing can be managed effectively within our schools, including features such as:
- User authentication via PIN or card
- Keeping track of usage
- Enabling profiles under different learning areas or departments
- Comprehensive report generation
- Enabling print policies
- Pop-up alerts to redirect users to the most cost effective device, using rule-based routing
- Secure print release requiring users to authenticate at the printer
Solutions IT
Our friends from Solutions IT, Paul Marshall, Earl Menezes and Brennan Godfrey spoke about the services they offer including network integration, infrastructure configuration and installation, IT support, training and professional learning and ICT audits and recommendations. They currently provide services to around 400 schools across W.A. each year and are the largest supplier of services on the DoE Integrators Panel.
Solutions IT are authorised suppliers of Apple products, Microsoft Surface devices, Cisco Network Infrastructure, APC UPS’s, BenQ displays and ClassVR Education focused VR solution for schools.
Brennan provided information about the Keycloak Single Sign-on solution, to enable users to securely authenticate with the same credentials across multiple applications, simplifying the end-user experience. Keycloak can customise the logon experience for programs that support SAML or OpenID Connect protocols. Each platform implements features differently, some have full SSO integration, for example Adobe Creative Cloud. In this case Keycloak is able to provide full automatic user-provisioning with integration via DAM, meaning students can be loaded in automatically and within their DAM year groups. This is based on utilising a School Domain. Other platforms may have partial integration, for example SSO but no provisioning.
Popular integrations include Adobe Creative Cloud, Clickview, Snipe-IT, Zammad, FreshDesk, Accessit Library and Vivi. Contact the team at SolutionsIT for more information about Keycloak.
Department of Education CIS
We were fortunate enough to have Ada Tang, Record Keeping Consultant from DoE Corporate Information Services, speak about managing school records and the school file classification system. Ada provided in-depth information about the School File Plan, the levels, conventions and access permissions associated with record keeping. Aside from a wealth of information available in IKON, there are mandatory and optional online record management courses available to DoE staff, along with the option of school workshops. Representatives are also able to provide schools with an information managment overview. This is a ‘health check’ of hard copy and electronic records, which is followed up by an on-site visit.
More information can be found on IKON or by contacting the Corporate Information Services help Desk on Ph: 9264 4867 or email recmanhd@education.wa.edu.au
CyberEdge
Raph Tan and Tim Saultry spoke to us about CyberEdge by Superloop, an advanced security platform that provides category web filtering, deep packet inspection and student safeguarding for schools. Features include a LiveZone Portal, Classroom Control, enhanced visability and detailed reporting.
The Classroom Control feature acts as a web-filtering override and allows access to specific content per class, which can be enabled by teachers. LiveZone Portal allows teachers to search through users and see internet activity, Youtube analytics and any device a user has logged into. Reports provide an in-depth insight into general usage and applications, with email alerts to administrators linked to student searches.
Tim led us through the deployment of the system and a live demonstration of the platform including filtering, access policies, automatic email alerts, Youtube analytics, reporting, dashboard customisation and network monitoring.
CPSU/CSA Union
We welcomed Michelle O’Driscoll and Rachel Cowcher from the CPSU/CSA union who spoke about the strong relationship that the union and WATSSA have in representing technical staff in schools from an industrial and a professional stand-point. Michelle spoke about the work that has been and continues to be done by CSA Union delegates and WATSSA, to address concerns that have been raised through surveys and discussions with DoE School-based Technical Support staff. She provided an update on behalf of the union delegates involved in the ICT Working Group and stressed the importance of a strong union membership, particularly coming into the next round of School Support Officer Agreement negotiations.
Michelle provided some background to the DoE Red Tape Project, the possible impact this could have on School Support staff and the work the union has done to provide a submission regarding this, to the Department. She provided information about the concept of non-teaching, ministerial staff who are currently employed under the Public Sector Agreement moving over to the School Support Officer agreement. This agreement is specific to employees in schools and is negotiated between the Department of Education and the CSA. The move would be under the condition that all entitlements and conditions are either maintained or improved for all school employees and could allow increased flexibility in areas such as working weeks of the year.
There is also a push for a review of all JDFs in schools, including a review of the classification of positions. Many members feel that their role has changed significantly since they started, or that there are discrepencies between staff performing the same role at a different school and being paid at a different level or performing different tasks.
We would like to thank our WATSSA members who attended the networking day, NEMDLDC for hosting the event and our sponsors for presenting some excellent sessions, answering our questions and providing catering.
We hope you all enjoyed the day and headed back to school with some really useful, practical information to assist you in your roles and with your forward planning.