Spring 2017 IT - Hampshire · 2017. 4. 3. · HSS, HPSN2 and other services provided by Hampshire...

1IT Service Desk 01962 847007

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Spring 2017

Hampshire IT

www.hants.gov.uk/itschools

Keeping your IT systems safe, page 22

www.hants.gov.uk

Hampshire SIMS Annual Conference,pages 4-5

2 3www.hants.gov.uk/itschools IT Service Desk 01962 847007

Inside this issue…3 News from Hampshire Services

Information Technology

4 - 5 Hampshire SIMS Annual Conference: photos and review

6 - 7 Building defenses against scammers – what your school can do

8 Revised terms of reference for PICATS/SICATS

9 - 16 What’s new in SIMS

17 Teaching resource: The Online Disinhibition Effect. Online safety expert Alan Mackenzie

18 - 20 Teaching resource: Networks and the internet. Daniel Trickett, CAS Master Teacher, St John the Baptist Primary School

20 - 21 Addressing the gender imbalance in computing: creating a firm foundation in primary education. Phil Bagge, Computing Inspector/Adviser

22 Keeping your IT systems safe

23 My IT: John Paterson, headteacher at Swanmore Primary School

Welcome to the spring edition of the Hampshire IT School’s newsletter – the last in its current format. From the summer onwards we’ll be going digital in line with the County Council’s strategy to move communications online wherever possible. You’ll find out more about our digital future in the news item on page 3.

Security and information management feature strongly in this edition of the newsletter – important topics for all schools.

Advice on keeping your IT systems safe and guidance for building defences against scammers are featured on pages 6 - 7 and 22. Online safety expert Alan Mackenzie talks about the dangers of the ‘Online Disinhibition Effect’ for young people on page 17.

As well as our usual round up of news and updates on SIMS in the central pull-out (pages 9-16), there’s a review of the annual SIMS conference for primary and secondary schools, held last term in Winchester (pages 4 - 5).

On page 8, you’ll find information about the revised terms of reference for our schools IT management partnership group, PICATS/SICATS, made up of headteachers and representatives from the County Council, which will help Hampshire Services IT align itself closely with the needs of schools.

Finally, on page 23, John Paterson, headteacher at Swanmore Primary School and member of PICATS/SICATS, talks about his earliest experiences of using computers and how his school uses technology to push engagement beyond the classroom.

If you’d like to contribute to a future online edition of this newsletter or if you’ve got any comments to make, please let us know by emailing [email protected].

Steve RiddleSchools IT Business PartnerHampshire Services IT

News

If you need this information in a different format, or if you have any other enquiries, call the IT Service Desk on 01962 847007. Download this and previous issues of Hampshire IT Schools at www.hants.gov.uk/itschools-newsletter.

S.Ridd le


Communications go digitalIn line with the County Council’s strategy of working as a digital business, the next edition of the Hampshire IT Schools newsletter will be available digitally via our website at www.hants.gov.uk/itschools. To make sure you’re kept up to date with the latest news on online safety and security, SIMS, HSS, HPSN2 and other services provided by Hampshire Services IT, visit our webpages.

Improvements to the IT Service Desk also mean schools with HPSN2 can raise and track issues online (https://itservicedesk.hants.gov.uk) as well as search the knowledge base to find information to resolve issues themselves.

The Hampshire Services webpages for schools IT are also being refreshed and redesigned so that schools can find information they need more easily. SIMS pages have also been updated. Details are available in School Communication SC014814

Centrally Hosted SIMS

School census days are always a busy time for the Centrally Hosted SIMS service. The additional volume of traffic on and around census days has steadily increased over the last year and at times put a strain on the service.

While additional steps have already been taken to address this and resolve the issues in the short term, a longer term view is also being worked on in parallel.

Work is starting on a behind the scenes change that will eventually allow the service to be much more flexible in terms of scaling up and down according to the demand enabling schools to continue with their business even at the busiest of times.

HWI upgrade - phase 2 A number of schools use Hantsnet Web Interface (HWI) to access services and applications provided by Hampshire County Council. Last year a change was made to the log in screen as well as some behind the scenes changes to improve the overall security.

With ever increasing cyber threats some additional security improvements are needed and will be introduced this year. The improvements include requiring two-factor authentication for anyone accessing the services over the internet outside of HPSN2. This is essential to keep school information safe and secure.

At the same time a simple, easy to use Hantsweb page will be introduced to signpost people to the applications and services currently used via HWI. You will then be prompted for the appropriate log on details depending on how you are accessing the service.

The changes will be thoroughly tested by a number of volunteer schools prior to the changes going live to everyone else. A school communication will be sent out detailing all the changes and clarifying the dates.

Hosted School Service Windows 10

The Hosted School Service is taking a giant leap towards Windows 10 with the start of a primary school pilot. Subject to the success of this step, another primary school and a secondary school will be introduced during the pilot phase.

This will ensure any issues can be identified and as many potential bugs as possible can be ironed out before it is rolled out to other schools. As part of the pilot phase the eLearn eTeach team are reviewing the training and development that schools might need to help ensure a smooth transition.

Windows 10 also introduces some challenges for a managed service – such as identifying changes that Microsoft introduce and preventing the automatic Windows updates from restarting classroom PCs during lessons!

With over 90 schools using HSS it won’t be launched with a big bang approach, instead the service will be rolled out in discussion with individual schools to ensure they are ready for it.

While phase 1 is a largely technical upgrade, the move to Windows 10 will enable the service to start looking towards introducing additional improvements and functionality. For example, Windows 10 will allow a more integrated use of Microsoft Office 365 functionality, and better integration with Windows Tablets.


Hampshire SIMS Annual Last term around 200 delegates turned out to hear the latest in information management at the two-day SIMS annual conference held in The Middle Brook Centre Hope Church, Winchester.

The larger venue and excellent facilities of this year’s free conference meant a wide programme of topics could be presented by the platform speakers to suit particular areas of interest.

Primary headteachers, senior and middle leaders and staff with responsibility for data management, including SIMS administrators, attended on the first day of the conference. The second day was attended by delegates from secondary schools.

Renate Tracy, Hampshire Services IT’s specialist SIMS consultant said: “These annual conferences provide schools and academies with vital strategic and practical insights into using SIMS more effectively which help combat workload challenges and support school improvement. Many thanks to Sue Whittaker and Wendy Parker at Hampshire County Council for coordinating this event.”Simon Williams, Head of IT Operations at the County Council, was one this year’s speakers, outlining the direction for IT services to Hampshire schools and academies. As well as introducing the event, Renate Tracy from Hampshire Services IT, provided a review of upcoming SIMS projects and software developments.

Capita SIMS staff were on hand to talk about SIMS Interventions, SIMS Assessment, and supporting parental engagement with services that are used by pupils’ parents including SIMS Activities, Parent app, SIMS InTouch and SIMS Agora.

Sheila Milford from Hampshire Services’ eLearn eTeach and Sue Savory (HIAS) gave a presentation on both days about using SIMS data to safeguard children. At the primary conference Tina Rose Collins from eLearn eTeach demonstrated the latest version of the Hampshire Assessment Model.

ELearn eTeach’s Tracey Crawford, along with Jason Dixon and Phil Dawson from Airhead, gave an overview the cloud desktop which brings teaching and learning resources together.

Teresa Watkins and Claire Dean from the County Council’s SIMS support team ran a popular breakout area, ‘SIMS for the Classroom Teacher’, where delegates could use tablet devices to try out the Teacher app and get answers to their questions about how the product could help to reduce workload for daily classroom tasks.

Presentation topics included:

the primary Hampshire Assessment Model for SIMS

the “Programme of Study” SIMS Assessment resources for KS1, KS2 and KS3

secondary assessment at Key Stage 4

using SIMS to safeguard children

Teacher app

recording and tracking Interventions in SIMS

the next generation of Options

Airhead: The open cloud desktop for learning and teaching

The Hampshire SIMS Annual Conference

Primary delegates Sara Collyer, admin assistant (left) and Wendy Southgate, headteacher, at Southwood Infant School in Farnborough

Simon Williams, Head of IT Operations at Hampshire County Council, talks about the role of IT

Renate Tracy, Hampshire Services IT account manager for SIMS, and Sue Savory, County Computing Inspector/Adviser

4 www.hants.gov.uk/itschools 5IT Service Desk 01962 847007


So what can you do?

The best way to deal with ransomware is to avoid it in the first place but if you use the internet or email there’s always a risk of being maliciously attacked.

Having up-to-date virus protection is essential. However it will not always prevent you from becoming infected and you must make sure it is up to date. Hampshire Services IT can also provide a chargeable centrally managed virus protection service for those schools using the full HPSN2 service.

Backup your files every day and keep the backup safe (schools using the Hosted School Service will receive this service automatically).

Remind your staff to be careful about opening emails with attached files especially if they don’t know the sender, or the subject looks suspicious.

Although the scammers may know personal details about the headteacher and use these to convince you they are a real employee, be mindful of where these have been obtained from: they may, for instance be those listed on your public facing website.

Plan your response if ransomware breaks out in your school. The safest approach is to switch everything off straightaway and contact the IT Service Desk on 01962 847 007.

If you think your bank details have been compromised, you should immediately contact your bank.

Avoid USB memory sticks if you can especially if they’re used on home computers as well as at work.

Make sure your internet connection is protected with a firewall and use web filtering so you don’t access infected websites. Schools using HPSN2 will be provided with this automatically.

If you run your own email system, make sure it has modern security software or use a cloud service like Office 365 which has filtering built in.

If you are affected by this or any other computer scam, contact the IT Service Desk immediately on 01962 847 007. You should also report it to Andy Payne, Hampshire County Council’s senior auditor and Action Fraud by calling 0300 123 2040, or visiting www.actionfraud.police.uk.

Building defenses against scammers – what your school can do

A recent alert issued by the Police and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau has highlighted the need for schools to remain vigilant about cybercrime and to be confident in their data security.

There have been a number of incidents of fraudsters calling schools claiming to be from the Department of Education (rather than the Department for Education). Schools are then duped into installing ransomware which encrypts their computer data files for which you have to pay a ‘ransom’ to recover.

The scam works like this:

Callers claim they need to send documents directly to the headteacher about topics which range from exam guidance to mental health assessments.

In order to send the documents, they ask for the personal email address or phone numbers of the headteacher or other members of school staff, claiming they contain sensitive information that needs to be sent to individuals rather than a generic school inbox.

However, the emails aren’t sent with a document giving DfE guidance. Instead they will include an attachment: a .zip file, sometimes disguised as an Excel or Word document.

This attachment contains ransomware that once downloaded, will encrypt files and demand money to recover them, typically using untraceable internet Bitcoins.

Similar scams have also been made recently by fraudsters claiming to be from the Department of Work of Pensions and telecoms providers. In these cases, they insist they need to email the headteacher about ‘internet systems’.

Ransomware can spread very quickly often infecting thousands of files on a computer within minutes. If your computers are networked, it will usually spread across the network and you can quickly lose everything.

If your anti-virus software doesn’t delete all your files and you do chose to pay the ransom, you might get a decryption code to unlock your files but most don’t fully recover the data or don’t work at all – and you’ll be funding cyber crime.

6

Ransomware continues to be top of the agenda with recent reports of fraudsters posing as government officials in order to trick schools.

7IT Service Desk 01962 8470076 www.hants.gov.uk/itschools


PICATS/SICATS, the formal schools IT management partnership group comprising representative headteachers from all school sectors and County Council officers, has recently revised its terms of reference.

Chaired by Warren Brand, Assistant Headteacher, Calthorpe Park School, the group meets termly to review and monitor overall IT service developments and performance delivery on behalf of all Hampshire schools.

The group’s revised terms of reference include:

overseeing the Hampshire IT Service Level Agreement (SLA) and service development that underpins the wider aims of the Hampshire Children and Young People’s Plan (CYPP)

inputting to the strategic direction of curriculum and administration IT in Hampshire schools and to share and promote good practice

monitoring Hampshire Services IT performance delivery against SLA targets

prioritising Hampshire Services schools IT projects and monitoring their ongoing development

reviewing and promoting the effective use of schools management information to help support and improve learner outcomes

inputting and promoting to ongoing online safety developments as appropriate.

Headteachers represent their relevant school sector/district and feedback to these groups as appropriate. This necessary customer input helps to ensure that ongoing Hampshire schools IT service development is properly aligned to schools’ business requirements. For example, the group was closely involved with developing the new IT SLA, which in turn has ensured a high service take-up from Hampshire schools.

Hampshire Services IT aims to work in partnership with Hampshire schools through key groups such as PICATS/SICATS rather that be simply perceived as another supplier. Agendas and minutes are available from the following Hantsnet link: http://intranet.hants.gov.uk/schoolsitmeetings.

PICATS/SICATS stands for Primary/Secondary Information Communication and Technology Strategy Groups

Revised terms of reference for

Hampshire Services IT rolled out the SIMS Autumn 2016 release to all schools last term. The upgrade contained the Spring 2017 Census and a range of enhancements, many of them based on feedback from schools. Main features of the upgrade include:

Easily identify persistently absent studentsAs part of the SIMS Core Suite updates, Capita has improved a key report in SIMS Attendance to help schools identify students with persistence absence. The report enables schools to understand persistent absence, so that you can compare your figures with national figures and benchmarks. Persistent absence is now based on a possible number of sessions for each pupil, rather than being based on a

standardised number of sessions within school.

To keep in line with the latest DfE requirements, the new report also allows you to report on whole school, year groups or registration groups for the whole year, or specific dates where they have exceeded a set threshold. The threshold is defaulted to the DfE’s persistent absence of 10%, but you can change this. The extra detail provided in the report will allow you to flag students with persistent absence, which will be a useful feature for many schools. You can find the report in the following menu route:

Reports | Attendance | Whole group pupil reports | Persistent absence report – pupil threshold

Academic year on SIMS HomepageAs part of the Autumn 2016 release, the current academic year is now displayed next to the Quick Search field on the SIMS Homepage. Also, the current academic year can be changed quickly by clicking the link where the academic year is displayed. This will display the Select academic year dialog. This mirrors the functionality provided via Tools | Academic management | Set academic year.

What’s new in

Management Information

Pull out& share!

SIMS?

8 www.hants.gov.uk/itschools


Hampshire IT Schools - Spring 2017

10

SIMS Assessment Programme of Study customisationThe Programme of Study for assessments without levels has seen a number of developments in the past 18 months including the ability to customise subjects, strands and statements to meet individual school requirements. This is now extended to include GCSE years 10 and 11, so you can record achievements against user-defined statements for Key Stage 4. Please note that pre-defined National Curriculum statements have not been provided for years 10 and 11 but schools can create their own.

Before the Autumn 2016 release of SIMS, schools could only record their assessment as Emerging, Developing, Secure and Mastered. Now, with the new release, the colours, grades and grade descriptions can be amended to correspond with the school’s

internal assessment policies. The new Programme of Study grades can be set up and amended from a new menu route: Focus | Assessment | Programme of study management | Managing grades.

The modified grades will be displayed in the Programme of Study Tracking Grid Entry marksheet, Programme of Study Analysis Summative and Formative Attainment and Progress reports. It is not available in the Subject/Strand Individual Report. If you change the default grades, there are some limitations that you should be aware of:

there is no capacity to add extra grades

the original grades are still displayed in standard marksheets.

Guidance notes for all the new functionality in the Autumn 2016 release are available at: http://intranet.hants.gov.uk/simsautumn2016

SIMS Teacher App iOS updatesFor schools using SIMS Dinner Money, the SIMS Teacher app for iOS now includes the ability to record pupil meal choices as well as attendance. The information recorded writes back automatically to the school’s SIMS system in real-time. Pupil meal choices can be defined by their attendance mark via Meal Patterns for SIMS Dinner Money or recorded ad-hoc in class, as required.

This integration will help to streamline everyday classroom tasks and save teachers’ time. You’ll be

able to quickly switch between the attendance and dinner registers to complete both in a matter of minutes.

For schools that have interactive whiteboards, you may also like to engage your pupils by connecting your iPad and allowing children to record their meal choice by simply tapping their picture on screen. This leaves more time for your teachers to meet and greet pupils as they arrive and help prepare the class for the day ahead.


As you’ll see from the screenshot, Capita has kept the same look and feel for both registers and made it easy to switch between both with a simple tap of a button on the left hand side of the screen.



This iOS app update (version 4.8.0.0) was made available as an update from the App Store on 5 December 2016.

The latest version of the Teacher app for the Apple iOS platform was released week commencing 31 January 2017 through the Apple App Store. This updated the SIMS Teacher app to show any customised grades and colours defined by the school – helping to provide continuity and consistency between the school’s SIMS assessment setup and the Teacher app to allow school staff to record formative and summative assessments.

There have also been some minor changes to the appearance of the timetable within the Teacher app. When the app has updated to the latest version, users will see a new View Timetable tab at the top of their screen that can be used to drop down their weekly timetable. This is in addition to being able to select anywhere on the timetable bar and drag down their weekly timetable.

If users have automatic updates enabled on their iPads, the app will update for the user automatically. Alternatively, users can update manually on their device. Please check on the App Store | SIMS Teacher to ensure you have the latest version.

Capita announcement about SIMS Teacher app Android platform: As the number of schools using the SIMS Teacher app increases, Capita SIMS constantly monitors the take-up across the different platforms. Capita has stated that the Apple iOS and Windows platforms are by far the most popular choices. However, for the Android platform, they have seen a much lower level of take-up by schools:

“After careful review we have decided to focus our efforts to add further exciting features to the iOS and Windows platforms and achieve parity with the available functionality and pause adding new features to the Android platform at this time. The current version of the Android SIMS Teacher app will continue to work to record attendance and conduct, update assessment marksheets and for checking pupil details. We apologise for any inconvenience and confirm we will continue to support schools that use the Teacher app on the Android platform until further notice.

“We hope the continued development of both the iOS and Windows versions of the Teacher app provide a useful way for your school to help make everyday classroom administration tasks simple”.



SIMS future developments As Capita finalises its delivery plans for the Spring 2017 upgrade, more deliverables will be added. As always, Capita SIMS roadmaps are subject to change but we will keep you informed about any changes to their plans and the timescales for delivery.

SIMS Spring 2017 Release

SIMS InterventionsSIMS Interventions is a new module that will be part of the Core SIMS application and will be delivered with the spring 2017 upgrade.

What will SIMS Interventions do?SIMS Interventions will be a system to track underperforming students, allocate additional support and resources, and track how those resources affect key performance indicators, as well as how much those resources cost, from a central area, so that outcomes can be tracked against cost.

13IT Service Desk 01962 847007 13IT Service Desk 01962 847007


SIMS

ReportingSchools need to know if the interventions they put in place achieve the desired outcome. SIMS Interventions provides a set of reports and Discover graphs to provide the answers.

Adding Interventions as group filter in Assessment ManagerA lot of schools currently set up user-defined groups to filter on specific groups of children. A new ‘interventions’ filter will be added to the existing list of group filters in SIMS Assessment making this task much easier with a direct link to SIMS Interventions.

Adding Interventions to the reporting dictionaryAdding Interventions to the reporting dictionary means users of SIMS reports will be able to analyse these data by creating their own reports containing a mix of intervention data with assessment, attendance, behaviour data.

How does it work?Interventions can be set up once and used many times. Each intervention contains the name of the intervention, subject area, start and end dates, and expected outcomes. Staff and pupils are allocated to each intervention. Each pupil’s start points and targets can be recorded and progress is measured as having exceeded, achieved, partly achieved or not achieved the target.

Each intervention can be managed in bulk with facilities to set targets and start points for the whole group and down to the pupil level. All the interventions offered by the school can be brought together in a single, manageable format.

Plan Intervention Screen

15IT Service Desk 01962 84700714 www.hants.gov.uk/itschools

Hampshire IT Schools - Spring 2017 Management Information


Interventions in SIMS DiscoverCombine data from all areas of SIMS into informative and easy to analysis graphs so you can cross reference interventions against outcome grades, behaviour points and attendance percentages.

The school intervention reportA school intervention report will show pupil names in rows against each intervention type, so you’ll always know what interventions have been allocated to each pupil.

The intervention outcome analysisEach intervention offered is displayed as a row with a breakdown of the percentage of pupils having achieved or not achieved their targets:

Report on Interventions effectiveness


Teaching resource

The Disinhibition Effect

Those schools who have had me in to speak know that I touch on this subject, explaining that in some circumstances knowing ‘why’ people do things online can be more important than ‘what.’ In other words, if we can understand the why we can help with the what.

The Online Disinhibition Effect was first coined by Professon John Suler (http://johnsuler.com), who is my go-to person when it comes to cyberpsychology.

So what is online disinhibition? In simple terms it’s described as “a loosening (or complete abandonment) of social restrictions and inhibitions that would otherwise be present in normal face-to-face interaction during interactions with others on the internet.” In other words, in real life we have social norms; we respond to situations in certain ways, we adapt our behaviour to those around us.

Online, those norms are often stripped away as there are no visual cues as to what somebody might be thinking, there is no immediate sharp intake of breath from our friends if we say something inappropriate or ‘that look’ from our peers if we’re about to do something wrong. This lack of visual cues can be both a good and a bad thing, for example people may be more honest and open online or the other effect is that they can do or say things that they wouldn’t ordinarily do in the real world.

Perceived anonymity online can also exacerbate negative online behaviours; if you don’t know me (or can’t see me) then I’ll get away with it. But we must also remember that online anonymity can be a good thing, it’s not all about the bad!

From an educational perspective, a basic understanding of the principles of online disinhibition can help us greatly and we can have really good, open conversations with students.

As a really basic example, two students talking face-to-face where they can see each other’s reactions. Now stand them back-to-back or behind a screen and remove those visual cues; what has changed, how do the students feel: more free, more open, disinhibited? Get them to discuss and debate this, then move that conversation into an online perspective, perhaps discussing why some may create and send wholly inappropriate Snapchat images or eye-opening Facebook updates.

One of the most basic things students tell us in regards to online safety education is that they want to understand ‘why.’

Introducing them to and discussing these concepts with them will greatly help with that understanding.

This article originally appeared in the schools’ edition of e-Safety, the newsletter of e-Safety Adviser. Back issues of the newsletter are available at http://tinyurl.com/esafetyarchive.

Alan Mackenzie is an online safety consultant who has worked in the education sector for many years. In this article, he talks about cyberpsychology and its importance in understanding online behaviour, specifically online disinhibition.




When the new Computing National Curriculum was established in 2014, many of us read the new objectives, scratched our heads and thought ‘crikey’!

However, using simple unplugged activities, children have the chance to acquire a deeper understanding of networks and the internet, becoming aware of each element of hardware involved and seeing how data travels.

Dr Sue Sentence, Senior Lecturer in Computer Science Education, Kings College, and CAS Master Teacher trainer, shared with me the simplicity of using lengths of string and foam pipe lagging to recreate a working network within a class.

There are many different types of Local Area Network (LAN) but the three most common are the bus, ring, and star. For a simple explanation of each of these, visit BBC Bitesize (http://goo.gl/IRM8aZ).

Teaching resources

Networks and the internetDaniel Trickett, CAS Master Teacher, St John the Baptist Primary School, Titchfield

19IT Service Desk 01962 847007 19IT Service Desk 01962 847007

The steps to this class activity are as follows:

Set the children up as each of the topologies in turn: bus, ring, star. For each of the networks, one child needs to represent the server machine and other children the client machines. Join the server machine and the client machines with string.

Give each of the children representing client machines an envelope with a request for a ‘document’ from the server machine. Then give the child acting as the server machine each document in separate envelopes. This introduces the children to the idea that data is packaged up into packets to be sent when requested, i.e. packet data.

Now you are ready for the networks to work. Ask the client machines to begin their request from the server by slipping the envelope into a piece of pipe lagging and sliding it around the network (string) to the server. In this way you can recreate the speed at which the data travels, demonstrate potential data clash and loss, and show the route the data takes. As a teacher, you simply direct the flow of data according to the topology that you are demonstrating.

It’s a good opportunity to discuss processors within a computer when looking at star topology. With all the clients sending their requests at once to the central server, the child acting as the server gets overloaded with data and slowly processes all the requests. By adding another child into the middle to have two acting as the server, the server is now a dual core. You can now repeat the exercise to show the difference. If you wish you can double again to have four children, quad core. This gives children an introduction to the concept of processors.

Once all three topologies have been demonstrated, ask the children to think about the network that the school is running on and to decide what topology they think it is.

A learning walk at this point is a good idea. Take the children to visit the different devices such as computers, printers, and tablets, and follow the wiring back to where it originates. They soon see that all the wiring leads back to the main switch which will be connected to your server; a perfect opportunity to discuss the function of the switch (a big extension socket).

Once back in class, discuss what type of network they think the school uses and why. For those with tablets, how wireless devices work on the network can be quite a talking point and a chance to discuss the function of your access points in the school.

Explaining the concept of a Wide Area Network (WAN) is inherently easier once the children understand a LAN as a WAN is nothing more than two or more LANs joined together.

The children are asked to think of the largest WAN they know in the world, eventually identifying the answer as the internet. It’s important to address the misconception of the World Wide Web and the internet as being synonymous. The World Wide Web, or web, is a way of accessing information over the internet, whereas the internet is a massive network of networks, connecting millions of computers together globally.

The children then create a functioning internet, again using string and pipe lagging, to see how the web uses it to share its data (web pages). An excellent resource found on the CAS Barefoot website (http://goo.gl/jf61Yp - you’ll need to sign up to access it) will provide you with the how to and resources for this.

Finally, I talk about the myth of internet speed. The truth is that all data travels at the same speed and thus no organisation can promise a faster broadband speed. What is different and can be changed is the bandwidth with which the data is received into the machine from the fibre optic wire.

There are many ways that you can represent this to the children. I have used toy cars and different number of lanes on a track - and also differing funnel neck widths and water.

I explain that data is sent in binary code as binary digits (bits) and that each internet provider can provide a bandwidth; the number of bits it can process per second.

With the example of the racing cars, I would have two tracks: one is one lane wide (1mbps) and the other five lanes wide (5mbps), and I tell the children they have to get the cars from start to finish on their track as quickly as possible.

Because the five lane wide track allows more cars (bits) along it in one go, the five cars arrive together and cross the line together whereas the one car wide track takes five times as long because each car has to go down individually.

Local Area Networks – (clockwise from top left) ring, star and bus LANs



Once you realise how much of the modern world is digital, equality becomes so much more important. Take a minute to think about the number and variety of digital devices in your life.

I wonder if you listed the boiler, washing machine, fridge, set top box, TV or did you start with the obvious smart phone and PC? Volkswagen would like us to forget about the computer chips in most of our cars.

Approximately 96% of the algorithms and programming that govern these devices was written by men. Whilst I don’t want to denigrate the industry’s achievements I doubt I am alone in wondering how our modern digital world would look and feel if women had an equal say in designing and creating it.

So how can we create a solid foundation in primary education that leaves all pupils excited about using computational thinking to think, design and create? Because make no mistake both sexes are equally capable of wonderful computational thinking and doing.

Firstly we need to create conditions where every child will flourish and to do this we need to stop solving things for pupils and we need to stop them solving things for each other. If one pupil in a group solves something and then shares their solution with their neighbours then only the original problem solver has had opportunity to develop their thinking skills. The helper is not really helping, in fact they are often making the helped more helpless and less independent.

Hints rather than solutions are the way to help someone to help themselves. Removing the false help of a fully formed solution forces all pupils to think for themselves and develop their own thinking skills. Even when knowledge consists

the gender imbalance in computing: creating a firm foundation in primary education

of simple instruction, where to begin is much more helpful than a full solution. Our quieter less confident pupils of both sexes flourish when the tyranny of false help is removed.

Secondly we need to remove the acceptableness of teachers being openly helpless at computing in the classroom.

Why could teacher helplessness be such an important issue in maintaining gender imbalance in primary schools? I see no evidence to suggest there are a greater percentage of male or female helpless teachers. Let us say for arguments sake that 5% of male teachers and 5% of female teachers are helpless (a number plucked from the air as there are no statistics available).

In primary education three quarters of teachers and four fifths of classroom support assistants are female. So our nominal 5% of female teachers represents a much higher number of teachers. All research suggests that positive role models are important in encouraging children to believe that something lies within their domain and computing is no different.

I lead lots of parental online-safety sessions and these are nearly always attended by a greater proportion of dads than mums – often directly the reverse of parents’ evenings or other meetings where there is parity or mums are in the majority.

I have no hard statistics about this but I suspect that if this trend represents parental involvement in technology use at home then boys are getting more active role models than girls in many homes. More research is needed to determine the extent of this problem, but we need to find a way to challenge parental attitudes to technology so our girls get more active female role models at home.

We know that many male teachers challenge male students to solve problems and solve problems for their female students. I have written before about falling into these 1950s attitude myself in the past and my dismay at realising how I was perpetuating inequality.

A recent US study suggests this is not so much a thing of the past as we would like to believe and still needs challenging and changing where we discover it. We can’t underestimate the power of negative stereotyping in damaging girls’ beliefs that technology creation and understanding is for them.

It is important to make sure that the programming projects pupils create reflect a variety of subjects. Children are complex and whilst there are no “boys programming projects” or “girls programming projects”, some pupils of both sexes will enjoy game creation, some will connect with the beauty of maths inside programming, others literacy, music or design and technology. By linking programming to a wide variety of stimulus we also demonstrate how it is relevant and important for all of us.

I have yet to meet a teacher that didn’t want their students to achieve more than their own generation was able to achieve, to push the boundaries and remove ceilings. I am confident that when, like me, primary teachers realise how our practice needs to change we will rise to that challenge and that will make a difference. I have certainly seen this to be true in the schools where I teach.

Harder to affect are the stereotypes I suspect that are happening in the home but light shone on these areas through research would make a difference. If parents realised that their attitude to technology was affecting their children’s life chances I have faith that many would effect change.

I look forward to the technology inspired, thought through and programmed by girls and boys, women and men in increasingly more equal numbers. I have a hunch that it will be even more amazing than what we have now.

Available at http://philbagge.blogspot.co.uk

The principle for the funnels is the same. With one large wider funnel neck and one smaller narrower one, you have created different size bandwidths. Simply pour the same amount of water into each at the same time (all data travels at the same speed and should arrive at the client machines equally) and watch as the larger bandwidth funnel allows more water (bits) through thus creating the illusion that the internet itself is faster for some and slower for others as opposed to data handling capacity of the wire.

Like all unknown quantities we are asked to teach, fear of failing the children grips us since, as professionals we want to do the best for our classes. The important thing to remember is that this element of the computing curriculum is best taught practically and creatively. Allow the children to experience being part of a network, providing them with a deeper and longer lasting understanding of the process.

[email protected]


by Phil Bagge, Computing Inspector/Adviser



Headteacher at Swanmore Primary School and member of the IT representative group PICATS/SICATS, John Paterson is a firm believer of using technology to push engagement beyond the classroom.

Every fortnight at our school each class puts together a blog about what they’ve been learning. This means families who want to extend the learning beyond the classroom have the option of linking a trip out or an activity at home with the work the class has been doing.

The bonus is that family members who might be geographically distant have the chance to see what their nephews, nieces and grandchildren have been up to at school which can help them feel more involved. It’s a great way of keeping links with the children, the family and the wider family group.

We also use Twitter (@swanmoreprimary) and Facebook to give immediacy of feedback for families about what’s happening at the school. I always have my phone with me as walk around the school, and if I spot something interesting going on, I can instantly tweet a photo which then gets replicated onto Facebook.

Technology brings the outside world into the classroom. When a pupil or a class is talking about a topic, if you’re able to find images or a video which support what’s being discussed, you can immediately reinforce their understanding. If there’s a concept the class is trying to understand, visualisation can be extremely powerful in their learning.

The first time I used a computer was at primary school in the mid eighties on the old BBC Master. I remember being engrossed by a programme based on the Mary Rose where you explored the submerged warship, looking for artefacts and recording what you found.

My first personal computer was the Spectrum 48K when I was about 7 or 8. I’d been keen to have a computer for the games but much of the programming seemed to involve typing in long lines of code for hours to do things like make the screen change colour. I remember trying to create an onscreen Union flag and I spent a good couple of hours typing in lines of code then finding out at the end it didn’t work. It was good fun but the combination of young children and huge lines of code just spells disaster.

I’m still keen on technology with much of my work linked across my computer, my smartphone and my iPad. Integrating home and work by being able to access work files when I’m at home is very effective as I can prepare things on a Word app on my iPad and send it straight into work.

Young people face a different set of problems to the ones we had when I was young and I think it can be quite tough for them. Their mental wellbeing is a vital issue and it’s important we consider how we help them manage their emotions and tackle the challenges they face socially.

I think it’s harder nowadays for young people to get distance from a problem. When I was young, you’d go home at the end of the day and by the time you went back to school, the previous day’s upsets would be forgotten and everyone would have moved on. Nowadays a quarrel can spread outside school and develop through social media with other people commenting and getting involved.

In the future I wonder whether young people will have any downtime when they’re not switched into the grid. It’s going to be very hard for them socially.

I knew I wanted to be a teacher from the start, getting involved in technology at schools fairly early on and I’ve been part of the headteachers’ group PICATS/SICATS for about a year. The opportunity to have a voice at county level is exciting and with clearer terms of reference and structure we can robustly track and deal with issues that come up.

I’m an advocate of getting involved, working hard, and putting in effort to have a positive impact: you can’t sit on the outside and make a difference.

My IT - John PatersonCyber crime is increasing and schools are not immune. This has been highlighted nationally with the announcement of a National Cyber Crime Strategy last October and with the new DfE statutory guidance ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ (KCSiE), which sets out the legal duties that governing bodies must comply with in order to keep children safe. Ofsted also now applies a higher focus on online safety.

Most successful cyber attacks happen by exploiting weaknesses in existing user systems rather than through the development of sophisticated coding. Attacks often take advantage of insecure coding, weak access controls, poorly implemented cryptography and unprotected databases - these are just a few of the common vulnerabilities.

Some Hampshire schools have been victim to recent cyber attacks where weak access controls have been exploited. This has mostly related to third party provided remote access servers.

There are several simple steps that schools can take to reduce the risk of such attacks and we recommend that you apply the following as a minimum:

account lockout policies

complex passwords that are difficult to guess

deletion of accounts when staff leave

regular updating of the server software

limit access to only those accounts that use the service

change generic usernames eg Administrator

the use of additional security protection such as two-factor authentication (similar to Hampshire Passport tokens for accessing CHSIMS from home) when transferring data across the public internet and/or accessing systems from home

regular examination of security log files

up to date anti-virus software

Our own services, including the Hosted Schools Service (HSS), are fully compliant with industry standard security practices and are fully certified against the international security standard ISO27001 for information security management.

Schools using HPSN2 can also buy our Centrally Managed Virus Protection service that automatically updates your local devices and alerts Hampshire Services IT in the event of any virus activity. Further details are available from the Hampshire Schools IT website www.hants.gov.uk/itschools.

Keeping your IT systems



eLearn eTeach – a wealth of practical courses aimed at enabling schools to get the most out of SIMS and ICT

Look for the brochure in your school and at events, or look online at: www.hants.gov.uk/elearneteachHampshire IT Schools Spring 2017 edition is produced by Hampshire County CouncilThe Castle, Winchester SO23 8UJ 0300 555 1375

FLEXIBLE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WITH THE LATEST INTERACTIVE TEACHING TECHNOLOGY

ACADEMIC YEAR2016 – 2017SIMS AND TUCASI COURSES

DIGITAL LITERACY COURSES

CURRICULUM COURSES

BESPOKE TRAINING

TECHNOLOGY TO TRY

Spring 2017 IT - Hampshire · 2017. 4. 3. · HSS, HPSN2 and other services provided by Hampshire...

Documents

Transcript of Spring 2017 IT - Hampshire · 2017. 4. 3. · HSS, HPSN2 and other services provided by Hampshire...