July 2015 – ICT Moray

Can I Have More Network Storage?

What are my options?

Clean out the space the school already has. (This option is free (0p per Gb))

Ask for users and their home directory that have left the school to be deleted.

On a yearly basis have time set aside when staff can go through their home directories and shared areas to delete data that is no longer required.

Ask pupils to delete files that are no longer required at the end of each year.

Check shared areas for old files that are no longer required.

Do not copy CDs onto the network

Save data to Glow. (This option is free (0p per Gb))

All Glow users have 50Gb personal data storage in Glow which can be used

Order additional Hard Drive space for the server (£200 – £400 (66p – £1.32 per Gb))

This is limited by the size of the backup system on your server

Upgrade the Backup system for your server (£2500 (£8.33 per Gb))

This will cost in the region of £2,500. It may allow the school to access and extra 300Gb (1/3 Tb) of space.

Order Network Attached Storage (NAS) (£350 – £3100 (17p – 35p per Gb))

NAS drives are available in sizes to suit all schools from 1Tb (1000Gb) to 18Tb (18,000 Gb). This drives allows everyone in the school to save to it in the same way that they currently save to the schools server.

What is a NAS Drive?

A NAS drive is a group of Hard Drives connected to your network that can be accessed by users on the network that have the necessary permissions.

The data on the NAS drive is written to two separate disks within the enclosure which means if one of the hard disks fails it can be replaced with no loss of data.

Much of the data on a school network is non critical and does not require to be backed up e.g. Videos, Pictures, non assessment related data. This type of data can easily be stored on a NAS drive with minimal risk.

Is there a down side to using a NAS Drive?

If a twinned pair of hard drives fail at the same time, there is a risk that the data will be lost permanently as there is no tape backup. However if data is critical to the school it should be stored on the schools server.

How much does it cost?

NAS drives come in all shapes and sizes to meet your schools requirements. An initial Enclosure is purchased with Hard Drives added as required. The prices below give some indication of how much data storage costs. (Prices change all the time and ICT should be contacted for up to date pricing)

Enclosure

2 Bay (Primary Schools only) £350 / 1Tb

4 Bay £631 / 3Tb £809 / 6Tb

8 Bay £1839 / 3Tb £2017 / 6Tb £2195 / 9Tb £2373 / 12Tb

12 Bay £2563 / 9Tb £2741 / 12Tb £2919 / 15T £3098 / 18Tb

How do I order?

It is recommended that schools contact TMC ICT if they are considering purchasing additional storage. ICT will be able to further advise on the suitability of each solution.

Orders can then be placed via Procurement.

Why Are We Changing The Interactive Technology?

Schools have made more and more use of Interactive Whiteboards over the past 10-12 years to the point where it is a “Must Have” in many classrooms.

The whiteboard and projector technology has been the mainstay of equipment which has been rolled out over this period starting with roof mounted projectors, then projectors on booms and finally ultra short throw projectors which were fixed to the wall directly above the board.

With advances in technology it is now possible to use Interactive LCD screens to carry out the same roll.

What are the benefits?

No Calibration:- You will no longer need to calibrate the boards using the dots every time your projector moves a few millimetres.

No Shadows:- Because there is no projector there is no light source between you and the class and therefor no shadows.

No Bulb Replacement:- The bulbs for projectors are very expensive and have placed a growing financial burden on schools as the projectors in their schools get to the age where they start using more bulbs.

Better Visibility in sunlight:- When using a projector many classrooms experience issues with being able to see the image on the board in daylight. This is much less of a problem with LCD technology. The units were tested in a classroom with two walls made entirely of windows. The images were visible at a greater angle and brighter light than had been seen with any projected image.

More Robust:- The screens on the LCD units are toughened polycarbonate which makes the LCD screens harder to damage than a standard white interactive board.

Good Quality Sound Built in:- The Active Panel has 2 x 10W forward facing speakers built in which the teachers that tested the units agreed were more than ample to fill a classroom. On the odd occasion where additional volume is required speakers or sound bars can be used enhance the provision.

Warranty:- All of the new Active Panels come with a 5 Year on-site warranty against manufacturing faults so there should be no surprise bills for schools over that time period.

Easier to create a mobile unit:- As there is no projector which requires calibration of the board every time it is moved it is now much easier to create a mobile resource within your school. (Dependant on floor levels) A mobile board can be wheeled into a classroom and used with minimal set up.

More information on sizes, costs and how to order will be available in later blogs.

Primary School Interactive Display Support

In January of this year ICT took on the support of Primary School Interactive Equipment along with other additional areas that Primary schools had let us know they would like support with. e.g. Software Installation and running Group Policies when required.

To provide this additional support ICT created an additional ICT Officer’s post plus a Trainee ICT Officers post. Both of these Officers have hit the road running and have cleaned and aligned 385 projectors, tested and calibrated 390 Interactive Boards and carried out literally thousands of support calls which Primary Schools have logged.

Both Officers have also been highly involved in the testing of the new interactive technologies which will soon be released to all schools. (More information in a later blog)

If you would like specific support from these Officers please raise a call with the ICT Service Desk, using the online form link available on staff desktops, and one of the ICT staff will attend to your requirements as soon as possible.

When Will My Call Be Done?

ICT deal with around 2500 support calls per month and endeavour to deal with all calls as quickly as possible. To help ICT prioritise the calls there is a Service Level Agreement (SLA) which is applied as part of the Service desk software. This SLA has been agreed with Education and is applied across all Education sites.

Call resolution and service levels

The Service Desk team will: record the call details in our Service Desk system, prioritise and assign your call based on service level agreements, Provide you with a reference number, which you should use in all correspondence about your call.

Some calls are resolved instantly, but others will need more time. Where a call cannot be resolved by the Duty ICT Officer, it will be passed to relevant staff members with expertise in desktop, server, network and application support. In some instances, ICT staff may need to arrange a visit to your school to resolve the problem.

Priority levels:

Priority 1

Outage or failure affecting the whole School

Acknowledge Time: 30 minutes

Call to Fix Time: 6 hours

Priority 2

Outage not affecting the entire School but no alternative service is available

Acknowledge Time: 1 hour

Call to Fix Time: 8 hours

Priority 3

Outage not affecting total School but alternative equivalent equipment available

Acknowledge Time: 2 hours

Call to Fix Time: 12 hours

Priority 4

Advice and Guidance only

Acknowledge Time: As soon as possible

Priority 5

Request for Change e.g. Order for new equipment

Acknowledge Time: As soon as possible

School Refresh 2015

ICT are pressing on with the roll out of over 600 devices as part of the 2015 refresh. In addition to this there are 100’s of additional devices being installed which have been purchase through school’s own devolved budgets.

The picture below shows the schools own spend equipment which is being rolled out in the next 2 -3 weeks.

These PCs, netbooks, monitors and laptops have all been checked, logged, asset tagged and cofigured for roll out to schools.

Interactive Board Testing

For the past 10 years Moray schools have made good use of Interactive Whiteboards with projectors and they are now an intrinsic part of Learning & Teaching. There is however a new technology which offers a more robust solution for classrooms:- Interactive LCD Panels.

These panels do everything that a smart board does but they do not require calibration or bulbs and you don’t have to worry about where your shadow is. All of which have plagued users in the past.

To ensure that Moray standardised on a solution suitable for Learning & Teaching 4 different solutions from key vendors in the Interactive marker were set up to enable teaching staff to feed their comments and requirements into the decision making process.

What started out as the board ICT ordered to fill a space turned out to be the teachers favourite based on operation and sound quality.

With all of the feedback collated ICT are now running a mini competition between Suppliers on the AV Contract to ensure that schools can benefit from the best pricing available.

Come back to this blog for updates on the process