Safer Internet Day – Tuesday 7 February, 2023
Safer Internet Day is a global event that unites communities, families, schools, and organisations from over 200 countries to promote safer online spaces. This year marks its 20th anniversary, making it a time to both reflect and look ahead.
The rapid advancement in technology over the past two decades has brought numerous benefits, but also exposed us to various online risks with real-life consequences. This year’s theme is encouraging people to Connect safely, Reflect before acting, and Protect themselves and others.
Connect - Stay connected safely and meaningfully - by ensuring the security of apps and devices and using social media for positive purposes.
Reflect – Think before you act - take a moment to consider the potential impact of your online actions and words on others.
Protect - Take steps to protect yourself and others - educate your family, friends, and colleagues on online safety and how they can help.
At Girls Grammar, we have implemented several tools to help protect our students while online at school. In 2022 we implemented Saasyan Assure which provides teachers the ability to allow access to otherwise blocked areas of the internet, such as YouTube for specific classes. It also provides significant reporting on internet use to staff and immediate alerting for specific events.
We also use another product that allows teaching staff to monitor student laptop screens during class times, and additional immediate or summary alerts for specific keywords.
Start of 2023 Update
Towards the end of Term 4, 2022 and over the Christmas break, every student laptop was returned to IT, reimaged with the latest software, inspected for damage and repaired, and returned back to students. This allowed us the opportunity to start the 2023 year fresh, with more than 80 laptops having repairs undertaken, and up to date software including the move to Microsoft OneDrive for student documents.
The move to Microsoft OneDrive provides for the following benefits for students:
Autosave: Files saved in student documents, desktop and pictures directory will continually save while being worked on.
File History: Each document will have multiple versions available to revert back to. Deleted a paragraph a few days ago and regret it? Just go back through the history of the document.
File Backup: OneDrive provides a secure backup of your important files, reducing the risk of data loss due to hardware failure or other issues. Student files are synced to Microsoft datacentres in Australia and then backed up back to Girls Grammar.
Collaboration: You can work on documents with others in real-time and track changes, even from different locations.
Accessibility: OneDrive has apps for various devices, including PCs, iOS and Android devices, making it easy to access your files on the go. It's also an easy way to upload photos or videos to your school laptop.
Lindsey Hull
Director of IT
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