Technology for Learning FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

All: How often do we back-up our systems?

A daily back-up of our systems occurs at 4pm every weekday. Over the weekend we transfer the back-up to a physical tape system. During the transfer we cannot back-up at the same time, in other words, we do not back-up over the weekend. Any data created over the weekend will be backed-up on Monday at 4pm. In the unlikely event that a system crash occurs over the weekend, data created over the weekend period will be lost. Please back-up any data you create over the weekend.

System backup details are here: drive.google.com/file/d/17Yt2YSNO7OaP18IjcVBpO-JISecgakt0/view

Contact siwi@patana.ac.th if you have specific questions regarding the backup process.

Contact helpdesk@patana.ac.th if you need support in recovering items from the backup,

All: What applications and websites are filtered on-site at Patana?

The following applications and websites are filtered on-site using a PaloAlto firewall.

It’s done by using Categories which are built-in and regularly updated from Palo Alto cloud.

We also override the Categories by using Allow (white list) and Block (red or blacklist) which we can manually enter sites that we want to block or allow at the request of individuals.

Students

Applications:

Skype

Bittorent

Facebook

VPNs

Websites in the following categories:

Adult

Gambling

Hacking

Malware

Nudity

peer-to-peer

phishing

private-ip-addresses

proxy-avoidance-and-anonymizers

questionable

Note: students are limited to using one registered mobile device (their laptop) on the school wifi network.

Staff

Applications:

Bittorent

Websites in the following categories:

Adult

Gambling

Hacking

Malware

Nudity

peer-to-peer

phishing

private-ip-addresses

proxy-avoidance-and-anonymizers

questionable

All

Communication via emails and MS Teams messages are subject to Communication Compliance Policies within Microsoft Compliance manager. Members of the Compliance team are alerted if offensive or threatening language is used in these platforms. 

Note: Patana does not use Yammer.

Note: users can report a concern in any MS Teams message (three dots>Report a concern). This will alert the Compliance team to investigate.

All: Which printers have "Follow me" printing available?

Follow me printing is available for the 4 Ricoh 4 photocopy machines in ARTS, HUMANITY, TEC, Y56. Other printers in the school do not have this feature.

All: I need a version of Windows for my device - where can I get one?

Students/Parents:

You can purchase the Windows 10 Home Edition for B5199 (as of Feb 2017). IS/IT will then upgrade the version to Windows 10 Pro for free and install the latest version of Microsoft Office 365. You do not need to have installed the purchased Windows 10 Home Edition - just bring official proof of purchase. Please note that there are many non-official versions of Windows available on the market and in the process of upgrading the version is checked. IS/IT may be in contact with you to inform you that your version is not official. It is highly recommended that if you purchase a device that does not already have an official version of Windows installed then you should use the Microsoft website to buy one.

The Thai Microsoft site is here: www.microsoftstore.com/store/msapac/th_TH/pdp/ThemeID.27660100/productID.320416700

The Thai Microsoft site translated into English is here: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.microsoftstore.com%2Fstore%2Fmsapac%2Fth_TH%2Fpdp%2FThemeID.27660100%2FproductID.320416700&edit-text=&act=url

There are shops in Central that sell licenses and you can purchase one via post on this site: http://www.invadeit.co.th/category/operating-systems-windows/. Please note that the school are not responsible for the quality of service or products from these vendors - please do your research.  

Please note that all Windows Laptop for Learning devices must have an official version of Windows 8 or above installed (or proof of purchase given) before IS/IT will upgrade the device. As part of the Laptop for Learning scheme users are responsible for the purchase of the operating system on the device prior to registering the laptop with IS/IT. 

Staff:

For personal devices above also applies to staff for the Windows operating system for now, until the Microsoft Imagine program comes back online. Details are here: patana.fireflycloud.asia/gc/digital-citizenship/digital-literacy/digital-literacy-for-staff/technologies-at-bps/software-and-apps-at-patana/academic-ict-subscriptions/dreamspark-now-referred-to-as-microsoft-imagine. Staff can obtain additional versions of Microsoft Office for their device as per the information below:

As part of the school licence for Microsoft Office, teachers at Bangkok Patana school may use these applications at home provided that it is for school use.

If you would like to take advantage of this offer please print and sign the following document.

Acceptance Form

The signed copy should be taken to the IT Manager in the IT Department along with a two blank DVDs. A third, optional, Office DVD contains interactive tutorials which can be used to increase your skills. An extra blank DVD will be required for this.

Blank DVDs can be purchased from the school shop. Office is available for the PC and Mac.

Other Microsoft programs can be downloaded from the MSDN Academic Alliance.

This license is only valid for Bangkok Patana Academic Staff. When you leave this licence is no longer valid and should be removed from the device.

All: What happens to my Patana account when I leave?

Staff: the Personnel Department official sends leaving staff information via email to the Network Manager.

The Network Manager disables the account on the leaving date (31st July) and leaves the account in the Active Directory for 30 days before permanently deleting the account manually. This is for standard end of employment contract. For staff leaving before the end of employment date (breaking contract) or emergency circumstances, then access to all systems/applications is deactivated on the last working day - this is determined by HR and entered into BPSnet to trigger deactivation.

You will no longer be able to access your email from 31st July of the leaving year. Please let all your contacts know your new email address so that important emails are not lost.

Access to Patana Cloud Services (Google Suite & Office 365) is transferred to your line manager in August of the year you leave.

Students: if you are a student in FS to Y12 then access to your email account and all other services is active for 30 days from the day you leave (the last day of term). You must back-up all of your data and inform all of your contacts of your new forwarding email address. After 30 days your account will be suspended. We cannot retrieve your data once your account has been suspended.

Students are responsible for backing up learning resources in their personal section of Firefly, Google Drive and any other systems used at the school. Advice on how to do this can be obtained from their ICT teacher (Primary students) or IS/IT (Secondary students).

For Y13 students you will be able to access your email and Patana Cloud services (Google Suite & Office 365) resources up until the end of Term 1 of the following academic year. You must back-up all of your data and inform all of your contacts of your new forwarding email address. We cannot retrieve your data once your account has been disabled.

All: to back up your data in Google the use Google takeout: https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout. Video on how to do it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S4gd7OmBT0. 

You are responsible for informing any 3rd parties that you have used your Patana username to register. You must re-direct any authenticating or confirmation of identity to your personal email address. The school is not in a position to assist you with this once your Patana account has been suspended.

What happens to my Patana OneDrive account when I leave?

Staff: 30 days after your last day at school you will lose access to your OneDrive. Make a copy of all of the files in another location.

Students (not Y13): you will lose access to your OneDrive files on the day you leave Patana. Y13 students will lose access to their OneDrive at the end of Term 1 the following year they graduate.

It is the responsibility of all users to make copies of their files.

Transfer of Ownership: As explained by the Microsoft support engineer, transferring ownership of OneDrive files and folders cannot be done like Google Drive.

The original account needs to share files/folders with the designated account.

Then the designated account needs to copy files/folders to its OneDrive before the original account gets deleted.

Regards

Ad

All: What are the limits on the personal folder and email?

Student Home Folder = 1 Gb

Student email account = 200Mb (accept Y13 have 400Mb)

Staff Home Folder = 6 Gb

Staff email account = 1Gb

All: Can I access the shared folders from home?

This facility allows staff and students to access folders on the school network from home. If you would like to try if for yourself please click on the links below to see configuration instructions

Before you are granted access you must confirm in writing (email) to Khun Ad, the Network Administrator (siwi@patana.ac.th) that your home computer is running a legal version of the operating system and that you subscribe to an anti virus program which regularly updates itself via the web.

Once connected you will find that access to files is much slower than if you were on campus. It is advisable to copy files to your local computer before working on them, then copying them back to the network when you've finished.

Type \\bpsfiles.patana.ac.th into your file explorer to access the school network files.

Manual connection instructions here.

Mac Users can find instructions here.

Windows 7 & 8 Users can find instructions here.

All: Laptops for Learning: Can I have the latest version of Windows on my machine?

IS/IT will upgrade your laptop to the latest version of Windows only if you have a valid version of Windows installed (Windows 8 or above). If you do not have Windows installed then you can purchase one from a reputable computer shop (approx. B3000 for a Windows 10 Single User License from JIB in Central - Sep 2016). You do not need to install the operating system, just bring proof of the license (certificate) to IS/IT and they will install the latest version for you. 

All: Can I forward all of my emails in one go to a new address?

To save your emails we recommend you archive them first so that you can easily import them into another system. Or you could simply forward the ones you want to keep to your personal account, here’s how: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3rV3uoff3U

All: How do I login to my Patana Google Drive account?

Staff: When your Patana active directory account is set up you will automatically receive an email with your login and password details sent to your personal email address indicated when you applied for a position at Patana. 24 hours later your Patana Google account is also set up automatically. How to access your Patana Google account is here: http://patana.fireflycloud.asia/gc/digital-citizenship/digital-literacy/digital-literacy-for-staff/technologies-at-bps/google-apps-for-education-gafe-at-patana. We recommend that you set the password for your active directory to be the same as for your Patana Google account so that you are less likely to forget. Please remember to change your password regularly though. If you have any problems logging in to your Patana Google account then please contact helpdesk@patana.ac.th

Students: Same as above but the email is sent to your Parent's email address.

All: Should I buy a Mac locally or overseas?

No major issues that I can see. The main one would be I think the warranty is only honoured in the territory you purchase the laptop, so if he had any issues he would have to ship it to the USA and back which soon negates some of the savings. That is if Apple US would even ship it out to a different territory in Asia after a repair / replacement.

Also I am not sure of the availability of a Thai/English keyboard in the USA if that is something you may need.

Other than that there should not be any issues using it here at Patana. You may need to buy a cheap replacement socket prong for the Thai plugs but the transformer itself works on most voltages so shouldn’t be a problem.

Recommendation wise really often depends on budget as most things. I have been using a Macbook Air 13” and have found the battery life great, portable and been fine for the applications we use in Computer Science. It does however struggle with Video editing which is to be expected. I also soon removed bootcamp due to the limited storage space the Macbook Airs have which may not be an option for students if a subject really insists on a Windows only program (rare). That said I purchased mine second hand on craigslist for around 22000 TBH 2 years ago so it has served me well.

Stay away from the new ‘Macbook’ as it has no USB and I found my wife’s extremely underpowered for the cost. ‘Looks nice though’.

The Macbook Pros are obviously more feature rich but the cost is significantly higher and I would maybe consider something like this for Year 9 students upwards when they may actually use the extra processing power.

One last thing to note is that many of the Macbook Pro and Macbook Air models are due an update soon, so I would be tempted to hold fire and then purchase the newest models when released here in Thailand. This is a great link for following when best to buy:

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac

Hope this helps,

Email dated 3rd June 2016

ALL: How do I go about buying an ACER laptop (similar to the school one)?

ACER or the school does not deal directly with private individuals that want to buy a device. You can however contact a reseller. Here is one that sells ACER products that you can contact independently. The school cannot guarantee the quality of service/product or request a discount on your behalf. 

Ratanaphon Santiphakorn

Techconect Company Limited

135/17 8th Floor,Amornphan 205 Tower 2

Soi Nathong, Ratchadapisek Road,

Din-Daeng District, Bangkok 10400

Tel : 0 2692 2740

Fax : 0 2692 2741

Mobile : 08 6313 9885

e-mail : ratanaphons@techconnect.co.th

website : www.techconnect.co.th

Students: Can I wear my Smart Watch to school?

Wearable SMART devices that can connect to the Internet: eg smartwatches:

1. What are the policy using them in classes?

The watches are allowed in classes, but are discouraged since they are an expensive item that can easily be lost, damaged or stolen

2. What are the policy using them in assessments?

Current models need to be tethered to a smart phone to obtain internet access (unless connected to the WiFi) and for KS3 students and below, mobile phones are supposed to be stored in lockers during the school day (or not brought into school) unless the teacher gives permission for them to be used in the lesson (obtains permission from Parents in Primary). The items should not be used in class tests. Update: with virtual e-sims built into the watches, access to the internet is available without being tethered to a phone. Smart watches are not allowed to be wn during major internal* and external assessments (*at the discretion of the person administering the assessment).

3. What are the policy using them in exam situations/room?

All forms of wearable communication technology that fall into this category are banned items in the exam.

4. What are the policy using them in common areas?

The secondary students voted for no laptops to be present in the common areas and that they should be for face-to-face socialising. We will continue to monitor the situation and dialogue with the student councils on appropriate codes of conduct with regards to smart watches impacting on this philosophy.

Students: What happens to the school's Sophos antivirus software on my laptop when I leave?

When you leave school the Sophos version will expire in October of the year you leave.

You’ll need to uninstall before installing another one. These are good articles to read in terms of best advice for antivirus software:

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/test-centre/security/best-antivirus-2017-3651652/

http://download.cnet.com/2701-19409_4-1444-2.html

Students: What happens if my laptop's operating system is an illegal?

Bangkok Patana School does not support illegal software.

If the IS/IT technicians detect that your laptop contains illegal or pirated software and/or operating system they cannot connect you to the school domain and/or upgrade your operating system.

If you know that your operating system is pirated you should purchase a legal version before registering and submitting your laptop to the IS/IT office. Contact helpdesk@patana.ac.th for more information on legal versions of operating systems. 

Staff: What happens to my resources on Firefly when I leave?

When you leave contents of your Firefly personal section are archived for one academic year. You can request external access to this archive by contacting brta@patana.ac.th. Each year this archive is then purged from our systems. Content in faculty areas will remain as normal, but you will not be able to access them externally.

Staff: How do I save content from a Firefly page when I leave?

If you want to save content from your Firefly pages you have the following choices:

1. export firefly pages or sections (see here). Please note that you can only import them into another Firefly installation at another school
2. in the browser click file>save as>complete web page. This will save the page and the contents of the page in a folder
3. print the pages for your records - this does not save the content

Firefly are planning to have an export tool to make this process easier, but have not released a date for this update.

Staff: How can I order software or licenses for myself or my team?

For small volume licenses that are faculty specific, subject specific or year team specific then you can use your consumables budget and complete a purchase order form as normal. Speak to your line manager or person in control of your budget to see if they have funds available. The software provider will usually provide an invoice and details of payment when requested. These should be attached to the Purchase Order, along with any usernames and passwords that are needed for the Purchasing Department to use to updgade an existing account or assign users for a license. For large volume licenses or multi-discipline software then please contact brta@patana.ac.th

Staff: What happens to my laptop when I am on maternity leave?

When on maternity leave the laptop issued to you should be returned to IS/IT so that it can be issued to the cover teacher. Please contact helpdesk@patana.ac.th for assistance. 

Staff: As a teacher can I install Microsoft Office on my personal device at home?

As part of the school licence for Microsoft Office, teachers at Bangkok Patana school may use these applications at home provided that it is for school use.

If you would like to take advantage of this offer please print and sign the following document.

Acceptance Form

The signed copy should be taken to the IT Manager in the IT Department along with a two blank DVDs. A third, optional, Office DVD contains interactive tutorials which can be used to increase your skills. An extra blank DVD will be required for this.

Blank DVDs can be purchased from the school shop. Office is available for the PC and Mac.

Other Microsoft programs can be downloaded from the MSDN Academic Alliance.

This license is only valid for Bangkok Patana Academic Staff. When you leave this licence is no longer valid and should be removed from the device.