Dear Parents and Guardians,

As another year has drawn to a close I would like to provide some information for you…

College Reports:

At the end of every term reports will be available to you.  This will be the same day that the College mails them (snail mail)  they will be available to you online via the Portal (Normally about 1pm)

Laptops

In 2011 Years 7 and 10 will be supplied a laptop by the school in our 1:1 Learning program rollout (http://www.joeys.org/schoollife/1to1learning.cfm ) 

Boys moving into Years 11 and 12 will be able to use their own private laptops on the College  network. 

Boys in Years 8 and 9 (2011) will not be required to have laptops.  In 2012 they will be supplied with laptops.  I would suggest that parents hold off buying your son a laptop in 2011 as he does not require one for day to day classroom use.  Access to Computer labs will be more available due to the number of students in years 7 and 10 not requiring access to these in 2011.

Mobile Broadband

The College requests that parents DO NOT buy mobile internet cards for laptops.  Once you do this you immediately give students FULL unregulated access to the internet.  Provision of these unnecessary mobile internet connection is not conducive to the routines for study and may lead to use of this access for social networking (e.g. Facebook and gaming) at inappropriate times and can be distracting and potentially detrimental to his study program at the College

The Boys at Joeys can access whatever is required via the College network even on their private student network.  Please don’t be ‘conned’

Mobile Phones:  

Many mobile phones by default come with internet access allowing students again to be ‘facebooking’ at any time.  This is not a huge problem at Joeys but here and at home in his bedroom students simply use it at inappropriate times.  If you have the ability it may be wise to check your sons phone records and have a look at the times that he maybe texting…….  You may be surprised with what you find; however, if this is being used appropriately it should not be an issue for your son.

Social Networking  and Gaming Times @ Joeys

From time to time I’m asked what we do to allow students access to social networking sites (Facebook etc.) and games.  Access to the internet is available at all times Our current response  to social networking is as follows:

Years 7 to 12 inclusive

Social networking and gaming is available from 3.30 to 5.30 Monday to Friday and all day Saturday and Sunday

Accessed is blocked  during Study Monday to Friday

Access is opens at the following times for students in particular Year groups

• Years 7 and 8  opens from 8pm to 9.00pm
• Years 9 and 10  opens from 9pm to 9.45pm
• Years 11 and 12 opens from 9.30pm to 10.30pm

The College Internet access is discontinued between 10.30pm to 6.00 am for all students.

Portal Access

The College Portal allows parents to access sites within the College.. the following is available after entry to the portal is obtained

Access to your sons

1. reports,
2. timetables,
3. teachers names,
4. day boy departure times and
5. Weekend leave forms
6. Sports reports
7. JNet

And can only be accesses via the Portal.    Please access this via  www.joeys.org, select the link JOEYS ONLINE (at the top of the web site).  You can use this access for other management matters such as resetting your password. 

Parents new to the College are now able to access the Portal.  Please log on at some stage to make sure that you can access the portal.

Merry Christmas

Security experts and privacy advocates have recently begun warning about the potential dangers of geotags, which are embedded in photos and videos taken with GPS-equipped smartphones and digital cameras. Because the location data is not visible to the casual viewer, the concern is that many people may not realize it is there; and they could be compromising their privacy, if not their safety, when they post geotagged media online.

Disabling the geotag function generally involves going through several layers of menus until you find the “location” setting, then selecting “off” or “don’t allow.” But doing this can sometimes turn off all GPS capabilities, including mapping, so it can get complicated.

The Web site ICanStalkU.com provides step-by-step instructionsfor disabling the photo geotagging function on iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Palm devices.

Many of the pictures show children playing in or around their homes. Others reveal expensive cars, computers and flat-screen televisions. There are also pictures of people at their friends’ houses or at the Coffee shop they visit each morning.  By posting your pictures with GPS location on you are showing anyone in the world where you live and when you are away

Be aware….

A new digital craze from the USA is about to hit Australia.

They have fallen victim to an insidious new digital drug culture that preys on vulnerable young teens with money to burn.

With nothing but an mp3 player and an internet account they can can legally download ‘binaural’ audio downloads that claim to deliver a “high” that can mimic drugs like LSD and Crystal Meth.

Full Story:  http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/digital-drug-peddlers-target-teens-with-idoses-20100813-12231.html

Over the last few days the College has upgraded its main servers……. believe it or not the “old ones” are now 4 years old.

We have bought again DELL servers…. I have been very impressed with the calibre of hardware and no downtime (Other then people cutting through main electrical cables !!)

Thanks to David our Network engineer for hi work in this area and the very late nights that occured during the week.

What are the specs (For you Tech geeks)… 4 x 6 quad core CPUS, 48 Gb RAM in each server