Safe Search on the Bradford Learning Network

Today we rolled out a new feature for Bradford Learning Network(BLN) schools that we hope to roll out to other Broadband providers.

Regional Broadband consortiums such as the BLN purchase curriculum focused resources for their customers. We found that a number of schools were not aware of the resources they had access to so we decided to add a links section to safe search that will be displayed when any computer on the Bradford Learning Network accesses safe search.

The links direct the users to the single sign on link of their specific resource and have the Shibboleth WAYF set.

The links look like this:

You can directly link to http://primaryschoolict.com/bradford to access it from home.

If you would like similar functionality for your RBC or LA then please get in touch!

Technical note: We automatically detect the location of the visitor IE schools from the Bradford Learning Network just visit http://primaryschoolict.com and get the appropriate links. We do this based on IP address of the visitor

NEW FEATURE: Online Pictogram / Pictograph creator

A few days ago Matt Lovegrove mentioned he didn’t have any simple pictogram (aka pictogramme / pictograph) software for his network so we went about making him something up!

We decided to make a simple, free, online pictogram creator. This gives you the freedom to use the tool however you see fit!

Key Features:

  • Images automatically load
  • Up to 5000 items/rows
  • We still have no ideas if this is supposed to be called a pictogramme, pictogrammen, pictogram or pictograph creator..
  • No need to download/install any software
  • Completely free
  • Super awesome.
  • Open source

NEW FEATURE: PrimaryPad autoQue / Teleprompter

Ever wanted to make a movie and needed an autoQue? Well why not collaboratively write your script in PrimaryPad then export it straight to our autoQue tool?

We have released the autoQue tool under an open source license and we will be adding it to the suite of tools available through the safe search website.

Check it out now, visit this pad then click Export –> autoQue

Setting Safe Search as the default home page across your whole school

Creating a Group Policy Object (GPO) to set Safe Search as your Homepage

  1. Open Group Policy Management Console – It is found under Administrative Tools on the server Start Menu

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  1. Right click on Group Policy Objects and select New

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  1. Name the policy “Users – Set Homepage” – This will be a user policy rather than a computer policy, using a meaningful description will help administration later on.

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  1. Right click on the policy and select Edit. The Group Policy Editor will now open.

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  1. Browse through the tree structure to display Important URLs in the right hand side of the browser

User Configuration > Windows Settings > Internet Explorer Maintenance > URLs

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  1. Right click on Important URLs and select Properties

Enter the following address for the homepage URL into the dialogue box

Http://www.primaryschoolict.com

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  1. Click on Ok and close the Group Policy Editor

  1. Within the Group Policy Management Window browse to the Organisational Unit containing your school users
  1. Right click on the Organisation Unit and select Link an existing GPO.

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  1. Select your new GPO from the list and click Ok

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  1. Your new GPO is now linked and will be applied to the users contained within the Organisational Unit you selected

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Please be aware if you have another GPO applied at a higher level, for example in the Default Domain Policy settings may not be applied as anticipated. This can happen if you have two conflicting GPO’s. For example if you have two policies to set the homepage, one using www.bbc.co.uk and another using www.google.co.uk, one of the setting will take precedence.