Crystal Identity

Crystal Identity In its simple core form Crystal automatically takes users from your school SMS and adds then to the likes of Google, 365, Google Classroom and Moodle

Crystal also provides these optional services...

Full system logon system on a hosted remote server with top level security to protect your learner's digital identity meeting the new One Government TaaS standards. Over 40 educational services and resources that can be automatically provisioned and accessed with a common user name and password (SSO) from anywhere in the world ... all within the co

ntrol of the school. A free Launch or Start web based menu with over 1000 of the most popular educational resources, available instantly, from anywhere and in complete security. A free complete device management system (called Kete) including inventory, mobile device management, monitoring including weathermap's, BYOD management, job management, automatic wireless provisioning and monitoring (no logon needed) , inter-school wireless roaming, lost device tracking, user level web filtering including full network documentation allowing ITIL level 3 maintenance to occur remotely. Full internal secure web based management tools including ...
Network documentation (called Net Wrangler) enabling experts to remotely develop your network no matter how remote your school is. Password management including SSO, Windows, Google and 365. A full absolutely secure file storage system for those confidential files your school would rather not see in the Cloud. A full password management system where your schools enterprise wireless system, EPIC resources and Launch menu all have secure and automatic user recognition meaning no passwords. Enables the two second rule ... where any and all digital resources can be accessed in two click or two seconds including access, identification or provisioning management. Hosting of all these services on a full virtual server farm -making your school effectively serverless,
Linking of multiple learning databases to the user management system (called NetAdmin) creating a interoperable data environment. Databases include all the SMS's, AccessIt, Google, 365, EPIC, and the Launch menu. The ability to read both intra-school and inter-school SMS's and timetable data structures which allows automatic building of intra and inter school services such as Hapara, shared libraries and easy Technical Centre management. Enable N4L filtering and monitoring without the need need for complicated network directory access. A print management system (Papercut) which includes the latest Windows Print Server. Free online training, videos and FAQs that help self management of your network with easy access to skilled oversight and expertise should it be needed.

08/11/2015

November 2015 Crystal Newsletter
Dear all,
There have been a number of significant changes out there in cyber world that will affect your school.
The most significant of these is that all the different clouds (N4L, Google, Microsoft, Crystal etc.) are continually raising the security bar.
Traffic is now nearly always encrypted, passwords are getting more complex and the user’s identity and devices are being monitored by the different Clouds.
This means the digital management of users and devices in your school has moved from being a casual job to a more rigorous task.
The digital clouds (365, Google, N4L etc) want to be assured that the logged on user is the real user and not some duplicate, hacker or spammer and they are using a legitimate device.
New privacy standards mean that we now shouldn’t send the user details to the cloud and trust them to sort things out (as we have tended to do in the past) meaning we have to do any error checking ourselves at the school end.
This is manageable in a large school where there are specialist ICT support staff but can create work load issues in schools with rolls below 1000 students.
New concepts have made these tasks even more interesting.
• Digital hubs – where the schools internet connection is used by the local community.
This becoming an attractive option in rural communities.
• Remote access via the N4L (User identity is very important here).
This is where you can log onto your school from anywhere in the world – securely.
• Seamless wireless access anytime, anyhow and anywhere.
This is the TOSIroam project
• Content filtering and tracking (aka different users being able to ‘see’ different content)
Crystal has added a few more services to support these concepts.
• Last seen … a quick reference showing when devices were last seen by your network.
o Used by ICT leaders to find which devices are being used or more importantly not used.
o ICT support use this tool to track down ‘lost’ devices
• Weathermap … When users start roaming weather maps can graphically display what networks are available.
• TOSIroam … this is a separate project that is going well. Trial schools should be able to test this service in the New Year.
Crystal has been working to make the digital management easier, more integrated and with better support tools.

18/10/2015

Collingwood community wireless.
We now have a power pole thanks to Network Tasman and Delta.
The next step is to dig the hold for the power pole.
The pole will hold our Point to Point wireless transmitters.

18/10/2015

TOSIroam
(www.tosiroam.crystal.school.nz)
We now have funding for TOSIroam. TOSIroam is a service where the Internet will immediately and automatically recognise you and your device and log you securely onto the Internet no matter where you are.

30/09/2015

Google DOB (Date of Birth)
It appears that the DoB cannot be entered easily into Google Apps.
Best practice is to block Google+ and other age dependent Google Apps before they 'start'.
Best practice is to use Google OU's to manage this (see FAQ's).

12/09/2015

September Newsletter
Logo’s
Your school logo on the SSO page (see screen shot below).
Crystal does it best to work out which school the user belongs to and displays the school name logo and well as filling in many of the selections as possible.
It is going to take a while to ‘learn’ about all the different digital locations where a school can display their logo.

Advertising
You will also see that there is an advertising banner at the bottom of the page. This is also an optional service (aka we can turn it off)
However... This 'advertising' is a chance for your school to generate some income to offset Crystal's cost. Local firms can advertise on a cent/click with Crystal doing the management.
You can read about it the Crystal's FAQ called "Advertising'.

Deferred expiry:
The end of the year is now approaching along with leaving students.
Remember that students will be ‘suspended’ immediate on reaching the SMS’s leaving date.
This means is you have the leaving date on the last day of exams then their emails will also stop on that date.
To avoid problems many schools have entered a “deferment” time (months) into Crystal … this means that accounts will remain open until that deferment period expires.
Often the deferment period is 2 months allowing time for their tertiary or new schools digital accounts to kick into action before their old school chops them off.

Google OU’s
The automatic provisioning of Google OU’s has been a great success. No more suspended users yet allowing full control of YouTube channels etc.

Launch
The Launch menu (http://launch.crystal.scrystal.school.nz) continues be a success especially when solving those mysterious access issues that crop up every now and again.

Error rate: The Crystal error rate is now down to 1:500 000 (99.9999998%)
In the telecommunications 5x9’s is considered ideal (99.999%) so we are very pleased with this.

Content filter:
We are well done the pathway towards SSO driving content filtering.
When starting on this project we thought that Crystal and SSO would have little to offer with content filtering.
In reality it has been found that Crystal/SSO enables filtering to be linked to the user on a anytime/anyplace/anyhow basis as opposed to just being linked to the device.
Great for those shared devices, digital hubs and roaming users.

Roaming and Radius.
Geoff (as opposed to Crystal) has applied for a grant front Network Tasman Trust to revive the old Loop’s roaming wireless service.
More about this if the application is successful.

E-asTTle
Now for the bad news.
Recently on GETS (Govt contract website) E-asTTle was advertised for ‘sale’ or ‘lease’ to private contractors.
In short this will most probably mean that there will be a cost for this service sometime in the future.
Crystal is evaluating the offer.
Have a read about it here.

If you would like any one of the services please make contact with Geoff (Phone or email)

14/08/2015

The Crystal Project page has been updated.
http://promotions.crystal.school.nz/Documents/Projects/Crystalprojects.pdf

14/08/2015

The Crystal Google OU provisioning module has just been released.
This module allows schools to set rules on who is allowed to use email, Google+, be an administrator, publish outside the school ... etc.
Read the FAQ in the Crystal FAQ's (? on Crystal Identity)
http://identity.crystal.school.nz

10/08/2015

Funding.
Crystal now appears to have funding for...
* Accessing Pond using SSO
* Easy content filtering using SSO
These projects will be actioned in the near future.

Barry is Crystal's database engineer. He lives in Mahana, Tasman, Nelson. His business is called "Taylor Made Software".
08/08/2015

Barry is Crystal's database engineer. He lives in Mahana, Tasman, Nelson. His business is called "Taylor Made Software".

08/08/2015

N4L and Crystal
The N4L are now working with Crystal to provide SSO for Pond and easy care content filtering.
Collingwood will be the trial school for Pond.
Hampden Street school is trialing the Content filtering

Sharyn Scrimgeour;Sharyn manages Crystal housekeeping including accounts.
06/08/2015

Sharyn Scrimgeour;
Sharyn manages Crystal housekeeping including accounts.

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12 Poplar Lane
Collingwood
7073

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