Maja Vreča and Ingrid Možina-Podbršček, Arnes

The general public is gradually becoming increasingly aware of the dangers the internet can present, mainly due to the increase in various frauds and virus or other malware infections. In addition to these threats, the growing use of smart phones and other handy devices is also revealing some of the unpleasant consequences of being attached to new technologies. This level of attachment can quickly turn into various addictions, particularly among young people. In addition, constant access to the internet gives children and teenagers the opportunity to find new ways to harass their peers. This type of violence has skyrocketed in recent years as it is largely hidden from the scrutiny of adults.  In order to prevent the various unpleasant effects related to the use of new technologies, we have to work on raising awareness. We will present ARNES video materials which are designed for use in classes or for “flipped learning” for primary and secondary school students. ARNES has organised a competition for the best sample classes to be prepared using Sheeplive cartoons and these video materials. Awards will be presented for the three best classes devised.

Maja Vreča has been employed at ARNES since 1995. Through her work with users, she deals with problems related to the safe use of the internet and devices and is also involved in the SAFE project.  The project-related work includes writing articles and delivering lectures to various groups – from primary and secondary school students and their parents to undergraduate students and employees at educational and other institutions.

Ingrid Možina-Podbršček has been employed at ARNES since August 2014. She is a member of the e-School Bag project team that is responsible for SIO/ARNES workshops. She has been involved in preparing and organising training on ICT use in education for day-nursery, school and boarding school staff since 1994. She was also involved in the Computer Literacy (CL) and e-School project, in which she was one the project managers.

Tadej Hren, SI-CERT, Arnes

Bank Trojans, blackmail viruses, attacks on online banks, network attacks through internet infrastructure and targeted attacks using highly sophisticated social engineering are the main problems we encounter at SI-CERT every day. We will take a look at the latest developments in internet security and try to find out what the future holds. 

Tadej Hren has been employed at SI-CERT since 2004, working as a part of the team that deals with internet incidents.

Miha Kočar, OŠ Martina Krpana

Only Moodles and obsolete Joomlas are installed on VPS servers in most of the schools, just waiting to be replaced with ARNES splet. This lecture will provide you with practical information on the various ways to use your VPS server, even if you have only the “fundamental skills” of an elementary computer user to fall back on. One of the aims of the lecture is to generate some new ideas among all those involved in the system administration through a closing discussion.

Miha Kočar is a teacher of technology and computer optional subjects at two primary schools and is also responsible for maintaining their computers and networks. Previously, he had been a lab assistant, system administrator and programmer at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the University of Maribor, the Faculty of Education of the University of Maribor and the Computer Centre of the University of Maribor. In his spare time, he enjoys modelling, exploring electronics and programming.

Martin Božič, Arnes

Moodle is currently the most popular LMS system used in Slovenian schools. It can be quite demanding to maintain as it requires certain knowledge of the operating systems and keeping track of the new patch releases, as well as backup and user account management knowledge. The aim of the ARNES classrooms is to develop the Moodle-as-service and offer it to schools. In ARNES classrooms, responsibility for the technical maintenance is assumed by ARNES’s experts, thereby allowing the classroom administrators to fully focus on the content and user support.

Martin Božič has already accumulated over 10 years of experience working with Linux and servers. He is responsible for the SIO server infrastructure at ARNES and is the manager of the ARNES classrooms pilot project. When he is not at home with his wife and children, he can usually be found playing a musical instrument or reading a good book.

Simon Gerdina, OŠ Ivana Cankarja

For the purpose of creating a support framework for the splet.arnes.si service, a workshop called “From Joomla to WordPress” has been established. Our aim is to convince and inspire you to use splet.arnes.si, as well as to help make your migration from the existing webpages you have created with Joomla an easier process. Splet.arnes.si is currently the go-to choice for creating (school) webpages and presentations. All upgrades and updates are taken care of by ARNES, including themes, web parts and plugins. The range of themes, web parts and plugins is constantly being adapted to the needs of users, allowing the administrators to focus on designing the website appearance within the existing possibilities and on its content. Our goal is to persuade you to migrate your school webpages from the non-updated Joomla, which poses a potential threat, to splet.arnes.si as soon as possible.

Simon Gerdina teaches mathematics and works as a computer specialist at Ivan Cankar Primary School in Vrhnika. He has also participated in e-School and e-School Bag projects in the past. He is a lecturer at the “Use of splet.arnes.si” and “From Joomla to WordPress” workshops.

Katja Telič and Gregor Steklačič, DID

The aim of the E&R optical connectivity project is to address pressing issues related to the establishment of optical fibre connections between education and research institutions and the ARNES network, which is crucial for their operation. The project is divided into 52 lots involving 637 institutions and is already well underway. The contractors for certain lots are already completing the optical connections running from the eligible institutions to the ARNES node. By 2015 some 700 education and research institutions in Slovenia are expected to have a high-performance optical connection with a minimum speed of 1Gb/s which will provide a long-term solution to the institutions’ low quality internet connections and facilitate the use of the latest information and communication services in the education processes.

Katja Telič has been engaged in the E&R Optical Connectivity project since its approval. The project is being implemented by the Information Society Directorate of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport. Before the project, she was responsible for coordinating the cooperation activities of the directorate within the ministry and in relation to the general public.

Gregor Steklačič began his career in youth organisations as a director of a private institute in Grosuplje. He was then employed for five years at Razvojni center Srca Slovenije as a project manager, where he worked on projects related to connecting ICT companies with the aim of developing services for the elderly, entrepreneurship and mobility. Since 1 October 2014, he has been employed at the Information Society Directorate of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, where he is involved in the E&R Optical Connectivity project.

Barbara Neža Brečko, FDV

The 1KA tool is an open-source application which provides support for online surveys. 1KA is a new service in the ARNES Federation. The system has been used and constantly developed since 2009. 1KA has also been adapted to the needs of the education process, particularly in terms of faster feedback, the use of the survey system for standardised and anonymous evaluations, as well as for piquing the interest of students by including them in team work activities, evaluations and research. It enables us to develop simple application forms for organising school activities and events.

Barbara Neža Brečko is a researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana. She is mainly interested in the evaluation and efficiency of ICT use, as well as digital competences. She also uses 1KA in her work.

Živa Zupan, Ljudmila

The problem with Slovenian culture on the internet is not the lack, but rather the atomisation, of online content, its structural deficiencies and how difficult it is to access. Since the more popular internet search engines (Google, etc.) cannot search databases through forms, there is a significant amount of data stored in specialised databases that cannot be reached in this way.

At the Društvo Ljudmila association we have been developing an online tool, the Kulturnik portal, which enables access to e-content on Slovenian culture from a single location and provides:

• better accessibility to Slovenian culture in the online information space;
• a faster and easier way to search for cultural content;
• more relevant hits than Google or Najdi.si.

Kulturnik includes a metasearch engine and two aggregators, one for current affairs and one for events that are collected from various Slovenian digital sources and databases related to art and culture. We already have over 1,000 sources!

We will present the ways in which Kulturnik can be used, its content and how it works.

Živa Zupan has been working closely with Društvo Ljudmila in the field of planning, designing and optimising webpages since 1996, focusing particularly on the user and editorial experience. She has also been coordinating various projects, an example of which would be Mobilatorij – a high-tech mobile container designed for improving digital literacy.

From 2004 to 2010, she worked with the France Prešeren Trnovo Cultural Art Society, which gave her a detailed insight into the functioning of the Slovenian cultural scene, particularly its financial and project aspects.

In 2010, she returned to Društvo Ljudmila. Owing to her experience in the field of administration and project management, she became the secretary of the Društvo Ljudmila association and coordinator of cultural projects involving information activities in the field of international collaboration and cultural development – Culture.si and Kulturnik.si. All along, her main interest has been to develop a user-friendly internet.

Tomi Dolenc, Arnes

The e-School Bag project was both a challenge and decisive step in the right direction. The e-content and e-services were planned swiftly and professionally, and developed through a coordinated effort between the project partners – The National Education Institute of the Republic of Slovenia and ARNES, setting up at the same time the e-infrastructure required. This comprehensive approach creates an environment that allows the e-content and e-services to become really useful during classes. We have learned a great deal from the project. It has provided us with an insight into the importance of supporting and educating teachers, which is certainly an issue that merits greater consideration. Moreover, various issues related to the safe use of the internet and devices have been identified, and during the project we were faced with a challenge of how to ensure a sustainable developed environment, services and content.

Tomi Dolenc has been dealing with the needs of end users at ARNES since 1994. As the head of user communications he is responsible for coordinating various interest groups in the field of research, education and culture, and is actively involved in related international activities.  He has played an active role in planning ARNES services, as well as support and education activities, focusing particularly on projects aimed at integrating ICT into education. In his spare time, he loves cheese and spending time in the nature – ideally both at the same time.

Janko Harej, ŠCNG, Arnes

The presentation will be focused on the results of the e-School Bag project in the field of SIO services. We will present the latest developments in particular services and reveal some details related to their further development. What were our main challenges and how did we tackle them? What are we most proud of? What will our future look like?

Janko Harej holds a bachelor’s degree in Computing and Information Science. He has been employed at the Nova Gorica School Centre as a secondary-school and post-secondary vocational-college lecturer. He has been working on the inclusion and use of ICT in the education system through various projects. He also coordinated the development of the SIO services in the e-School Bag project.