Steve

Adobe Creative Educator Level 1 | Apple Teacher | CompTIA A+ | Google Certified Educator L1 & L2 | Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert (MIEE) | C2K Manager | +

[Education Authority @Ed_Authority]

EdIS Spotlight - Bromcom in Focus
Watch the new spotlight in our series featuring St Comgall’s journey to the new Bromcom SMS.

A huge thank you to St Comgall’s Primary School in Antrim for welcoming us into their school and taking part in the filming.

#EdIS| #EducationNI| #DigitalInnovation| #EATV

[Microsoft Learn @MicrosoftLearn]

Final call for early registration 📢

AI Skills Fest is a no-cost, week-long learning event designed to make building AI skills feel clearer, more practical, and more approachable–for all roles.

Register early and get double sweepstakes entries for prizes.* https://t.co/7zgYkSp58L

Learn at no cost for live sessions, digital experiences, and on-demand content—earn a certification exam voucher as you complete an AI Skills Fest playlist, along with chances at other prizes.*

*Terms and conditions apply. Sweepstakes, prizes, and Certification exam vouchers are subject to eligibility requirements and other restrictions. https://t.co/jI4Laa51tu

[Education Authority @Ed_Authority]

EdIS Spotlight - Hear directly from Nettlefield Primary School about their experience transitioning to the new Bromcom SMS - from implementation to impact.

A huge thank you to Nettlefield Primary School, Belfast, for welcoming us into their school and taking part in the filming.

#EdIS | #EducationNI | #DigitalInnovation | #EATV

[NotebookLM @NotebookLM]

Today we’re launching another highly requested feature: Source Attribution! 🥳

No more guessing. Now you can see the exact formula (prompts + sources) used to make each of your artifacts. Want to make an adjustment? Just tap "Iterate" and customize to your heart’s content 💖

[Education Authority @Ed_Authority]

What can school leaders expect from our upcoming Generative AI Leadership Conferences?

✅ A clear overview of the GenAI licences being assigned to all schools
✅ Insight into the strategic vision for AI in education
✅ Practical guidance on expectations, safeguarding and implementation
✅ Keynote speakers and real classroom examples from NI educators
✅ Opportunities to reflect, ask questions and prepare for rollout

Each conference is designed to ensure leaders feel informed, supported and ready to lead the safe, effective and purposeful use of AI in their schools.

This is a significant milestone in digital transformation across education in Northern Ireland and we look forward to welcoming Principals to the forthcoming sessions in Belfast, Omagh and Ballymena.

#EdIS | #GenAI | #EducationNI

[Steve @Patch_IT_]

@MSI__UK #MSIUKxMandalorian

❤️Star Wars

❤️The Mandalorian and Grogu

@starwarsuk
#MSI #MSIUK #TheMandalorianAndGrogu #StarWars #Giveaway #WIN #RTX5080 #GraphicsCard #GPU #PCGaming #NVIDIA

[MSI UK @MSI__UK]

Chance to win a Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu prize bundle with MSI!
To celebrate the launch of the new movie, and the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G The Mandalorian and Grogu Limited Edition OC, we are giving away 3 epic merchandise bundles. 💫

Each winner will receive:
🤖 Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu Movie Merchandise Bundle (Tote Bag, Keychain, Notebook and Pin)
🐉 MSI Lucky Dragon Plushie and Mouse Mat

How to enter:
➕ Like & Repost
💬 Comment #MSIUKxMandalorian

*Giveaway ends 14 June 2026. Open to UK and Ireland residents only. T&Cs apply: https://t.co/vdY55TF7Qt

The Star Wars Graphics Card is available now: https://t.co/9Lsij9dX0O

Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu — IN CINEMAS NOW

@starwarsuk
#MSI #MSIUK #TheMandalorianAndGrogu #StarWars #Giveaway #WIN #RTX5080 #GraphicsCard #GPU #PCGaming #NVIDIA

[Education Authority @Ed_Authority]

EA introduces new school management system across Northern Ireland

The Education Authority has launched the new Bromcom School Management System (SMS) - the digital system set to transform how schools across Northern Ireland manage information, reduce admin and connect with families.

Rolling out to all schools by March 2027, it will provide real-time data, improved collaboration and better insights to support teaching and learning outcomes.

🖱️Click here to read more:
https://t.co/i9kK52tWTu

[EduGeek.net @EduGeek]

EDIT Online: Clever - Student MFA: A Realistic Path Forward https://t.co/vWwJV4JsPF

[Steve @Patch_IT_]

@AGONbyAOC 😂🤞☘️

[Safer Schools NI @saferschoolsni]

🔴 Safeguarding Alert 🔴

Viral Online Trend Causing Severe Burns to Children

A new trend has emerged suggesting that children and young people should microwave squishy silicone toys. After seeing online videos claiming this makes the toys softer and more pliable, when squeezed afterwards it results in severe burns.

We’re encouraging parents, carers, and staff to be aware of this trend and talk to young people about the risks of following "trends" seen online.

Don't search and push the algorithms. Read the information and guidance you need in the Safer Schools App and on our website.

🔗 https://t.co/kWqCaBucEa

#DigitalSafety #SafeguardingFirst #OnlineSafety

[Google Workspace @GoogleWorkspace]

Out with the old, in with the bold ✨

We gave the Google Workspace icons a sleeker look to meet this new era of helpfulness. Check them out! https://t.co/NHtXdghQys

[Mike Tholfsen @mtholfsen]

We've heard you — Teach users write in an English variant other than US English, and localized content matters. Starting today, Teach supports three new English locales: English (United Kingdom), English (Canada), and English (Australia).

How it works:
If you're using Teach for the first time, the language is automatically selected based on your browser language settings. So if your browser is set to en-GB, Teach will default to English (United Kingdom).
If you've used Teach before, it will default to your previously used language. You can switch anytime from the Language dropdown when creating content.

We've also updated the age/year selection to match what's appropriate for each locale — so you'll see "Year 9" instead of "Grade 9" when using English (UK), for example.

This is available to everyone right now. Give it a try and let us know how the generated content works for your locale!

[Education NI @Education_NI]

📢 ANNOUNCEMENT | Education Minister, Paul Givan, has launched a new call for applications from schools across Northern Ireland to host Research-Informed Conferences during the 2026-27 academic year.

🔗 Find out more: https://t.co/FntOu6xNYa

[Education Authority @Ed_Authority]

Principals should have received an invitation last week for the EdIS/C2k ‘GenAI for Teaching and Learning’ events in partnership with Microsoft.

Next month will see the Phase 1 launch of the Generative AI (GenAI) rollout through a series of Leadership Conferences. These will:
✅ provide insights from the Microsoft Copilot Proof-of-Concept in NI schools
✅ explain strategic context for adopting AI in education
✅ outline safeguarding, training and leadership expectations
✅ support principals to lead safe, effective and purposeful use of GenAI

Each session will include keynote speakers and use cases from NI educators from 9:30am to 1.00pm followed by optional breakout sessions from 1.45 to 3.00pm.

📍 This is a major step forward in supporting innovation, wellbeing and digital transformation across education. Principals are encouraged to register for ONE event in Newry, Belfast, Omagh or Ballymena and attendance is essential to ensure the allocation of a Microsoft Copilot licence as part of the rollout.

Register now: https://t.co/bgQH2LF0Tj

#EdIS | #Microsoft

[Education Authority @Ed_Authority]

The NI rollout of the new Bromcom School Management System (SMS) is now well underway in Primary Schools with pilots complete and over 400 schools scheduled to go live on Bromcom before the end of term.

✅ Following transition, schools will benefit from streamlined data management, reduced administrative workload and strengthened collaboration between schools, families and EA support services.

For a full update on our progress to date and timelines for the remainder of the rollout, watch our latest EdIS News Video with EdIS Senior Project Manager, Marie Conlon.

➡️ https://t.co/my0utXMvVi

#EdIS | #EducationNI

[Sphero @Sphero]

Summer is almost here and everyone is ready to unplug and relax, even your Sphero robots! ☀️🔋

Before you pack them away for vacation, here’s how to keep them charged up and classroom-ready: https://t.co/fPDuEAt5U0

[Lightspeed Systems @lightspeedsys]

#ICYMI | districts are fielding nonstop questions about screen time. The reality? Average in-school usage is just 79 min/day, and mostly educational. 📊 We broke down the real data.
Get the recap → https://t.co/oVwiTWewso #EdTech #K12 #ScreenTime #SchoolTech

[Steve @Patch_IT_]

@IrelandEsports_ @IrelandNEC @ClassicToysUK

[exQUIZitely 🕹️ @exQUIZitely]

I know it's easy to discard gaming from the 80s, 90s, and even the early 2000s as nothing more than nostalgia viewed through rose-tinted glasses.

One aspect that often gets overlooked in that debate is actually based on facts, not just overly sentimental nostalgia.

Having a computer and wanting to get the most out of it - and sometimes even just to get it working at all - required you to be far more invested, curious, and hands-on, so maybe that's why anyone who experienced that era feels a stronger connection to it.

You had to read up on things, learn, and tinker with both software and hardware. If you had a PC in the 80s or 90s, it wasn't a "one and done" purchase. There was constant upgrading: swapping out a crappy sound card for a better one, replacing a small/slow hard drive, installing a CD-ROM drive, doubling your RAM from 1 MB to 2 MB… the list went on and on.

It meant installing and updating drivers so everything actually worked. It meant understanding compatibility issues - all without the internet in the early days - so you relied on magazines, manuals, and friends who had "been there, done that."

And that was just the hardware side. Then came the software: getting drivers, configs, and setups tuned perfectly so you could squeeze every last bit of performance out of the machine. Some games simply wouldn't run unless you freed up those final kilobytes of conventional memory.

There was even a whole industry built around "managing your PC" with tools like Norton Commander and countless others.

These days, there is...

No more fiddling with AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS files.

No fine-tuning HIMEM.SYS.

No IRQ conflicts with your sound card.

No more boot disks.

Juggling hard drive space? Forget it - drives now come in terabytes, not megabytes.

Dealing with a 5.25" floppy, a 3.5" floppy, and a CD-ROM drive all crammed into one case? What a drag.

Saving up for that shiny new VGA card to replace your old EGA? Not a thing anymore.

And yet, if you ask older gamers who lived through the 80s and 90s, most of us actually enjoyed customizing and troubleshooting our machines. It was part of the experience - part of the joy and excitement.

Sure, it involved plenty of trial and error and frustrating "OMFG, why isn't this working?!" moments… but when it finally worked, the reward was so much sweeter.

Finally freeing up those last couple of kilobytes of your 640K base memory? Glorious.

Replacing that pathetic PC speaker with a real sound card? Pure ecstasy.

To all you old-school gamers out there, I hope you experienced it the same way. I always felt that the need to tinker endlessly made the whole experience more rewarding. You were more connected to your machine and understood it on a deeper level.

These days, you just click a button and the game downloads and installs itself.

I have a modern PC, of course. It's been over 20 years since I last had to do any real tinkering. That's convenient, sure… but the magic and curiosity is gone.