Video+and+Audio+Bridge+Services

=Video and Audio Bridge Services=

1. Background
=2.0 Video= Use of the Ministry Bridge for VC is form VLN clusters or individual schools offering and/or taking courses via the VLN brokerage service www.vln.school.nz)

2.2 Schools
Schools considering purchasing Video Conferencing (VC) equipment are strongly encouraged to contact the the e-learning section, Ministry of Education for advice and guidance.

To access the Ministry bridge, advice should be sort from Innovations Manager, e-learning or his nominee (eddie.reisch@minedu.govt.nz).

If your school meets the policy criteria your contact details will be forwarded to Asnet Technologies, who will undertake the necessary configuration of your VC unit. On average this configuration will take 2 hours. The Ministry will pay for these two hours, any time beyond will be met by the school. Asnet Technologies will invoice the school direct.

if the school changes IP providers and this necessitates further configuration, this will need to be met by the school. Asnet Technologies will invoice the school directly.

If the unit remains inactive for six (6) months the Ministry reserves the right to withdraw access to the bridge. Prior to this event taking place, a member of the e-Learning unit will contact and discuss the issue with the school. The contact will be by either phone call or email.

2.3 Ministry of Education Access to the bridge.
For Ministry groups to access and use the the bridge arrangements must be made via Lester and Eddie? There will be a cost involved which will be charged back to the department or unit concerned.

2.4 Third party use of the VC bridge.
Applications to access the Ministry bridge should be in writing to the Innovations Manager, e-learning or his nominee eddie.reisch@minedu.govt.nz unit configuration and bridge usage costs will be met by the organisation once permission is given. The costs will be outlined at the time of the request being made.

=3.0 Audio=

The Ministry of Education operates an audio conferencing service (referred to as the NZEDNET) which is available to schools (need to clarify which- integrated or independent?), Ministry of Education personnel and authorised agencies for solely educational purposes The use of the audio conferencing bridge is restricted to:


 * schools or third party educational providers ( at this point in time - Core Education and Heurisko- involved in e-learning
 * Ministry of Education departments for internal conferencing, and
 * E-Administration (EADMIN)

3.2 Schools
the NZEDNET audio conference 0800 service is only available to be accessed during gazetted school terms, Monday to Friday between 8am and 6pm. The access to the 0800 service is restricted to landlines only. to access this service outside of the above stated times or through using a cell phone- on a user pay basis (the call will charged to the caller at their provider calling rates) is available by dialing (04) 495 1379.

Access to this service is by PIN only. Two PIN's will be issued to authorised users only. There is a Chairperson PIN (issued to those who are registered to initiate a conference call) and Guest PIN (the designated or registered PIN owner makes this available). PIN numbers are issued for one calendar year and are cancelled in December each year. in special circumstances temporary PINS will be issued.

procedures

 * schools offering e-learning options wishing to access the 0800 audio service of NZEDNET must complete a registration form ( this can be accessed from the VLN website www.vln.school.nz). this form once completed is to be emailed to Asnet (vcsupport@asnet.co.nz).
 * If the application is successful Asnet will issue PIN numbers and send a NZEDNET Audio conference user guide.
 * the issued PIN numbers will be valid for that calendar year only. PIN numbers will need to re-validated at the commencement of the new school year.

3.3 Ministry of Education Personnel and Departments
The audio conferencing bridge is for internal use only. Access is via the local Wellington number (04) 495 1379.

This service is available all year round on a 24/7 basis.

Note: each caller pays the call cost. for further information contact Lester Pettit (lester.pettit@minedu.govt.nz) for further information.

3.4 E-Administration (EADMIN)
EADMIN have their own 0800 number. This audio conferencing service is only available between 8am and 6pm on days when schools are open for instruction. This service can not be accessed using cell phones or public payphones. Cell phones can access this service -on a user pay basis- by dialing the local Wellington number (04) 495 1379. For further details or queries contact Lesley Hoskins at EADMIN for further details or access procedures (lesley.hoskin@minedu.govt.nz). All PIN number issued will be valid for that calendar year in which they are issued. PIN numbers will need to re-validated at the commencement of the new school year.

3.5 External agencies/Organisations
at this point in time only two (2) external agencies/organisations are approved or authorised to have PIN numbers issued. Any other agency or organisation wishing to access this audio conferencing service must get written authorisation from the service owner- Howard Baldwin, e-Learning Innovations Manager- howard.baldwin@minedu.govt.nz.