BYO devices for Years 5 to 12

Introduction

Bring your own device (BYOD) refers to technology models where students bring a personally owned device to school for the purpose of learning. A personally owned device is any technology device brought into the school and owned by a student. Put simply, BYOD is a solution where students quite literally bring their own device to school to access the internet.

Overview

St Catherine’s Catholic College has implemented a mandatory BYOD laptop program for students years 5 to 12. The BYOD program has enabled our students to collaborate, share information and experiences, work across disciplines and take control of their learning.

Responsibilities

Students are required to bring their charged laptop to school every day ready for every lesson.

Students must charge their laptop at home every night to its full battery capacity.

Students must ensure that software and operating system updates occur at home. This can be done by ensuring the laptop is fully charged, turned on and connected to the home network. Updating software during a class can result in a considerable loss of learning time.

Parents or guardians are responsible for ensuring their child’s laptop is in working order.

Student laptops must be clearly labelled with the student’s name.

Student laptops are not allowed to be charged at school due to locations of powerpoints and WHS requirements.

Software

As part of the student School Email account, they are entitled to a free full Microsoft Office 365 license. With this license they will be able to license up to 5 devices, including those of family members. The license will stay active while the student is part of this diocese.  The software/apps can be installed locally, or they can run it via a browser as a web version.

Depending on the courses they select, the following software might be used as well: Fusion 360 (Free), Minecraft Education Version (Free), full Adobe Creative Cloud Suite (Currently $8/year, included in course fees).

Suggested Specifications

HP created a portal for St Cath’s, as an option. The school will not be involved in the purchase and or repair process. Prices already includes 3-year onsite warranty but you can add accidental breakage. (Due to shortages only the listed devices are available now and in stock, the list will be update with their latest products end of May 21)

Go to: HP_STCathsBYOD, School Code: stccc

Laptops can also be purchased from local retail stores such as JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Domayne, etc. Parents or guardians should check the suggested specifications for student laptops before purchasing a laptop for their child. Harvey Norman in Rutherford has knowledge about the schools requirements. Dell has an official eBay store with specials every so often: DellEbayStore  or  DellRefurbStore

It is also acceptable to use a ‘hand-me-down’ laptop from an older sibling or parent.

The suggested specifications are:

Device, must have a physical QWERTY keyboard. iOS devices like iPads can work with limited functionality and we suggest not to buy them for school devices.

Headphones; the school requests that every student has a set of headphones for personal use when listening to multimedia resources, and to minimize noise levels in class. Please ensure that any accessories purchased for use at school are clearly labelled.

Repair and Loss of BYO Devices:

The school is not liable for accidental or willful damage to laptops caused by students. When a student’s laptop is broken, damaged, not working:

• The student should bring their laptop to the IT Office as soon as possible for the IT staff to verify the laptop is broken.
• The IT staff will not repair broken devices when out of warranty, small repairs may be attempted.
• The IT staff will not organise repairs for devices.

Students will not be allowed to borrow a school-owned laptop if:

• The parent or guardian does not advise the school that the damaged laptop is being repaired or replaced
• The student is unlikely to take care of the school-owned device
• The school deems that there are outstanding issues that the student/parents are required to discuss with the Principal

Laptop Setup Session

Year 5 students and students in other year groups will attend a device setup session in week 1 Term 1. IT Office staff will assist students who begin later in the year.

At this session students are shown how to:

• Care for their devices
• Connect their laptops to the school’s wireless and signing in.
• Setting up their Microsoft Account.
• How to access school email and compass.