BYOM Laptop Program
General Understanding
Information literacy and technology literacy are essential for success in society. An internet-connected laptop, along with dedicated instruction and supervision, can open up a whole new world of learning and expression for a student. Thus, parents of students entering grade 6 through grade 12 are responsible to provide a recent model Apple Macbook laptop for dedicated use by their student at school on a daily basis (see below for acceptable models and recommended “hard disc” size). (Grade 5 students use a school-owned laptop during the school day. This laptop remains at the school.) Parents, of course, have veto power over laptop usage when the laptop is not at school.
Warranties,Damages, and Repairs
- The user is responsible for providing oversight and care for their laptop
- The school provides a basic level of care and maintenance for MacBooks. If a student requests HIS's assistance with a repair to fix or replace parts, this voids the current Apple warranty and ability to purchase Apple Care for the laptop in the future. Parents must sign a permission form before the repair can take place and HIS bears no responsibility for loss of warranty.
- Laptops should always be in good working order – security, cleanliness and usability. Any known damage is to be reported to the Technical Support Staff immediately for repairs.
- The school maintains Apple’s warranties on all HIS devices including faculty laptops and exclusively oversees all repairs, whether accidental or due to defective parts.
- The school will cover all costs for repair and labor on HIS-issued devices for issues that would normally be covered under Apple’s factory warranty or AppleCare. Students are responsible for all repairs for their laptop.
- The faculty member bears all responsibility for any damage, loss or theft of the school issued laptop and is responsible for paying the full cost of repairs or replacement, regardless of who was at fault.
- A loaner may be issued to the user while the laptop is being repaired. Payment for any repairs, that the user is responsible for, must be paid prior to starting the repairs.
Daily Usage and Data Prevention
- The user will engage in ethical, legal, and responsible use of technology.
- The language of the laptop should be set to English during school hours.
- Sound of the laptops should be muted to avoid disruptions during class and at school.
- Gaming and/or downloading of torrents are not allowed at anytime on school laptops.
- Parents are encouraged to supervise proper usage of laptops at home.
- The user will recharge the laptop at home each night, ready for the next school day. Only one charger will be issued per user and extra chargers will not be loaned. Users may leave their laptops for charging at the IT Help Desk as needed.
- Students should safely store their issued laptop in their locked locker or carry it in their bag for safety and protection. It should never be laying around unattended to while on campus.
- The user is responsible for backing up of data at all times. OneDrive through Office365 is provided to all users for easy and unlimited storage. A personal external hard-drive is also recommended.
- In the event of hard drive failure, accidental deletion of files, theft or loss, HIS bears no responsibility for the lost data and offers no compensation or insurance for data recovery.
Administrative Rights and Access
- Faculty and students in Grades 9-12 have full administrative rights to their laptops. All other laptops will have restricted user rights.
- The laptop is in the care of the user for educational use regardless if at school or elsewhere.
- All laptops are subject to remote access while on our school network by IT Support Staff for purposes of helpdesk support. User will be notified prior to access. Teachers and admin will be allowed to monitor conduct of students through remote access.
- Passwords are to be used for personal and system-wide security. They are meant to be kept private and should be changed frequently. IT Support Department reserves the right to know user’s passwords for necessary access and/or assistance.
- Students in Grades 6-8 are restricted from downloading software or performing upgrades. This is intentional to maintain consistency throughout our system of schools and insure optimal quality. Alternatively, Grades 6-8 users may only install software via the HIS Self Service. Only school-approved and legally obtained software will be placed in the Service. Requests for what is available in the Kiosk may be formally requested through the Tech Department for approval.
- Updates for the system as well as applications will be pushed to the users device remotely.
- Upgrades, modifications or installation of operating systems are prohibited (including dual boot unless authorized and installed by the Tech Department).
- Users are not permitted to open, change or tamper with any parts on the school’s laptop.
- The school reserves the right to remove inappropriate files, unauthorized user accounts or applications, without the consent of the user.
Personal VPN’s are not allowed to be used during school hours. Instead the school provides a VPN network for all to use to for necessary access. Personal VPN’s degrade our network access and bandwidth while creating other technical complications for the user.*