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BYOD program

Our Vision:

Technology plays a large role in our student’s lives. Personal devices can enhance and enrich learning opportunities both at home and school. At The Lake Primary School our shared vision is to prepare our students for an era of independent learning and this includes work done on digital devices.  We aim for our students to strive for excellence through an independent learning program that integrates the curriculum and uses Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a learning platform. Nearly all jobs in any industry have a strong ICT component, it is essential that they learn these skills.  We also educate students in the safe and responsible use of technology online.

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Post COVID we realised that our students could, and do, benefit from having a device at their disposal to complete learning tasks at school and home.  Over this time, we saw a huge improvement in their ICT skillset.

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We have ensured that our students moving onto Secondary School should be able to ‘take their device’ with them and use them in their Secondary Education.  This again justifies the purchase and with a hope that the parent/child will get value for money in the long run.

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Why?

  • Students will have enhanced opportunities to learn, engage, communicate, collaborate and develop skills that will prepare them for many aspects of their future life

  • Develop skills needed for critical evaluation

  • Learn to communicate and collaborate online

  • Learn safe, responsible and ethical use of digital technology

  • Develop and demonstrate knowledge, skills, practices and attitudes necessary for their life moving forward in the 21st Century

 

What is BYOD?

We commenced the BYOD program at The Lake PS at the commencement of the 2022 School Year.  We highly encourage our families (particularly in Years 3-6) to take this up in 2023.

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is where parents purchase a device that their child brings to school each day to do their schoolwork.   This device remains the property of the family.  The school will provide wireless broadband internet access whilst at school.

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The school will provide a Google Education domain where data and individual portfolios can be stored and accessed from school or externally by students/families that have log on capabilities.

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If you already have an existing device that meets the minimum standards (see next page), we welcome students to commence bringing these devices to School.

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If families are unable to purchase BYOD’s then the school will provide students with shared devices.  These devices stay at school at all times.

 

What do I need to purchase?

Where to buy:

As much as we have the JB Education portal organised for families.   We would very much like to encourage families to look at purchasing their BYOD from our local stores.   Give them a call or visit the store……they will be more than happy to help you out with your purchases:

Harvey Norman:

https://stores.harveynorman.com.au/harvey-norman-mildura-vic

 

JB Hi Fi (different to the JB Education portal):

https://www.jbhifi.com.au/pages/mildura

 

Officeworks:

https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/storepage/W337/VIC/Mildura

 

JB Education Portal

School Code (for parents): THELAKEPSBYOD23

https://www.jbeducation.com.au/byod/ 

 

Things to consider:

  • What age is my child and how long do I expect my child to use a particular device? (ie a device you buy for your Year 2 child will be different to the device you buy for your Year 5 child who will be moving into the Secondary education environment).

  • You should get anything up to 4 years (hopefully more) out of your device providing it is looked after

 

 

Device Specification Guide

Ipad:                Must be able to receive latest IOS updates.   A keyboard is highly encouraged.

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Laptop:           Memory (RAM) 4GB or higher

                         HDD/SSD (Hard drive space) 64GB or higher

                         Battery Life 4-6 Hours

                         Operating System (Windows or Mac) Windows 10 or MAC OS

 

NOTE:              Mobile Phones are not permitted as a learning device in line with the school’s mobile phone policy.

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Any device bought into the School needs to be in fair and reasonable condition.   Any unsafe devices will be sent home and be required to be repaired.

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Who is responsible for what?

 

School Responsibilities

  • Initial technical support

  • Safe provision to the wireless/internet

  • Printing support

  • Educational tools/software

  • **Monitoring safe use of technology online

 

Student/Parent Responsibilities

  • Bringing charged device daily *

  • Hardware maintenance & warranty

  • Installing updates

  • Ensuring responsible online use **

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Note:

*The school does not have the facilities for charging devices

** The school will be responsible for monitoring the safe use of students’ online safety while at school.

 

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Frequently asked questions:

Software requirements for devices

  • We (Department of Education) will provide where possible all necessary software required for your child’s educational needs. 

  • Software – don’t feel pressured by sales people to purchase anti-virus or software.

  • You will need to download and install Google Chrome on your device which is a free to  download

  • Warranty – many businesses will offer extended warranty – please read the fine print of these warranties

  • Insurance – consider adding your device onto your home contents insurance policy

  • Parents are to understand that basic technical support will be provided by our IT (ie Craig) and basic diagnosis of issues, but any warranty claims will need to be taken up directly with the company that they have purchased a device from.

 

Devices which are not suitable as a primary BYOD

Android tablets, Chromebooks, Amazon Fire Tablets and devices other than those listed as suitable above may connect and work to some extent at the School but we do not recommend that such devices are suitable as a primary BYOD tool.  Our specialist technician is happy to try and get your device working where possible.  No guarantees.

 

Space required on devices

Refer to our device specifications (essentially not much storage is required as we use Google Docs – webpage based applications where documents are stored as well).   If you child’s device breaks, then their work is not lost.

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Student email accounts

We currently use the Google Suite which includes a student email account.  Students already have an email account that is monitored by the school.

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Other reasons to go BYOD:

  • Increases ability for students to share what they are learning with parents.

  • Ability for students to finish work as homework if required.

  • Students don’t need to ‘share’ a school device.

  • Students don’t waste time logging off and on a school device.  

  • If your child is absent/sick, they can still partake in classroom learning.

  • We don’t want our students to be left behind with their skillset.  We want them to be ready for Secondary School learning.

  • Irymple South PS (similar size/demographic school) took up a BYOD program 3 years ago.   They have 90% of their families take up.   They greatly value the program now and students have adapted very well.   Many, if not all local Primary schools are active BYOD programs.

  • Secondary Education – Merbein P10, Irymple SC and St Joseph’s all strongly encourage and use BYOD.  

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