BYOD
Bring Your Own Device
Parent Information Evening
In term 4 each year we hold a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) parent information evening. All year 2 parents and caregivers who are moving to Year 3 the following year are invited to come to this evening. Any other interested families including those new to Sunnyhills in year 3-6 are also welcome to attend. The time and date of the evening will be advertised early in term 4 each year.
Purchasing a Device
We recommend a Chromebook for students who are
bringing a device to school in year 3-6.
What to look for
Light Weight
Great battery
Tough casing
Auto-update life of 3 years or more (details here for Chromebooks)
Why Chromebooks?
Easy login process for students
Chromebooks work seamlessly in the Google Environment
Cloud-based storage
Automatically complete software updates without disruption
Light-weight and great battery life
Less on-device distractions
Easy to powerwash - reset to factory settings if there is an error
Don't currently require anti-virus software
Where can I purchase?
We partner with PB Technologies for our school technology equipment requirements
PB Technologies offer our Sunnyhills community competitive pricing
It is highly recommended to purchase insurance with your device that covers breakages.
Device Setup
Each device has a slightly different setup process depending on when and where it was purchased and what software comes pre-installed on the device. Below are some general instructions for setting up new devices. Before coming to a drop-in session you will need to:
Charge the device
Turn it on and download any updates it requires
Advice on how to set up a new device is below.
Before you bring a device to school - drop-in sessions
All year 3-6 learners who have not previously bought a device to school and wish to bring one will need to attend a drop-in session BEFORE the device is bought to school.
During these sessions learners and their families will:
Receive access to our school wifi network for student devices
Ensure you have read and signed our school BYOD and Citizenship agreements
Receive advice on device use and monitoring at home
It is likely to take about 10 - 20 minutes to get through the process.
If you would like to use or are already using Family Link on a Chromebook you will need to have your phone, Gmail account and password with you.
Current Session times for 2021:
Scheduled sessions have now ended for the start of the year. If your child would like to bring a device to school please let their classroom teacher know so they can organise a BYOD agreement and setting up the device for you.
Important Documents
Why BYOD?
Future Focussed Learning
Our children are entering a world that is looking for abilities far different from the traditional. We want them to be able to collect, synthesise and analyse information and then work collaboratively with others to apply that knowledge. They need to learn how to learn and to respond to the constantly changing technologies and social and global changes in the world.
Bring Your Own Device allows students to have one-to-one time on a device that is set up to their specifications for their learning. This has many benefits, including:
• enabling students to take increasing responsibility for their own learning
• empowering students to learn at a pace and place as well as a way which suits them
• teaches students how to discern what tool will best help with their learning
• encouraging and enabling teachers to more easily implement personalised learning
• prepares students for a future where they are likely to be working in an environment with increasing amounts of technology and IT/collaborative/cloud based tools.
Digital Citizenship
As part of our learning at Sunnyhills school we help students to develop their digital citizenship. Our learning resources for this are on our SHINE Online site. Our SHINE Online site also has a parent resources page where you can find a wealth of resources to help you continue to develop citizenship at home.
Sunnyhills School is a Netsafe school. We regularly review and improve our policies, procedures and curriculum related to digital citizenship to ensure we're providing the best possible learning environment and experiences for learners both online and offline.
Google Workspace for Education and Hapara
How does Google Workspace for Education (previously, Google Suite, GAFE) work?
The Google Workspace for Education (GSuite) offers apps for email, calendar, blogs, documents, presentations and website creation as well as Google Drive, which is a way of organising all of the work done on these apps. The use of these apps is free and can be used in ‘the cloud’ - a collaborative environment where others can access and work on documents together in real time. Google Workspace allows students to access their work from school, home, the local library - anywhere with an internet connection.
What is Hapara Teacher Dashboard?
Hapara Teacher Dashboard is an interface which brings together the tools of Google Workspace in an overview style so that teachers can access, set tasks, mark and comment on work completed in Google Workspace. It gives teachers the ability to oversee an entire class of work, like they would a class set of exercise books. It also allows teachers and senior school staff the ability to oversee all the activity of any student account. This gives the ability to do a range of things, including, but not limited to: changing passwords if students forget them or suspending an account if the Student Responsibility Agreement is breached. You can read more about Teacher Dashboard here: https://hapara.com/products/g-suite/