BYOD
Why BYOD at Evans Bay Intermediate School?
In order to support “Akonga engaged on a voyage to success,” Evans Bay Intermediate is committed to developing digital knowledge and citizenship to support the learning programme.
In The New Zealand Curriculum, digital technologies became recognised as an integral part of learning since the beginning of 2018, notably under the technology area. As a school we are moving towards greater integration of digital technologies where appropriate across the curriculum. The school is also implementing an online platform for increasing student agency and access to teacher approved resources. This enables students to learn, create, share and collaborate in an authentic way at any time.
The school has a goal to achieve a 1:1 student device ratio in the classroom. BYOD is an important procedure to be able to achieve this, with a target of an 85-90% uptake of BYOD each year.
Benefits for the Students:
Students having their own device at school enables them to access technologies and resources whenever required, without having to rely on the availability of working school devices. The school maintains a small number of devices for those students where families are unable to provide a device with the goal to maintain 1:1 student device ratio in the classroom.
We are moving towards giving our students more agency with their learning and having their own device will assist them in accessing the material to show their progress and for the school to be able to report in real time.
All students at Evans Bay Intermediate are provided with a Google account, which includes Mail, Drive (including Docs, Sheets & Slides - all platforms that teachers use to engage students) and Calendar. Their account credentials are used to access our filtered wi-fi through their user authentication.
What device should students have:
We recognise that students are only at Evans Bay Intermediate for 2 years so parents should also take into account any requirements that secondary schools may have if buying a brand new device.
BYOD Devices for use at Evans Bay Intermediate should have:
A screen greater than 10”
Be WIFI capable (recommend WiFI N minimum)
A working battery with a rated 6 hour use
A keyboard (can be portable/bluetooth)
Up to date operating system and antivirus software
Must be able to run Google Chrome
NORCOM
The company that maintains the school network, is able to provide devices that meet the above requirements through their website: NORCOM
Devices purchased from the above site will be sent directly to Evans Bay Intermediate, set up and ready to connect to the school network.
Cellphones
Cellphones can be useful for on the spot learning or recording of learning but have a higher risk during use as the cellular network bypasses the firewalls and content filters that Evans Bay Intermediate has set up.
Students are expected to follow the guidelines for the use of mobile phones. This document can be viewed here.
DIgital CItizenship and Responsible Use Agreement
Evans Bay Intermediate has a Responsible Use Agreement (RUA) that students and parents are expected to read, sign and return to the school. This document details the schools expectations for the use of devices at school and how students should act online.
As part of building a class culture at the beginning of the year all classes will explore expectations for the safe and appropriate use of devices. These expectations may be revisited during the year as needed to reinforce student knowledge.
To support parents the school has also held several information evenings for parents to aid them with maintaining safe device use in their home. Links to information from previous information evenings or other useful information are listed below: