BYOD is an acronym for Bring Your Own Device, which refers to students being able to bring their own personal device (laptop) into the classroom. Oakhill College believes that allowing families to choose their own device fosters a greater sense of ownership and connection between the student, their device and learning. Bringing an approved device to school every day is a mandatory condition of enrolment at Oakhill College.
Further information is available below. Expand each heading for details.
We need to ensure that the device is capable of meeting the educational demands placed upon it. Therefore there are some minimum specifications that must be met to prevent learning disruptions due to failures or incompatibilities from devices that are obsolete, slow, or lack the necessary components.
At Oakhill, we have four basic requirements:
It must be a “laptop”, or “laptop-style” device.
This means the device must have a full-sized keyboard, and must run either Mac OS, or Windows Operating systems. Examples include all varieties of Apple MacBook, Most PC laptops, and the Microsoft Surface Pro, Go or Laptop. It excludes iPads, other tablet devices running Android software, Chromebooks, or any Linux-based tablet or laptop. The minimum specification for a laptop device should be i5 Intel Processor (or equivalent), 8GB RAM, 256GB Hard Drive.
It must have a battery that lasts for 8+ hours or more.
The College does not permit re-charging laptops at school and therefore your child’s laptop needs to have exceptional battery life. All batteries degenerate with use over time so while it may last 8+ hours when new, you should expect this will reduce considerably over its lifetime. We strongly recommend choosing the longest lasting battery that fits your budget. Choosing something with 9 or 10 hours life is the best option.
It must have 5GHz wireless capability, at the current AX, or Wi-Fi 6 standard.
This refers to the wireless card or chip inside the device. Oakhill runs a high-density wireless network that makes use of the 5GHz spectrum to optimally deliver high speed wireless access to our students and staff. In 2020 the College deployed the very latest WiFi6 access points campus-wide, so any laptop equipped with WiFi6 will take full advantage of this.
The device must be enrolled into Microsoft Intune.
Oakhill College now offers parents and students the ease and convenience of BYOD device setup, via the Microsoft Intune program. On-boarding (or enrolling) your BYOD device allows it to automatically connect to the College network and gain access to BYOD software apps and files. Enrolling in Intune will keep your child’s Windows or Mac laptop correctly configured for BYOD.
There are generally three options for acquiring a laptop suitable for our BYOD program
Purchase via the Oakhill Partner Online Store (CompNow)
Oakhill has partnered with CompNow, a national education reseller that offers parents a range of devices. Each device has been carefully selected to meet the specification, performance and longevity requirements of the program. Purchasing devices from CompNow offers a price benefit. Optional extras are an extended 3-year warranty, including on-site repairs arranged by Oakhill ICT Services. You also have the option of adding protection against accidental damage and theft via additional insurance.
Click here to visit the CompNow online store
Purchase a laptop from a retailer of your choice
If the above option does not suit your preference you may purchase a suitable laptop from any retailer, provided it meets the minimum standards set out above. Please also keep in mind that most vendors sell laptops with a 12-month return-to-base warranty, rather than a 3-year warranty offered by CompNow. Obtaining or negotiating an extended warranty is highly recommended. We also recommend considering insurance against accidental damage and loss. It may be worth investigating if your home and contents policies and/or credit card provider offers extensions to cover laptops.
Provide a pre-existing laptop of your own
You can also provide an existing device that you already own. However, please check that it satisfies the above requirements, as many older laptops will suffer from battery degradation, may not have compatible wireless cards or may be running older, non-compatible operating system. Again, it needs to be stressed that no laptop charging will be available at school during the day.
Software that we encourage all to purchase is security software such as endpoint protection or anti-virus. All other BYOD software is either provided by the College or freely available on the internet.
Endpoint Protection or Anti-Virus Software
Security software is critical for all Windows and Mac laptops. There are numerous commercial endpoint protection solutions, and some free anti-virus programs available. Often new laptops will come with a security suite pre-installed. The choice to either buy a commercial product or use a free product is entirely up to you and what you are comfortable with.
Licensed Software provided by the College
Oakhill College provides all students with a copy of the latest version of Microsoft Office, either via a free download from the Office 365 portal, or automatically installed via Microsoft Intune. Students are also able to request Adobe Creative Cloud applications by filling in a form that can be found in their Student Portal.
Other required software
All other software such as browsers, plug-ins and utilities as required by the BYOD program is freely available on the internet. A list of required software, including links to download, is available from Oakhill College ICT Services.
BYOD Purchase Portal
https://shop.compnow.com.au/sc...
Welcome to the Oakhill College BYOD purchasing portal.
Advantages of purchasing through this portal include:
The College's ICT Services help desk will provide assistance for your child processing hardware warranty issues (If the optional 3-year warranty product has been purchased for the device)
All devices are approved to meet the College's specification policy
Durable, protective carry bags and approved accessories are also available.
Pickup dates are Monday to Friday, 9.30 am to 4.30 pm from CompNow (not the College).
Orders will take approximately 10 business days to fulfil (subject to stock availability and assuming no supply delays).
Questions?
Feel free to email oakhillcollege@compnow.com.au
Or please call the CompNow sales team on 02-9951 7955
BYOD made easy with Microsoft Intune
Oakhill College now offers parents and students the ease and convenience of BYOD device setup, via the Microsoft InTune program.
On-boarding (or enrolling) your BYOD device allows it to automatically connect to the College network and gain access to BYOD software apps and files. The device is best enrolled at home using the instructions further down on this page. Once enrolled, the BYOD device will automatically connect to the College network and receive BYOD software. Nothing further is required from you. If the device is not enrolled when brought to school, an extra step is needed to connect to the College Wi-Fi before enrolling the device.
How to enrol your BYOD device in Intune
To enrol your student BYOD device into the Oakhill College Intune Portal, you only need to install one software application (Intune Company Portal), and sign in to it with the students Oakhill College account.
We strongly recommend the enrolment process is completed by the student (with parent assistance if necessary) so they are familiar with the process.
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