As parents and caregivers of Year 9 - 12 students will already know, from the start of 2018 all Year 10 - 13 students will be expected to bring their own device to school.

This information went out in a letter in Term 2 and was also shared at the Open Evening and Options Evening in the form of a booklet entitled "Future Focussed Learning".  This booklet is attached at the bottom of this article.

The reason for BYOD is that as we move towards teaching where digital technology is seen in all aspects it becomes essential for students to have their own device. This allows for anytime-anywhere learning, where learning is authentic, collaborative, personalized, future-focussed, and where students are encouraged to engage in wider learning communities, develop higher order thinking and problem solving. Currently we have devices that students and teachers can use however we do not have the capacity to have all students using them in every lesson.

To support this change our teachers have been involved in professional learning for the last three years on how to incorporate e-learning within their teaching programmes. As a result devices are already being used across all learning areas for a variety of reasons. Teachers have been developing programmes that have a blended approach. This means that not all activities will be carried out on a device and e-learning is seen as an effective tool to support creative teaching and learning.

Community feedback had indicated that security is a current barrier for students bringing devices to school. In order to help remove this issue the College has recently upgraded its close circuit television cameras to ensure increased coverage of our site. Powered lockers are currently being installed in the Action Centre and library foyers. These will allow students to lock their devices away during non-class times if required.

We appreciate that for some families this extra cost will be significant. For this reason we are currently applying for grants that we can use to purchase devices for those families who will not be financially able to purchase a device. These devices will be “loaned” to the student for the school day. If you would like to be considered for one of these devices please contact Louise Buckley at the College to discuss this further. 

If as a business or community group you would like to help us support these students please also contact Louise Buckley. We really welcome this sort of support.

Information regarding devices

Features that we feel are essential are:

· Minimum screen size of 9”

· Wireless internet capability

· Battery life which will last a typical school day (at least 6 hours)

Others features to consider:

· Lightweight but robust enough to handle daily use

· Suitable, durable bag / cover for protection

· Suitable for use online and offline

· Security software

For all types of devices we recommend that:

· They be less than 4 years old

· They have AntiVirus software if appropriate

· Students make regular back-ups of critical work on external storage (eg. external hard drive or USB drive)