Welcome!

Your Ed Tech team has created this course to create a partnership that ensures safe, responsible and productive use of technology in and out of school. During this course you will:

Learn about the CIS technology team and who to contact with technical issues or concerns around technology use
Set up your laptop for use at CIS
Create a Family Media Agreement to support your child's laptop use at home
Learn about tools such as Apple Screen time that you can use to manage your devices
Learn more about the tech programs in place to support families and students at CIS

It is expected that you carefully read each of the sections below. Click on the title to expand the section.

Important Notes: Read before you begin

Your child should not bring their new laptop to school until this course is complete
The course is considered complete once the final agreement and survey are submitted
This course cannot be completed until your child has their new laptop
This course should be completed in advance of the orientation day in August
You should complete the rest of this course (after this section) with your child
You do not need to complete the course in one session. Please use bookmarks to save your progress.

Important First Step: Setting up Accounts

Before your orientation day, it is crucial that all student laptops are set up for three users:

Parent: This user should be created to ensure that you, as a parent, are in full control of your child's device. This is recommended for all students but this step is mandatory for Year 7 to 9 Students.(Instructions)
Tech support: Since your child should not be able to make changes to their device, this user will allow our tech team to support if your child encounters technical difficult during the school day. (Instructions)
Student account: This will be for your child. For Y7-9 students it should not be set to administrator for the device. (Instructions)

We know that, at the time of reading, you may not yet have your child's device. When you do, we urge you to ensure you revisit these instructions before orientation day in August to avoid complications or delays. This information will be repeated again later in the course.

Apple Screen Time

To support your family media agreement, you can make use of Apple’s Screen Time to understand and have meaningful conversations about how every member of your family uses their Apple device/s. If required it can also be used to view a child's usage and enable App Limits and Down Time. This section will guide you on how to set this up.

Please note that we will run a screen time workshop for parents in the opening weeks of the school year that will also cover these important topics as well as best practice in putting them to use.

We ask that all families set up Screen Time on their child’s MacBook to support a healthy balance with technology.

Here are tutorials on how to set up and manage Screen Time:

If you have any further questions about managing Screen Time, please feel free to reach out to the Ed Tech Coaches.

The Family Media Agreement

We believe in a “mentoring over monitoring” approach to managing technology. Family Media Agreements are a vital way to manage the challenge of introducing a device to your home without over-relying on restrictions or limitations. At CIS, students are expected to use devices (laptops, mobile devices) for schoolwork, communication, and exploring their own interests. Our philosophy is based on our need for students to become responsible and ethical users of technology.

You do not need to create this agreement now. Later in our online course, you will find detailed guidance on creating Family Media Agreements. For some general guidelines, here is a basic template from Common Sense Media.

We will offer ongoing support for parents and students. Look out for helpful parent workshops and ongoing communications designed to help you reinforce this agreement as your child grows. Your students will receive ongoing support through our year-long Digital Citizenship Program.

Course Content

1. Introduction 5. Passwords

2. Responsible Use Policy 6. Software and Settings

3. Family Media Agreement 7. Keeping yourself (and your laptop) safe

4. Setting up users 8. The Agreement

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