Devices

Access to devices is going to be crucial for our learners to access online learning over the next few weeks. To engage fully in online learning, students are going to need internet connectivity in addition to a suitable device. We've listed the 3 main types of device below. All parents were asked to complete a survey in March that gave us details of student access to appropriate learning devices and internet connectivity. For those families that have been identified as not having access to any device we have submitted requests to the Ministry of Education for a device to be provided.

Please note that a mobile phone is not an appropriate device to access online learning content.

Getting your device ready for Online Learning

There are a few simple steps that you need to follow in order to get your device ready for some learning action online.

  1. Make sure that your device is on your Wi-Fi, even better if you can access a wired ethernet connection from your router. If using Wi-Fi try to connect to your router using 5Ghz rather than 2.4Ghz if your router supports it.

  2. If you are a bit of a techie you might want to optimise your router. Some routers (Asus/Netgear/Dlink) allow you to optimise QoS (Quality of Service), if you can - set for streaming/video conferencing rather than gaming. It will help to support better connections when video conferencing. You may want to check the firewall is enabled to protect your home network and some routers can even schedule the wi-fi to be disabled between set times. Only adjust router settings if you know what you are doing as you have the potential to change ISP settings = NO INTERNET. Your provider is going to be pretty busy at the moment so the last thing you want is no Internet!

  3. Make sure you have Google Chrome browser installed and follow the instructions below to sign into the browser using your school Google Account. You are encouraged to use Google Chrome as you can sign in to the browser (and also switch between multiple accounts - eg personal/school/siblings).

  4. Bookmark the following URLS for easy access as you will be using them a lot: http://classroom.google.com/ http://mail.google.com/ http://meet.google.com/ http://portal.stjohns-hamilton.school.nz

  5. We strongly encourage you to do a test Google Meet with one of your teachers during the first week of term 2 to make sure that you are familiar with setting up your webcam/microphone to work.

You are also encouraged to add your google account to your smartphone too. Doing so will ensure that any emails from school/teachers come through to your device and you are notified of them. You will also have access to your school account Google Calendar, this will be useful if your teachers are using Google Calendar to set up online tutorials using Google Meet.

Signing into your Chrome Browser

Your life is going to be made a whole lot easier by signing into your school Google account in the Chrome browser. This will stop you having to keep putting in your school email address (GoogleID) and password. Remember that your school email address is in the format <username>@student.stjohns-hamilton.school.nz

Tablet

Tablets are great when it comes to portability, but using one for an extended period of time when home learning can be challenging. They are best used with a bluetooth keyboard, the small screen size can prove to be an issue over time. You are also tied in to either the Google PlayStore or Apple Appstore for Apps. Both have all the relevant apps for education that we will be using - Google Classroom, Docs and Meet

Chromebook

Chromebooks are native ChromeOS devices which means that they are tied to delivering you Google Apps via your google account. These devices best work when they have an internet connection. They are great for general work on the web - researching, Google Docs, Youtube etc They are well suited to delivering our Junior curriculum and most subjects in the Senior School that do not require specialist apps and software. If you have a Chromebook make sure that you have Google Classroom and Google Meet ChromeOS Apps installed.

Laptop/Desktop

These are more expensive to purchase than Chromebooks but have a lot more flexibility, content can be created whether connected to the internet or not and they have a number of advantages for students in the senior school who may be taking courses that require specialist software (such as Lightroom, photoshop, CAD).Windows or MacOS laptops are equally suited. The majority of laptops now come with a webcam and mic built in as standard so students can use them for video conferences like Google Meet.

Our recent device/connectivity survey

Mid-March 2020 we conducted a device/connectivity survey across our whole learning community. It was encouraging to get so many responses from our community. The results from that survey are shown below. You can see that this puts our students in a strong position to access their learning online. The results from this survey have been used to identify those families which will see support from the $87million dollar package that government has released to education.

Community access to the Internet is excellent, with 99.1% of our learners having access to the Internet. We have worked hard to identify those that haven't got access and the Ministry of Education will hopefully be addressing this for those families concerns. What is more of a concern is the significant proportion of families on a slow connection. We are aware that for these families, there may be issues with high bandwidth requirements such as video streaming and conferencing. We ask that students be open with their teachers if they are having issues with internet connectivity whilst at home.

A number of duplicate entries were in the survey, so these results are not as high as the survey led us to believe. Assuming that those who did not respond to the survey haven't got a device 11.7% of our students have not got devices. We have applied to the Ministry of Education for devices to be provided to these families.

A significant portion of families will see children sharing devices to access learning. Unfortunately the MoE funding is focused on making a device accessible in each home and does not support

Internet Connectivity

If you have concerns with your connectivity please contact your service provider. Many service providers are removing quota's on limited accounts at the request of customers - the government is encouraging TELCO's to open up their networks to support home learning.