Khwal12's Blog

LAPTOP INFORMATION FOR TEACHERS

USING YOUR LAPTOP

As many of you are now aware your HP laptops have begun to reach the end of their useful life.  Some of you have already had your original HP laptops replaced with new Lenovo or Toshiba laptops.  As the HP systems fail we will do the following:.

1.  We will purchase a new laptop for you.  While you are awaiting your new laptop we will provide you with a school loaner that you may use until your new laptop arrives and we can configure it for your use.  The loaner will not be a Windows Laptop but will be a Ubuntu Linux Laptop, with an operating system that is the same as the one on the desktop computers in your classrooms.
2. We will determine if the failed laptop can be repaired and refurbished into a Linux based system that an be used within the school for backup purposes while other systems are being repaired or replaced.
3. We encourage all teachers to regularly backup any data they are creating either to a local flash drive that they own, or to a Cloud storage account.  In some cases it may be wise for you to do both.  If your laptop fails we can not be assured that we will be able to recover data from your laptop’s hard drive, so we need you to be responsible for backing up your data on a regular basis.

Other issues:

Power Supply or battery replacement.  In some cases we have spare power supplies and batteries for your laptops.  We will attempt to use these items whenever possible.  If we do not have a spare we will order these first before considering replacing your entire laptop system.

Software on your new laptop:

All current laptop purchases include Windows 10 as the operating system.  We are not purchasing Mac Laptops at the present time due to the expense involved.   In some cases a trial version of Microsoft Office comes installed, but in many cases you only get a trial of Office 365 their online product.  You have four choices in this regard, you can choose to use Microsoft’s WEB tools which include a version of Microsoft Office.  These are online tools and they do require a Microsoft Email address (hotmail or msn) to use.  You can also sign up for a monthly subscription to the Office 365 Service.  If you do, you will get the full version of Microsoft Professional, but it will be their Cloud based version so it will not be installed on your computer and you will need a Microsoft Account to access it.  With Office 365 you also get access to Microsoft’s One Drive Cloud storage service.  A third option is to use Google Docs, Google Cloud Office Suite.  This is free, but does require a Gmail login. A fourth option is to have me download and installed the latest version of Libre Office.  It gives you a full office suite that is compatible with Microsoft Office and Google Docs.  All Middle School and Grade 5 staff are encouraged to use the Google Docs Suite with their students since this is the primary collaborative software we use with our School Chromebook computers.

Other Software.  When a new laptop comes in we do the following:

Install Adobe Acrobat Reader, Install VLC media Player, Install an Antivirus Program, Install Print Drivers for the networked printers we use in the school. All other software options are up to you.

Finally, please remember if you are taking your school laptop home, you need a protective case.  The cases we have available at the school are not protective.  You will need to either speak with the principal about purchasing a protective case, or purchase one of your own.    School Laptops do not go home over the summer, so some other computing device for summer use is your responsibility.  We recommend a Chromebook or Tablet computer as a summer device because they are much less expensive.