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Information
FAQ
About Your School-Owned Laptop
Your laptop belongs to the Schools, not you personally.
We are happy to provide you with this powerful teaching resource. It is meant to be the primary computer you use at work for professional purposes. Please refrain from customizing the casing with stickers, photos, label tape, etc.
Protect your data and students' integrity; don't share your laptop with them.
You will almost certainly have sensitive files somewhere on your computer. Letting students use your laptop exposes them to needless temptation and subsequent suspicion if something goes awry.
Please be mindful of when you are and are not logged in to your laptop user account. You have full admin rights to your computer, so anyone who sits down at your laptop while you're logged in can install, delete, move, or copy any file you can. Consider encrypting sensitive files or storing them on the file server.
Change account passwords regularly. Make them hard to guess by combining different characters. Avoid predictable passwords like letmein, your pet's name, your address or phone number, child's name, etc. Always change default passwords for accounts created by others.
Personally owned software may not be installed on school computers.
If you have a professional need for software to be added to your laptop, please submit a request to the DIT. Do not purchase it with personal funds. In general, you are only authorized to install software if it is owned or licensed by the Schools. Certain types of software for which no license is required may be installed, however, including: drivers for peripheral devices you own, freeware, synchronizing software for handheld devices you own, demo or trial versions
All software purchased by, donated to, or legally acquired by the Schools, regardless of who pays for it, must be registered with the Director of Information Technology. Unlicensed or unregistered software will be removed during the course of routine maintenance.
Personally purchased files or services (songs, movies, or audiobooks purchased from the iTunes Music Store, for example) are also not supported. If you choose to buy them, do so at your own risk and keep backup copies. IS is not responsible for restoring these files in the event of a disk failure or other support incident.
Keep your laptop safe and secure.
A moment's carelessness at school, at home, in your car, at the airport, or elsewhere is all it takes to lose your laptop. It is never safe to leave your laptop unattended and/or unsecured, even here at school. Use your security cable, but be aware that it provides only a modicum of protection.
Use a padded case for transporting your laptop; avoid temperature extremes. When you are first issued a laptop, you have an allowance of up to $70 toward a laptop case of your choosing.
Please use the virus protection utility on your laptop to prevent downloading or distributing viruses or worms. Do not open any attachment from an unfamiliar sender.
Report accidental damage, loss, or theft promptly.
In most cases, the school will repair or replace equipment damaged accidentally. If your laptop is stolen, you will need to submit a police report to help the Schools substantiate an insurance claim. If, however, the damage, loss, or theft is because of your carelessness, abuse, or negligence, you can expect to share repair or replacement costs up to $250 (half of the Schools' insurance deductible). In repeated instances of damage, theft, or loss, the DIT may deny laptop privileges.
Save documents only to your Documents folder.
IS can resolve your support issues quickest when we know where you keep your files. With many mobile computers to support, we won't have the time to track down files stored any old place.
You are responsible for making your laptop available to support staff for troubleshooting.
With over 125 teacher laptops in service, IS cannot chase you down to complete trouble tickets. Please bring your laptop to us. If your problem cannot be resolved quickly, you will be provided with a loaner laptop with a standard school image to use in the meantime. If you have been careful about backing up important files and registering departmental software with the Director of Information Technology, the inconvenience should be minimal because you will have copies readily available.
Turn in your laptop when it is called in for scheduled software upgrades and general maintenance.
We cannot manage large numbers of laptops and also accommodate a hundred users' individual schedules. IS will schedule preventive maintenance and software upgrades for groups of computers with as much lead time as possible for grade levels and departments. Peak use times will be avoided. We will work with departments and grade levels to minimize the impact on your daily work, but some level of inconvenience will be inevitable. Your ready cooperation is appreciated.
Run Software Update regularly.
Use your admin privileges to install recommended updates. If you do this, it will reduce the number of times IS needs to call in laptops for software updates.
What happens when I leave the Lab Schools?
Prior to turning it in, copy any files you wish to take with you and delete any you don't. Please make sure sensitive files are dealt with properly. IS staff is happy to work with you on these tasks as your duties conclude.
Your laptop computer and all accessories (carry bag excluded) must be returned to the Manager of Information Systems as soon as possible after your duties are concluded. Final paychecks may be delayed if equipment is not returned in a timely fashion.
We can't sell you the laptop you've been using; your preferences, bookmarks, mail messages, and other unique data would have to be wiped in the course of complying with software licensing agreements.
