BYOD - Bring Your Own Device to Kōwhai
We ask that, if at all possible, your child brings a chromebook to Kōwhai to support them with their classroom learning. Chromebooks are relatively cheap (approx $400), robust, have a battery that will last all day and are designed to work perfectly with the Google Accounts for Education that each child is given to do their school work on. We recommend either Acer (the most reliable in our experience) or HP chromebooks. All chromebooks need to have 4GB of RAM. Many electronics retailers will stock them and while it’s always worth comparing prices we have found PB Tech to have excellent pricing.
If you are unable to provide a chromebook for your child we have a small number of school chromebooks that students may use.
If your child has a different device they may also bring that, (Ipad, laptop etc) as long as it has a full physical keyboard, a battery that will last the day and doesn’t have software, data connection or games that will distract them from their learning.
While high schools may ask for different devices as their preference we have not found any issues with students using their chromebooks for years 9 & 10. They may need a more powerful device to run specialist software after this time but at that stage you will have hopefully gotten 4 years daily use out of the chromebook.
Setting up a new chromebook
When you get a brand new chromebook the first account you sign in with will be the ‘owner’ of the device. This will usually need to be a @gmail.com type of account. You may want to use a parents account or your child’s own @gmail account to do this - for example joebloggs@gmail.com.
When your child comes to Kowhai, and once you have signed and returned your BYOD & ICT agreement, they will be issued with a Kowhai Google account that they will then use for all their school related work - for example joebloggs@kowhai.school.nz.
Students cannot leave their devices at school and need to make sure they are fully charged each night.
restrictions/security
Some families and some previous schools may have loaded extra apps that ‘lock down’ the chromebook and may make it impossible for the student to load or use an account such as their school account. If this comes from another school you will need to contact them - often they will need to ‘unhook’ your device from their school Chrome Management Console to allow you to use it. You may need to ‘powerwash’ the chromebook following these instructions or as listed below. If you powerwash a chromebook make sure the first time you sign in again you use a non-school, standard @gmail.com type of account as this will become the owner account.
How to Powerwash your chromebook
With the chromebook powered on
Hold down the ESC, RESET (fourth key on the top row that looks like a circular arrow) and power button together and then release.
A white screen with an exclamation mark will appear, push CTRL and D keys
On the next screen push ENTER on the keyboard
One the next screen push SPACE BAR on the keyboard
On the next screen push ENTER
The chromebook will now powerwash and reset itself. Note: The account you sign in with after you reset your Chromebook will be the owner account.
FAMILY LINK ASKING FOR A CODE
If you are using Google’s own Family Link app you will need to go through the parent app and check what restrictions you have put in place on their device. The common one we see where it asks the child for a code from the parent every time they want to sign in.
To solve this open the Family Link app on the parent phone and:
Select your child
Parent Settings
More
Controls for signing in
Change the tick from
Yes, ask me every time, to
No, let (child's name) sign in without me
Once this has been selected you may be asked for a code one more time and you may have to powerwash the chromebook before they can sign in.
Problem solving chromebook issues
Check that the chromebook is charged or will charge when plugged into external power.
Check that the time and date are correct in the bottom right hand corner and that the chromebook can join the WIFI network. The region should be set to New Zealand.
If you have the problem where the WIFI keeps turning off by itself after you have turned in on you should try a factory reset (see below) and then return it to the retailer for repair if that doesn’t fix it. The WIFI component has probably failed.