2017 Laptop Program - Frequently Asked Questions General .................................................................................................................................................................. 3 1. Why does the School have a Laptop Program? ....................................................................................... 3 2. Which year levels does the laptop program cover? ................................................................................ 3 3. I already have a laptop (Mac or Win) at home that my child can use; do I really need to buy a school mandated laptop? .......................................................................................................................................... 3 4. Why did you choose Hewlett‐Packard to continue to supply the School laptop? ................................... 3 5. I already have a school supplied HP laptop, do I have to upgrade to the new one? ............................... 4 6. When do I have to purchase a new laptop? ............................................................................................ 4 7. Is it possible to trade‐in my existing School HP laptop for the new one? ................................................ 4 8. When are orders for the laptops due, and when will my child receive it? .............................................. 4 9. Can my child receive the laptop directly from HP before school starts? ................................................. 4 10. Can year 12 students use their existing Mac, Windows or Linux laptop? ............................................... 4 11. What services will the school be providing as part of the laptop program? ............................................ 4 12. What happens if my child’s laptop is lost or stolen? ............................................................................... 5 13. How will I identify my child’s laptop from the hundreds of others at school? ........................................ 5 14. Will the students need to carry their laptop home every day? ............................................................... 5 15. What does the School do to protect students from accessing inappropriate content on the Internet? 5 16. Is the school decreasing the use of text books and the weight burden for students to carry? ............... 5 17. What happens to handwriting and the requirement of using pen and paper for examinations? ........... 6 18. Can I load my own purchased or freeware software onto the laptop? .................................................. 6 19. Do I own the laptop, as well as the software? ......................................................................................... 6 20. Will I need extra software virus protection? ........................................................................................... 6 21. Does the school make any profit from the laptop program? .................................................................. 6 Year 3 – 5 ............................................................................................................................................................... 7 22. What laptop will be used in Year 3 to 5? ................................................................................................. 7 23. How much will the HP Probook 430 G3 laptop cost? .............................................................................. 7 24. Does my child in year 4 or 5 need to buy a HP Probook 430 laptop? ...................................................... 7 25. Will my child carry their laptop home every day? ................................................................................... 7 26. Why is the Accidental Damage Protection not included with the Primary HP Probook 430 laptop? ...... 7 27. What happens if there is damage to a Primary HP Probook 430 laptop that is not covered by warranty? ...................................................................................................................................................... 7 Year 6 – 11 ............................................................................................................................................................. 8 28. What laptop will be used in Year 6 to 11? ............................................................................................... 8 29. How much will the HP Spectre Pro X360 G2 laptop cost? ....................................................................... 8 30. How much would the HP Spectre Pro X360 G2 laptop cost if I wanted to get this outside of the school? ....................................................................................................................................................................... 8 31. I currently have an older School HP laptop but am considering upgrading to the new Spectre Pro X360 G2 later, will the price likely to change during 2017? .................................................................................... 8 32. What is the Accidental Damage Protection Policy? ................................................................................. 8 33. If a student does not start school at the start of 2017 in the initial distribution period but instead comes at a later time (i.e. the laptop is ordered outside the main distribution) how long will it take to receive the new laptop? ................................................................................................................................ 8 34. I want to upgrade to the HP Spectre Pro X360 G2, do I have to buy the software all over again? ........... 8 35. Why is the School offering 2 models? ..................................................................................................... 9 36. What will students do with their laptop at lunchtime? ........................................................................... 9 37. How will students carry their laptop around at school? .......................................................................... 9 38. Is there room in a student’s locker for the machine, and is it secure? .................................................... 9 39. What about the extra weight in their school bag? .................................................................................. 9 40. Why are you offering a 12.5” screen? ..................................................................................................... 9 41. Is the laptop too heavy for my child? ...................................................................................................... 9 42. The screen is hinged; won’t that make it easier to break? ..................................................................... 9 43. How many years will the laptop last? When will I have to replace it with newer technology in the future? ........................................................................................................................................................... 9 44. What about battery charging during the day? What is the student’s laptop battery goes flat during the day? ................................................................................................................................................................ 9 45. Battery life was terrible in earlier models. What are you doing about that? ........................................ 10 46. Why aren’t you offering an Intel i7 processor? ..................................................................................... 10 47. Why is there no DVD drive? ................................................................................................................... 10 48. Why is the Solid State Drive (SSD) storage space so small?................................................................... 10 49. Why are you offering Windows 10? ...................................................................................................... 10 General 1. Why does the School have a Laptop Program? Technology is impacting on all of our lives, and especially the lives of students, in new and expanding ways. At AISHK, technologies are increasingly used as tool to enable, enrich and transform learning opportunities. The Laptop Program began as a pilot in 2009 and has since expanded until 2013 where all students in years 3 – 11 being required to have a school mandated laptop. 2. Which year levels does the laptop program cover? The Laptop Program starts in Year 3 and continues through to Year 11. The program is broken into two parts, the first focusing on the needs of students in Years 3 – 5 and the second on years 6 – 11 with laptop specifications varying accordingly. 3. I already have a laptop (Mac or Win) at home that my child can use; do I really need to buy a school mandated laptop? Yes, except for students who are in year 12, who may bring their own. As the laptop is required as part of the learning curriculum, it is therefore a mandatory requirement that students purchase the school appointed laptop package. This package comes with the HP laptop and a wide range of software needed for learning, 3-year warranty and accidental damage protection as well as a comprehensive school IT support service. The reason that the prescribed laptop package is mandatory for all students from Years 3 to 11 is so that: Teachers can be assured that students will have all the necessary tools to complete the tasks that are required of them at all times. Students can safely rely on these laptops, backed up by the school IT Support Centre which provides free servicing and assistance to students on the program. The included three-year warranty and accidental damage protection ensures that the laptop remains fully usable, regardless of incident, throughout the laptop lifecycle. In the event of any incident where the laptop requires repair, students are provided with a free spare loan laptop enabling them to carry on with learning without any downtime. Students can be assured they are on an equal standing with their peers and are not disadvantaged by having a laptop that does not meet school requirements. Students are assured of meeting the data security requirements to safely connect to the school network resources enabling them to save their works, print, and access internet and intranet resources. For Year 12 students, who may optionally be using a different laptop, they are required to have a current subscription for antivirus software, and depending on which subjects they are studying, may need specific software for that course. If they do not currently own this software, they will have to purchase it outside the School. It is important to note that if Year 12 students opt-out of the Laptop Program; they will get limited IT support from the school as the School ICT Service Centre only provides assistance to School HP laptops. Other laptops are unable to connect to the School domain, print or access school internal network services so will only have basic internet access services. 4. Why did you choose Hewlett-Packard to continue to supply the School laptop? At the Laptop Program inception, the School trialed and considered a range of laptops. Apple MacBook Air and MacBook Pro were compared and trialed against machines from Toshiba, Fujitsu, HP, Dell and Lenovo. Factors considered were computing speed and capability, RAM, memory, weight, size, case, camera, batteries, cost, warranty, accidental damage protection, and after sales support. This Laptop Program was again re-evaluated in 2014 and 2016 to reflect on lessons learnt, look at new technologies, how student learning with technology has evolved and evaluate new laptops and offerings from various manufacturers with an open bid to tender process. To this end the HP was still considered the best option for our purposes in both Primary and Secondary School requirements. The main contributing factors to continue using HP is the appeal of both the Probook 430 G3 (Years 3-5) and Spectre Pro X360 G2 (Years 6+) and how closely they match our specific requirements for performance, weight, battery life, warranty, accidental damage protection, ongoing support and price. We have received good service from HP over the past years. Some companies offered cheaper laptops but did not fulfil all of our technical requirements while others that did, had an inadequate support and service offering. HP is able to meet all of our requirements while maintaining a competitive price. 5. I already have a school supplied HP laptop, do I have to upgrade to the new one? Yes and No. The Laptop Program operates on a three-year lifecycle, so until the laptop in use reaches its three-year anniversary, there is no need to upgrade. So, the HP Spectre Pro X360 G2 laptops used by secondary school students are covered by warranty and accidental damage protection until the end of three years and do need to be upgraded until then. These laptops are quite capable of running current school required software. Parents who would like their child to use a new school laptop would be on a voluntary basis only. 6. When do I have to purchase a new laptop? All laptops come with a three-year warranty and accidental damage protection. As such the laptop program operates on a three-year lifecycle. This also ensures students are keeping up with technological advancements as the laptop program evolves to meet emerging software and user requirements. This means that students must have their laptop replaced after three years, including the accompanying software bundle. 7. Is it possible to trade-in my existing School HP laptop for the new one? No. As the school has no use for the older laptops except for maybe a few spares this is not something we are doing. It is recommended that you would get much more return by either selling the laptop privately or donating the laptop to charity. 8. When are orders for the laptops due, and when will my child receive it? The main distribution is for students receiving their laptop for the start of the school year in February 2017. For this distribution, ordering is made available until 28 October 2016 and are distributed to students in the first week of term February 2017. Orders received after that time may not be delivered until later in the Term 1, 2017. Otherwise, for any other time of the year, orders can be placed anytime. We usually have spare stock available and students can receive a laptop with 2 days, otherwise if we need to re-stock from HP, you can expect up to 4 weeks. Information regarding the laptop ordering will also be sent out via email. 9. Can my child receive the laptop directly from HP before school starts? No. The laptop ordering process requires the software bundle as well as school network configuration to be applied before the student can receive it. The distribution plan is set such that the laptops will be ready to hand directly to students in the first week of term, 2017. 10. Can year 12 students use their existing Mac, Windows or Linux laptop? Yes. However, since the laptop is not supplied by the School with sanctioned software and is unable to be guaranteed to meet our technical and administrative policy requirements we will limit the student’s access to Internet services only. The student is responsible for ensuring their laptop is maintained themselves as we cannot offer any kind of IT support services. 11. What services will the school be providing as part of the laptop program? The School HP laptops program pricing includes: 3-year HP warranty 3-year HP Accidental Damage Protection (ADP) for the HP Spectre Pro X360 G2 laptop School provided IT Support Centre. Loan laptop during servicing The IT Support Centre is located near the Library on level 5 and is staffed by our ICT Support Team who provides “on-the-spot” diagnosis and simple repairs / software rebuilds during school time from 7:45am to 4:30 pm. In the event that the laptop service is hardware related (Warranty or ADP), HP provide a pickup and return service with a 3-day turnaround. The IT Support Centre can also be contacted by email regarding repair status and general school laptop enquiries at the following email address: [email protected]. We cannot guarantee instant replies, but beyond face-to-face requests, is our second priority. When a laptop is brought to the IT Support Centre for repair, regardless of whether the issue is software or hardware related, if the servicing is expected to take more than 2 class periods, a loan laptop will be lent to the student. Loans are not provided to students that leave their laptop at home or do not present their broken laptop. Students in year 12 who do not have a School purchased HP laptop will not be able to access these services and will have to make their own provisions for servicing and repair. 12. What happens if my child’s laptop is lost or stolen? The warranty and accidental damage protection only covers damage or faulty items, not theft or loss. Parents may wish to privately insure their children’s laptops. The School IT Service Centre can provide a loan laptop only once a new laptop order form has been returned to the IT Office. 13. How will I identify my child’s laptop from the hundreds of others at school? When the laptop is distributed to students, the student’s name is labelled on the top cover of the laptop and the power adapter. The School IT Support Centre additionally maintains a database of all laptop serial numbers which can be referred to in the instance of laptops being misappropriated between students. Students are permitted to reasonably personalise their laptops with appropriate stickers or covers as long as it does not affect the operation of the laptop. The amount / type of personalisation is the same as would be allowed for the student’s diary. 14. Will the students need to carry their laptop home every day? Students in year 3 to 5 leave their laptop in the classroom at all times in specially allocated storage and charging cabinets. When carrying the laptop between classrooms they must use the supplied laptop sleeves. Students in year 6 and up are expected to bring their laptop to and from school every day for homework, study and classroom learning. The laptops have been specifically chosen to have a battery that will last the entire school day under normal usage without the need for recharge or carrying their AC adapter to school. Students are required to get into the habit of ensuring their laptops are fully recharged at home before each school day. Students must take precautions to ensure they carry their laptop safely and securely. They should use the provided laptop sleeves and place the laptop in their school bag such that the laptop will not be bent, dented or have other effects in their bag cause undue strain on the laptop. 15. What does the School do to protect students from accessing inappropriate content on the Internet? All laptops that connect to the Internet through the School network are monitored with active blocking in place against inappropriate websites and content. Content filtering policies cover a wide variety of categories including but not limited to adult, gambling, gaming, social networking, hacking, malicious, chatrooms, to name a few. This content filtering is applied at the School network level, so is not in the form of software applied to the laptop itself. When the student is away from School (such as in the home) no content filtering is applied. It is then your responsibility if you wish to ensure your child is using the laptop appropriately. We suggest this can be done by either ensuring the laptop is used in a common area at home, or you are welcome to apply your own software Internet safety solution. 16. Is the school decreasing the use of text books and the weight burden for students to carry? Students and teachers will continue to use the relevant text materials for their coursework. Many of the core texts are available in PDF format on the Online Learning Platform and students can keep their books at school. Students are encouraged to download their textbooks to their laptops in case of an interruption to internet access. Textbook publishers have progressively provided their content online and in electronic format and the School takes advantage of that wherever possible. 17. What happens to handwriting and the requirement of using pen and paper for examinations? Laptops and other technologies are an enhancement to the curriculum and will not be used for the entire duration of every class. In fact we estimate that the use of laptops will be used for approximately 20-30% of overall lesson times. Individual subjects will use the laptops depending on their curriculum. Interestingly, laptops and electronic devices are being used more and more in public examinations in universities throughout the world. So as this trend finds its way to secondary schools, we will be well prepared. Since the integration of the interactive whiteboards into classrooms in 2008, classes increasingly have been using electronic technologies for class work. 18. Can I load my own purchased or freeware software onto the laptop? Yes. As the owner, you have complete administrative rights, but the School reserves the right to remove any program that is causing instability, interfering with network access, exposing a security risk, is pirated or illegally licensed. In the event there an issue or incident requiring the School software image reapplied that removes all previously installed software and data, it is not the Schools responsibility to reinstall any non-school purchased or other software, settings and data that have been applied outside the School. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that they retain a copy of their purchased software and a backup of their data. 19. Do I own the laptop, as well as the software? Yes, the laptop is yours. For the software, this depends on whether the license is perpetual or subscription. Perpetual means that the software is yours while subscription means you are allowed to use the software only while your child is a student at the School. With the School subscription, when the student leaves the School the software must be removed. See the table below regarding the software terms: Software License MS Windows 10 Professional Perpetual MS Office 2016 Professional Subscription Adobe CC* Subscription Kaspersky Antivirus*/** Subscription Subscription Geometers Sketchpad* Subscription Autograph* Transferrable - permanently licensed to laptop No No - licensed only while a student at AISHK - licensed only while a student at AISHK – specific years No - licensed only while a student at AISHK No No - licensed only while a student at AISHK - licensed only while a student at AISHK No * Only installed on the Year 6-11 laptop; ** Only on machines purchased prior to 2016 Texts and other software installed as part of school coursework must be removed before leaving the school. This is to protect our copyright and software licenses with the respective publishers. 20. Will I need extra software virus protection? No. The laptops come packaged with FortiClient antivirus, our current school standard antivirus software. 21. Does the school make any profit from the laptop program? No. The School has negotiated heavily with HP and other software providers for the best price possible for all facets of the laptop program. The price we are quoted by our suppliers is the price you pay with no additional charges for School administration, support or distribution costs. There is zero mark-up as we endeavour to bring you the best price possible. Neither the School nor its staff receives any commission or any other financial or in-kind benefits from our suppliers. Year 3 – 5 22. What laptop will be used in Year 3 to 5? The 2017 Primary laptop is the HP Probook 430 G3 23. How much will the HP Probook 430 G3 laptop cost? HK$ 4,6500. This covers hardware, software, 3-year warranty and School onsite service. The price has come down from last year thanks to the change in Microsoft’s software license plan for schools. 24. Does my child in year 4 or 5 need to buy a HP Probook 430 laptop? Existing students coming into year 4 or 5 should already have their laptop from year 3. New students to year 4 will have to buy a HP Probook 430 laptop. For new students to year 5, the School understands that it is wasteful to purchase the Primary School HP Probook 430 and use it for only one year. As such, the School will provide a HP Probook 430 to lease. Ownership of this laptop and software will remain with the School. Further enquiries for Year 5 students about the leasing arrangements can be made directly with the Director of ICT, Mr Andy Griffiths ([email protected]). 25. Will my child carry their laptop home every day? No. Students will keep their laptops at school in specially provided storage and charging cabinets. We feel that at this age it is too much to ask the student to be responsible for getting the laptop safely to and from school and that the weight of their school bags should be minimised. 26. Why is the Accidental Damage Protection not included with the Primary HP Probook 430 laptop? Students do not take the laptop home, only occasionally move the laptop from class to class, and relatively the laptop experiences much less mobility than the laptop used by students in higher years. Thus it is felt there is much less chance of any accidents occurring. This is reflected that to date, we have rarely experienced any incidents of accidental damage to these laptops. Considering the lower risk and in an effort to keep costs down, we have therefore decided to not implement the extra cost associated with this. 27. What happens if there is damage to a Primary HP Probook 430 laptop that is not covered by warranty? The school IT staff will ascertain whether the damage was accidental or intentional by talking with both the student and the teacher as well as assess the nature of the damage. If the damage was accidental, the school will cover repair costs. However, if the damage inflicted on the laptop was intentional, we will obtain a quote from HP for the repair and provide a letter to the parent outlining the matter along with the quote. The school will arrange the laptop to be repaired by HP and costs passed onto the parent. Year 6 – 11 28. What laptop will be used in Year 6 to 11? The 2017 laptop for years 6 and up is the HP Spectre Pro X360 G2 29. How much will the HP Spectre Pro X360 G2 laptop cost? HK$ 8,850. This covers hardware, subscription to software, 3-year warranty and Accidental Damage Protection and comprehensive School IT support service. The price has decreased significantly due to changes in the way the school distributes and charges for Adobe CC to ensure that only students who need Adobe CC are charged for it. 30. How much would the HP Spectre Pro X360 G2 laptop cost if I wanted to get this outside of the school? Although this laptop is not available in a retail store (it is sold to enterprise customers only), the full price configured to the same specifications, warranty and service coverage along with the retail cost of the software (at student pricing) would come to over 14,000 HK$. 31. I currently have an older School HP laptop but am considering upgrading to the new EliteBook 9480m later, will the price likely to change during 2017? No. The School has heavily negotiated a very good price from HP for the laptop and contracted them to ensure this price is locked through 2017. 32. What is the Accidental Damage Protection Policy? As part of the School laptop package for students in years 6 - 11, HP provides a 3-year Accidental Damage Protection (ADP) policy. Under this policy the laptop is covered for three major components each 12 months and most minor components*. Major components comprise the screen, mainboard and solid state drive. This means that in a 12 month period the laptop can have any of the three major components or same major component replaced three times such as three screens or one screen and two mainboards, etc. If there is no incident in a 12 month period, this component tally cannot be carried over to the next 12 month period. If the laptop suffers any incident beyond this, the parent will be liable for any parts and labour costs imposed by HP. *Exceptions: Minor component repair is only made to those components that affect operational or functional use of the laptop. That is, any issue with the laptop that is purely aesthetic such as dents, scratches or minor cracks in the casing will not be covered. Note that this is a departure in HP policy from previous years where the minor component coverage was all components and unlimited. HP have found that this policy has been abused. Any damage to the laptop that is intentional is not covered. Loss or theft is not covered. The ADP is covered by HP in Hong Kong only, so if any accident occurs while the laptop is overseas, the laptop will need to be returned to Hong Kong for servicing. 33. If a student does not start school at the start of 2017 in the initial distribution period but instead comes at a later time (i.e. the laptop is ordered outside the main distribution) how long will it take to receive the new laptop? HP recommends that orders take about four weeks to fill as the laptop is specially customised for our purposes. Adding delivery and software configuration, we estimate 5 weeks from the time of order. However, the School does try and maintain a spare stock of laptops so usually the waiting period is only one day while the IT Department configures the laptop software. 34. I want to upgrade to the HP Spectre Pro X360 G2, do I have to buy the software all over again? Yes. Windows 10 is licensed to the laptop (OEM license) and cannot be transferred. Microsoft has restructured the student licensing methodology such that licenses are now subscription based. All new laptops include this subscription licensing as part of the laptop bundle. 35. Why is the School offering 2 models? With the advance of technology, it is no longer necessary to have a distinct “higher end” model in order to use the software effectively. The light weight means that we can offer this model to the younger students too. 36. What will students do with their laptop at lunchtime? The students should lock their laptops away in their lockers. 37. How will students carry their laptop around at school? Students are provided with a neoprene laptop sleeve included in the package. Students are also welcome to purchase alternative laptop covers and bags from outside the school. 38. Is there room in a student’s locker for the machine, and is it secure? Yes, there is ample room for students to store their laptops and school bags. The laptops are no bigger than a textbook. 39. What about the extra weight in their school bag? One of the reasons we chose the HP Spectre Pro X360 G2 was because of its light weight (1.5kg). Due to the storage capacity and access to information that the laptops provide, we believe that students carry fewer text books between school and home. 40. Why are you offering a 12.5” screen? We are taking advantage of the Ultrabook™ format which enables us to have a touch screen without any notable increase in weight. 41. Is the laptop too heavy for my child? At 1.5Kgs, this is considered below average weight for a comparatively equipped laptop. Students should be able to more than reduce the weight of books that the laptop can replace with e-books. Students can further save weight by not bringing their power adapter to school each day (or purchasing a second power adapter and having one at home and one in their locker) and ensuring their laptop is fully charged at home before school. 42. The screen is hinged; won’t that make it easier to break? The Spectre Pro X360 G2 is built to a high standard. Students will still need to take care but they are robust machines. While screens can break if treated badly, such as carrying the laptop holding the screen while the laptop is open, or closing the screen while books or pens are laying on the keyboard, if the laptop is handled responsibly your child should have no issues. 43. How many years will the laptop last? When will I have to replace it with newer technology in the future? The laptop lifecycle is determined as being 3 years. The HP Spectre Pro X360 G2 uses the very latest technology and has been produced for robustness. The durable case, solid state drive and keyboard are made to military specifications. The 3-year School lifecycle is reflected by being supplied with a 3-year warranty and Accidental Damage Protection. 44. What about battery charging during the day? What is the student’s laptop battery goes flat during the day? We encourage and remind students to recharge their laptops at home each evening. Students are given advice on how best to manage their settings and conserve battery power. Laptops can be charged in the Library at recess and lunch and in some classrooms as allowed by their teacher. However students must get into the habit of charging nightly. The HP Spectre Pro X360 G2 laptop has been chosen with emphasis on its longer battery life such that students who follow the advice on how best to manage their battery usage and are using their laptops under normal learning expectations should not need to recharge during the school day. This alleviates the need for the student to bring their AC adapter to school. 45. Battery life was terrible in earlier models. What are you doing about that? We have tested the new laptops extensively and are confident that the battery life will perform well in the school usage. 46. Why aren’t you offering an Intel i7 processor? The new generation Intel Dual-Core i5 is as fast as the i7 from previous generations. We get the same performance at a considerable price reduction. The Spectre Pro X360 G2 i5 processor has also been tested by a number of staff and students during evaluation using standard school required software and deemed more than acceptable. 47. Why is there no DVD drive? DVD drives are not necessary for student’s school work and adds unnecessary weight and another moving component that increases the chance of failure. An external USB DVD drive can be purchased if desired. 48. Why is the Solid State Drive (SSD) storage space so small? The laptop is for school work and 256GB is ample for the student’s needs. Having an SSD speeds up boot time, resuming from sleep, loading applications and saves some battery consumption. By being a non-mechanical component it is less prone to damage from knocks, drops, etc. thus being more reliable. Getting a larger SSD would unnecessarily add considerably to the cost of the laptop. 49. Why are you offering Windows 10? The laptop is designed for Windows 10 and the drivers that come with the laptop will work best under Windows 10. We are gradually going to upgrade all of the computers within the school to Windows 10. We hope that we have answered all your questions. If you have any additional questions please email them to [email protected] we will answer you directly, and we will also add questions and answers to this document if appropriate.
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