Fenn iPad: Care and Feeding for your iPad

We want to share with you the recommendations we recently shared with your sons regarding the “care and feeding” of the iPad.  These recommendations focus on practical approaches to taking care of an iPad as well as the expectations we will have for your sons at Fenn when they use their iPads on campus.  

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RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CARE AND “FEEDING” OF YOUR IPAD

• Be familiar with and follow the expectations Fenn has for student use of technology and the campus network as explained within Fenn’s Responsible Use of Technology Agreement.  You sign this document at the beginning of the school year as a condition of gaining access to Fenn’s network. Your signature means that you and your parents are aware of and accept the expectations Fenn has for your responsible use of technology while on campus.  If you have questions about any of the material contained within this agreement, we encourage you to share them with Mr. LaPlante, your division head or your advisor as soon as you arrive on campus so we can make sure to clear up any confusion at the outset of the academic year.

• Bring your iPad to Fenn every day but use your iPads in class only when your teachers instruct you to do so. Your iPad will allow you to take great leaps forward in your learning at Fenn.  Your teachers’ hope is that the iPad will allow you to practice and develop your academic skills and to share your questions and understanding of materials easily and effectively.  At the same time, we also recognize that your iPad is just one of the tools you will have available for learning and that there will be many times when using your iPad is not the most effective way to practice a skill, master content or demonstrate your understanding. Therefore, you should begin EVERY class with your iPad stored in your backpack or “bottoms up/tops down” on your classroom desk.  Your teacher will let you know at the beginning of each class as to whether and how you will use your iPad that day.

• Protect your iPad. Your iPad is your responsibility when at Fenn.  We recommend keeping it in your book bag when not in use.  When in use, we recommend that you not share your device or device passwords with friends under any circumstances.  If you loan the device or leave it unattended and an accident happens which damages your device, it will be your family’s responsibility to repair the device under the terms of its limited warranty or your family’s insurance. Finally, protect your iPad from extreme temperatures by keeping it close to room temperature (not left in the car overnight or on a sunny day), keep it safe from spills by not eating while “iPadding,” and protect it from heavy burdens by not leaving at the bottom of a book bag or in a location where it could accidentally be sat or stepped upon! Bathrooms with their many hard surfaces and water sources also tend to be unfriendly to iPads, too!

• Arrive at school each day with a fully charged iPad.  When properly charged, the iPad’s battery should get you through a day of academic use at Fenn.  Make a habit of plugging in your device to charge before you go to sleep. Fenn will not be able to provide spare charges at school and an uncharged device will not be an acceptable excuse for lack of participation.

• Manage your device’s storage carefully and back up your work to cloud storage.  During the past four years, Fenn students and teachers have been successfully using Google Apps for Education to share and store academic and have found its reliability and accessibility impressive.  The iPad account comes with a similar storage capacity.  Take advantage of cloud storage for important documents, photos and curricular materials--and avoid taking up the limited storage space on your device with music and games that have nothing to do with your academic work.

• Take responsibility for your work if technology glitches let you down. Though we chose the iPad as Fenn’s 1-1 learning platform because it is among the most reliable of mobile devices and though we launched a new learning management system to make it much easier for you to keep track of your assignments, each of these platforms (as well as your printers at home and iPrinters at school) is susceptible to occasional malfunctions.  Therefore, you should be ready to resort to “Plan B” if a technology failure prevents you from completing an assignment.  In many instances, a pencil and paper solution will be perfectly acceptable to a teacher looking to assess your performance on an assessment. When you arrive to campus in the morning, you can also try to use a school-owned device to access an assignment saved to the cloud. By taking these steps, your teacher will be impressed by your determination to figure out a way to get the assignment done.  We will also recognize that at times, in spite of your best efforts to resolve the situation on your own, you simply may not be able to find a solution.  In these instances, the best course of action is to communicate as soon as possible with your teacher. You may send an email to his or her Fenn email address or speak with him or her directly when you arrive at school the next morning.  As long as you have not habitually used technology difficulties as an excuse for incomplete assignments, your teacher will work with you to arrive at an acceptable alternative.

• Personalize your iPad and charger.  Fenn has labeled every iPad purchased through the school with a sticker which has the user’s first initial and last name. (We will happily provide a sticker to students who purchased an iPad on their own; students simply need to ask Mr. LaPlante for a sticker.) We recommend further personalizing your iPad and charger with stickers which make it easily identifiable as your iPad and charger--please make sure to choose appropriate stickers, though! 

• Be mindful of others when using the reminders and notification features on your iPad.  One of the more helpful aspects of an iPad are the built-in reminders and alerts which can be tailored to your personal preferences.  These alerts contain both visual and audible elements.  In order to prevent a variety of beeps, dings and other alert sounds from interrupting a class, however, we request that you turn off any sound alerts or notifications while in class.

Batteries - Maximizing Performance

https://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance/#ios