Welcome to your new laptop. Please remember to treat it with care and respect at all times and use it in a way that reflects our Medbury values. Take it home in the sleeve, within your bag... do not leave it unattended (out in open view) inside your house, at school or in cars.

There are three important to-do's and a number of tips below as you start to use your new MacBookPro.

IMPORTANT

1. Register the Applecare warranty for your laptop under your parents name here. You can check that it is registered properly using this tip.
2. Check that insurance for the laptop is all setup with your parents.
3. Discuss with your parents Internet and game use at home so that you are great Digital Citizen who is Cyber-Safe and also balanced in your lifestyle. (We will be holding a session for parents this term on the use of K9 so that they can have Internet filtering on your laptop at home).

Other To-Dos

1. Label the STIM cover with a stitched label or a tag on the Zip
2. Decide if you would like a skin for your laptop (they can be purchased here, and on other sites) BUT you must have any with significant design/pattern or your own design on them approved first (i.e. these need approval) by your teacher or the ICT Director. Note that some types have cutouts for the Apple logo to shine through and others don't.

Becoming an Advanced User

1. How to videos are found here.
2. A manual for your MacBook Pro 13" is here. 
3. More Tips here
4. More Tips to become an advanced user are found here
5. Our  homepage for the 1:1 Blog is here

Other Thoughts

• You cannot create any other accounts on this computer as your account does not have administration rights. If you wish to do so take your laptop to ICT Support, knowing the names of the accounts you wish to create. DO NOT let anyone else know your password other than your parents.
• You can become an administrator of your own computer by passing the I.C.T. Pupils Drivers Licence (see it here), but this will take a bit of time. Passing this can hep you achieve your Bronze ICT Achievement badge AND in joining the ICT Crew.

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The ICT Agreement in our school states that all Internet history will be left intact, they should never be empty unless the browser has not been used, in which case a decision could be made to delete it from Applications.

A recent survey in the States suggest that only 10% of parents have interacted with their children's Internet use. I would suggest that as parents we need to be involved in learning and values discussions with our children, in helping them learn safety on the web.

These are our tips for boys to show their parents their history or for parents to discuss the latest learning sites used with their son.

Firstly, keep in mind that there can be multiple browsers on a laptop. The most common are: Safari, Firefox and Chrome. We would ask that boys do not install any others as they are not required. Also keep in mind that all new cellphones have Internet browsers.

Secondly, Each of these browsers has on the menu at the top of the screen a "History" Menu. Simply click to view and look through.

That's it 1,2 and you have had another great moment with your child! Some parents have mentioned to me, "How do I respect my child's privacy, or stop them saying you don't trust me.' I would like to reply from my own experience as a parent and youth pastor the your children DO NOT have the right to hide this from parents that care and that if you establish this as a routine then it will be matter of fact. I checked up on my son and daughter's history until they were 16-18, I reserved this right while I was letting them use technology I had purchased for them.

With topics that have time sensitivity or require you to search via periods of time then the Google Advanced search via timeline may be just the thing you need. Results are presented as a clickable timeline, Search results can be over time or focused on a certain time.
Better still perform the same search heaps faster by using Alfred as a quick way to launch searches on a Mac.

Have you tried the advanced search where Google can now give you reading ages? Click on the advanced tab in Google search and go for it. Use the links by the reading ages at the top of the page to select the reading level. Some topics seem to respond better than others.
Better still, place this type of search in "Alfred" a mac search utility and supercharge (make easier) all the different websites (including Google Reading levels).

Here is a quick overview of the Applications - Programs installed on the Apple MacOSX laptops in the school. They focus on learning and productivity. Of course, using Web2.0 documents are not covered in this entry, such as online mindmapping, GoogleApps, GoogleDocs, and delicious etc. So we will update you on our best web 2.0 picks very soon.

Have a look at the list and check out how you could use them. Also check out our top educational freeware/open source here.

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Visit this site https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do with the serial of your machine. It gives you instructions on finding the serial and how to type it in to check the AppleCare and other status points of your laptop. Register your laptop first and this system becomes active. All the AppleCare have been processed and checked at our end for you, but if you would like to check please do so and get back to us if there seems to be any problems.

This is our new online responsibility visual. Developed within the school we are promoting this as a quick overview of the responsibilities we all have in using social media and posting online information. It summarises some aspects of the ICT Code of Conduct which outlines further details.

Apple laptops have a automatic backup system built in. If you connect a usb or firewire portable drive (external drive), the operating system will recognise it and ask if you want to use the drive as a TimeMachine backup drive. This video overviews the process. Tip: When you name your backup drive it is wise not to use spaces in the name i.e. "MyBackup" not "My Backup"
If your drive is not recognised try formatting the drive (see picture below). Feel free to talk to school technicians first, if things like this make you nervous- we love to help.

Only implement the following steps if you are feeling confident about what you are doing.

A few visual tips on being organised with bookmarks/favourites/favorites. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

All Internet browsers (Firefox, Chrome etc.) allow you to do something similar.... so if you are using a different browser then use these ideas to figure out how your browser works with bookmarks.

Always look for 3 sites to cross-check information, especially if you do not use one of the commercial encyclopaedias. Be fair in your use (quote and reference your sources) and look for released information that you can use.

1. Creative Commons Search (Images and Information) 
2. Te Ara NZ Encyclopaedia
3. Wikipedia (Check your information against other sites as it is a Wiki) 
4. Britannica K8 Online Encyclopaedia (your teacher has passwords) 
5. All other Epic Databases (your teacher has passwords) 
6. Google Search choosing good key words 

For those with a mac you can put searching in the fast lane by working out how to use Alfred (a freeware software search engine installed on your harddrive or downloadable here)