James Cook High School is a state co-ed secondary school in the South Auckland suburb of Manurewa, New Zealand.
It aims to support students' learning in a way that meets their individual learning needs and encourages them to become better learners, contributors to the community, and to have the personal motivation to try new things, set high expectations, and endeavour.
KEY RESULTS
- Best devices and accessories obtained for JCHS students within budget
- Devices deployed with Windows Intune for fast and efficient mobile device management
- Student technicians gain ongoing IT experience as Level 1 Support for their community
REQUIREMENTS
The school is one of the largest decile-one high schools in New Zealand implementing 1:1 student devices.
In order to do this, PB Tech worked with JCHS to plan the deployment in advance while making sure the project stayed within budget.
After evaluating different options, we determined that the option that would take JCHS’s programme budget the furthest was to utilise off-lease devices.
SOLUTION
PB Tech’s off-lease devices are typically commercial devices that have reached the end of their lease period and still have considerable life in them. At the end of their first life, they are inspected, wiped clean, upgraded to the latest operating system, repaired if needed, and resold as certified pre-owned laptops at a fraction of their original price.
PB Tech helped James Cook High School to deploy and provision 1200 off-lease devices, enlisting 30 students from James Cook High School as Level 1 Support for their friends, family, and community.
In order to do this, PB Tech worked with JCHS to plan the deployment in advance while making sure the project stayed within budget.
“By involving students in the deployment process and enlisting them as Level 1 Support, we aimed to give them exposure to IT at an early age.”
Along with the device itself, PB Tech also recommended bundling JCHS’ devices with a three-year device warranty and a hardshell case to protect the devices and simplify end-user device management for the school.
We then secured the stock in advance, laser-engraved the devices, asset-tagged them, and assigned them to individual students.
“By involving students in the deployment process and enlisting them as Level 1 Support, we aimed to give them exposure to IT at an early age,” said PB Tech Head of Education Stan Fosenbauer.
The management team at James Cook High School shared this sentiment, believing that giving students this experience while they’re at school elevates the learning experience and empowers them to think more broadly about the careers they could pursue after completing high school.
This deployment is the largest onsite deployment PB Tech has completed in a single stage with modern management using Windows Intune to date.
RESULTS
Together, PB Tech and the student technicians were able to deploy and provision 1200 devices in under a week to enable James Cook High School todays to have a 1:1 device ratio.
JCHS is working together with the Ministry of Education to provide the students with network connectivity options to make sure their access to information and the internet doesn’t stop when they leave school grounds.
PB Tech is optimistic about replicating this model of incorporating student technicians in the deployment process with other schools and partners in the education industry.
“In many cases, for students in low decile schools, this will be the only computer their family has access to.”
PB Tech is optimistic about replicating this model of incorporating student technicians in the deployment process with other schools and partners in the education industry.
“It’s cost-effective for schools, gives students fast, commercial-grade devices, and comes with minimal downtime for end-users because the devices are managed and serviced,” said PB Tech Head of Education Stan Fosenbauer.
“This model has the opportunity to help students from underprivileged communities to get more connected,” said Fosenbauer.
“In many cases, for students in low decile schools, this will be the only computer their family has access to.”
2021 New Zealand Government data shows that more than 13 percent of New Zealand households don’t have internet access.
Replicating this would mean that more devices would get into the hands of students and schools in communities where they’re really needed.
