School District Provides Guidance For Parents Buying Electronics

SCHOOL DISTRICT PROVIDES GUIDANCE FOR PARENTS BUYING ELECTRONICS
New Website Offers Specifications, Recommendations

In an effort to help parents maneuver their way through the thousands of electronic devices available for their children, Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) has launched a new website--http://wifi.dadeschools.net/--that identifies devices students can use in class as the school district undergoes a digital transformation.

One of the most critical pieces of Miami-Dade County Public Schools’ $1.2 billion General Obligation (GO) Bond was the building out of school’s technology infrastructure to support an effective Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program. To support the District’s BYOD initiative, the District installed campus-wide wireless technology in 245 schools and made 70 of those schools BYOD ready. Based on this effort, all schools will be wired for BYOD by the end of March 2014 and all schools will be BYOD capable by September 2014.

An important component of the BYOD initiative is to communicate effectively to students, parents, instructional staff and guests their responsibilities when using the District’s wireless network. To ensure all affected groups are aware of these responsibilities and to provide answers to other BYOD questions, the District has created a web page on the District’s website called Bring Your Own Device–Wi-Fi Access. This website provides:

Information related to the types of devices supported
The recommended minimum specifications that personal devices should have in order to access common programs and applications necessary for their instructional needs
A list of the current participating schools with their wireless status that will continually be updated as schools are completed
Answers to general questions for students, parents, and teachers on how the BYOD program will function and what is expected
General guidelines that students and guests must know to access and to follow when using the District’s wireless network

This BYOD website will be announced on the dadeschools.net rolling marquee during the week of Thanksgiving. From the marquee, students, parents, instructional staff and guests can access the new web page. Information Technology Services will also provide a link on the popular Black Friday web site (http://blackfriday.com/). Additionally, beginning on January 6, 2014, Microsoft Office 2013 will be available, free of charge, to all K-12 students via the student portal.

If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact Debbie Karcher, Chief Information Officer, Information Technology Services, at 305-995-3754.