Some schools are utilizing Apple laptops to enhance the learning experience.

Here are some things you may need to know regarding your student's use of the laptop:

• More than likely, your student will not be able to install software or apply patches because the school has restricted the use of the laptop. This means you may not be able to install the software to use a printer.
• When something goes wrong with the laptop, the school will normally erase the entire contents of the hard drive and load a new copy of the laptop software. If you don't backup your personal files, those files will be gone.
• Don't load your entire iTunes library onto the laptop. The chances of filling the hard drive to capacity are high. When you ask the school to fix the problems with the laptop associated with a full hard drive (such as crashing, or not booting) the universal fix of erasing the hard drive and loading a new copy of the laptop software will be applied, wiping out your iTunes library.
• The laptop should be able to connect to your existing wireless network with no problem. Once the wireless network is detected by the laptop, select your wireless network name and enter the encryption key associated with that network. When you successfully connect for the first time, the  network information is stored on the laptop. The next time the laptop needs to connect to your wireless network, it will be done automatically with the data stored from the last successful connection.
• Put a label with your student's name taped to the laptop. This will make it easier to find your child's laptop in a sea of similar looking laptops and will minimize the chance of your child picking up the wrong laptop.

If you cannot install the software for the printer on the laptop, how do you print out school work?:

• Use a USB Flash Drive to copy from the laptop and then plug the USB Flash Drive into another home computer that can print. 
•  Email the document to a computer that can print.
• If your printer is an HP printer, does it support HP ePrint?  http://h71036.www7.hp.com/hho/us/en/ep/articles/eprint-mobile-printing.html Using ePrint, you create an unique email address with which your HP printer is associated. When you want to print, send an email to the printer with the content embedded in the message space of the email. An added benefit of ePrint is that your iPhone and iPad can also use this technology.

How do you backup personal files?

• Use an USB Flash Drive or external hard drive to backup your personal data.   

How do you manage your iTunes library without filling your entire laptop hard drive?

• Buy an external hard drive and set the library location in iTunes to use the external hard drive. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449  This solution has the added advantage of making your iTunes library portable. The iTunes library is accessible from any computer to which the external hard drive is connected.

What happens if you don't know the encryption key necessary to connect to your wireless network?

• Worst case, the wireless router can be reset to the factory settings wiping out all your customized information. At this point, the wireless router would need to be re-programmed. Refer to the documentation for your wireless router or go to the vendor's website for help.
• If you know the username and password for the administrator's account for the wireless router, you can access the administrator's control panel and see the encryption key or change it to something else. Refer to the documentation for your wireless router or go to the vendor's website for help.