- 20th round of NFT offers - the next offer for new notebooks
closed on 18 September 2009, with deliveries to follow early in Term
4. This offer replaces Round 13 notebooks provided in late 2006.
Details of the financier's resale offer on the used notebooks are
now available via the link.
- Pre-leased Notebooks
- used notebooks are available for reassignment, due to
retirements and resignations.
They are checked, cleaned and re-imaged prior to reassignment, and
are made available for the remaining duration of their lease (rather
than a full three years). A notebook can
usually be forwarded within a week of application. Please follow the link for
details and registration forms..
- Training - details of the
Teachers have Class! Professional Learning program are available
here.
- End of NFT Internet service - as advised via Ed-e-mail
during May, Telstra closed the NFT dial-up Internet service
at the end of June 2009. Unfortunately, no suitable replacement
service is available. Participants who made use of this
service may wish to make alternative private arrangements.
- Back up your important files - all participants
maintaining important work-related or personal data (photographs,
teaching materials, personal records etc) should back up their files
regularly. Hard disc drives can and do fail and if your data is not
backed up, the chances of successful data recovery may be slim.
Please note:
-
- External USB hard disc drives of up to 1 terabyte
size (1,000 gigabytes) are now commonly available and
are a popular choice for backup purposes.
- Check to be sure your backups are successful. DET cannot recover notebooks
handed in at the end of a lease for data recovery purposes.
- While a 'best effort' attempt at data recovery can sometimes be made
under warranty, there are some circumstances in which you may have
to pay.
- 19th round of NFT
offers - the Term 1/2 2009 round of offers
on new NFT Program computers has now closed. Information will remain
available for reference purposes for the time being.
- Problems with 2008/2009 Notebooks - some problems have been reported with 2008/2009 Acer TravelMate notebooks,
particularly relating to "jumping" cursor behaviour. If you
have a notebook which may be affected by these issues then please see
the NFT Program Frequently-Asked Questions page
for some suggestions.
- Apple networking - please note
that Apple notebooks may not be connected to some DET networks, and
Departmental applications such as SIS are not available for the Apple
platform. Applicants must determine in advance whether or not their
worksite will support networking of an Apple device. NFT contracts are
considered binding once accepted and the Department may not not cancel
Apple NFT agreements due to network and/or application compatibility
issues at worksites.
- Private offers of leased or
purchase notebooks: - private firms sometimes make offers directly to schools
involving notebooks for private purchase or leasing. Please
be aware that such offers are not endorsed or subsidized by the
Department, nor associated with the NFT Program in any way.
- Occupational
Health and Safety: - if used according to some simple
guidelines available here, notebook computers are not believed to
offer significant occupational health and safety risks.
- Lightning Damage to Notebooks - this is not an urban myth! There are usually many cases of
'zapped' notebooks following power surges during thunderstorms.
There could even be a small chance of injury too, so please stay
safe - follow the link for information on avoiding problems during
electrical storms.
- Battery Care: - a document giving guidelines that will allow you to
get the most out of your notebook's battery may be
downloaded here. Participants
are requested to follow the manufacturer's instructions for care of
batteries. Batteries may lose performance over time - a battery
should give 80% of the manufacturer's rated life in hours, and if it
falls below this level then it may be replaced under warranty - call
the Department's Customer Service Centre on (08) 9264 5555 for further
advice.
- "Dead pixels": - not all notebook computers
arrive with perfect screens, but this is not always considered a warrantable fault. Acer's
Imperfect Pixels Policy for PC notebooks
will help you be aware of policy for screens which
are delivered with slight pixel imperfections (or which develop
such imperfections over time).
- End of lease: - participants nearing the end of a lease are urged to read our
brief guide to processes for the
return of notebooks and the issues and problems which can arise.
This is an area in which risks exist for both participating teachers
and the Department as a whole - participants are encouraged to contact the NFT Program
administration team if they have any queries or concerns.
- FAQ for
account/password issues: - all participants are encouraged to download and retain a copy of
this handy guide.
- Privately-owned notebooks: -
please note that it is generally not possible to connect
privately-owned notebooks to DET networks, for a number of technical
and security reasons. Further information can be found under the
Networks section of the NFT Frequently-Asked Questions page,
here.
Please feel free to contact the Notebooks for Teachers Program
administration team by email if you would like any further information on the program.