Lifespan of your teacher laptops?

[Psymon]

We purchase the laptops with a 3 year warantee /w accidental cover. This allows the NIC's to be replaced if damaged, and most laptops last 3+ years, and are usually replaced when they can no longer perform the tasks the teacher needs within a reasonable amount of time.

The only oens replaced this year were 4 stolen / misplaced ones which 2 of were claimed partly back on the insurance, however the other 2 did not contact the Bursar and arrange a new one, and have cost us full price.

[mullet_man]

around 3 to 4 years here, I would like to get rid of all the old laptops but SMT like the idea of putting them in classrooms e.g. music.

[maniac]

We replaced around 60% of our teacher laptops with new ones this year (Toshiba L30's) a futher 20% or so have laptops around 1-2 years old (Toshiba A10 and A100's) and the rest have laptops around 3-4 years old (Acer 4150's, 4060's and the like) There's a few Acer 280's still in use, but we'll root these out over the next few weeks as we still have a few L30 laptops that havn't been allocated yet.

The oldest laptops we have in the school will be coming up to 5yrs old this year, (Toshiba 1.2GHz and) but they're generally only used by cover supervisors and staff like pastoral staff and mentors now. We also use these as 'exam' laptops for students that are allowed to use a computer to type exam answers. As new laptops come in, the rest all move down a notch. If it still works, then it gets used!

Mike.

[localzuk]

We replace every 3 years - as warranties are of that length. The old ones are then used for things like:

1. SEN students who need one (eg. dyslexic kids who work best with one, poor of sight kids who need things visible close up).
2. General classroom laptops, with the proviso that when they break, thats it.
3. Sell them on to staff

We still have some from 2001 floating around, but they are slowly but surely giving up the goat now.