Teacher Laptops v Teacher Desk Computer

[rh91uk]

It's a whole mixed bag here - all Teaching Staff (plus me and Soulfish) have laptops. A lot of rooms (over 60%) have desktop PCs in there too for use on the IWBs so the staff can use their laptop for work. On the other hand, some rooms do use their laptops as their pernament slave for their IWB and nothing else - through their choice or just because of the purchase of machines isn't at the right time.

[HTCIT]

We have just put in "HP" desktops and they are working great. But for some reason is that they a laptop as well. This weird. I am new to this job. So I wouldn't know why they did this.

[jsnetman]

All teachers here have laptops but they are a nightmare, staff don't look after batteries and the amount of calls saying they have no network because they have inadvertently toggled the wireless off. The head told me to order a PC for every teaching room and they are being fitted in the summer. I wanted to get rid of the laptops but the head wants both. So the nightmare is doubled. To cap it all staff are now asking for a printer with each class PC, but I'm putting a stop to that if I can.

[HTCIT]

I understand. The staff are pretty good with their laptops I must say. It is only the students with their laptops on our laptop scheme. They are a nightmare with them.

[witch]

We have laptops as has been previously said, but we are wondering whether it might be better to have a PC in every room - electronic registration is coming in and some teachers continually leave their laptops at home so they wouldn't be able to do it.
BUT if I wired the PC to the projector, I can see problems with teachers either continually disconnecting the PC in order to attach their laptop, or else moaning that they can't do this as the PC is hardwired in.
Also, the splitter and associated cable will take up a lot of space and look messy!
On another note - I see some of you still have local log ons on the teacher laptops - I have been advised to get rid of this for various reasons. What do people think?

[f21970]

We originally issued all staff with laptops under the laptops for teachers scheme, but have within the past 12 months installed fixed PC's in every teaching room. Support requests for 'non-working' IWB's have plummeted, and staff now view the IT equipment as 'more reliable than 12 months ago'...it's all in the perception!! I'm now not buying replacement laptops; some teachers have complained about this stating that they need to do lesson preparation, reports, etc. at home, however we have made it school policy that it is the teachers choice as to whether they undertake these tasks at home or in school.

PS. It has taken 12 months, but now NO staff disconnect their IWB from the PC to connect their laptop....the reason? Their laptop is 4 years old and runs like a dog, as maintenance is no longer being carried out on them :-) Their PC is only a year old & nice and quick. The new system has hidden benefits, primarily staff not storing documents locally on their laptop & waiting for it to fail ;-) - they now find it easier to store documents on the network, which we can back up.

[Potato-Peeler]

If all staff have laptops what would cover teachers use? And the teachers will inevitably lose or forget laptops for some lessons and be left more clueless then usual.
Not forgetting how many virus's, games, and inappropriate material the teachers will somehow end up with on laptops. Also more liekly to get damaged. Just too many reasons for not isn't there:P

[mpe]

We went the docking station root, until Dell released their fancy new latitude range of laptops 6 months ago. Great bit of kit, brand new port for docking. A new docking station is now £150 and isn't compatible with any of our old staff laptops (80+).

It is still possible to get hold of the old docking stations. What is far more difficult
to get hold of are the old D series laptops.

New latitude + docking station = £700ish.

New desktop + cheap laptop = £700ish.

Not bothering to "upgrade" (replace) laptops and fit a desktop (plus video doubler)
is even less money. Especially if Dell part 452-10381 still has resale value.
But this is still tens of thousands of pounds plus a large amount of time.

Two computers for the price of one, and all because dell charge you £150 to put some wires neatly together for you.

Lots of lost business for Dell because they decided to change the design of a connector.
If it were up to me I'd get rid of laptops, especially those used by teachers. Whilst those
for student use can at least be easily re-imaged all too often teachers will insist on putting
random applications on and scattering their data into apparently random places on the HDD.

[mpe]

Biggest pro for the laptops other than portability here is the ability to hook up to a projector without the requirement for a splitter box.

Unless you have some very cheap machines the cost of such a splitter
isn't that high a proportion of the cost of the machine.

However, even with fairly modern laptops I'm getting sick of having to write off laptops/move them to a non-IWB usage due to nackered VGA ports from the usual heavy handling and kids yanking plugs

I wouldn't assume that it's just "the kids" doing this. We have had one
instance of a printer being literally pulled apart, it was in the staffroom.

None of that at all with the desktop machines thankfully.

Even if there was vandalism of the ports on a desktop machine repairs
tend to be easier and cheaper than with laptops.

Part of the reason we went for docking stations is teachers are not
generally competent to connecting/disconnecting anything. (Plus
there's something about them not being ment to be doing anything
other than teaching.)

[mpe]

BUT if I wired the PC to the projector, I can see problems with teachers either continually disconnecting the PC in order to attach their laptop, or else moaning that they can't do this as the PC is hardwired in.

This is something they shouldn't be doing in the first place. Though with some
it can be difficult stopping them "playing technician".

Also, the splitter and associated cable will take up a lot of space and look messy!

Depends what you are using, something like the SUNIX ST122LE (CS16522 from CPC)
is tiny. Certainly compared with the HYUNDAI KVS532 (CS07984 from CPC), it's also
more expensive, needs an additional cable, a free BS1363 power socket and has several
times the size & mass compared with the SUNIX ST122LE.

On another note - I see some of you still have local log ons on the teacher laptops - I have been advised to get rid of this for various reasons. What do people think?

The issue is if they need to use the machine without any network connection. It can
also be a problem with using wireless networks. Since typically things are set up
such that there isn't any form of pre logon wireless configuration.

[mpe]

If all staff have laptops what would cover teachers use? And the teachers will inevitably lose or forget laptops for some lessons and be left more clueless then usual.
Not forgetting how many virus's, games, and inappropriate material the teachers will somehow end up with on laptops.

Or "it won't boot and all the stuff I need for tonight's parents' evening is on it". In this
case most of his data was actually recoverable, but not in the timescale he would have
liked. Whereas those who have had their laptops stolen were less lucky.

[nephilim]

laptops are the worst idea, teachers ruin them. had only 3 teachers out of 30 not return them within the first 2 weeks because of "problems". PCs are better because they can be ghosted easier, and you can make upgrades easier without voiding the warranty. Plus if a member of staff leaves, you dont have to worry about getting the laptop back etc.

[G-Jackson]

Most of our staff have laptops and yes they are a pain - they involve far more work than a desktop...

Desktops we build one and Ghost it 50 or 100 times - job done... laptops have to be built one by one because the Deputy Head who purchases them for staff insists on using the OEM licence. Also staff will install their own printers and drivers/software for Internet access for home so they can't just be re-ghosted if they develop a software problem. We also had a couple stolen from Teachers' cars - but they have to claim on their own insurance if that happens.

I guess for staff they are a bonus - they can work on them at home or move from room to room and know that they shouldn't have any problems - apart from getting the projector to work - why aren't they capable of plugging in a cable and pressing Fn/F5 ?

I can't see us ever having a PC in every classroom.

Oh and to whoever it was who said about Cover Teachers needing access for Electronic registrations - we purchased about half a dozen ASUS minibooks for them to use - the screens are a bit small but they seem to work OK for just doing a register... they aren't on the domain - just have local accounts but configured to our WIFI so work with our CMIS/ePortal set-up.

[dalsoth]

I hate laptops and all our staff use them (students also use 6 trolleys of laptops ). I could not ever see us moving to a computer in each classroom. Staff gather regularly in offices and meeting rooms to work on things and even the main hall regularly for training and Sims events and all bring their laptops along.

Without them it would be a nightmare and staff would be scribbling everything in diaries or worse yet PDA's which rank even higher on my list of hated devices i have to support.

Laptops are here to stay for staff but i am working hard to remove their use for students as they are just being trashed to hell and back and i feel like joining them there.

[Flakes]

we currently have laptops for every teacher however certain rooms do have desktops in as well. due to the declining budget and the cost of keeping laptops in circulation we considered moving to desktops only, however we couldn't afford the initial costs, and trying to get the teachers to give up there laptops is a bit like pulling out your own teeth with your hands tied behind your back while drowning.

in the long run laptops are so much more expensive and cause so many problems, from spillage, to dropping them, bending vga lead pins, faulty vga ports because vga lead pins become weak and get jammed inside. We do have some desktops around the school and the teachers in those classrooms use there desktops for presentations, however when a teacher who doesnt normally use that room comes allong they end up unplugging everything to use there laptop and the teacher who has the room cant work out were everything goes... there just a nightmare tbh.

a few questions for those who went from laptops to desktops:

1. how did you cope with the increased use of network drives? we currently give each teacher 2GB of space and find that most store everything on there desktop no matter how many times we tell them to use there H drive(normally get the reply "not enough space"), we cant afford more.

2. Did you install each desktop and work out the best placement in each room, or did you hire someone else?

3. What steps did you take to convince the staff to go this way, how did they adapt? < i see this as the biggest stumbling block tbh.