Are laptops the bane of your life too?

[tj2419]

Hi

 

I am currently doing some planning for our equipment lifecycles, cost cutting exercise and general overview of our ICT provision.

 

Laptops is something that always comes up as a point of contention. Staff don't like using them as they take a while to get up and running and put away. Techs don't like them as they are forever replacing missing keys and other repairs.

 

What i wondered is, is everyone else in the same situation? Have you done anything to make them more effective? Do you just put up with them? Or have you got rid of them?

 

One option i am looking at is replacing two laptop trollies with putting desktop computers in some classrooms instead and having this as bookable to other subjects not a timetabled room.

 

Any views would be great.

[GuyJD]

I'd love to get rid of our laptop trolleys but unfortunately we don't have a computer suite and the head has no intentions of creating one so I struggle on with the laptops.

 

I've improved our WIFI, Upgraded our server to contend with 30/60/90 laptops all logging on at the same time, even put them all on to WSUS so they aren't constantly updating every time they are switched on but alas I am only one man and am fighting a loosing battle.

 

I'd say if you've got the option to get rid then do so and never look back.

[tj2419]

Yer, would need to get it approved but i think it will be a far cheaper option, more reliable for staff and cut down immensely on the techs and my time fixing the issues.

[Joanne]

Other - We only have laptops here. 4 in each class and 3 banks of them. My secret? Ruckus and when the laptops get slow they get replaced. Just bought some i5 4GB RAM ones with 3 year warranty for £330 a piece. If anyone wants to know where I bought these from hit me up via PM.

 

I'm hoping to roll out Windows 10 soon because it is a bit faster at starting. Our logon times are ok though.

[bladedanny]

We have two banks of 15 laptops. I've seen massive improvements since replacing our netgear wireless with Ruckus. We still have the odd issue but our laptops are getting old now (one set has got to be about 8 years old but still work ok).

 

Our biggest problem is staff/students not putting them away correctly so they have no charge for the next class.

[NokiX]

We have 6 IT suites and around 20-30 laptop trolleys and they are literally the definition of a pain in the neck. Being an IT school means we have a lot of equiptment but we just don't have the budget to maintain the laptops so a lot of them are getting old (HP Compaq 6710b, Lenovo R60's and HP Probook 4515s) and they are just falling apart slowly. Ideally we would want at least 1 IT suite in each part of the school but staff argue laptops suite their needs when they just don't cut it at all.

 

I would say desktops are just the way forward due to their cost and performance compared to laptops and they don't get dropped which is a bonus! Also not forgetting the cost of the laptop trolleys which also seem to be very expensive

[speckytecky]

Using laptops for students in a special school like ours is not a seriously viable option - unless you can rely upon total supervision. Too frequently lids get closed, the laptop then gets slung into a trolley the wrong way round, cables get damaged and the laptops themselves get vandalised.

[RyanMcClean]

Yes! Bane of my life too!

 

Main issue is the updates from WSUS. The kids were just forcing them to shut down or just closing the lids when ever windows was trying to install them on start up/shut down so we never knew what state they would be in.

We have resorted now to stopping windows installing them automatically and have a tech who once a month starts them all up, logs in and installs them as we had no better ideas.

 

It's a pain but we do also get to check them for broken keys that we otherwise wouldn't be told about.

Edited November 10, 2015 by RyanMcClean

[tj2419]

Thanks guys all useful and great to see we are not the only ones struggling with them!

 

Should add as well currently we are an RM school so logons are not great!

[psydii]

Been said already: decent laptops, decent warranty (and ideally insurance), decent wireless (and servers and switches), careful planning of Group Policy, folder redirection and profiles (quick win on trolley based laptops: don't roam profiles, 'slow win': very very carefully managed roaming profiles).

 

Build a culture of vigilance,and quick reporting of issues by staff. Set performance expectations (it takes 2 minutes to get decent laptop from trolley to explorer, it takes up to five minutes to pack them all away again at the end of the lesson, plan your lessons accordingly.)

 

and then everything is fine.

 

It is quite a lot of effort, but does allow substantial flexibility in the use of IT across the curriculum when compared to wired desktops in fixed locations.

 

Currently staff here hate them because they had five years of an MSP who demonstrably did not know what they were doing or how to make them work. It's a long road back.

[mowgli82]

SSD's can make a massive performance difference to old laptops regarding boot times etc. Our issues are alot better since using WSUS and putting SSD's in them all. Windows updates don't take long to install admittedly i push the updates out a week or so after release so there isn't normally that many updates to do. Keys and charging points are still a problem but it's something i've just got used to

[mats]

We've got some 3 year old laptops which are on charge all the time when in the trolley. Some now have battery life of under half an hour - I recommend trolleys which don't charge continuously.

 

And yes, they are a PITA.

[bladedanny]

We've got some 3 year old laptops which are on charge all the time when in the trolley. Some now have battery life of under half an hour - I recommend trolleys which don't charge continuously.

 

And yes, they are a PITA.

 

The lapcabbies are good for this. They have a timer built in (or at least all that I've had) that can be set to charge for certain times a day. We have ours set for over night and lunch time.

[NB9457]

There was no option for:

 

"We have laptop trolleys now because we wanted a new staff room"

[rad]

@tj2419 We are an RM school,

 

So at our peak we had 120 laptops, I pleaded that we didnt replace them, the log on times were tough, the laptops were not looked after and the batteries died as teachers left them charging constantly.

For the price of a laptop trolley you could easily get computers in a classroom, this is the way we went.

[BKGarry]

OK, we are a secondary school here so the scenario may be slightly different.

 

We have just under 1000 students about about 120 staff (who use ICT devices)

 

Have a grand total of 23 staff PCs and 30 Student PCs

 

All the rest are wireless laptops. Years 09 10 and 11 have a device assigned to them by the school, to which they are responsible for and have to keep it in the laptop locker (opened by RFID cards) assigned to them.

 

Years 7 and 8 and shared laptops at a 1:1.3 ratio (yes so close to 1:1 but not there and no intention of going there)

 

Sixth form get the cast offs of what is left, and are promoted to bring in their own devices.

 

Couple of things which make a hell of a difference for laptops. As well as having a decent wireless network, make sure you get AN or AC wireless cards in them, you want the A band (5ghz) as they receive a lot less interference and give you a better connection speed. When I swapped a bunch of laptop to AC cards (cheaper than AN cards and we only have a ABGN network not AC) the improvement was astonishing.

 

Also staffing numbers, it is Me (the network Manager) and 2 apprentices, that I am training. So we keep on top of it

Edited November 10, 2015 by BKGarry

[clockend25]

We only have one trolley of 30 which we put into our Maths faculty at the beginning of the last school year and they've made really good use of them ever since. Performance hasn't been an issue but I'd say just short of half of them now have keys missing, and I worry that they're going to struggle to last the time we need them to. Initial plan was three years, but given current restraints that might have to be lengthened, so it could get a bit tasty in a year or so.

[themightymrp]

I HATE HATE HATE laptops!!

 

We supply every teacher with a laptop (so roughly 100) and there are an addition 20 or so for student use in certain areas. No trolleys to speak of though.

 

The laptops themselves work fine, wifi is all good etc. It's the daft staff who drop them/lose keys/carry-things-between-lessons-with-things-sat-on-the-keyboard-and-close-the-screen that do my nut in. Staff breakages cost us a fortune

[BKGarry]

Staff breakages cost us a fortune

 

Always buy with accidental damage cover, yes its like an extra £60 a laptop but OMG does it save you loads of money (and time) in the long run

[Sagima]

We had 4 laptop sets when I started. We are down to 2.3 of which only the 0.3 are less than 5 years old. With anyluck we'll only have the 0.3 by the end of this academic year

[3s-gtech]

We have five trollies plus several standalone small sets. They are far more work than desktops, that's for sure. Main issues are keyboards and screens getting damaged ("I don't know how that happened!") and them being put away while doing Windows updates. That causes them to fail halfway through installing a system component and they then need re-imaging.

[tj2419]

For people that have no laptops or getting rid of them what have you replaced them with? Desktops, other mobile devices etc?

[Sagima]

For people that have no laptops or getting rid of them what have you replaced them with? Desktops, other mobile devices etc?

 

Tablets - iPads mainly

[Alis_Klar]

@tj2419 We are an RM school,

 

the laptops were not looked after and the batteries died as teachers left them charging constantly.

 

Surely any laptop under 10 years old has battery management that stops damage to batteries due to always being on charge?!? Certainly any Li-Ion batteries.

 

Charging Li-Ion batteries should only be charged to 80% for optimal life.

Explaining the Do's and Don'ts of Battery Charging - Battery University

Apple (United Kingdom) - Batteries - Why Lithium-ion?

 

Surely the chip in the battery is capable of doing this automatically?

[MrFrostmaul]

Just made the decision with our replacement programme to get rid of laptops and replace with small form factor PCs