Staff laptops - does your school still supply them?

[sparkeh]

We issue laptops to all teachers - and some TAs

I have never been sure of why this is needed - I was a teacher for over 10 years and never had a school laptop - I needed a computer at home to work with but I had to use my own - as I did in my previous job in the real world

That's the point right? If you need equipment to do your job then it should be provided. Its no different to employing someone as a street sweeper and expecting them to bring their own broom.

[localzuk]

That's the point right? If you need equipment to do your job then it should be provided. Its no different to employing someone as a street sweeper and expecting them to bring their own broom.

 

Then again, some jobs do expect you to provide your own tools.

[sparkeh]

Then again, some jobs do expect you to provide your own tools.

Such as?

[Ephelyon]

If you need equipment to do your job then it should be provided.

 

I agree with this from one perspective, but from another we don't expect to have to buy people cars or public transport tickets if they don't live locally. It's a case of where you draw the line, and whether or not we now live in a world where people who knowingly apply for a job that can involve heavy use of technology should be expected to have their own means of accessing it off-site. That's a debate that will no doubt run and run until the reality is finally blatant.

 

With that said, I'm pushing for some manner of salary-sacrifice scheme here at the moment, whereby we would purchase the device and the member of staff would repay us over 12 months such that the overall net cost to the school is zero, and the advantage to the member of staff is that the device is then theirs and they don't have to return it when they leave. I know some colleagues and teacher friends (usually younger ones) who found it such a "culture shock" when their NQT year school gave them a laptop by default, then the school they moved on to afterwards just didn't and they had to buy their own...

Edited January 5, 2016 by Ephelyon

[localzuk]

Such as?

 

Mechanics, electricians, carpenters, painter/decorators. I know of people in all of these jobs who have to provide their own tools.

[CyberNerd]

Such as?

 

pretty much any mechanic, electrician, plumber, aircraft technician would have their own tools regardless of the employer

[sparkeh]

I agree with this from one perspective, but from another we don't expect to have to buy people cars or public transport tickets if they don't live locally.

Of course, getting to work is not the same as doing the job. If job requires driving around then either a company car is provided or mileage paid for your own car.

[Ephelyon]

Some "freelance" gardeners too. In some areas people prefer to pay a gardener who has all their own tools to come by periodically rather than buy a lawnmower up-front!

[witch]

Such as?

 

This one! All my kit - cable testers, screwdrivers, the lot, are mine. I have never been given any school equipment in any of the jobs I have had in education.

 

The staff laptop question is fascinating. Every option from staff getting a laptop AND a tablet at one end to staff not getting anything at the other has been covered.

Both my schools issue laptops but I want to go over to fixed PCs in the classrooms. The DH argues that they need a laptop to do their job but I reckon that in this day and age you can presume that someone has a computer of some sort - much like you would expect them to have a phone. I would like to see remote working and more use of cloud-based stuff.

What REALLY annoys me is the number of laptops that are just left in school, proving that the teacher DOES NOT need one. I would like to do a walk-around and see which ones are left and then put a fixed PC in those classrooms.

[sparkeh]

Mechanics, electricians, carpenters, painter/decorators. I know of people in all of these jobs who have to provide their own tools.

Even is they are employed by a company they have to provide their own tools? Hmm that doesn't seem right.

[Ephelyon]

... but getting to work is required in order to do the job. Working from home is also required to do the job. Are they that different?

[localzuk]

Even is they are employed by a company they have to provide their own tools? Hmm that doesn't seem right.

 

Yup, that's how it is.

[sparkeh]

This one! All my kit - cable testers, screwdrivers, the lot, are mine. I have never been given any school equipment in any of the jobs I have had in education.

Wow. Everything I need I order out of the IT budget. But I then I guess in these austere times I am lucky to even have a decent budget.

What REALLY annoys me is the number of laptops that are just left in school, proving that the teacher DOES NOT need one. I would like to do a walk-around and see which ones are left and then put a fixed PC in those classrooms.

Yes that is incredibly annoying. Most staff here do use their laptops extensively but blanket handing out laptops can lead to waste of resources.

[Blue_Cookeh]

I see our IT as more like a typical business' than a school. In your typical business environment a laptop is a key tool for the job nowadays, so we do the same. We don't have whiteboard desktops in our classrooms, so teachers dock their laptops wherever they are instead. We also have some staff that travel around to other schools, so we've deployed DirectAccess and given them laptops with 4G modems built in.

 

It means we have full control over what data leaves our network, and staff can still work in a secure environment at home. I wouldn't expect to do my job using my own laptop, so why should I expect our staff to?

 

Saying this the HT and I did decide iPads would be cheaper/easier for some staff, people like site agents that don't use much apart from e-mail for example.

Edited January 5, 2016 by Blue_Cookeh

[Sagima]

I reckon that in this day and age you can presume that someone has a computer of some sort - much like you would expect them to have a phone.

 

We supply a large number of our teaching staff with phones as well

When I put that presumption about home pcs to our head he told me that many of our teaching staff are married/equivalent and would we expect them to have two home computers and additional ones for their children to use and that the cost of a laptop/tablet is minor in comparison to the good will and work that the teacher does.

We used to have a laptop/dock system in our classrooms and probably about 25-33% of them never left the school during the holidays but a lot of them were taken out for the weekends and evenings.

[witch]

Wow. Everything I need I order out of the IT budget. But I then I guess in these austere times I am lucky to even have a decent budget.

 

Yes that is incredibly annoying. Most staff here do use their laptops extensively but blanket handing out laptops can lead to waste of resources.

 

But if I tried it I would get cries of "He/She's got a laptop, I want one"

[sparkeh]

I would like to see remote working and more use of cloud-based stuff.

And would you rather have people connecting to your remote working system with an encrypted managed school provided machine with up to date AV etc or an unmanaged personal machine with who knows what running on it?

[sparkeh]

But if I tried it I would get cries of "He/She's got a laptop, I want one"

Heh yeah, and if everyone gets one you have to deal with "but he/she has got a much better laptop than me!" (I have practiced the stare for those situations).

[witch]

And would you rather have people connecting to your remote working system with an encrypted managed school provided machine with up to date AV etc or an unmanaged personal machine with who knows what running on it?

 

Well yes, but that isn't going to happen anyway even if they have a laptop as many use their own computers at home. And I think it could be set up to be pretty safe...?

[LeMarchand]

This one! All my kit - cable testers, screwdrivers, the lot, are mine. I have never been given any school equipment in any of the jobs I have had in education.

 

Me too on the kit! Never bought anything expensive, though. Have been provided with laptops, but these and any desktops are usually 3rd hand and/or Frankensteined. Did once get a choice of new laptop <£400; I think it was a bribe as I may have mentioned going for an interview.

 

I have practiced the stare for those situations.

 

[mavhc]

I'm in favour of every staff member, who wants one, having a laptop.

1. It's not a large cost compared to their salary, £0.5k vs £100k, if you want a larger budget for IT for it, find out how many hours it would save and argue your case.

2. Saves staff time, which is money, see 1. Logging on/off, missing files which were on their other computer, different software, setting up all the resources for the next lesson.

3. Better than trying to support random machines they own

4. Laptop with a projector is easier to wire up than dual monitors on a desktop computer, and takes up less space and sockets

5. Hopefully increases staff IT skills

[witch]

1. 100K ???

2. Not if they don't use it properly

3. Don't offer any external support of any kind

4. Not if they are trying to do it - it's amazing how they can force things into the wrong sockets or just plain not connect something important - such as the whiteboard!

5. Not that I have seen

[mavhc]

1. 100K ???

2. Not if they don't use it properly

3. Don't offer any external support of any kind

4. Not if they are trying to do it - it's amazing how they can force things into the wrong sockets or just plain not connect something important - such as the whiteboard!

5. Not that I have seen

 

1. 100k over x years, pick x and their salary to match :-)

2. Do they use desktop computers and transfer files to them more properly?

3. That's fine, but my job is to make the school better, which includes making the teachers more efficient, which means supporting their IT needs, and that's cheaper overall buying laptops instead of hiring more me's

4. Yeah, I meant for me in that case, usb3 will hopefully fix that, just 1 cable for everything

5. That was my most tenuous suggestion

[mthomas08]

Our teaching staff laptops are five years old and failures are becoming more frequent. With severely straitened budgets I'd rather spend the money elsewhere, such as by getting some refurbed machines for Autodesk Fusion 360. I'm meeting the SLT later in the week and I want to make a recommendation on where we go with teachers' laptops: my inclination is to announce that we will not replace them as they fail, nor will they be issued to new staff members.

 

The alternatives to staff laptops at our school are: each classroom has a teacher's machine; the staffroom has a few devices, but they tend to be dominated by TAs who aren't issed with laptops; the library, sixth form study area and five classrooms have many (250+) machines that are not always all in use (and Impero can display a web page showing where there are unused machines); we allows staff personal devices on our Meru network.

 

Are laptops still seen as fairly standard perq/essential teaching tool? Or has that day passed?

 

I feel as if laptops are not generally the standard any more. Back ten years ago when most people still didn't have any IT you can understand why but nowadays most do.

 

We don't do laptops here except for ICT/PE Staff and a few others. ICT have their own budget if they wish to upgrade their equipment, I've recently brought PE up to spec so they no longer had a mix of 1-7 Year old equipment. I tend to leave around £4000 in my budget for laptops if I can but I don't generally buy them. If Staff want laptops this tends to go to a Deputy Head and my LM but the general feeling is we don't provide laptops unless they say yes.

 

We have PCs in all classrooms.

[nathan]

This topic seems to have done a full circle. From a primary school perspective, they used to hand them out with the Laptops for Teachers initiative. Then when those were end of life they were never replaced.

 

Now with a shortage of decent primary school teachers, they are being used again as a bargaining chip for attracting top teachers.