Does anyone help students (or rather parents) in the purchase of laptops?

[CyBeRkId2002]

Does anyone out there help in the decision making and/or purchase of laptops for students? A number of parents have requested our assistance in this area and before I discuss the matter with leadership I wondered if anyone had any experience in:

 

• Nominating a recommended supplier of IT equipment. I personally have a hard time with this concept as I am always striving to find best value for the school and suggesting a website is going to provide the best value at all times seems at odds with this.
  
• Providing a leasing system to parents (either directly or via a third party)
  
• Allowing students to bring in their own equipment in general (be it tablets, laptops etc.). Any pitfalls to think about?
  

 

I am personally thinking an IT Blog on our website which we could update from time to time with recommended specs to look out for, and possibly regular updates with deals etc.

 

Any advice much appreciated.

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Oaktech]

I have a generic guidance document that I revise regularly and give out to students and clueless parents comparing the relative merits of say, intel vs amd and radeon vs nvidia and generic features of various manufacturers based on experience and opinions. Plus a spec for PCs and laptops to play various games.

 

I get a bit more hands on with staff home equipment. We no longer give out laptops like sweets so it is important for them to be buying suitable devices, set up correctly with appropriate security on them.

[dapaulio]

I don't go out of my way too but if a parent, student or teacher were to ask I would offer advice freely

[nelliott]

I am similar to @dapaulio, however, I do have a document which details the minimum specification for our engineering software