Teaching Laptops & Classroom Desktops OR Classroom Desktops OR Teaching Laptops

[andyire]

Hi All,

 

While have already taken several cost saving measures there are a few other things which may need to be cut.

 

Currently we supply every teacher a laptop, we also supply desktop computers for every classroom.

 

I think that realistically this is unsustainable and unnecessary moving forward.

 

What do you do in your school ??

[synaesthesia]

We've been without teacher laptops for a while and all the better for it. Cost would be unsustainable with our budget however with the lower price of devices it's getting better. It's reasonable to expect staff have a device at home for access if required plus plenty of IT resources in school. Other than that, the initial costs of the laptops, the cost of maintenance, replacements, another member of staff to cope with the added workload also put a block on things. New staff are usually very surprised to hear they won't be getting a laptop, but considering just how many of them never actually got used by staff when they did have them and/or got shipped off with their kids to university (under their denial when it comes to us for disinfecting chock full of torrents, malware and childrens games) it's easy to also believe they can be little more than a perk of the job for some people.

[dhucker]

I cant seem to vote - but our schools provide teaching laptops only - with minimal to no desktop provision.

 

Only our core / admin / support staff have desktops

[2ilent8cho]

We dumped our desktops in 2013, every teacher has a laptop and a tablet. I prefer it, staff prefer it, and class rooms look much neater.

[pete]

Laptops only. We did experiment with classroom desktops but got fed up having them in an inconsistent state (kids messing with them, staff changing things and confusing following teacher).

 

Laptops also mean that work done at home is more likely to be done on an encrypted, patched device with working antivirus.

[LeMarchand]

Laptops only.

 

I'd prefer desktops for a number of reasons, but laptops are seen as a perk - though I suspect only a small proportion are used for school work at home. In an ideal world I'd have desktops with a small bookable library for work at home, but would never be able to get that agreed by SMT.

[clockend25]

As above, just laptops. Have floated the idea of moving away from this and installing fixed desktops but it's an absolute non-starter sadly.

[Oaktech]

We don't automatically provide laptops. Almost all rooms have desktops.

 

To get a laptop, you have to

a) not be based in a specific room [literally 3 HLTAs and the Exec Head]

b) not have a laptop or tablet at home from which to use an RDP client. [2 people]

or

c) be based in one of the very few rooms that don't yet have desktops.

[Techykev]

We don't automatically supply laptops, all rooms have desktop PC's.

 

Some teachers have laptops issued if they can provide valid reasoning (about 6 or 7 out of 80+ teachers)

SLT are issued with iPads

Some other curriculum depts. have laptops/iPads depending on their needs (SEN, PE dept, etc)

[Steve21]

Desktop classroom machines and a small pool of laptops available to borrow out if someone requires (Amazing how few bookings are used when they aren't being used as home machines )

 

Steve

[mavhc]

Laptops, only desktops in IT Suite. Special school so more staff than classrooms.

 

I prefer laptops coming to me rather than waiting for a classroom to be empty to fix a desktop

 

And as a teacher that won't be in a classroom all the time, being able to set up my computer before class is better.

 

Teachers are expected to bring their laptops in every day of course.

 

Some TAs with extra responsibilities borrow shared laptops long term. At my previous school almost everyone had a laptop, teachers, TAs, heads of admin. Most TAs had extra responsibilities.

[andyire]

Hi All,

 

Many thanks for all your replies so far. It has been very helpful in justifying a move away from providing both laptops & desktops.+ Reply to Thread

It is now on the SLT agenda for discussion so hopefully we'll see a change in attitudes going forward. Fingers crossed.

[IanN]

Two schools in the trust:

One has classroom desktops and some specific staff (head of year / department) with laptops

Other has a majority of classrooms with desktops but most teachers have notebooks too.

 

There are issues with both on management of data and connectivity (network / video).

 

Another concern is the use of laptops for non-work activities at home but we are looking at options for addressing that.