Donated Hardware

[DavetheITguy]

Hi, All.

 

I hope this is the right place to post this. The hardware at the Academy I work at is extremely outdated and is in need of a refresh. Unfortunately they have no money, when I say no money I mean zilch. They have had hardware donated previously but even this was ancient. I was hoping another Academy had kit they didn't want and is happy to donate it. Anything would be an improvement and we would really appreciate it.

I'm pretty sure the academy would arrange collection if needed.

 

Thanks.

Edited November 10, 2016 by DavetheITguy

[dgsmith]

When you say hardware what exactly do you mean? H/W could be desktops, laptops, switches, peripherals etc. Outdated means quite a lot of different things to different people too (i.e. we got some "new" computers a few months ago that were 5 years old)!

[witch]

Shame you are so far away. We do have some older kit that might be of use (I would have to ask) but probably not worth it due to travel costs.

[DavetheITguy]

Mainly desktop computers, infrastructure is pretty up to date. The computers are about about 8 years old and are starting to fail big time. We have one good IT room, the computers in there are about 4 years old. anything would be a massive improvement.

[enjay]

I suspect most readers of this thread are in a similar position to you. What about local businesses? I used to work for a company who replaced all PCs after 3 years and then gave them away.

[NB9457]

We don't work in the same school do we?!

 

In exactly the same boat at a High School, our newest machines are touching on 5 years old now, with P4s still in use, beyond a joke!

[unixman_again]

Perhaps you should look at changing to a thin client solution. Ancient PCs make great thin clients provided you have servers to support it.

[Chris_]

We're getting rid of a load of old RM Ones, from 2010 (Intel T3300, 2/4GB RAM) and 2011 (Intel G620T, no RAM). They're both 19" widescreen models and I think both have Windows 7 licenses.

[bossman]

We are currently in the same boat, 8 year old workstations, 15 year old infrastructure etc etc!

 

Do not know where they are going to get the money from, I did explain this to them years ago that they had to put money aside for refurbishment of kit every 5 years including Servers, if it wasn't for a good friend of mine on here we wouldn't have our Hyper-V Host servers and without them we wouldn't have a network.

 

Thank you that person, you know who you are and we are very grateful.

[dgsmith]

We're getting rid of a load of old RM Ones, from 2010 (Intel T3300, 2/4GB RAM) and 2011 (Intel G620T, no RAM). They're both 19" widescreen models and I think both have Windows 7 licenses.

 

Have sent you a PM as they sound like they'd be an upgrade on some of our older ones from many moons ago we still have in service!

[localzuk]

To be honest, I've found that you should just call their bluff on "no money". When you do things like this, you are simply perpetuating the myth that IT can be done on the cheap/free.

 

One of our schools has "no money" and have just realised their lease for their IT suite PCs (the only suite they have) runs out and their PCs would be disappearing in December. Suddenly, they've found the money to buy new computers.

[sidewinder]

I agree.

 

I know it must be a constant headache to support, but if you've clearly stated multiple times that hardware needs to be replaced, and it starts failing, state that to staff: reiterate that you given no money and they should take it up with the head/SMT. I bet money would be magically found in a lot of cases with all the teachers on the heads back.

 

I appreciate financial situations vary wildly between schools but there really is no excuse these days for putting zero money into IT and expecting it to work. Computers are an essential teaching tool, why are they not a priority at every school?

[mavhc]

They have money for wages and heating and electricity. Assuming 600 pupils, they get £3 million approx, your budget request isn't much as a percentage.

[enjay]

To be honest, I've found that you should just call their bluff on "no money". When you do things like this, you are simply perpetuating the myth that IT can be done on the cheap/free.

 

One of our schools has "no money" and have just realised their lease for their IT suite PCs (the only suite they have) runs out and their PCs would be disappearing in December. Suddenly, they've found the money to buy new computers.

 

I think that is about need versus want. Management are used to hearing big shopping lists of what people want, and the IT stereotype is that we want the biggest, shiniest there is. So rather than just saying "we need new PCs" say "XYZ is the impact the old PCs are having" or "if we don't replace the old PCs, XYZ will happen".

 

I endeavour to operate my department not "on the cheap" as such but certainly for as little as possible because I understand the constraints the school is under. And leadership also know and respect this, so when I say "I think we need to spend £x on a new Y" they take time to listen (they may not say yes, but they do listen). Fortunately leadership also understand the central role which IT now plays (as sidewinder said) so understand zero investment is not an option.

[enjay]

They have money for wages and heating and electricity. Assuming 600 pupils, they get £3 million approx, your budget request isn't much as a percentage.

Yes, a 600-student gets ~£3m, but 80-90% of that £3m goes straight back out again on salaries which doesn't leave much for the IT budget request.

 

Also, when you consider how much is needed just in order to stand still, e.g. broadband costs, MS licences, SIMS licence, helpdesk system licence, booking system licence, curriculum resources subscriptions and licences, support contracts, etc., etc. (and that's before you look at the Premises Team's standing costs), you have a figure which actually IS a lot as a percentage.

Edited November 17, 2016 by enjay

[mavhc]

Yes, a 600-student gets ~£3m, but 80-90% of that £3m goes straight back out again on salaries which doesn't leave much for the IT budget request.

 

Also, when you consider how much is needed just in order to stand still, e.g. broadband costs, MS licences, SIMS licence, helpdesk system licence, booking system licence, curriculum resources subscriptions and licences, support contracts, etc., etc. (and that's before you look at the Premises Team's standing costs), you have a figure which actually IS a lot as a percentage.

 

All the other departments will say the same though. IT isn't more or less necessary, it's just more weird to most people. "I need 100 mops" vs "I need 100 strings of digits which will let pieces of code you can download for free be legal".

 

As to ongoing costs, that's why I avoid them as much as possible, buy, don't rent.

[Blue_Cookeh]

I think people need to reiterate the fact that we're in 2016 and IT is a necessity (it's one of the departments that span all others). No matter where you are or what industry you're in IT is going to be one of the biggest budget holders. You see this a lot in primaries, they don't value IT enough to make it worthwhile and do things like OP's school. How can you provide a decent education to the future with 5 year old hardware?

 

Maybe if academies can't afford to keep up to date, they shouldn't have become academies.

 

EDIT: Just to add on, maybe people should look at spreading costs of licensing among the departments? If a year group want a yearly subscription to XYZ, it doesn't come out of IT's budget.

Edited November 18, 2016 by Blue_Cookeh

[enjay]

As to ongoing costs, that's why I avoid them as much as possible, buy, don't rent.

 

The only things we rent are the MFDs and the minibuses - unless you count software licences as "rental", of course. We have gone quite heavily down the BYOD route, so the bulk of teaching resources are now online subscriptions (Mathswatch, Vocab Express, GCSE Pod, Kerboodle). This saves on software purchase and licences (there is now very little subject-specific software installed on our PCs), and in the long-term will save on text-book replacements, but does push up the "cost of standing still".

 

The big money savers for us recently have been changing ISP, introducing MFDs - especially Papercut's on-screen utility telling everyone their total spend - and implementing power management on the PCs (partly technical, partly operational).

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Maybe if academies can't afford to keep up to date, they shouldn't have become academies.

You make it sound like non-academies are rolling in money!

[Blue_Cookeh]

The only things we rent are the MFDs and the minibuses - unless you count software licences as "rental", of course. We have gone quite heavily down the BYOD route, so the bulk of teaching resources are now online subscriptions (Mathswatch, Vocab Express, GCSE Pod, Kerboodle). This saves on software purchase and licences (there is now very little subject-specific software installed on our PCs), and in the long-term will save on text-book replacements, but does push up the "cost of standing still".

 

The big money savers for us recently have been changing ISP, introducing MFDs - especially Papercut's on-screen utility telling everyone their total spend - and implementing power management on the PCs (partly technical, partly operational).

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

 

You make it sound like non-academies are rolling in money!

 

Well! Working at a non-academy...

 

I think one of the keys really is to keep ongoing costs down and give the budget holders a long term plan. When I can get an Intel NUC + peripherals/monitor for something like £320 each (from what I remember) and expect to get 3/4 years of life if not more, leasing just doesn't make sense.

 

The only on going costs are MS licensing/backup/printers/internet connection in my budget.

Edited November 18, 2016 by Blue_Cookeh

[mikeprice]

On the point of using 5 year old hardware

 

My view is that it is OK as long as it does the job it needs to do.

We have several 'Teacher's PCs' that are over 5 years old (still have floppy drives etc) but still work fine for what they need i.e. Win7, Office and web browers

and some ancient Win 98 software that still works fine (The alphabet and numbers still go in the same order as in 1998!)

 

They are a bit slow to start up but that only happens once a day so it doesn't impact their normal use

 

I'm not sure how much longer they will be OK for - I havn't got round to trying Win10 on them yet but I suspect they will be OK (floppy drive driver may be a problem but no-one is daft enough to use them anyway!)

 

If anything I am replacing the middle set of PCs (labelled LanWay) as these cause more problems than anything else but are newer than the ancient Stone PCs

 

YMMV - obviously

[Blue_Cookeh]

I'm not sure how much longer they will be OK for - I havn't got round to trying Win10 on them yet but I suspect they will be OK (floppy drive driver may be a problem but no-one is daft enough to use them anyway!)

 

We found that quite a few machines were a bit useless on Windows 10 because Intel didn't update various integrated graphics drivers for them, still worth a go but something to watch out for

[NB9457]

Some of the PCs here run Win10 on Atoms and P4s, if your hardware is this old I wouldn't recommend it, they do struggle, so we are looking at going to Win7 for the remainder of their life.

[caffrey]

I just use @ICTDirect_Dave for my refreshes, PC's don't have to cost a fortune to be usable. I've a bunch of PC's ready to be gone but they are all ancient too (P4s)

[JordanT91]

To be honest, I've found that you should just call their bluff on "no money". When you do things like this, you are simply perpetuating the myth that IT can be done on the cheap/free.

 

One of our schools has "no money" and have just realised their lease for their IT suite PCs (the only suite they have) runs out and their PCs would be disappearing in December. Suddenly, they've found the money to buy new computers.

 

You're spot on. I said the same thing to someone on here a few months back. If your school has no money for IT equipment but you manage to get donations from businesses or other schools, you are simply masking the problem. You will never be given the budget you need because management will see that you can manage with no money.

 

DavetheITguy, you need to write an email to the powers that be (and bcc your private email address) explaining that you are unable to to continue to provide a decent IT service to the school. In basic terms, explain why the equipment you have is not good enough anymore (relate it back to teaching and learning), and explain how much money you need to rectify the situation.

Give them 3 options: The lowest possible amount you need to replace whatever needs replacing immediately (to tide you over for one more year), a middle amount of money to replace whatever needs replacing (to allow for a decent service for 2-3 years) and a high amount of money to replace everything that needs replacing and to future proof the ICT service in your school for at least 5 years.

Don't make your email too technical. Dumb it down. Take a proactive approach, rather than a threatening tone. If you still don't get any money, do everything in your power to continue to use the equipment you have in school. When it inevitably fails, and you can't replace it, refer the teaching staff to SLT. When teachers start to complain, the SLT might finally do something about the issue. Teachers can be a powerful ally.

 

But please, for the good of your school, don't use donations. Everyone on here would love to help you out, I'm sure, but you're doing a disservice to the pupils by continuing to mask the issue. Your SLT needs to get their priorities sorted. If they can't afford to provide an effective ICT service, I'm not sure they should be running a school.

[enjay]

My desktop hardware plans look like this: 1) can we replace the Windows PC with a Chrome Box? 2) Can we replace the Windows PC with an AppleTV and drive everything from the teachers' iPads? Thin Clients were also considered, of course, but we determined the cost would be greater than implementing options 1 and 2. This is done on a subject-by-subject basis; for example, English could go Chrome Box, Maths could not.

 

Your environments will of course be different, but I would encourage you to think beyond "this PC is old and slow, I must buy a new PC" to "this PC is no longer suitable, what should I replace it with?".