Wanted: Old Laptops/SSDs (or even APs if you're getting new ones!!)

[realtnt]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm in a cash-strapped school (surprise-surprise) with many-many ICT needs. I'm in the process or reviving some ancient laptops for classroom use with Cloudready (with the free Home version for now hoping to find the funds to get the education and management licenses).

 

I also have a lot of teachers (read: all of them) with a little less ancient laptops which are extremely slow and most of them don't use them any more. Perhaps upgrading to SSDs might give them enough of a boost to start getting used again.

 

If you have any 6-7 year old laptops that you're looking to recycle or if you have any SSDs lying around unused, please consider donating them to a poor school. It will help us immensely.

 

Also, if you have any idea of companies that might be willing to donate to us Laptops/SSDs/APs please let me know.

 

Thanks

Edited May 11, 2017 by realtnt

[FN-GM]

Free Access Points Here

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/classified-adverts/184144-15-x-hp-procurve-msm410-waps-backplates.html

[NB9457]

A bit of advice, as much as a school is cash strapped, when they begin taking donations and equipment is swapped out/fixed with almost zero cost, it starts becoming overlooked should they come in to money and somewhat expected. I've been in a similar position and in the end had to put a foot down with donations as they caused to many issues in the end and surprisingly and equipment began dropping left right and centre as desktops reached 10 years old, money suddenly became available to replace the decaying kit.

 

Just be careful, it's like paddling in deep waters.

[AlanD]

Yes, I'm not sure they will thank you for holding things together with sticking tape and prolonging the life of things that need to be put in the bin. Yes - I have put SSDs into older (but not really old) laptops (and more ram) and ...well they are still slow laptops...slow to logon (only a/g network) ... slow to open a browser window ... and I don't think its won me any friends. Perhaps its better to say - sorry these laptops don't run windows 10 and windows 7 is about coming to an end. If the wireless access points are poor - take them out to stop them being used altogether. Better to have no wireless than have everyone complaining. One of the benefits of this is that it brings the message home that technology doesn't last forever and needs investment.

[realtnt]

I hear what you're saying and I appreciate the advice. I will certainly make a point that this is not the solution, but just a stop-gap measure to improve our situation somewhat. But I have also worked for a school that had more money than it actually needed and we had lots of equipment regularly replaced, recycled, etc, so if there's something that is at least acceptable, I feel it's a good thing to keep it going for a bit longer.

[AlanD]

Or you could be really brave - and install Chrome OS...or use LINUX LTSP diskless stations....and commit to Google classroom with Google docs....No it won't do everything...but what it does do it would do well.....

[dhicks]

Or you could be really brave - and install Chrome OS...

 

Yes - that's what the original poster is proposing, using Cloudready's implementation of ChromeOS, installable on most older (and newer!) Intel laptops and PCs. As they point out, free to install the personal version, although if you can find the funds for the Education version and a ChromeOS management license (around £70 per device for both) you can then join the devices to your Google Admin control panel, making your Cloudready devices into managed ChromeOS devices.

[realtnt]

Yes, as mentioned before I've already started deploying Cloudready on some old Celeron/1GB laptops I found stashed in teachers' cupboards that were not getting any use. My trials have been encouraging as they seem to work fine with Flash content as well. Thankfully, I'm of the... "google persuasion" myself and we do have G Suite which I set up when I joined the school about a year ago. (although Cloudready also have an Office 365 Education Edition)

 

I am slowly making inroads into getting teachers to use the various Google apps and I believe ChromeOS/Cloudready computers will be great to use in our ICT suite and in the classrooms as we only have a very limited amount of iPads.

 

Having said that there are many reasons why a Windows laptop is certainly useful which is why I'm trying to upgrade or get something a bit more up-to-date for the teachers to use.

[dhicks]

My trials have been encouraging as they seem to work fine with Flash content as well.

 

We found CloudReady's latest update seems to turn off the Flash plugin by default now, going along with how the latest version of ChromeOS itself works, and as well as having "Enable Flash" settings in the Google Admin content you also have to make sure the Flash plugin is installed via CloudReady's console, just so you know.

 

I am slowly making inroads into getting teachers to use the various Google apps and I believe ChromeOS/Cloudready computers will be great to use in our ICT suite and in the classrooms as we only have a very limited amount of iPads.

 

We've found the Asus Chromebook Flips to be the equivilent of iPads for the pupils - especially with the ability to run Android apps, in most instances where a teacher has gone "...ah, but I need an iPad because only it can run..." we've been able to find the same app for Android and roll it out on the Chromebooks (which are half the price). That's the only drawback of using CloudReady devices - no support for Android apps, which is okay but if you have some devices that can use apps and some that can't, staff / pupils might get a bit confused.

 

Having said that there are many reasons why a Windows laptop is certainly useful which is why I'm trying to upgrade or get something a bit more up-to-date for the teachers to use.

 

We've found remoter desktop access via AccessNow to work very well for when pupils and teachers want to use a Windows desktop. We currently have our own remote desktop servers set up, but we might look at moving that provision to on-demand cloud-based desktops if it proves practical.

[realtnt]

David,

 

Thanks for the info. Good to hear from someone who has already implemented something similar to what I'm thinking of doing here.

 

I thought I was going crazy with Flash, as I installed it, put the laptops in the classroom and a couple of days later (after the update) Flash was turned off!

 

When we get to the point where we can think of getting tablets/ipads I'll definitely look into the Flips. Had a quick look and I'm thinking of getting one for my own kids tbh (aka for me really)! :-)

 

I'll try the remote desktop as well. For some computers around the school that only occasionally need Windows access, sounds great.

 

Thanks again,

 

T

[dhicks]

When we get to the point where we can think of getting tablets/ipads I'll definitely look into the Flips. Had a quick look and I'm thinking of getting one for my own kids tbh (aka for me really)!

 

Might be worth waiting a few weeks until the Asus Chromebook Flip C213 comes out - a little larger than the C100PA, plus it adds a rear camera and stylus support.