IT Suites

[Danp]

Not sure if this should be in here or elsewhere.

 

Thinking ahead to Summer '19 and beyond, is there a need for IT suites?

 

I'm thinking there isn't, but that might be because of our setup currently. We have 13 () around school, they vary from 4 machines (perhaps not a suite, just a work space) to 24 machine rooms.

 

The vision I'm working towards is to remove some of the larger rooms and focus more on some mobile options. Our Chromebook trolley has worked well since I rolled (see what I did there) it out in May '18. It's still not being used to the extent I'd like, but getting there.

 

I'd also like to investigate thin clients some more, some of the bloat ware that is installed on machines is not needed for most users now.

 

Love to hear others thoughts on this. Anyone local'ish (Worcestershire) who has made a similar move recently? I'd be happy to have a trip out to another school to see how things are running.

[Sheridan]

I think there is still a need for IT Suites but mixed with a mobile solution. It offers the best of both worlds. Some teachers will prefer the ease of walking into a suite knowing all the computers are on and ready, some will prefer to have mobile devices in a free form layout in the classroom.We have 11 suites, and it will not increase but we are planning some mobile solutions (tablet/notebook/chromebook trolleys)

[Katy]

We have 4 IT rooms (24/25 PCs) and the library (42 PCs), plus a few like Music where they have a room of 12. We are planning to drop one of the IT rooms, and most of the PCs in the library, if we go with a 1:1 device rollout. Will probably need to keep the DT IT room for CAD and the computing IT room for coding etc, plus the music room as they've got Sibelius and USB music keyboards etc.

[Mako]

We have 3 IT rooms consisting of 25-31 computers, these are used for timetabled teaching.

There is a suite consisting of 14 computers the Art and Drama block.

DT have a CAD suite of 10 computers.

The library has 10 computers.

Music has a studio of 11 computers.

Then there's the monstrosity known as the "call centre" which contains no less than 98 computers.

[k-strider]

I have 3 Rooms with 32~34 a room with 25 Generic Use, library with 20ish mostly 6th Form, DT with 25, Art 14, Music has 9 and there are a couple of small work areas... for context we have around 1000 on role.

I've never like laptop trolleys they get damaged much quicker than Rooms (and our kids are really well behaved) more expensive to repair than fixed workstations, they never seem to last as long. we have in the past had some but no one took ownership and the weren't checked when they went back so were often flat - then the charges get pulled out all a mess the IT support team is way to small to look after them, it just didn't work. we currently have 30 laptops in lockers that are issued and returned to the library whilst there is some management, there are a lot with keys missing all over the place and its just not simple or cheap to replace them like a keyboard on a workstation is.

 

our year 7 and 8s have 1:1 iPads so that is rolling up through the school but at the moment the generic rooms i have are well used a lot of the time.

[Danp]

Thank you for the replies

[Areku]

a few years ago, we made the switch from IT suites to Laptop trolley banks, (against my advice) we lost about 4 generic IT suites, and replaced them with more banks of laptops, each department got issued their own trolleys. We couldn't be responsible for over 15 laptop trolleys, so the departments had to manage the day to day moving of laptops etc.

 

It was a nightmare. So many un-tracked damages, so many teachers just left laptops lying around, so many times they where not left on charge (this is another issue with mobile devices, they cant be in use all day!).

In the end ultimate it was costing the school so much on replacement laptops and repairs, the teachers and departments just stopped using them, preferring to book what little ICT suite space we had left.

 

Currently have over 100 laptops sat under our work bench not being used, and over the last year I've slowly been converting teaching spaces into Hybrid suites (IT facilities coupled with normal teaching rooms).

 

It was a disaster...