Staff Laptop Project

[gumbygaz]

Afternoon All,

 

Currently all classrooms have a desktops, however, these are now 5yrs old and needing investment. We looked at replacing all Desktops, however, we'd like the staff to be able to work more flexibly from home, in meetings etc.

We've got Directaccess setup and working, so wondering if the time to provide all staff laptops is now? Do away with desktops and just have a USB-C dock, one cable to connect and away they go.

SLT are realistic about the additional costs required - e.g. surplus for emergency loans & Supply staff etc, batteries, even getting an apprentice in to aid with the additional support needed. So at least they realise that it needs this sort of backing.

 

I've always preferred the desktop solution, and no laptops for teachers - RDS available for them on personal devices at home. But SLT are trying to encourage staff to have a better work life balance e.g. letting them leave the school if they've got a free last lesson to try be more flexible working hours. So in turn thinking how best to enable that.

 

Any thoughts, I've read a few other posts about schools doing this and what to look out for? And also, heard a lot about Intune, could this be the best way to go with these as well?

 

Gaz

[Reboot_IT]

I've worked in schools with Desktop PC's in classrooms and laptops with docks. Something to bare in mind, we provided a "one cable solution" however this still didn't fully take away user error in connecting the laptop to the screen.

Users would then fiddle with the cables from the faceplate to the dock which was also frustrating and it took quite a chunk of our time up to resolve! In that environment there was a lot of staff movement in terms of from one classroom to another, as well as a lot of supply staff so it may suit your environment more!

[djm968]

I've deployed laptops for Staff in many of the Schools I have worked in and never really had any issues. Get group policy right and there shouldn't be any need for additional device management solutions. The main priority is getting document storage implemented correctly so that staff can work offline at home and online when at School.

 

You also need to think about device encryption for GDPR compliance.

Edited March 11, 2019 by djm968

[hardtailstar]

Dont do it!

 

Replace the desktops, in the long run you'll save money.

 

Dont forget you'll need to buy extra laptops for supply teachers and if teachers 'forget' their laptop.

[colly72]

We considered this, including the implementation of docking stations in classrooms. In the end, teachers were wary of not having a dedicated classroom PC, or things not working properly at the start of the day etc, so we ended up just replacing and leaving PCs "in situ". Nice idea in practice but I think support calls would increase (at least they would where I work!).

[HereIGoAgain2601]

We have had both solutions in schools I’ve worked at. The laptops are never a good idea for teacher whiteboards. So many times we have provided idiots guides with pictures of which cable should go where and training sessions. But they never learn. Connect VGA from the visualiser at the same time as HDMI and confuse built in graphics, don’t plug usb in for touch screen and wonder why it doesn’t work. Also seen it where they keep changing channels on the projector as they are convinced all cables are in properly so make the situation worse. We have tried docks but were expensive and had issues with these and display resolution drivers etc although this was Windows 7 so may be better now.

[Zourous]

We’ve had both solutions and have had laptops now for 7 years. I wasn’t sure at first, but now think that you wouldn’t get the laptops back in exchange for desktops. Yes, each year there is a small number of teachers that start a back to desktop campaign, but it’s been met on deaf ears. It is more support, It is more hassle with cables and stuff, but it can work. Depends how your staff embrace it I guess.

[Sylv3r]

We much prefer desktop PC's in classrooms and are in the process of moving away from laptops in one of our primariees to desktops.

 

As people have pointed out, less demand on the teacher to setup each lesson especially if the lessons change over reguarly. Also from a cost of ownership point of view, you'll find desktops will probably be 50% of the overall cost over a 3 - 5 year plan - even more if you decide to use refurbished machines.

[gumbygaz]

Humm, certainly food for thought. As expected, it's a route with many pitfalls.

Still with SLT to discuss with the teaching staff, so be interesting to get their perspective - once the initial "ooh free shiny laptop" phase wears off do they want the additional potential issues of connecting etc

I am more of a Desktop fan, but can see their arguments. Perhaps look to investing a bit more in systems like Work Folders or Foldr for remote working. Or making better use of Onedrive.

[mavhc]

Mostly used laptops here, staff can borrow a normal shared student laptop if they forgot theirs, but that's rare.

 

Solves the logging in and loading all the documents at the start of the lesson problem, can just preload and sleep the laptop. Also no need to have dual monitor outputs on desktop computer/splitter/return path from projector.

 

Also solves the sync problem, although slight risk of a sync breaking and never backing up.

 

And it solves the tragedy of the commons problem, assigned device rather than shared.

 

Home access is now more secure, no need to worry about keystroke loggers, screen recorders etc installed on home computers using remote access, saved passwords on home devices, generally not closing stuff before your family uses the computer.

[gumbygaz]

Mostly used laptops here, staff can borrow a normal shared student laptop if they forgot theirs, but that's rare.

 

Solves the logging in and loading all the documents at the start of the lesson problem, can just preload and sleep the laptop. Also no need to have dual monitor outputs on desktop computer/splitter/return path from projector.

Also solves the sync problem, although slight risk of a sync breaking and never backing up.

And it solves the tragedy of the commons problem, assigned device rather than shared.

Home access is now more secure, no need to worry about keystroke loggers, screen recorders etc installed on home computers using remote access, saved passwords on home devices, generally not closing stuff before your family uses the computer.

 

Exactly the plan their wanting. I may have to PM you if that's ok when we're closer to going ahead to pick your brain if that's ok?

[mavhc]

Exactly the plan their wanting. I may have to PM you if that's ok when we're closer to going ahead to pick your brain if that's ok?

 

OK

 

 

 

~~~~~

[noelmm]

We use laptops here (Surface Pro 3's) and the convenience far outweighs the odd problem we see. We don't provide docks in classrooms, our teachers use WePresent to connect to their TV's and the wireless network for everything, as you can imagine we get the occasional member of staff reporting wireless issues with speed but we quite often find they have 15 Power Point's open and 15 webpages open.

 

The main thing if you move to laptops will be the culture of change, for example when we had desktops all teachers had a DVD drive to play videos etc. but since moving to laptops they don't so we now make use more of our online systems for video playback. If you prepare your staff for the change the majority of them will be ok.

[mavhc]

We use laptops here (Surface Pro 3's) and the convenience far outweighs the odd problem we see. We don't provide docks in classrooms, our teachers use WePresent to connect to their TV's and the wireless network for everything, as you can imagine we get the occasional member of staff reporting wireless issues with speed but we quite often find they have 15 Power Point's open and 15 webpages open.

 

The main thing if you move to laptops will be the culture of change, for example when we had desktops all teachers had a DVD drive to play videos etc. but since moving to laptops they don't so we now make use more of our online systems for video playback. If you prepare your staff for the change the majority of them will be ok.

 

What the advantage of the WePresent over a cable? How much do they cost? Do they scale wrt wifi channel limits in an area?

[Passat1983ICTech]

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[noelmm]

What the advantage of the WePresent over a cable? How much do they cost? Do they scale wrt wifi channel limits in an area?

 

The advantage of WePresent is that the teacher can walk around the room and carry their devices with them and teach interactively if they wish. As for the cost of the device they come installed into the smart TV's we purchased, I think you can buy external units but not sure. If you don't already have the TV's with the units installed a cable would be more cost effective.

[Gurtlush]

We used Microsoft Wireless Display Adapters these fitted to existing kit (both projectors and TV's) windows 10 laptops with Widi just screen share with them. Very easy and simple. They cost at the time around £40 per unit

[mavhc]

How do you stop pupils/staff projecting to the wrong screens accidentally/screens they shouldn't be authorised to connect to?

 

Mostly I just worry about every channel being used up by streaming video all day

[noelmm]

Our TVs are hardwired to the network and staff can only connect to them if their devices are connected to the main school SSID, this stops any students connecting with their own personal devices. We don't install the software on the student laptops so again they can't connect to the screens even when connected to the correct SSID.

 

The way we stop staff accidently connecting to them is by having a randomly generated 4 digit security code on the TV screen that resets itself after a teacher disconnects their session, this means the member of staff must be in the room when connecting to read the code. There is occasionally a problem where staff walk away and forget to disconnect from the TV , although this is quite rare. In this situation we can reboot the TV remotely or physically pull the power to the WePresent box for a few seconds to force a reboot.

[mavhc]

https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2017-6351/ https://medium.com/@quentin.olagne/this-is-whats-really-inside-wepresent-embedded-devices-f6b5bd68a544