Equipment for staff to deliver lessons from anywhere

[mdrabble]

We don't give staff laptops, so if staff have to self-isolate they have to use whatever kit they own to try and deliver lessons which as you can imaging has and does cause some issues.

 

I'm trying to come up with a standard list of equipment to give to staff to enable them to deliver lessons from anywhere.

 

Idea is that they carry this kit around with them and use in their teaching rooms and then take home and use there. - Unless we ke

 

From this list I am going to try and persuade SLT to either Lease or purchase the kit to not only make everyone's lives that little bit easier but more importantly make my life easier when it comes to support and training.

 

So - for schools who have given their staff laptops - do they use it as their sole teaching device what sort of kit have you given them?

 

This is my kit list from the top of my head from 5 mins of thinking and not looked at things in depth.

 

Laptop (either 14" or 15" - min spec 8gb/240gb/i3/webcam) + Bag - (All TV and Projectors use VGA and 3.5mm Audio) - So laptop will need HDMI, VGA and onboard NIC - not sure on dock - any benefits?

Graphics Tablet (to allow annotations, drawings etc)

We use Office 365 - so will be looking to make use of 365 - and AOVPN

 

Would be interesting to see how other school do things and knowing advantages and disadvantages of things.

 

Cheers

[TwistedHelixis]

All the primary schools that I work in (Teachers and some TA's) across multiple schools all have their own laptops that are assigned to them. they use them in class, PPA and at home. It has been like this for about 8 years now.

 

We also get 14inch screens, anything bigger and the teachers moan about having to carry them, anything smaller and some teachers can't see what is on the screen.

 

EDIT - I came from a city job where remote work wouldn't get done unless we supplied our staff with the tools they needed to work for us. I look at teachers working from home in the same way :0)

Edited November 5, 2020 by TwistedHelixis

[mdrabble]

All the primary schools that I work in (Teachers and some TA's) across multiple schools all have their own laptops that are assigned to them. they use them in class,

 

How do they connect to Projectors/TV Screens? - Do they plug cables into laptop or use a dock?

 

Cheers

[jthompson]

Teachers all have Windows laptops here. Classroom projectors are still VGA, so any laptops without that port are provided with an HDMI dongle as well. Primarily G Suite, so Classroom/Meet are used for delivering remote lessons.

 

Laptops generally have a built-in webcam, but for those that don't we've purchased some USB Hue webcams. Those needing a visualiser (Maths and Science mainly) are able to use a Hue webcam teamed with VLC. We've also got some AverMedia visualisers set up on some of the teacher desks, which we've been able to USB into VLC as well, in order to make those streamable into Meet when teachers in school but teaching via Meet.

 

We've also had a number of teachers teaching from quarantine at home, delivering via Meet into a classroom of kids, supervised by a colleague on site. For that, we've needed to loan out some spare laptops to departments to use as a Meet endpoint in the room.

[TwistedHelixis]

How do they connect to Projectors/TV Screens? - Do they plug cables into laptop or use a dock?

 

They just plug the power, HDMI and USB cable in to the laptop.

[localtech]

I have worked in primary schools for a number of years and any teaching staff have always had a laptop supplied, I tend to use Dell with a three year pro support (next day fix), they do a good Latitude educational range newer models tend to have very few USB ports now but a 4 port adaptor can be picked up very cheap these days.

[mdrabble]

Do staff use graphics tablets at all?

[Brimstone]

We don't give staff laptops, so if staff have to self-isolate they have to use whatever kit they own to try and deliver lessons which as you can imaging has and does cause some issues.

 

I'm trying to come up with a standard list of equipment to give to staff to enable them to deliver lessons from anywhere.

 

Idea is that they carry this kit around with them and use in their teaching rooms and then take home and use there. - Unless we ke

 

From this list I am going to try and persuade SLT to either Lease or purchase the kit to not only make everyone's lives that little bit easier but more importantly make my life easier when it comes to support and training.

 

So - for schools who have given their staff laptops - do they use it as their sole teaching device what sort of kit have you given them?

 

This is my kit list from the top of my head from 5 mins of thinking and not looked at things in depth.

 

Laptop (either 14" or 15" - min spec 8gb/240gb/i3/webcam) + Bag - (All TV and Projectors use VGA and 3.5mm Audio) - So laptop will need HDMI, VGA and onboard NIC - not sure on dock - any benefits?

Graphics Tablet (to allow annotations, drawings etc)

We use Office 365 - so will be looking to make use of 365 - and AOVPN

 

Would be interesting to see how other school do things and knowing advantages and disadvantages of things.

 

Cheers

You can do all that above with an iPad Pro, I now have four primaries where all the teachers use is an iPad Pro, Keyboard case and Apple Pencil. One teacher recently ran a whole teams webinar right from the iPad Pro, annotated Word documents and Keynote live using the Pencil. They may need the odd HDMI adaptor but that's it.

[TwistedHelixis]

Do staff use graphics tablets at all?

not at any of the schools I have worked in

[Roberto]

Laptop (either 14" or 15" - min spec 8gb/240gb/i3/webcam) + Bag - (All TV and Projectors use VGA and 3.5mm Audio) - So laptop will need HDMI, VGA and onboard NIC - not sure on dock - any benefits?

Graphics Tablet (to allow annotations, drawings etc)

We use Office 365 - so will be looking to make use of 365 - and AOVPN

 

Would be interesting to see how other school do things and knowing advantages and disadvantages of things.

 

Cheers

 

The obvious advantage of a dock is that if you get a usb C dock and laptop that uses USB C for power as well as data, you can set up the docks wherever you wish and users just come along and plug one cable in and that’s all your usb peripherals (e.g. whiteboards) digital screens, keyboard, mouse, Ethernet, power all delivered in one simple to connect cable. You’ve immediately made the staff’s day easier, reduced the number of support calls caused by people fiddling because they’re confused, lessons being ruined because someone forgot to connect the power cable or struggled with the monitor connection...

 

And (my employer, which isn’t education any more tbf, does this) your users can even be supplied with a dock for wfh scenarios to plug in to whatever they might have there, so I have my headset, monitors, etc all set up to a Lenovo dock at home or at work. Wherever I am I just plug in one cable and it all works.

 

This makes me more productive as I can move freely around and not worry too much about the state of the desk I’m moving to as I hotdesk at work (which I’d argue is similar to changing classrooms) so even though I am a techie and don’t find desk wiring issues difficult to fix, I’m focused on what I’m being paid to do which isn’t worrying about desk setups. Imagine how much better that would be when it’s the worst support time sinkhole in your place who gets their work environment hugely simplified!

Edited November 5, 2020 by Roberto

[chazzy2501]

if you get laptops with USBC you could also upgrade the rooms (quickly) with a USBC dock or adaptor. The dock could connect the sound and picture using the existing VGA and audio. This would have a single cable solution to the laptop.

 

The teacher would only need to plug in the usbc plug and get everything for the room. The docks can also provide power for the laptop to charge it (if you spend more)

 

we have docks here that also provide the usb for the interactive boards and a usb DVD drive for the more arcane teacher. The teacher only plugs in a single cable that can go either way around, so it's simple.

 

our HP G5 docks do connect to VGA using a DP to VGA adaptor far more reliable than a HDMI to VGA as it's designed to do that.

 

Edit, the docks also provide 1gig ethernet (in some areas)

 

Double edit: I say all this so you don't have to limit your laptop choice to having VGA and ethernet. (which will be a hefty unit)

Edited November 5, 2020 by chazzy2501
extra info

[mdrabble]

Excellent

 

Laptop with USB C -> Single Cable -> Dock with Power, VGA, Audio and NIC

 

That would be solve loads of issues, especially for those staff who are not as technologically minded as others.

 

14" Laptop with USC for power etc.

USB C Dock to deliver power, Video, Audio and Possibly NIC

Laptop Bag

Graphics Tablet (May be optional)

 

Sadly I have a feeling this is going to be beyond any budget the school can afford

 

Might need to come up with a very very convincing proposal to convince SLT to seriously think about this and look at leasing to help with the costs.

[mdrabble]

Had another thought about equipment - instead of laptops and docs etc.....

 

What are peoples thoughts on Widows Tablets - such as Surface Go and then using a Microsoft Wireless display adapter for screen sharing etc.?

 

Would a Surface Go be up to running things such as Office and Sims.net?

[jmak]

At my last school we gave all the teachers a Surface Pro (4 -it was a long time ago) which had the Core M3 processors and they were fine for almost everything teachers needed, so I'm sure a current model Surface Go would be fine.

 

The business case was that they already had laptops and they'd found money to buy iPads in addition, so I could show that the Surface Pro was cheaper than a laptop and an iPad. Teachers preferred the idea of only having one device after they'd been shown.

 

Docking stations would have improved the experience a lot, but they were too expensive at the time. At home I recently bought a £20 USB C docking station similar to this:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07QXMNF1X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_t1_.CMRFbWCB6Y45

 

Mine has been rock solid and there are other options with VGA if you need that.

 

I played with the Miracast adapters with the idea that you could replace interactive boards - teacher wouldn't need to be at the front and could look at the class while they were using it, but that never quite took off although it was fine technically.

 

I still think that when you take into account the full cost of running a teacher (salary, pension, NI, management won't leave much change from £50k/year for even a new starter) spending a few hundred quid on a decent laptop that lets them work flexibly is a no brainer - especially now that they're more or less expected to be able to work from home...

[mdrabble]

So laptop & doc would be the preferred method most people would go for.

 

I've never used a dock in my life so I have no idea what they are like...

 

What Make/Model of laptop including Dock would people recommend?

 

Either way will end up costing a pretty penny as we have 70 Teaching staff and then would think of gett 5 extra for "emergencies"

 

--Edit--

 

I supposed spec wise SSD storage shouldn't be an issue as I would be asking staff to use Office 365 Apps and pointing staff to store work on Office 365/SharePoint

Edited November 13, 2020 by mdrabble

[jmak]

 

--Edit--

 

I supposed spec wise SSD storage shouldn't be an issue as I would be asking staff to use Office 365 Apps and pointing staff to store work on Office 365/SharePoint

 

Assuming you mean "I wouldn't even consider anything that doesn't have an SSD?" Anything with spinning rust is an awful investment at this point.

[mdrabble]

Assuming you mean "I wouldn't even consider anything that doesn't have an SSD?" Anything with spinning rust is an awful investment at this point.

 

Oh Definitely needs SSD I meant the Size of SSD shouldn't be an issue - 120GB should be more than enough.

[Andrew_C]

I'm fairly sure the Go doesn't charge via USB. They use a b***** awful propitiatory connector that the bump case levers out.

[chazzy2501]

I had the school Budget the Docks separately to the laptops. I had the docking stations classed as Multimedia and charged them to the rooms MM Budget. (same as speakers and projector) This may help

 

The HP G5 docks I have also work with the dynabook laptops (picture and charge), as long as the laptop you purchase supports DP-alt mode over usb-c you could get any dock you like.

 

This is what attracted me to USB-C I can get different laptops next year and still keep the old docks. I believe I can also use an ipad-pro and a macbook with the dock. (untested)

[MatthewL]

USB C monitors here used as a dock, can link monitors too for dual screen. 1 cable plugged in makes it so much easier and we use both Dell and Lenovo laptops.