Laptops - do you deploy them to teachers?

[MartinT]

I'm doing a little research into whether schools deploy laptops to teachers or not. If you do, are they well accepted by teachers for working in school? What about working at home (i.e. do they take them home)? What about any DSE issues when using them at desks at work?

 

Background: I have a financial controller who would like to deploy laptops instead of desktops so that teachers have a remote solution without us having to vet home computers. He does not want the additional cost of docks. The academic director is a little concerned about long-term use and any DSE implications from using small screens, crouching over the device etc. He would prefer additional docks and monitors. I personally would like to go with just laptops to provide teachers with mobility and flexibility and reduce the costs.

 

Any insight into what you are doing would be most welcome.

[6Foot2]

We deployed laptops to teaching staff, if they were working a given proportion of full time, or more (can't remember how exactly much, but I'm sure they had to be working something above 0.5)

 

Then a decree came down (a few months before I left) that all classroom desktops had to be removed, all teaching staff needed laptops. They took these from room-to-room to hook up to IWBs, as their timetable required, and also took them home.

 

The 100% coverage of laptops to staff was popular. Loss of classroom desktops, not so.

 

Edit: Docks were specifically not provided - there was a history of vandalism and the docks would have been an easy target, with most damaged or missing within a week of deployment.

Edited August 8, 2023 by 6Foot2

[TechMonkey]

Doesn't matter what is said, docks will end up coming in. You will end up with some spare ones so staff can work in areas. Then they will be wanted to be in classrooms so they can easily attach to the screen. Then a monitor will be wanted so they can work while things are up on the screen.

It will be one or two requests and will be fulfilled as being reasonable as it is only one or two. Then those teachers move classroom and new kit is needed there. Then the other teachers they work with want the same and the precedent has been set.

Add to that senior members of support staff will ask to be able to work from home, so laptops will come in, then the dock or worse, a laptop and desktop.

 

As for DSE at home, I think the get out clause here is the school has said staff are not expected to work from home. If they choose to though they need to ensure they work safely.

 

Overall, you are not going to save costs going with laptops. The benefit is that it helps staff be more flexible and access resources where ever they are.

 

An insight into what we are doing? In-between screaming into the void and banging our heads against the wall? We use Intune to manage the devices. Ensure you get business class devices, consumer ones will not be robust enough, education class ones if possible. We have a couple of old banger laptops as spares for when staff inevitably forget but also for visitors or AV setups, so they aren't sitting doing nothing for most of the year. MS Wireless Display Adaptors everywhere but now looking to ensure new boards we get have some kind of cast built in that works. Docks everywhere, as far as the eye can see. Mostly managed to resist them going into classrooms, but they abound in offices. Previously the HP ones were bought but found the Dell ones built into a monitor are cheaper, work well and save desk space.

[Dan2025]

Teachers all have laptops, some HLTA's and admin's have them also.

 

Classes mostly have AiO or miniPc's hooked up to the board depending on class.

 

Don't think I'd want to deal with the laptop being used both as a class machine & for home use.. teacher not in/forgets laptop/cycles to work or some cheeky ones when they realise they can just pinch the spares when they need it.

Edited August 8, 2023 by Danwinchelsea

[LeMarchand]

Teachers all have laptops, some HLTA's and admin's have them also.

 

Much the same at all three of mine. One tried to move over to Chromebooks as they all have AIOs connected to the board, but the staff didn't like that. No docks, though that would be something I'd try to get on the agenda when the W11 crunch hits and the laptops will need replacing.

 

If it was up to me, they'd get a desktop/AIO with similar in shared areas for PPA and they'd have to demonstrate a business case and evidence of working from home if they want one for that reason.

[MartinT]

Great answers so far, chaps. Keep it coming!

[noelmm]

We provide laptops to all teaching staff along with our HLTA's and some senior support staff where the role requires it. We don't provide additional monitors or dock and have never had an issue and our staff like the flexibility of being able to work from home etc where needed.

[HarryMonkey]

I've worked in a few scenarios. One where staff laptops were replaced by desktop PCs connected to the board/projector. I would say that around 80% of staff gave their laptops back. They didn't want to cart them round every day, they rarely took them home and thought it was great that they could walk into a classroom and just log in without having to worry about HDMI/DVI/VGA connectors. If they needed a laptop to take home at some point they could book one out.

 

Another place installed USB docks that connected to the laptop and board/projector. They were met with mixed feelings.

 

The final scenario was each teacher having a laptop and having to carry it with them and have IT support provide them with a never ending supply of chargers and HDMI adapters and cables where they'd left them at home.

 

Personally, I favour the first option but it will all depend on the teachers in your school as well as the local politics.

[Rob_D]

We looked into 1:1 laptops for classroom staff as the peripatetic teachers kept complaining about login times (and as we need to replace all the teaching PCs next anyway, it made for an easy solution. And could have saved on the number of machines as a lot of staff have a classroom, an office and access to a work room). Would definitely have gone with docks in the classrooms for single cable connection to the board, network, charging, mouse/keyboard connection's. We'd probably have left the 24" screens in place connected to the docks as well.

But when we put it to the staff they overwhelmingly voted against it. The main reasons I remember where, additional pressure to work from home, the weight of carrying it around all the time, and they could think of better things to spend the money on.

Edited August 8, 2023 by Rob_D

[psydii]

I'm doing a little research into whether schools deploy laptops to teachers or not. If you do, are they well accepted by teachers for working in school? What about working at home (i.e. do they take them home)? What about any DSE issues when using them at desks at work?

 

Background: I have a financial controller who would like to deploy laptops instead of desktops so that teachers have a remote solution without us having to vet home computers. He does not want the additional cost of docks. The academic director is a little concerned about long-term use and any DSE implications from using small screens, crouching over the device etc. He would prefer additional docks and monitors. I personally would like to go with just laptops to provide teachers with mobility and flexibility and reduce the costs.

 

Any insight into what you are doing would be most welcome.

 

Yes, since 2002. (initially running Windows 2000)

Always well accepted*, but that is because key members of SLT were 100% behind the strategy. (that is, not everyone on SLT believed in it, but the decision was made, and collective responsibility for that decision was owned by SLT)

They are supposed to take them home each day. This is not in anyway enforced, but it could be without too much bother.

On DSE issues, for those we know to have OH concerns/conditions we supply docks and monitors/keyboards. For those who just like to kick up a stink, we make the process formal, they usuallly drop it. For all staff, they complete a DSE survey each year and we scan that for people who might benefit from pro-active intervention.

 

It is absolutely vital that the whole stack is designed around the staff having laptops. Wireless connectivity is very different to wired. You want as little configuration of the end user experience dependent on the presence of a connection to your servers at boot/logon time as possible. Staff should not be logging on/off from their laptops daily - perhaps once a week, but better still: once a month for updates only. Find/Follow-Me printers are very useful too - since you only need to map one or two printer connections, and they are generally the same for all users. OneDrive/Sharepoint for files and folder. Teams for collaboration with students. For connectivity to classroom AV we did/do try to have docks so there is one usb-c cable for laptop connectivity and the board HDMI/USB goes via the dock. We had trouble with the 2016-2020 USB-C implementations, so now have standardized on HDMI from the board and USB-C to dock for interactivity and power. All rooms are configured identically at the teacher desk, and the cables are labeled. (the cables for the teachers are the same in every room, while the actual hardware on the walls/ceiling does vary, but over the last three years we have rapidly standardized, replacing the various projector/screen/speaker configurations to a single vendor and crucially a single install team who we have now paid to replace some of the earlier cabling with the set we now prefer). Notice that with docks teachers do not have to move their AC Adapters around from room to room, this improves the teacher's experience.

 

*well there was one time a site went from outstanding staff 1:1 laptops to a total disaster. That was because due to elements well outside of my control the whole stack was replaced and the new one was not designed around the 1:1 laptop paradigm, and it did things like redirect appdata to a network drive (over wifi!), enforce mandatory profiles, disable offline files, run outlook in online mode. It also cheaped-out on the wifi cards in the laptops(1x1!), and used a wifi infrastucture vendor that could not compete with even previous generation chantry/cisco/aruba. It took nearly a decade, the pandemic and the return of two former members of SLT and a finance director who remembered "how good it used to be" to get that site to fully move back to a laptop-only way of working but now they are, people are so very very happy.

 

To summarise: we have mid/low-end enterprise grade laptops (that at one point would have been classified as being at the chunkier end of the "ultrabook" category, when that was a thing), the interface between the laptops and the classroom AV is absolutely vital to get right, and that reliable, consistently high-performing wifi is essential. The configuration profiles/GPO settings must be built around providing a consistent, reliable experience for the teachers no matter where they were when they last rebooted/logged on.

Edited August 8, 2023 by psydii

[chris11256]

In our case staff are not provided with laptops. We have desktops in classrooms/work areas/offices, and have just undertaken a replacement of these as part of a Windows 11 migration. SLT can have a laptop if they want, some do some don't. Although their office desktop remains their primary work device. As a whole staff like this approach as they then don't feel as much pressure to work outside school. The feedback has often been that specifically giving someone a laptop implies a much greater degree of working outside normal hours.

Otherwise we can loan laptops to staff on a short term basis if they ask. For example we often have teachers do exam marking for public exams over the summer.

Edited August 8, 2023 by chris11256

[gaz350b]

We have both. Desktops for teaching and laptops for admin tasks.

 

I would never ditch desktops in the classrooms. They are far more reliable than anything else.

[Tys]

We have two schools in our trust, one has laptops for all staff and the other has fixed desktops. The school with fixed desktops has almost zero day-to-day problems in terms of teaching while the school with laptops is constant firefighting. My predecessors have tried everything under the sun but all staff having laptops just doesn't work well for us.

 

I'm now in the process of fitting fixed PCs in classrooms and offices ready for September and the staff are very excited! We will be keeping a small laptop trolley full of staff laptops charged and ready to go for staff to take offsite if they need to, but most will be using desktop only going forwards. YMMV of course but this has been our experience.

[3s-gtech]

We were pretty much desktop only until 2021. The whole LEA decided to go for teacher laptops (funded). We jumped at it, as they replaced our ancient kit, and went all in - so good docks in every classroom, cases, all labelled up for that staff member, and I set up AoVPN so they could just work at home (but this is easier with Azure!)

 

It has been good on the whole. Some damaged machines inevitably. Some staff awful at leaving their laptop at home then coming to me on the scrounge (“no, go and get it”).

 

LSAs now have them too.

 

I used the opportunity to really shake things up and put a lot of work into making it work for staff, and I feel it has had a positive impact.

[Guest Guest]

We issued all teachers and admin staff with laptops during Covid, works well although they aren’t used in the classrooms

[timbo343]

I'm keeping an eye on this as we mainly have desktops at our place and there is talks about wanting to get rid of all desktops and issue out laptops for ALL staff.

 

We have laptops for most teachers and some support staff who require them, this was a knee jerk reaction back in covid days for working at home / teaching at home.

 

There has been talk about lower cost of ownership with laptops as we aren't purchasing desktops, monitors, laptops. In a sense we would only be purchasing 1 device instead of 2.

 

At the moment we have a small minority of staff what use their laptops in school but the majority keep them at home.

 

There are a lot of valid points being raised and i hope more share their experiences.

 

It's interested to read the post about the difference between the 2 schools, with one having desktops and the other having laptops. We are in the same situation, our place has desktops throughout the school and teachers either reamin logged into the desktop (if they are in their teaching room all day) or staff log on to the PC that they are visiting - we have very little down time and issues as things "just work" and our staff like that - we very rarely see the laptops.

 

The laptops that the staff have are all managed through Intune which has been a bit of a learning curve but for me once it's configured, i've not really had to touch it.

[Aprice]

I've worked at a few secondaries where staff didn't have laptops, just desktops in classrooms. On the whole this just worked well, I never heard staff complaining about not having one.

 

On the opposite hand I've worked in schools where staff take their laptop from room to room, which were constant headaches and loads of reliability issues.

 

The current site I spend most time at has both staff laptops for all teaching staff and a desktop in each room. This tends to work pretty well at the moment.

As the kit ages I can see the experience deteriorating. The school is just about 5 years old now and we are yet to start replacing anything. The original staff all had Surface Pros which have held up really well and the staff love them. Up until recently a mix have Lenovo devices have been rolled out which was less successful, lots of it's slow, trackpad sucks, battery doesn't last type issues.

 

As some of the original staff leave those with two year old Lenovo's are desperate to swap to one of the original Surfaces which are now 5 years old! I think the choice of device really does make a difference. New staff are now being issued with a Surface Laptop Go, which so far seem to have gone down well.

 

The replacement strategy does concern me with this site, overall I think they would probably be better off without the cost burden of staff laptops, I'm not really sure how much they actually get used by a lot of staff and suspect a lot of the cost could be better spent on the desktop / student infrastructure.

 

My insight would be avoid laptops where possible, otherwise at least go with something that will give a long lifespan as the additional cost will likely force you to increase the time for your replacement cycle.

[Brax]

Doesn't matter what is said, docks will end up coming in. You will end up with some spare ones so staff can work in areas. Then they will be wanted to be in classrooms so they can easily attach to the screen. Then a monitor will be wanted so they can work while things are up on the screen.

It will be one or two requests and will be fulfilled as being reasonable as it is only one or two. Then those teachers move classroom and new kit is needed there. Then the other teachers they work with want the same and the precedent has been set.

Add to that senior members of support staff will ask to be able to work from home, so laptops will come in, then the dock or worse, a laptop and desktop.

 

As for DSE at home, I think the get out clause here is the school has said staff are not expected to work from home. If they choose to though they need to ensure they work safely.

 

Overall, you are not going to save costs going with laptops. The benefit is that it helps staff be more flexible and access resources where ever they are.

 

An insight into what we are doing? In-between screaming into the void and banging our heads against the wall? We use Intune to manage the devices. Ensure you get business class devices, consumer ones will not be robust enough, education class ones if possible. We have a couple of old banger laptops as spares for when staff inevitably forget but also for visitors or AV setups, so they aren't sitting doing nothing for most of the year. MS Wireless Display Adaptors everywhere but now looking to ensure new boards we get have some kind of cast built in that works. Docks everywhere, as far as the eye can see. Mostly managed to resist them going into classrooms, but they abound in offices. Previously the HP ones were bought but found the Dell ones built into a monitor are cheaper, work well and save desk space.

Yep we're currently in the process of removing desktops and switching to docks. Finding a decent dock is a challenge though. Everything is moving to 365/teams so staff can work from anywhere including at home. Staff here also have iPads as all students are going to soon have 1:1 devices (also iPads). We're in the process of gradually rolling it out but the moving of everything to 365 is also for student use with the iPads. We've had to make significant investment into the wireless as well, as you would expect to be able to support around 30 iPads in a class. Edited August 8, 2023 by Brax

[sigma]

I've been at our High School since before the "Laptops for Teachers" scheme had its first iteration, when the then Head stated that "this is a perk from the government for you and your family to use at home". These were the Dell 505s.

 

So, I've been round the just desktops and just laptops roundabout.

 

Just desktops works until you find teachers putting data that is covered by GDPR onto their own devices and effectivily out of the school's control.

 

When it was just laptops, there were teachers that "never" managed to connect their laptops to the board themselves every time they went to a new room. Apparent loss of teaching time and overhead on us was deemed unacceptable.

 

In both schools I work at, there's a fixed desktop in classrooms and the teaching staff all have a laptop. Most likely not new (ex laptop trolley), but still servicable for their needs.

[3s-gtech]

USB-C has been a blessing and a curse. Connection is easy enough for even the luddites - but whoever designed the connector did not complete their mechanical engineering degree - they’re as durable as a tissue bikini.

[HereIGoAgain2601]

In our Trust of 8 secondary schools all teaching and leadership staff have a laptop. We use the Dell Latitude series and these have been robust enough. We have them on a 3 year lease so they are constantly refreshed and hardware longevity is not our problem. They seem to just about last 3 years. We have Dell USB C docking stations in every class and in all offices / staff work rooms with monitors. As others have said the USB c can break sometimes but again we got 3 year warranty and spares so easily sorted. Our lease also included accidental damage so if the teachers damage the screen it’s easily sorted. One issue we have is that we never seem to have enough - we saved a fortune not replacing office machines but we always seem to be needing more, whether this is for supply or new roles being created. We have just signed another lease to make sure we had plenty of spares for the new academic year and beyond. We have 0 complaints from staff - they love them and it’s been pretty pain free for us. Some of old “old timer” engineers moan about the lack of a desktop but honestly the staff love them.

[Olliedawg]

At my school all of our teaching staff are using Leonvo Thinkpad T480's (8th gen i5, 256SSD, 8GB RAM). Still have AiO's in all classrooms hooked up to IWB's, although will probably phase these out as most are not compatible with windows 11.

 

Heck, I don't even have a desktop anymore in my office for myself. I'm using a laptop for my daily driver (have a "dock" I use at my desk which consists of a monitor, keyboard, mouse and LAN cable.)

Edited August 8, 2023 by Olliedawg

[jthompson]

Teaching staff are all issued with laptops here. No desktops for them.

AIO desktops for the support staff in designated offices.

 

It's been that way since forever, so it's very much the norm.

 

The laptops afford teaching staff a high degree of continuity, where they can just keep their windows/tabs going through the day even if they're moving from one room to another. You do need to always have some ready spares available, in case of technical issues or the occasional forgotten laptop, but that gets easier the longer you've had laptops around.

[jcooke16]

Desktops here in classrooms and offices, partly for longevity and comfort/ease of use but also because our elderly site has lots of separate buildings and several external staircases - so in general the less people have to carry around, the better. PE staff have iPads.

SLT and any support staff who may need to work from home can also have a laptop if they wish, and in the rare situations when anyone else wants to borrow one we have spares (though not sure we'd be able to provide many of those for a while after W10 goes out of support).

[TechMonkey]

Ok, being a bit more positive today I will say that when staff laptops works, it is great. My previous place was desktop only. We had everything set just right and it just worked. Not going to say it was perfect (what set up is?!) but we could do updates at scheduled times, do installs, staff didn't have to do anything and it ticked along nicely. Coming to a place with laptops that hadn't been thought about properly was a massive shock to the system and we have been chasing tails to make it work, but we are getting there.

 

One thing I will note, and this will be a bold statement, if staff are claiming the device is too heavy to lug around between classrooms then the wrong device has been chosen. Teaching staff do not need workhorses, they need something that can be moved around, but is robust. Originally staff were given Lenovo Yogas, though I think that was a necessity of COVID. We are now starting to roll out Dell Latitudes as they are a lot more robust. We have had one member of staff spill a pint of orange juice on one with no ill effects.

 

Overall I think either a mixed approach or a dock approach will work best. Smaller devices are not fun to work on permanently so having some docks with screens available for staff to use is good. Or have some desktops dotted around for good old work sessions.

 

I stand by that this will not be a cost saving exercise though. It will work out around the same cost, if not a higher cost due to many factors.