Laptops - do you deploy them to teachers?

[barrytech]

Really interesting reading this. I've never been in a school with desktops.

 

K-12 school, all our teachers have laptops on a 3-replacement cycle (currently Lenovo L13 Yoga Gen 2 i5/16gb/256gb... Although Lenovo drivers have been very troublesome).

 

Teachers carry their laptops between rooms. They project with either BenQ wireless, or USB-C (projection, touch and charging) for our highschool. The junior school uses HDMI if they aren't using wireless.

 

We zip tie + screw the cable to the TV to prevent theft. We have a cable clip on the panel for the cable to (theoretically) be secured to after use, although some teachers leave it on the ground.

 

Office staff get 2x24" monitors with a dock. Teachers have access to two hotdesks with 34" Ultrawide monitors that have USB-C PD for charging and display (intended for when they have to spend an extended amount of time at a computer).

 

I get a 38" ultrawide which I find to be useful. I have an old 24" for when I need to produce screencasts that are 1080p.

[mavhc]

Teachers, TAs, and students all have laptops, after all, they're only about £350 and last for 5 years, compared to even the lowest paid staff which might cost us £100000 in that time. Except Office staff who really want desktops for some reason, although they seem to have approx one laptop each anyway, even though they seem like they'd be happier with quills and an ink pot.

 

Approx 5 year replacement cycle, everything is hdmi. Cambium wifi works for everyone except that one teacher who apparently has a lead based biology. Couple of desktops in staff room but rarely used.

 

Setting up new devices is easier, can do it all in my room, carrying them around is easier for me, fixing them is easier because they bring them to me.

[Iain.Faulkner]

We're a bit of a mix at the moment across our schools. One secondary school is laptops throughout, the other we are moving towards laptops for all, though with docks for connection to promethean screens (no external monitor, although that would be my preferred option budget permitting). The swap is taking place when we have the promethan's installed, we remove the desktop PC and replace it with a laptop at that point. I think given the choice, I'd give all staff a laptop and also a desktop pc, sadly there isn't the budget to do it.

[jthompson]

Setting up new devices is easier, can do it all in my room, carrying them around is easier for me, fixing them is easier because they bring them to me.

 

This!

 

At the risk of being facetious, one downside of assigning laptops to staff is that there will always be some googly-eye stickers or "Me-wow" cartoon cat stickers to have to scrape off every now and then. I can live with that, though.

[psydii]

This!

 

At the risk of being facetious, one downside of assigning laptops to staff is that there will always be some googly-eye stickers or "Me-wow" cartoon cat stickers to have to scrape off every now and then. I can live with that, though.

 

My current laptop is covered in LGBGT and Socialist Worker paraphernalia because I got bored of cleaning them off years ago.

[k-strider]

Everyone here has a laptops support staff as well as Teachers (since lockdown) HP ProBook 440 GX we have G4s all the way through to G9s

the Maths Department asked for computers in their classrooms otherwise everyone just takes their laptops with them between rooms. no Docks

Office users mostly have intel NUCs and Dual screen so that is Support staff and SLT

[LeMarchand]

fixing them is easier because they bring them to me.

 

This!

 

At the risk of being facetious, one downside of assigning laptops to staff is that there will always be some googly-eye stickers or "Me-wow" cartoon cat stickers to have to scrape off every now and then. I can live with that, though.

 

My staff moan that their laptops "aren't working" or a "sooooo slow", but can never part with them long enough for them to be worked on.

 

I hate the stickers. They're adults; not pupils.

[jmak]

I left school IT in 2019 but we'd moved to laptops long before that. I think teachers had got used having them before I started going back to the laptops for teachers time. At one point we tried classroom bound machines but most teachers had laptops and preferred to bring their own than log in to a machine that was already connected.

 

I'm quite surprised there are any schools without teacher laptops after the pandemic. What did they use during lockdown?

 

Where I am now laptops were provided for almost everyone during the pandemic and when they came back lots of the desktops were old and struggling. Where they had a perfectly good laptop, I pushed very hard that we didn't replace the desktops - they might have a lower TCO than a laptop in theory, but our users wouldn't give up the laptops "just in case" so we would have been supporting both. We've bought a lot of docking stations in the last year and as laptops were scarce during lockdown the specification was "whatever you can deliver this week" so some of them are being replaced already. We almost exclusively buy Dell Latitudes with a five year warranty. Special flowers sometimes get permission for MacBooks which I don't have a massive issue with - they're fairly well built and reliable. If only the users who choose them knew how to use them and that Windows only software doesn't run on them.

[6Foot2]

...I'm quite surprised there are any schools without teacher laptops after the pandemic. What did they use during lockdown?...

 

There was an off-site demand for classroom laptops (from both students and staff) The justification was that "the laptops weren't in use, so why not allow them off-site?"

 

The "Covid Laptops" project started with a STRICTLY limited number of laptops to go off-site (25) At its peak more than 100 laptops had been "loaned" to staff and students.

 

On my last day of work, fewer than 50% had been returned. Of those that had been returned, not one came back without an issue of some kind, many serious.

 

[hardtailstar]

Many years ago when I worked in a junior school (Y3-6), the classrooms had desktops connected to a screen and an IWB. I was instructed to set up laptops for every teacher and TA. I ended up removing the desktops, adding in a dock so that they had one cable for AV.

 

This was based upon the head teacher had been to another school who used laptops and the teachers moved about classrooms covering different subjects.

 

Basically he tried to implement this with desktops but teachers moaned about having to log out and log back in after they had set up their classroom computer for the day.

 

After getting all the laptops in and getting feedback from the teachers, apparently laptops were a better option..... I suspect it was because they could use the laptop at home!

 

The desktops were cleaned, upgraded with an SSD and more ram then placed into areas around the school for 'work areas' (naughty kids playing games).

[mavhc]

Students are banned from stickers, they sometimes blutak a printout to the front. Teachers should also be banned, but yeah, that's never going to be enforced. One option is put a massive laptop sized sticker with your school brand on before anyone else can, other option is to insist everyone returns them as they got them, or pays for repair.

 

Students are told they get 1 laptop loaned to them, if it breaks pay up or get a laptop older than they are. This should also apply to staff, mostly because it would be funnier

[sigma]

This old?

 

[MartinT]

I'm quite surprised there are any schools without teacher laptops after the pandemic. What did they use during lockdown?

 

In our case, their issued iPads. The amount of issues they generated, especially their terrible performance with wi-fi and Teams, really brought home their limitations.

[MartinT]

The "Covid Laptops" project started with a STRICTLY limited number of laptops to go off-site (25) At its peak more than 100 laptops had been "loaned" to staff and students.

 

We still have a few issued laptops with device names COVIDOFF-xxx in service!

[mullet_man]

Laptops for all teaching staff here and a lot of support staff too. USB-C docks in classrooms and we have a lot of movement of teachers so it works well in the most part. PCs and 2x monitors for office staff.

 

Had to replace about 15-20 USB-C docks over the last 5 years I'd say not sure if it's been the everyday use and some of have given up or the USB-C cables have gone. The model we use have a fixed cable so we'd purchased USB-C cable extenders so that if a cable does get broke it's just the extension and not the cable and dock. HP ProBook 450 G6s and G9s now. The USB-C ports on the laptops despite my initial worry have held up really well think I've had two laptops that had issues out of 100+.

 

Laptops and docks get my vote anyway, not sure how teachers would get any work done without access to a laptop.

[mthomas08]

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.

 

We generally don't but if we ever have the equipment as a one off, we can but only with the purpose of not replacing them.

 

PE do and ICT currently do.

 

All classrooms have computer setups. Much more cost effective.

[Tefters]

Desktops in classrooms, no laptops for staff. We ran that way for 11 years since I walked into the building as I highlighted many pitfalls immediately, connectors, lost cables/equipment, lugging equipment around, forgetting it, supply teacher due to illness, Windows file sync being cr*p etc...

 

As of last year the school have decided to go down a 1:1 iPad route so all teachers now have one of these along with desktops in classrooms.

We are now pushing rooms slowly down the route of TV's instead of projectors with AppleTV's for presentation as they want to be an Apple flagship school and a lot of teachers still not using them for anything more than email.

[msi_school]

Twenty years ago I had a desktop in every classroom with the back of the case boxed in so staff could not touch the wires and as the staff mainly stayed in one room this worked very well. In the intervening years since my departure staff have been issued laptops and the desktops have slowly been removed leaving the school with the same issues as most schools, staff don't plug their laptop in correctly or the leads get muddled up, lost or unplugged and the solution is no longer as slick.

 

Staff who still work there and have seen both of these solutions don't seem to be able to make the connection between the fixed boxed in computer being more permanent than a mobile laptop which is connected at least once a day. I also don't think we fully understand why teaching staff can not just turn their back on the class for even one minute at the beginning of the lesson to check the leads are plugged in at both ends and the board is turned on at the wall.

 

I personally given the power would have a desktop in every classroom for the display and a laptop for every thing else but this is more expensive.

[psydii]

I've had ex-colleagues cross the street to give me a hug and tell me how much they miss the laptop centric IT here compared to their desktop based offer at their new school.

 

(twice, different colleagues now working at different schools)

 

Its not perfect, but done right the flexibility outweighs the occasional hitch. (We have between 0 and 4 tickets a day for classroom AV/Laptop issues which is about a 0.6% failure rate and most of them relate to the 10% of rooms still on 15 year old svga projectors).

[6Foot2]

...the 10% of rooms still on 15 year old svga projectors).

 

Perhaps worthy of an entry in:

 

Link: What's the oldest bit of kit you still have running?

 

❓

[CHiLL]

I know this thread is a couple of months old, but it is related to laptop deployments - can anyone recommend a dock that would support 2x HDMI 1080p monitors, USB C PD and USB C DP Alt, Ethernet and USB ports?

[TechMonkey]

We use the Dell Hub monitors (this one I think https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/dell-24-usb-c-hub-monitor-p2422he/apd/210-bbbg/monitors-monitor-accessories) and I think it does all you want. Speak to Dell rep as the price on the website is nowhere near what we paid. Worked out cheaper than HP hubs and a screen but a mile. Looks smart and you end up with an uncluttered desk.

[Disease]

We have desktops only here, and no plans to change that. Our Heads view is that if Teachers want to work from home they get paid enough to buy their own Laptop and that money is better spent on the Education of Children rather than Laptops for Teachers.

 

You can buy a Lenovo Think pad i7 16GB ram and SSD for £240 off Ebay so a decent laptop for home is not expensive.

[LeMarchand]

We have desktops only here, and no plans to change that. Our Heads view is that if Teachers want to work from home they get paid enough to buy their own Laptop and that money is better spent on the Education of Children rather than Laptops for Teachers.

 

Does your head fancy taking over any of my schools?

[Disease]

Does your head fancy taking over any of my schools?

 

haha

 

He is very good and not subject to wims and fleeting trends in Education, he also doesn't take any crap from staff.