Laptops - do you deploy them to teachers?

[mavhc]

Not having your data stored on random home computers is a massive security bonus. Teachers get paid so much that saving them an hour a week easily pays for a laptop so they can spend more time doing their job and less time being confused by technology

[jthompson]

"Do all of your work in a classroom", says man in office.

[Disease]

"Do all of your work in a classroom", says man in office.

 

Actually it's more of a not encouraging staff to work at home, work life balance ethos.

[Disease]

Not having your data stored on random home computers is a massive security bonus. Teachers get paid so much that saving them an hour a week easily pays for a laptop so they can spend more time doing their job and less time being confused by technology

 

What data do they need to save on their home computers, most stuff is cloud based now anyway. Most work outside of school would be lesson prep so no confidential data.

Edited October 3, 2023 by Disease

[E_G_R2]

Not having your data stored on random home computers is a massive security bonus.............

 

Cloud for data (i know but it is gradually filtering through to them)

[LeMarchand]

haha

 

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

 

I think I'm in love.

[Disease]

Only Outstanding Secondary school in our area and successful in retaining Outstanding after follow up inspections so he must be doing something right

[jthompson]

Actually it's more of a not encouraging staff to work at home, work life balance ethos.

 

Any discussions I've been party to around staff wellbeing on this front has revealed that allowing staff the choice to work when/where they want to but empowering them to not feel obliged to work out of hours is the name of the game. For instance, for some, the work life balance they want is to head home promtly for family time, then work once their children are in bed. The trick is to allow that whilst also empowering everyone else to not feel drawn back into work out of hours at all.

 

My comment about working only in classrooms was a bit glib, but most of our teaching staff will be using their laptops outside of the classroom in offices or in meetings on a day-to-day basis.

 

Also, personal devices to access cloud accounts does raise some issues. Yes, there's endpoint verification, conditional access policies, etc. but that's all an easier ride with school-managed devices where device sharing, additional accounts and recreational use is less of an issue.

[mavhc]

What data do they need to save on their home computers, most stuff is cloud based now anyway. Most work outside of school would be lesson prep so no confidential data.

 

Don't need to save it when you're tying in your password into a machine full of viruses, the token generated is enough to exfiltrate everything they have access to

[rob_coles]

All our staff have laptops. Office based staff have usb c monitors which gives them option for keyboard mouse etc.

 

Class room teachers just use laptops, only had a handful request monitor, keyboard mouse etc.

[PotNoodleTech]

I would never get rid of our teacher desktops in classrooms here - I've seen to many schools go the laptop route and a) spend more money b) get a FAR less reliable system overall and c) spend all day troubleshooting things not being plugged in right and sometimes even d) regret it so much they buy desktops all over again

 

So Yeh - PC in classroom permanently plugged into all audio video equipment = teacher sits down and 60 seconds later they're teaching, every single classroom, every single day, no need to call IT support.

 

We have given them Chromebooks to do work away from the class and this is working nicely as lets face facts domain joined windows laptops are pretty horrific user experience when taken home.

 

I agree that it is our duty as a school to help staff work in the best way that suits their life etc and if that means providing mobile devices so they can leave at 3pm and work 7-11 pm then so be it. A draconian approach to home working is very "90s"

[mavhc]

So they sit down, log in, and in 60 seconds are at a blank screen. Now they need to spend x minutes loading all their resources for the lesson, unable to prepare on their laptop beforehand.

 

Open 6 websites, log in to 2 things, find 4 documents, print 30 worksheets etc

[Dan2025]

So they sit down, log in, and in 60 seconds are at a blank screen. Now they need to spend x minutes loading all their resources for the lesson, unable to prepare on their laptop beforehand.

 

Open 6 websites, log in to 2 things, find 4 documents, print 30 worksheets etc

 

All null and void if they forget their laptop or the teacher is ill..

Plus there is usually always time before a lesson to do just that..

[Rob_D]

So they sit down, log in, and in 60 seconds are at a blank screen. Now they need to spend x minutes loading all their resources for the lesson, unable to prepare on their laptop beforehand.

Open 6 websites, log in to 2 things, find 4 documents, print 30 worksheets etc

 

True.

It was complaints about how long it takes to log into a new computer each time from the peripatetic staff that prompted us to look into laptops. That and Windows seems increasingly less designed for hotdesking.

[jthompson]

I once got laughed at here when I shared that we usually have a few spare staff laptops ready to go on demand to cover laptops being ill or left at home. You'll need to maintain spares if you're relying on laptops for teaching.

 

We've also got a small fleet of old laptops running Chrome OS Flex that are handed out to supply teachers each morning, with a corresponding generic sign in giving access to the cover work shared drive. Teaching staff setting cover put it in that shared drive (from home, oftentimes).

[PotNoodleTech]

So they sit down, log in, and in 60 seconds are at a blank screen. Now they need to spend x minutes loading all their resources for the lesson, unable to prepare on their laptop beforehand.

 

Open 6 websites, log in to 2 things, find 4 documents, print 30 worksheets etc

 

Still beats spending 10 mins fiddling with USB and HDMI cables!

 

Print 30 worksheets? What is this the 80s? Open google classroom job done.

 

In 90+% of lessons the teacher is already in there already logged in so your point is not really ever an issue here.

 

Anyhoo

[stevewill6]

We are sticking with desktops in the classrooms. All teachers have laptops as well.

Tried a laptop/Dock set up with one teacher and there were to many small issues for it to be manageable across the school. Admittedly it was a small test. Although we may look at it again for teachers.

We are replacing all the office based staff desktops with laptops and docks and this is working quite well.

 

We tend to buy refurbished kit so the cost is not too much of a problem.

[E_G_R2]

There is no right or wrong, its what suits your school.

 

Teachers have set classrooms here so its ideal for desktops as they aren't moving around. We had a new member of staff from a school where they use laptops and hot desk who insists on using his laptop as its on and ready when they start the day.

 

IF we had to hot desk then we would have to make sure we had a small supply of spare laptops and docking stations as even teachers are human and can forget their device

[gszech]

Still beats spending 10 mins fiddling with USB and HDMI cables!

LOL - 10 min, really ?

 

With this logic you can add:

• 5 min to connect a power cable
  
• 5 min to open laptop lid
  
• 10 min to type in username
  
• 10 min to type in password
  
• 5 min to click Start button
  

and the lesson is over. No point opening the laptop in a first place.

[PotNoodleTech]

LOL - 10 min, really ?

 

With this logic you can add:

• 5 min to connect a power cable
  
• 5 min to open laptop lid
  
• 10 min to type in username
  
• 10 min to type in password
  
• 5 min to click Start button
  

and the lesson is over. No point opening the laptop in a first place.

 

Exactly why I run desktops! Don't want lessons being wasted like that!

[mavhc]

Still beats spending 10 mins fiddling with USB and HDMI cables!

 

Print 30 worksheets? What is this the 80s? Open google classroom job done.

 

In 90+% of lessons the teacher is already in there already logged in so your point is not really ever an issue here.

 

Anyhoo

 

So in 90% of lessons there's no problem fiddling with usb and hdmi cables?

 

Where can I purchase google document formatted subject resources?

[msi_school]

So they sit down, log in, and in 60 seconds are at a blank screen. Now they need to spend x minutes loading all their resources for the lesson, unable to prepare on their laptop beforehand.

 

Open 6 websites, log in to 2 things, find 4 documents, print 30 worksheets etc

 

A proper lesson plan will account for this, with a non IT starter, links to the documents and the worksheets printed in advance, in fact a proper lesson plan should have a back up for if the IT is not available at all.

 

There are good reasons for and against staff laptops teaching staff not preparing is not one.

[jthompson]

Has anyone stopped to think what Microsoft or Google want?!

 

They clearly want teachers to be using 1:1 laptops.

[mavhc]

A proper lesson plan will account for this, with a non IT starter, links to the documents and the worksheets printed in advance, in fact a proper lesson plan should have a back up for if the IT is not available at all.

 

There are good reasons for and against staff laptops teaching staff not preparing is not one.

 

So you log in, load up your lesson plan, and you've somehow managed to a) teach the teachers to use hyperlinks, b) only use websites were direct hyperlinks work (so not sharepoint), c) kept them up to date, and d) not used any sites that require logon?

 

You've also got hyperlinks to load files, which are on onedrive or gdrive, so aren't synced yet, and for onedrive, when they are end up with the username hard coded, so now you have to teach the teachers what environmental variables are?

 

And you've made sure every computer has every piece of software on?

 

Excellent work.

 

I just say "plug in this usb-c cable", seems easier.

[psydii]

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?

 

No. USB-C is too fragile to be relied upon to support all those requirements and not to cause issues with hot-desking teachers and their laptops. The best you can hope for is for it to always be good enough to get you the 60W PD and USB 2. Anything beyond that is at the mercy of wear-and-tear of the cable (and that sourcing cables that support all the standard you need are very hard).

 

I've found that lightly damaged laptop ports, dodgey firmware (at the laptop and at the dock) and everything in between can create 'viral' problems that spread between rooms. Cables can go bad, and cause the laptop ports to go bad, which cause the next dock to be connected to go bad. Its a nightmare.

 

We've found that relying the dock for power and usb2 (for interactivity / keyboards/ mice / visualizers) and 60W of power is a safe baseline. We route HDMI direct to the laptop. Teachers can cope with two cables to connect.

 

This is our Plan C for the classroom connectivity. A signle USB C cable was Plan B. Plan A was fully wireless; we actually have a Wi-Gig Dock (802.11ad for those that remember), which we thought would be the future, but never received the 11ad enabled laptop with which it was supposed to be paired! Intel withdrew the hardware short afterwards.

 

 

 

With USB-C docks, you are putting a 10G cables into the hands of users - it take a lot of engineering to get 10G into a cable that small, and it needs to be handled with care - care that people don't really have time for.