New Laptops - Physical security and accountability

[AndrewPowell]

Hi All,

 

We've just purchased new laptops for our secondary. There is 150 in 5 laptop trolleys. We've been discussing security, as our laptops had quite a bit of damage over the years.

Has anyone got any thoughts on how to look after them? The laptop trolleys will have designated 'owners' but we have a huge problem with staff not taking accountability. Because there isn't really any consequences, they just don't really seem to care. I know that's an issue, and will bring it up with SLT but has anyone got any thoughts on that?

We're thinking of tamper evident labels too, just as a bit of a visible deterrent, and possibly looking at some kind of tracking? So that we could tell if a device was offsite.

 

Any thoughts would be very much welcome.

[CHiLL]

When it comes to repeat offenders, charging the departments for repairs and replacements of their IT resources has generally been quite effective in our school, as departmental budgets are already small enough as it is. In regards to tampering deterrents, etc...is it staff or students doing this and are the devices being stolen/taken away from school? If it's students, I've found deterrents make little difference unless the classroom teacher is on it or there is good disciplinary procedures.

[PotNoodleTech]

Strong classroom management is the only way.

[Aprice]

In my experience in some schools it just doesn't work. The number of emails we've sent out asking staff to not take laptops out of the room with the trolley.

 

We're finding them on window sills, random cupboards, and just about everywhere else. Then find a stack in someone's classroom 'that hasn't worked for ages' because they're flat, and when one goes flat they just go and find another one. Got a phone call to say that there's only one left in a trolley the other day.

 

We've put stickers on them with the trolley they're from, which just get ripped off. I've set backgrounds for each trolley saying where they're from, still doesn't work.

 

Unless someone keeps that set and personally looks after them, I don't think it works. Once the situation starts to get bad everyone looses interest and it then just escalates and gets progressively worse.

 

I'd love to say please stop buying laptops as it's just not workable, but the school has so few IT suites.

[jmak]

@PotNoodleTech is right.

 

If you're worried about them off-site, you could look at Intune management which gives you the possibility of locating them and remote wipe.

 

If you want to gather evidence to back up classroom management, there's dedicated software out for something free you can turn on logon/logoff logging in Windows to confirm who was using the laptop at what time.

[IRL]

Each of our laptops is numbered and assigned to a specific person and we have them all in Intune. There is a member of SLT that is really on the ball regarding the laptops. We check for missing laptops each morning and a sanction is given to the student as they won't be charged for the day. Each cabinet is checked periodically and any damage is noted and a greater sanction, conversation with parents is had by the SLT member. Luckily they are covered under insurance and most of the damage is cracked screens. Our biggest problem is student's own laptops as we have to provide a replacement laptop for them and we just can't keep up with the sheer amount of broken devices.

[foofighterjim]

Honestly, the only time I have had anything like this working well, was when we (IT Support) checked that everything was accounted for and plugged in each evening, and then lock them away until the following morning. You can (rightly) debate if it is an effective use of time and resource, but when it leads to the devices being accounted for, charged and therefore ready for the following days lessons vs. if we didn't, you could argue that it was an effective use of time. I suppose with trustworthy enough students you could possibly have students monitoring this and then reporting back if anything is missing, if it is still switched on you at least have a chance of tracing it via Wi-Fi management. Otherwise you are into smart locker type solutions, the cost of which could probably allow you to employ someone part time to do the aforementioned checks instead.

[bigal06]

In my experience in some schools it just doesn't work. The number of emails we've sent out asking staff to not take laptops out of the room with the trolley.

 

We're finding them on window sills, random cupboards, and just about everywhere else. Then find a stack in someone's classroom 'that hasn't worked for ages' because they're flat, and when one goes flat they just go and find another one. Got a phone call to say that there's only one left in a trolley the other day.

 

We've put stickers on them with the trolley they're from, which just get ripped off. I've set backgrounds for each trolley saying where they're from, still doesn't work.

 

Unless someone keeps that set and personally looks after them, I don't think it works. Once the situation starts to get bad everyone looses interest and it then just escalates and gets progressively worse.

 

I'd love to say please stop buying laptops as it's just not workable, but the school has so few IT suites.

 

Sounds exactly like my school. It used to be 'okay' when they were departmental laptops but since COVID they went as a bookable shared resource across school and we now have many missing and damaged. We have tried all the above and it just doesn't work unless someone has ownership and takes control of the trolleys.

[psydii]

We run our trolleys like science manage their equipment/stock. Technician dedicated to booking, delivery and (physical) management of the devices. On busy periods all techs assist with deliver/collection. For some very busy periods we co-ordinate with trusted teachers and they might collect their own trolley. Trusted teachers are something we figure out over time. Trusted Teachers might also hold a trolley if they have a non-contiguous booking. The tech responsible keeps a close eye on the daily cover sheet , since cover not supposed to assume their normal access to IT (but we are flexible for trusted supply/cover teachers.)

 

We also have trolley permanently deployed in departments whose entire course requires access to IT almost every single lesson, these are practical subjects and have a technician who looks after them. These departments are charges for repairs.

 

The Head and finance managers have to be fully bought in to a) the necessity of the trolleys and b) accountability of the teachers. The necessity for us is the breadth of academic offer and the flexibility in the timetable we prioritise is not possible to deliver without 50% of our student IT being mobile.

 

Our break-fix workload has actually gone down over the last three years since we deployed the intune managed laptop trolleys, and the team is fitter for all the walking they have to do.

[Davit2005]

INMO and experience you need departments taking accountability for the laptops, classroom management and SLT on board.

 

Tracking the last logged in user can be handy but only if this is followed up (or taken seriously) by Head of Departments and/or SLT.

Edited July 9, 2024 by Davit2005

[jmak]

In my last school (primary) I divided up one class set of 30 into five sets of six. This worked because often the class was split into five groups, so one was quite often on a task that required a computer and they were almost always available.

 

There tended to be one lesson per day where all the laptops were in one classroom (weekly ICT lesson per class). That required almost no input from me: the teachers and pupils had personal interest in their laptops being available and for each teacher or was easy to keep on top of the location of six laptops. It also had the benefit that they weren't just used for one ICT lesson per week - they actually ended up in use most of the time. Most kids used a laptop most days - which also meant that half of ICT lessons were spent getting 30 kids logged on.

[DrBeaker]

This is NOT... An IT responsibility.

 

This is a classroom management responsibility.

 

The staff are grown adults, supposedly professionals. They can act like it and earn their wages like IT folk have to.

 

If kids aren't following processes that's up to staff and SLT to sort it.

 

You can't solve a management problem with a technical solution.