"Dream" ICT Suite Refurb? Vaguery/Blue Sky?

[Miscbrah]

Hey everyone - just had something to ask I've been thinking about along with some of the teaching staff. We (primary) are ditching a "traditional" (30x PCs, monitors, desks) ICT room and going with two laptop trolleys. A refurb and redecorate of the room is also on the cards.

 

So, we get flexibility in the space and I would imagine need desks to accommodate in some fashion or another, that's a given. There's an intangible "wow" factor that we're after with it, but truth is we don't know quite what we'd do to get a "wow" factor. We've got as far as the following items below in discussion:

 

- We've never seen (irl or googling) an IT suite that had whatever the "wow" factor is (and if you yourself reading this have please do send an image or describe one that did/does for you.)

- We could probably achieve the "wow" factor by saturating the room with a 3D printer, VR headsets, Arduinos and making much of what these items can achieve through posters etc. But we don't know, though this is the closest we got.

- The "wow" factor is not two banks of PCs with students sat at them. Though we don't know what it is.

 

I realise there's probably not much (nothing) tangible to go on from that! Just wondering if there is even any sensible/realistic destination at all for this sort of thinking or if we go with the best of what comes of the above. But I guess I'd ask the group if you saw/did/have anything in an IT suite that made you think "wow"?

 

Hopefully that makes sense in some fashion - although maybe not! Grateful for any opinions or anything!

[dhicks]

So, we get flexibility in the space and I would imagine need desks to accommodate in some fashion or another, that's a given.

 

I asked a very similar question pretty much this time last year:

 

https://www.edugeek.net/forums/hardware/237658-ict-room-refurbishment-equipment.html

 

For room layout, we have benches aroundthe edge of the room to accomodate the class, which means the teacher can see what all the children are doing easily from the middle of the room. That gives us a bit of space in the middle of the room where we have a centre table, and of course you wind up with at least two corners of somewhat unused space, where you can potentially park some interesting / useful kit.

 

We currently have a 3D printer in one of those spaces, it's been sat there unused for 10 years(!). You could also maybe try a laser cutter.

 

We have power sockets around the room with built-in USB ports, so there's less clutter when powering various equipment. If possible, put some power sockets under the middle island table if you can, it makes for less fuss and trailing cables.

 

USB (music) keyboards turn out the be very affordable (£30-ish), which is a fun bit of kit you can have the children use.

 

Something I've intended to try at some point is a wall-mounted Raspberry Pi, accesible via remote desktop - physical computing in the sense of a bit of kit you can see and interact with, but mounted and powered so there's not too much clutter for a classes-worth of them.

[jmak]

Double bubble: use your 3D printer to make rack mount Raspberry Pi mounts

 

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4078710

[PotNoodleTech]

In my 25 years experience rooms that you redecorate for no other reason that to look cool and get wow factor end up being a total waste of time and money and repurposed in 5 years back as a traditional room.

 

I've seen some banging IT suite threads on here though I recall a couple of pics in a gaming suite thread that looked absoloutly amazing.

[dmj]

 

For room layout, we have benches aroundthe edge of the room to accomodate the class, which means the teacher can see what all the children are doing easily from the middle of the room.

 

This is the way.

Lots of our teachers commented about how good that setup is.

The 'space' in the middle is also useful: fill it with some desks to gather around for demo's or non-computer work.

[psydii]

As someone who has done the "wow factor" a few times (1:1 laptops and classroom projectors in 1998, full IWBs in 2001-2, a chance to remodel a school with £25M in 2008, 1:1 ipads in 2012, and a 1:1 remote learning pivot in 2020) ... the best most flexible space for where IT is to be used is a 65m^2+ room with HUGE digital display (typically interactive tv/panel these days) on the 'front' wall, benching round the outside and desks in the middle, and bullet-proof wireless. With laptops and wireless you don't even need to flood wire for power and data!

 

A layout where a teacher can view all the students screen by simply moving their eyes from left-to-right across the room is not to be underestimated.

 

If the teacher can also walk around the room and annotate wirelessly to the screen at the front, then you have all the innovation you (IT) need to provide; everything else comes from the teachers' vision and can evolve rapidly based on the kids, the course, and their experience.

 

The toys are toys, they have their place and purpose, but will come and go every few years.

 

Flexibility is the wow factor. Classroom management of the students and the resources they are to use is key. If you are going for a non-traditional layout the teacher has to be able to have a zero-effort way to check for on/off task students - and some form of remote viewing software is not the answer. If the room isn;t big enough for the U shaped deployment + desks in the middle, then ensure the teachers can teach from the back of the room so they can see the students's screens.

[DrBeaker]

But the reality of a workplace when the students start in a workplace....is sitting at a computer/bank of computers all day if they're office-based

[dmj]

But the reality of a workplace when the students start in a workplace....is sitting at a computer/bank of computers all day if they're office-based

 

MacBook and send them home then?

[sigma]

Not forgetting that from a muscular-skeletal perspective, a desktop with a well positioned monitor and keyboard is better for the developing bones of kids than being sat hunched over a laptop for lengthy periods, regardless of how "un-wow" it looks.

[mdrabble]

Have you considered looking at solutions similar to the Zoxi desk systems?

 

You get the desktop usage and when not needed, the hid away and become a desk.

 

Not used them myself but saw them at Bett and looked ok.

[DrCheese]

Have you considered looking at solutions similar to the Zoxi desk systems?

 

You get the desktop usage and when not needed, the hid away and become a desk.

 

Not used them myself but saw them at Bett and looked ok.

 

We have something similar but - It leaves you at the mercy of the vendor/supplier for any future repairs of the desking system.

If the computers are integrated into the benching as well, you may be forced to buy replacement hardware from them on refresh also (or install your own parts)

 

Don't get me wrong, they're lovely but keeping our aging equipment/benching running is a pain.

[Roberto]

Have you considered looking at solutions similar to the Zoxi desk systems?

 

You get the desktop usage and when not needed, the hid away and become a desk.

 

Not used them myself but saw them at Bett and looked ok.

 

We experimented with this when I was at LSFC and ended up with desks to which we had fitted a pocket/lip, into which a laptop we’d chained to that desk could sit when not in use. I know that sounds odd and I hated it at first but it got around the maintenance issue Drcheese mentioned with the fancier desk ideas, and actually worked really well according to the people teaching in those rooms…

 

… and it’s boring but I’d suggest teachers thinking “wow, this is a great room to teach normal lessons in” may be more valuable in the long run than “wow, a 3D printer”, (or VR headset, or in-classroom Gregg’s or whatever other gimmick du-jure), “if only I knew how to use one, and if only it didn’t block half the class from seeing the whiteboard.

Edited March 8, 2025 by Roberto

[3s-gtech]

Dream spec?

 

Keyboards that can’t have the keys pulled out and moved.

 

Mice where the buttons can’t be pulled back.

 

Toughened glass screens. Nothing to pull off on the front of the PC.

 

Ah, bliss 🤤

[dhicks]

With laptops and wireless you don't even need to flood wire for power and data!

 

If the budget is available, I would probably take the opportunity to put in trunking around the room with power sockets (ones with built-in USB power), and ideally floor-mounted power sockets in the middle of the room for an island desk setup. Wired network cables probably aren't needed (unless you plan to use a lot of PoE powered devices for some reason), and non-fixed desking would be more flexible. Science-lab-style desks might be an idea, although (just from recent experience) if you get the ones with the extra-snazzy extra-hard desk surface (resists scratches and dings just great) you'll need to buy diamond-tipped tile drill bits if you want to drill in to them to mount cable trays or similar.

[psydii]

ended up with desks to which we had fitted a pocket/lip, into which a laptop we’d chained to that desk could sit when not in use. I know that sounds odd

 

Based on your description, it think there maybe a typo? I think you meant to write 'old', perhaps a better word would be 'vintage':

 

 

Sometimes the old ideas are the best ideas.

[mthomas08]

In my 25 years experience rooms that you redecorate for no other reason that to look cool and get wow factor end up being a total waste of time and money and repurposed in 5 years back as a traditional room.

 

I've seen some banging IT suite threads on here though I recall a couple of pics in a gaming suite thread that looked absoloutly amazing.

 

I have to agree with this. I've walked in to jobs and could tell straight away when schemes were all about that WOW factor instead of practicality. You forget the purpose of T&L and it ends up being a waste of tax payers money, not to mention the sheer amout of hours wasted then for the scheme to be scrapped.

 

I do get it. Parents like it. Governors like it but Ofsted don't care. Does it improve grades? Does it improve something? Does it improve access?

 

If you want IT + fancy? 30 iPads can do that but it takes time setting all that up and MUST improve something. Would 30 iPads right now make it look pretty to replace an IT suite being used just for internet/basic documents? Sure but that is a LOT of money just for internet/documents.

 

Apologies if this sounds a bit blunt, but I've been here before.. and many others have. Surely the money is better put somewhere else.

 

What about laptops being damaged? When a keyboard/mice are damaged.. it is cheap.. easy to replace. When a laptop is damaged, the cost is higher and time taken to repair is high. Also much easier to damage a laptop + battery conditioning.

 

We have two depts using laptops and damages... failures.. battery issues..

[PotNoodleTech]

As many people have mentioned - based on long experience the best layout of an it suite is to have 36 computers all around the edge of the room and a central desking area so the room can be used for multiple purposes or even multi use within the same lesson (half doing something on the pcs half doing something else in the middle).

 

Every IT room we've deviated from above has not been as good and the teachers have not liked it as much. Our favourate bookable room based on teacher bookings/feedback is the one laid out exactly as above.

[Synkrox]

Isn't ditching the ICT Suite model kind of countering the decision to go to laptop trollies?

 

If you have a room for ICT - I'd stick with hardwired desktop/AIO devices personally.

 

I've used i-desk furniture before, which allows the whole room to switch between IT and classroom. https://www.i-desk.co.uk/i-rise-education/

My experience of this was that the desks just stayed up pretty much the entire time though, so it wasn't particularly good value, but there was a "wow factor" when you press a button and the machines rise from the desks like tracey island!

 

If you wanted wow - I'd go with fixed or i-desk kit, then decorate the room with cool posters/artwork and some LED lighting. Maybe a couple of big screens up on the walls for demos?

[Roberto]

Based on your description, it think there maybe a typo? I think you meant to write 'old', perhaps a better word would be 'vintage':

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]73253[/ATTACH]

 

Sometimes the old ideas are the best ideas.

 

We had desks like that when I was a school pupil. In fact I had one at home to do homework for a while after my father, whose employer did a lot of work in schools, 'borrowed' a 'spare' one. Gave me a real smile to see that blast from the past of a desk to be honest!

 

But the laptops in the place I worked were not in desks quite that old.

[Andrew_C]

As many people have mentioned - based on long experience the best layout of an it suite is to have 36 computers all around the edge of the room and a central desking area so the room can be used for multiple purposes or even multi use within the same lesson (half doing something on the pcs half doing something else in the middle).

 

We've just scrapped that and gone back to rows. Teacher working wirelessly can sit at back or front.

[psydii]

As many people have mentioned - based on long experience the best layout of an it suite is to have 36 computers all around the edge of the room and a central desking area so the room can be used for multiple purposes or even multi use within the same lesson (half doing something on the pcs half doing something else in the middle).

 

Every IT room we've deviated from above has not been as good and the teachers have not liked it as much. Our favourate bookable room based on teacher bookings/feedback is the one laid out exactly as above.

100%. If its a desktop based IT suite, any deviation from the above is a step (or leap) in the wrong direction.

 

Though I would say that chomebook-style laptop trolleys have been a huge hit where I've seen them deployed. It allows any classroom to become an IT suite at the drop of a hat - but teachers have to be able to teach from the back and themselves be mobile to ensure they are being used effectively. We see almost 100% utilisation of our IT suites from the technical/digital-media heavy courses these days, everyone else shares the laptop trolleys, some periods we have 150+ laptops booked out and round the building over and above the 100% occupancy of the IT suites for Computing / Design / Media / Music / Art-Photography. (and some of those are actually laptop based these days too - because they cannot have the U shaped PC deployment and they need flexibilty - and laptops are better than desktops if the U shaped deployment is not an o

 

We now only have wired desktops where screen real-estate and mouse control are important for the use-case, and even then Photoshop/Illustrator/Sketchup is most often run on laptops!

[PotNoodleTech]

100%. If its a desktop based IT suite, any deviation from the above is a step (or leap) in the wrong direction.

 

Though I would say that chomebook-style laptop trolleys have been a huge hit where I've seen them deployed. It allows any classroom to become an IT suite at the drop of a hat - but teachers have to be able to teach from the back and themselves be mobile to ensure they are being used effectively. We see almost 100% utilisation of our IT suites from the technical/digital-media heavy courses these days, everyone else shares the laptop trolleys, some periods we have 150+ laptops booked out and round the building over and above the 100% occupancy of the IT suites for Computing / Design / Media / Music / Art-Photography. (and some of those are actually laptop based these days too - because they cannot have the U shaped PC deployment and they need flexibilty - and laptops are better than desktops if the U shaped deployment is not an o

 

We now only have wired desktops where screen real-estate and mouse control are important for the use-case, and even then Photoshop/Illustrator/Sketchup is most often run on laptops!

 

Don't worry - desktop suites will come back into fashion soon and my school will be ahead of the game as i've retained 9 suites.

 

Were 1:1 and IT suites still get used a lot. I know of many schools in the area that dumped their suites years ago and now have mostly trashed laptops and are looking to put suites back in to cope with the newer GCSE and A level ICT qualifications.

 

/smug mode