Keyboard / Mice Damage

[Olliedawg]

I'm sure plenty of your have dealt with this, looking for some ideas

 

We are replacing a ridiculous amount of keyboards/mice each term.. anyone have any suggestions to try and keep a lid on this? I know the root of the problem is classroom behaviour issues..

 

I don't want to have to go down the route of creating a IT check sheet for the teachers to complete as it's too much hassle. Was thinking about making some posters showing how much it costs to replace a keyboard / mouse etc

[PotNoodleTech]

There's not really much you can do.  It's up to the teacher in each classroom to manage that class as per their professional responsibility/guidelines.  It is up to the SLT/Head in each school to ensure each teacher manages their classroom effectively.

 

Don't fall down the rabbit hole of making it your problem and running around all day chasing things.   It's not your personal money so just buy some more.

[MrEprise]

We've got CCTV in our IT suites which does cut the damage down somewhat, though I wouldn't say it eliminates it since whoever is teaching in the room at the time also needs to take some level of responsibility for what goes on in their lessons.

 

In my last place, we were replacing keyboards & mice all the time and having to buy the absolute cheapest carp we could get our hands on for replacements.

 

Current place with the CCTV, it's a negligible amount and it deters the majority of students as they realise they're being watched. It also means we can put nicer Microsoft/Logitech/Cherry stuff in the rooms.

 

It doesn't stop the really determined/bored students but at least we have some form of attack against the damage that happens.

[Rob_D]

4 minutes ago, Olliedawg said:

Was thinking about making some posters showing how much it costs to replace a keyboard / mouse etc

Do you really think knowing a new keyboard and mouse costs £3.65 is going to stop the kids?

 

The only thing that will stop this is a teacher taking ownership of the classroom and it's resources. In my experience, if you can get a teacher based in the computer room they'll start taking issues like this seriously pretty fast.

If it has to stay a shared room, then usage logs, check-sheets, and billing the departments for damage is really the only way I've seen to get teachers invested enough to stay on top of it. (or you don't repair/replace the damaged kit and let it become unusable)

 

Regardless of how you do it, you really do need to push this back to the teachers.

[Olliedawg]

That's the main issue I think - all of our IT rooms are just bookable shared rooms.. they are an absolute nightmare sometimes. I nearly get a call every day about a keyboard/mouse needing to be replaced. Every half term we give the rooms a really good tidy, but they always end up being dumps not long after.

 

I've just started keeping track of items i'm replacing in an excel sheet

[ITGuyNW]

Its all peaks and troughs. Mainly down to the attitude of the teacher too.

 

A lot of our damage stopped when we stopped having agency supply and only used teachers who are on frees.

[Koldov]

I feel so lucky working in the KS2 age range... Generally they're old enough not to stick biscuits in the CD drives, snot (or other bodily fluids) all over the keyboard/mouse/screen/chair and most of them do what the teacher tells them, most of the time (there are exceptions of course).

But, they're not quite old enough to try 'hacking' anything, slashing cables, stealing components etc. Although I still make sure most things are screwed in or cable tied down... in 14+ years I've only replaced one or two mice and I'd say that was general wear and tear, nothing malicious...

 

Although I once worked (very briefly) for a nursery and apart from having little toddlers with full nappies and snot dripping down their faces lumbering towards me wanting to watch what I was doing (a little too  closely), I saw a mop bucket in the hall labelled 'For Bodily Fluids Only'.... I didn't stay long...

 

Anyway, for the OP, it's not your job to manage what goes on in the classroom, you just have to deal with the aftermath...

 

You can make sure you record it and report to SLT and inform them they can sort it out one of two ways... The 'hard' way, be a little more forceful with the teachers and their classroom management skills, billing departments for damage (or not replace damaged items) etc. Or the easy way, just let it carry on and  pay for new keyboards/mice every few weeks out of their already limited budget (although as said the cost compared to a lot of other expenditures may seem too minimal to worry them)... I'm pretty sure they'll choose the 'easy' way (even though they know they should choose the 'hard' way)...

 

Here it seems that the smooth continuation of T&L comes above all else (which I guess is right),... teacher (or student) breaks a laptop/projector/visualise/interactive board, etc. Just get a new one ASAP... no repercussions... just seems like they don't want to upset the teachers, I came from the private sector (aka a real job) and some of the stuff I see even from the staff that is ignored, would have been verbal/written warning worthy in a business. I mean teachers are told to do a certain thing, they don't do it... nothing happens...

[msi_school]

I agree with @PotNoodleTech if the school are not bothered dont worry. 

 

Preventing damamge is a difficult task witht he support of the SLT and classroom teachers with out both of these it is impossable. Just replace the equipment and move on.

[DrCheese]

Bookable rooms without an allocated main teacher will always be a poopshow. Without someone taking direct ownership you're fighting against the tide. 

 

Yes it's really frustrating - Especially as you can spend an hour sorting a room out only for it to get trashed 5 minutes later then grumbles of "IT is rubbish"

 

 

[NegativeKillDeath]

We stopped buying replacement keyboards in the run up to the new financial year. Told teachers our stock had run out due to unprecedented damage and that they would have to wait till April to have the rooms fully functional again. This, predictably, caused a flurry of concern about the amount of damage which soon died off as soon as we could order replacements. No CCTV in this school so the culprits never get sanctioned. My previous school had CCTV and was much better in terms of damage. 

[StormTrooper59]

I would raise with SLT and see what the response is. If they don't seem to want to take much notice then do what @PotNoodleTech said above. 

I have the same issue at my school, even with CCTV in the rooms. The SLT don't want to know unless it's serious enough i.e a monitor has been smashed. So we just buy cheap stuff and take our time with replacing it. 

 

 

[WannabrewUK]

Our management implemented a process last year.  It doesn't work well in my opinion.

 

At the beginning of the lesson the teacher asks all students to check for damage and report it immediately to the them.  Then the next class comes in and does the same.  If the second class find any damage, the student sitting at the seat during the previous lesson is deemed to be guilty and gets a sanction.

 

It's too basic and makes too many assumptions.

[Fazza]

We replace sever hundred keyboards each year in our Secondary school and it's all down to classroom management and accountability - no one will take responsibility for any of the Computer Suites as they are used by more than one department.

 

Our Technician was in a computer suite once and a student reported (to the Teacher) that the keyboard they were using had keys in missing, so our Technician thought he was about to be asked to replace it but no!  The Teacher simply replied to the Student saying they should use a PEN to press down the membrane where there was a missing key!!

[pete]

As mentioned up-thread, ban terrible supply teachers from IT lessons - we save about a grand a year in peripherals by refusing to have a couple of people on the premises.

 

Secondly (and it's early days, but working in one of our schools), find a G502 knock-off that's cheap, sturdy and reliable.  So far the students have trashed them because they quite like the LEDs.

[DrBeaker]

My 2-cents....from years of experience, trying different things, asking for help from SLT etc.

 

Waste of time, you won't sort this sadly.

 

CCTV - waste of time, waste of money. Even when found, culprits never punished. Time IT spent we could have put to better use. Eventually ripped out and chucked away.

IT Checksheets - waste of time. Teachers never complete them. Information never accurate recorded as teachers can't be bothered. IT are always playing catch-up then delaying other vital work and support.

Daily checks by IT - waste of limited and valuable IT time, even when issues found, staff/student culprits never punished. Time IT spent we could have put to better use.

Rules list - waste of time, seen food in IT rooms, water on desk, keyboards etc.

 

I've seen teachers let kids in an IT room whilst I was in there move stuff around, unplug, lean over and disconnect things. With aghast I told them this was THEIR JOB to make sure this didn't happen. Shoulders shrugged.

 

This is 100% a classroom management problem under the 'professional standards' teachers are supposed to uphold.

Ask yourselves WHY you don't this problem in the world of business - because they have to explain why that employee has done no work all day after deliberately vandalising equipment required to do their job. 

 

So in short - May the odds be ever in your favor and if you find a solution, bottle it and sell it to other schools!

 

 

[Fazza]

11 hours ago, DrBeaker said:

if you find a solution, bottle it and sell it to other schools!

 

This time next year, you'd be a millionaire!!

 

The only issue we ever resolved was not having to hunt for the faulty keyboard - what used to happen was a Teacher would (finally) report a faulty keyboard on Computer 12 but by the time we'd walked to the computer suite a student had unplugged the faulty keyboard and swapped it with another one so we had to play 'hunt the faulty keyboard' now we buy PCs with a lockable rear cover so there is no access to the rear ports etc. so they can't unplug anything.

[mikes]

yeah honestly we bought a batch of cheap bulk mice/keyboards, the amazon basics or others we could find for cheap - like £2 a unit cheap when in bulk - for the price of £50 a year in damages it wasn't worth worrying about CCTV, classroom checking procedures (which only waste lesson time and annoy students even more, putting the idea of damaging stuff in their minds), all these solutions do nothing or actively cause more harm. But interestingly when we were low on keyboard/mice stock we had loads of damage, and as soon as we bought a load of bulk stuff it seems damage has dropped off dramatically! (wish I could say the same for Chromebook trolleys!)

[Starbug1]

We've got an issue with keyboards and mice being damaged recently. Does anyone have any suggestions for either more durable or more fixable keyboards/mice, that aren't excessively expensive?

 

For example, some pupils like to peel back the button lid of mice; for some mice if they peel back the button, it will snap or warp the plastic, or break the mechanism and the mouse is then no good, however I have found that some models do allow you to snap them back into place e.g. some of the older Dell mice we had a few years ago were excellent for this; I was able to rescue many mice in this way.

We can't afford expensive equipment, but equally I fear it may be a false economy to buy ultra-cheap items that easily get damaged (and/or that kids don't respect or don't like using), so it's a matter of finding the right balance between something inexpensive, but also reasonably durable and/or repairable, if there is such a thing?

Any recommendations would be very welcome.

 

[synaesthesia]

Not many fit this bill these days unfortunately - we just go hard on the students and bill them - requires CCTV in said rooms of course.

We literally survive on hand-me-downs and donations, a local company gifted us a box of 50 keyboards and mice recently because they replaced their entire setup but users wanted their existing handly-bits

[StormTrooper59]

25 minutes ago, Starbug1 said:

We've got an issue with keyboards and mice being damaged recently. Does anyone have any suggestions for either more durable or more fixable keyboards/mice, that aren't excessively expensive?

 

For example, some pupils like to peel back the button lid of mice; for some mice if they peel back the button, it will snap or warp the plastic, or break the mechanism and the mouse is then no good, however I have found that some models do allow you to snap them back into place e.g. some of the older Dell mice we had a few years ago were excellent for this; I was able to rescue many mice in this way.

We can't afford expensive equipment, but equally I fear it may be a false economy to buy ultra-cheap items that easily get damaged (and/or that kids don't respect or don't like using), so it's a matter of finding the right balance between something inexpensive, but also reasonably durable and/or repairable, if there is such a thing?

Any recommendations would be very welcome.

 

 

I have this exact problem at one of my schools, it really gets on my nerves because the Teaching and SLT attitude towards it is they can't be bothered and we probably easily change 100 keyboards and mice at this particular school in an academic year. I work for 2 schools and the other school is considered "worse" behavioural wise but they treat the ICT Suites with more respect because the ICT Teachers there are much better with there classroom management. We change less than 5 at this school!, it's so frustrating but I do think good classroom management stops this. 

[MrEprise]

28 minutes ago, Starbug1 said:

We've got an issue with keyboards and mice being damaged recently. Does anyone have any suggestions for either more durable or more fixable keyboards/mice, that aren't excessively expensive?

 

For example, some pupils like to peel back the button lid of mice; for some mice if they peel back the button, it will snap or warp the plastic, or break the mechanism and the mouse is then no good, however I have found that some models do allow you to snap them back into place e.g. some of the older Dell mice we had a few years ago were excellent for this; I was able to rescue many mice in this way.

We can't afford expensive equipment, but equally I fear it may be a false economy to buy ultra-cheap items that easily get damaged (and/or that kids don't respect or don't like using), so it's a matter of finding the right balance between something inexpensive, but also reasonably durable and/or repairable, if there is such a thing?

Any recommendations would be very welcome.

 

The other thing students like doing is removing the metal hinge from the spacebar. I've 50-odd Logitech keyboards where they all otherwise work fine but are missing that hinge. Really annoying and I wish keyboard manufacturers could come up with another method of balancing the spacebar without needing that hinge.

[Davit2005]

Bill the department, of course that means backing from SMT/SLT.

 

It's what we did at a school I worked in and it worked, the parents mostly got the bill. The IT suite had CCTV.

Edited March 24 by Davit2005

[Fazza]

59 minutes ago, Starbug1 said:

Any recommendations would be very welcome.

 

We've tried all sorts of different makes and models of keyboards and mice but the only solution is to get the Head (or someone similar) to read the riot act to them all during assembly.  That's when we noticed a dramatic drop in vandalism.  It's slowly creeping back up again so it maybe time for it to happen again..

[6Foot2]

I never found an answer to this. By the end I was tearing my hair out – our weekly loss of kit was massive (and somehow it was alway my fault?)

 

Other kit suffered too. When we were renewing a room, the decision was taken to go with "smart desks" (the ones that have closing lids to hide the keyboard, mouse and monitor, and where the base unit is enclosed in a steel, locked shell)

 

The sales pitch posited that "... we have given this to squaddies and told them to do their worst. There was nothing they could do."

 

By the end of the first week of going live in the room, three desks and computers had been seriously damaged. It only got worse from there.

 

[Rob_D]

Could get something like this for the keyboard: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07QFHQ1NG?th=1