Laptops or Desktop

[ba9ag]

What do people think about having teachers use laptops as their main whiteboard PC.

 

I seem to fin this causes a lot of problems as teachers will take them home and install all kinds of rubbish on them and then wonder why they are running so slow! Its also much harder to schedule updates, virus scans and general maintanence issues as the laptops are simply not there in the eveining. Do many of you use laptops for this or desktops?

[TechSupp]

Exactly the problem, I am trying to get the schools I work in do just that, make a PC a default for all whiteboards. Fed up trying to sort out laptops for baords because the usual teacher is off sick/on course/ on PPA etc etc.

[FN-GM]

We use desktops much more easy

[mrmontymick]

We don't generally have a problem - every teacher is issued with a laptop and connects to the whiteboard in whatever class they are in.

 

None of the teachers have admin rights so they can't install anything so no issues there.

 

We keep 3 spare "teacher" laptops that can be used by supply teachers and we have 5 cover supervisors who also have a laptop each.

 

I can't remember the last time I got a call about a problem involving this to be honest.

[ba9ag]

OK, they have local admin rights on our system so we find torrent software, itunes and other bits get installed. Im hoping to persuade them to have desktops this time but not holding my breath!

[mrmontymick]

OK, they have local admin rights on our system so we find torrent software, itunes and other bits get installed. Im hoping to persuade them to have desktops this time but not holding my breath!

 

Best thing I ever did when I rebuilt our computers/servers/network was to take away local admin rights. Other than IT Support staff there are only three other staff that have local admin rights - and that's only for their own machine and because they have proven themselves trustworthy!

[ba9ag]

OK yeah that may be a good shout. What group do people put teachers in then, Domain Users or is there something slightly higher?

[tmcd35]

All our teachers have laptops and they all have local admin account on their own laptops. Yes some of the install rubbish but at the end of the day I have install images for all out kit. Thirty minutes any any virus, torrents, spyware, etc are completely erradicated.

[FN-GM]

OK yeah that may be a good shout. What group do people put teachers in then, Domain Users or is there something slightly higher?

 

just domain users.

[mrmontymick]

OK yeah that may be a good shout. What group do people put teachers in then, Domain Users or is there something slightly higher?

 

Domain Users here - Windows 7 desktop - remote software installs using SCCM 2007, asset management using Netsupport DNA, remote support using Netsupport Manager.

 

I think the key to making it work is to make sure that your supporting infrastructure is good enough to handle requests for software/configs etc etc.

 

Although we do not allow any untested software straight onto our network we have a test network and test machines for that purpose.

[ba9ag]

Yeah we use local images as well and they work really well on desktops. Again the trouble we find with laptops is you build it and put all software and updates on, then take the image. Usually then the teacher will have it for a couple of months before problems arise, by which point if we restore the previous image it removes all the custom stuff they have installed inbetween which in fairness shouldnt be on there but trying telling them that when they are moaning wheres my SimCity game!

[tmcd35]

Yeah we use local images as well and they work really well on desktops. Again the trouble we find with laptops is you build it and put all software and updates on, then take the image. Usually then the teacher will have it for a couple of months before problems arise, by which point if we restore the previous image it removes all the custom stuff they have installed inbetween which in fairness shouldnt be on there but trying telling them that when they are moaning wheres my SimCity game!

 

I give a standard warning when I take any laptop in for repair. "You have backed up all your data? If I find anything that shouldn't be in the laptop or the problem will take too long to fix any other way then I will re-image the laptop".

 

I will tend to look through the hard drive first and back up data if I can, but I don't tell teachers that. One of the few occations I take the hardline - "If it wasn't backed up or the software shouldn't have been on their in the first place - tough"

[ba9ag]

I give a standard warning when I take any laptop in for repair. "You have backed up all your data? If I find anything that shouldn't be in the laptop or the problem will take too long to fix any other way then I will re-image the laptop".

 

I will tend to look through the hard drive first and back up data if I can, but I don't tell teachers that. One of the few occations I take the hardline - "If it wasn't backed up or the software shouldn't have been on their in the first place - tough"

 

I'm pretty sure that if we took that stance we'd lose a lot of contracts

[glennda]

I'm pretty sure there is something to do with H & S saying that if they are perm installed in a place that you have to provide extra things such as wrist supports etc - but this might not apply if they move them around all the time

[round2it]

teacher workstations are desktops here, Locked down so they can not install anything.

 

They are all the same one image fits all

 

They seem more stable,harder to steal

 

its cheaper to replace a broken flatscreen/keyboard on a desktop.

[djones]

All teachers and HLTAs with their own laptops plus a few spare for supply staff, random staff uses or interview candidates, etc. All staff (inc. SLT) are 'made' to understand that 'their' laptop is school owned and is therefore on loan and supplied with the same standard install as all computers in school. Accounts are restricted so no additional software can be installed. Updates are administered via WSUS, Sophos, etc and as teacher laptops tend to be on all day (or at least a decent period of time), this works fine. These are then re-imaged yearly to ensure all rubbish that just builds up is cleaned out. Not having desktops means that staff *have* to bring in their laptops which in turn, ensures that updates are applied.

 

Dave

[synaesthesia]

Desktops in most cases here - many schools used to go by laptops for the whiteboards and this was soon figured to be a bad idea with the constantly plugging/unplugging or the "I CBA" attitude and laptops just being left connected permanently, ruining the battery and defeating the point when the teachers whinge about not having a computer to do their planning on

[Cmd.exe]

Every teacher has a laptop, locked down with Group Policy which i introduced 2 years ago after a long time with teachers having full access and installing loads of crp and unlicenced software - got a lot of grief.

 

Have recently been thinking about phasing out laptops for desktop in every classroom, but I would anticipate monumental amounts of sht hitting fan if we went down that road.

I would need support from some key staff to push that through and although it would save money on yearly laptop replacements, it would cost more the first year due to the large number of desktop installations in classrooms.