Teacher Laptops?

[TechSupp]

We all have to deal with the mess of looking after teacher laptops but is there a legal requirement for us to supply them to teachers or is it just a good will gesture?

[sippo]

Not a legal requirement. We don't provide them here. Well we don't now. The heads view was that they are that cheap now, that if they want one they can buy one out of their own pocket. 99% of our staff that have been provided a laptop keep it at home anyway!!

[CAM]

If you have desktops in classrooms, don't bother and use that kit.

If the laptop will be the only computer they have access to beyond a few shared resources (like ones in the staff room) then it will get used at work. They do here.

[glennda]

We provide 20pc's for use in the staff room for those members of staff whose classroom is in use on there frees for them to use - we are waiting for the staff laptops to be up for renewal and then we are removing the ones that are out there

[jimmy_2k]

My school is in the odd position where each classroom has its own desktop PC and teaching staff, SLT and Admin staff with a specific need are issued a laptop. In my last school which was a primary we went in this direction only because we had SMART IWBs coming in and there was a laptop for teachers scheme up and running at the time. I got the laptops in on budget hehe..

[witch]

Schools dont need to provide them but some heads feel they should. Currently I am sourcing 6 new laptops for teachers when a)I could put a desktop in each room, and

b)If I must get them, then ICT Direct's lovely IBM T60s fit the bill perfectly and are cheap and robust.

I do not believe teachers need a laptop. Most of mine, in both schools, are not used much at home.

[featured_spectre]

The teachers here use their laptops a lot, both at home for planning and occasional personal use (iTunes, however for all music and videos, I demand to see the receipt emails in case they are illegally downloading).

 

At this point we are not looking to replace them with desktops, but maybe during the next cycle we will.

[Chris_]

All of our staff have laptops and some have desktops in their classrooms also. They all seem to just expect a laptop, and unfortunately most of the laptops are pretty new so replacing them all with desktops won't be happening for a year or two. A few members of staff leave them at school as they don't like to take school work home with them.

 

Most of my issues are caused by staff laptops and not connecting to the network properly before logging on and rolling out updates is a pain to do before staff decide to turn their laptops off again .

[localzuk]

Most of ours no longer go home, so I shall be looking at desktop machines for those that don't move them from now on.

 

If you can find a teacher without their own home computer, you'll've found a rare being.

[bossman]

I use our laptops for the training of teachers in the use of different OS and applications. We are to move to Windows 7 and office 2010 so I am at the moment pulling in all the teachers laptops and upgrading them in the lead up to the change.

 

So far it has had a positive response from the teachers who have been upgraded.

 

Eventually my intention is to swap the laptops for desktops in the school and the staff will have to purchase their own laptop or desktop for home.

 

I feel that teachers use the fact that they have to do work from home as an excuse to be given a laptop for that purpose, it doesn't hold water anymore with SLT as most of the staff have their own personal computers and from them can gain access to Sims and their work areas from home.

 

It wont take long for them to actually ask for broadband costs from the school but that is another perk that they will find in this economic climate that the schools will not grant.

 

It is about time that the teaching staff stopped acting like the schools owe them a living with all the perks thrown in and give a little more back to the schools instead of taking all the time.

 

BTW the laptop for teachers scheme stopped over 4 years ago so to answer the question first asked: No there is no legal requirement to supply teachers with a laptop.

[randomtechie]

Just about all teachers here have laptops. I do make it my duty to keep removing malware like iTunes and Spotify though - both second only to the likes of Limewire in causing problems.

[TechSupp]

Thanks for all the replys, this all cropped up because I walked in to work yesterday and was acosted by the previous ict coord (dont have a current one) and was told we need to look at ordering new laptops for alot of the staff! I ignored the same request last week! Most have reasonable laptops (ones which I would be happy to have!) but because thet just dont look after them, loose keys, fill them up with cr*p etc they then say they need replacing. Just took two back in from staff who have left yeasterday reinstalled them and issued them back out to new staff who are more than happy. Think she just wants a new laptop at home ( I know she just lets her kids play on them) so it just set the day off on the wrong foot. Anyway spoke to the head and hes more interested in just giving them netbooks....when there is money which is a while off at the moment :-)

[witch]

I feel that teachers use the fact that they have to do work from home as an excuse to be given a laptop for that purpose, .

 

Absolutely - we ALL do work from home,and in any other business, unless you officially work from home, you are not given a laptop to do it!!

I realise that some teachers need to leave at 3.30 in order to sort out children etc, but quite a few are perfectly able to stay until 5.30 (like people in business do) and do quite a lot of their work within that couple of hours. I know (before teachers scream) that they do a great deal of work at home, but that is the nature of the job.

They used to complain about having to put their work on a stick and bring it in, but with the VLE they dont even have to do that anymore (apart from the fact that they could email it to themselves anyway)

[jimmy_2k]

Schools dont need to provide them but some heads feel they should. Currently I am sourcing 6 new laptops for teachers when a)I could put a desktop in each room, and

b)If I must get them, then ICT Direct's lovely IBM T60s fit the bill perfectly and are cheap and robust.

I do not believe teachers need a laptop. Most of mine, in both schools, are not used much at home.

 

IBM T60's, best laptops I ever did use... drools

[Pete10141748]

No legal requirement no, there used to be some sort of "Laptops for Teachers" scheme but that was before my time!

 

In this place, class teachers get laptops, HLTA's get laptops, Intervention TA's get laptops, all of management get laptops, the Head has a laptop & a desktop, the Family Workers have laptops....... in fact I'd say about 75% of the computers in the school are actually laptops.

 

If I tried to take laptops away and replace them with desktops in the classrooms I think I would be kicked to death by the end of day 1!

From my POV though it's very convenient for staff to be able to take their own laptop and work anywhere (halls, corridors for groups, PPA room, staffroom, and yes, even at home!) and in this place it's surprising just how mobile the staff are throughout the day.

 

I ensure though that they cannot install their own software (no iTunes, no Limewire, etc), and thanks to 1 very public example made of a teacher a few years ago, no-one really dares use them for anything beyond school work. OK we get the odd photo album of a holiday or someone checks their bank account online, but nothing to really complain about.

[Linfit]

I think the variation from school to school on this one is quite interesting. At our place we have a desktop machine in every classroom and several others for staff to use in almost every department.

Up until the summer we did issue staff with laptops and every new teacher got one as part of their induction. Our Head then decided that we were going to stop the practice, so from Sept, no new ones have been given out and staff have been told that when their old ones die or are damaged we will make 'best effort' to fix them but are not replacing them or buying spares.

I think that in todays world this is reasonable. You would be hard pushed to find a teachers home these days that does not already have a computer in it, and their relative cost for someone on a teachers salary is not that great. I don't think that schools should pay for something which at best is slightly more convenient computer to use and at worst is simply passed onto their kids (and usually comes back to us six months later with all sorts of trojans, malware and assorted llimewire/bittorrent clients installed and the plaintive cry "Its started running really slowly......"

[aerospacemango]

At my college, we gave ALL tutors a laptop 15 months ago.

 

They all had to do a 2 hour class on how to use them, and the "what to do/what not to do" stuff, and then were released into the wilds of suffolk. All has been well, until some tutors began to leave, and others joined. Now we have tutors coming in saying things like........

 

"My laptop battery doesn't hold it's power, and as soon as I unplug it from the socket, it dies....Not much of a mobile computer is it?"

 

"Do you keep it plugged in ALL the time?"

 

"Oh, yes! Otherwise the battery would run down"

 

I then explain about battery degradation, and how, if their HoD would like, they can stump up the £70 for a new battery.....That tends to send them off!

 

The other thing is the sudden destruction of laptops from the new staff dropping them, and smashing the screens. This has happened twice in the last couple of days. My view is.....you break it, you pay! (Not quite my bosses view though!!!)

[aerospacemango]

Oh, and don't get me started on the number of Torrent streams, Limewire-type, Age of Empires & Champ Manager installations I have found!

 

I had a tutor come in today to ask if he could put his own picture as a background.....

 

"No....It's a corporate idntity logo....You cannot have a different picture"

 

"But, Whhhyyyyy?" (In a very whiny voice)

 

"Because the laptop is NOT YOURS!"

 

 

I think I need a lie down in a darkened room!!!!

[tommej]

Those T60's are very cheap from ICT Direct O_O. Tempting...

[kili]

Oh, and don't get me started on the number of Torrent streams, Limewire-type, Age of Empires & Champ Manager installations I have found!

 

I had a tutor come in today to ask if he could put his own picture as a background.....

 

"No....It's a corporate idntity logo....You cannot have a different picture"

 

"But, Whhhyyyyy?" (In a very whiny voice)

 

"Because the laptop is NOT YOURS!"

 

 

I think I need a lie down in a darkened room!!!!

 

Lol... we only have a few staff with laptops one head of dept went out and bought one without consulting anyone and then bought it to me for anti virus install. I installed the anti virus then set him up as an ordinary user and used local group policy to lock the windows 7 machine down.

 

He's really pissed he thought he was getting a free laptop for him and his kids to play with but he cant install squat now.

 

Lock them laptops up so tight they wont bother asking for one again.

[aerospacemango]

Lock them laptops up so tight they wont bother asking for one again.

 

Against my wishes, it was decided that the tutors could have a grace period as "local admin" so that they could install their printers, etc etc, at home. Then, once that time period was over, they'd all lose it.

 

I've lost count of the number of teachers who look at you, with an almost childlike grin, when you find something on their laptop....

 

"Oh, but I didn't put it on there!"

 

"Well, who did then, Einstein?"

 

And as for the woman who has "broken" 3 laptops in the last 6 months......I cannot understand how she keeps getting them.....Perhaps I should ask my boss!!!!!

[tmcd35]

Against my wishes, it was decided that the tutors could have a grace period as "local admin" so that they could install their printers, etc etc, at home. Then, once that time period was over, they'd all lose it.

 

I give all our staff local admin rights to their laptops. Most don't use it and a fair number now just leave their laptop in their classroom all the time. MY policy is simple - "If I don't like the look of your laptop (riddled with viruses, illegal software, etc) I'll re-image it with a blank base image. If you didn't back up your important documents, tough!" (although usually I would try and get any docs off before re-imaging, it's nice to talk tough sometimes ).

 

I too am wondering about moving to desktops in classrooms and not replacing any more laptops...

[LeMarchand]

And as for the woman who has "broken" 3 laptops in the last 6 months......I cannot understand how she keeps getting them.....Perhaps I should ask my boss!!!!!

 

I have the same problem.

 

One teacher was on her 3rd power adapter (chewed by the family dog), so I dragged my feet on getting a replacement until she bought her own. Guess what? As it's her money that stands to go down the drain, she's somehow managed to stop the dog from chewing it.