Reducing vandalism to laptops

[bondbill2k2]

I'm sure we are not the only school having problems keeping laptops in good condition but its getting to the stage of taking the pee at times now. I have just checked a trolly of 15 laptops, only 3 didnt have keys missing and I have replaced 3 screens in the last 2months.

 

All laptops are stored in lapcaddy trolleys in a locked room, 15 per trolley. Staff can book each set for what lessons they want up to 2 weeks in advance but some are booked out for certain lessons each term. The trolleys are all named up by the area/department they are in and should only be used in that area of the building to avoid confusion and staff hauling the things around the school daily (not that this stops them or damage to the trolleys). We have mentioned about getting each pupil to sign next to the laptops name (the deparment letter + number 1-15) on some paper each lesson then sign off and the teachers perform a quick visual check when handing them out and putting them back in the trolley each lesson, but keys and parts get damaged without appearing on logs...... then no one seems to know how or when it happened pointing the finger at other bookings.

 

 

Oh and we have 90 laptops in totalfor students use + staff laptops.

 

So i'd love to hear how other people have enforced staff and students to look after the laptops or possibly havn't and put up with the frequent repairs!

[X-13]

Charge them for repairs.

[Flakes]

In my old school, we took every damaged machine out of the lapsafes for repairs and told the staff that they would only be given back once repaired and the parts were on order, this meant that we basically stored them untill they there were so few laptops that the teachers started to complain at which point we sent a whole staff email to remind staff that if they checked the laptops in and out every lesson and checked for damage they wouldnt be in this situation. That seemed to do it, we kept our end of the bargain and repaired EVERY machine, then gave them back, this new start and the threat of not being able to use laptops appeared to kick the teachers into gear, we did reduce the number of damaged machines and because they kept there word and we kept ours it was easy to spot which kids were doing the damage.

[Davit2005]

Flakes has the right Idea.

 

We had 2 laptops with the Left & Right Trackpad buttons completly torn out, how could this be accidental damage. Both laptops are sitting on a cupboard in my office till I can be bothered to spend at least an hour each on a complicated repair job.

[bondbill2k2]

In my old school, we took every damaged machine out of the lapsafes for repairs and told the staff that they would only be given back once repaired and the parts were on order, this meant that we basically stored them untill they there were so few laptops that the teachers started to complain .

Great idea but we tryed this and had 6 laptops in our office for 2months without anyone even asking where they were. Then a member of staff asked if he could book the laptops out for in 3 weeks time (staff are limited to a 2 week period) which set we asked, it was a set on the other side of the school and humanitys laptops were free all day every day that week. He said their laptops were no good so they couldn't use them!

 

Having checked their set only about 4 are fully functional for users to log on due to keys missing, one had 6 keys missing and I'd already replaced 2 keyboards completly last term. Looking at the bookings looks like the past few weeks members of staff have been using free rooms and booking other departments laptops out to avoid using missing sets which are better looked after.

[irsprint84]

Talk to the head, I did and we removed them from circulation till staff got the message

[SmellyLlama]

We had a brand new staff laptop have both USB sockets snapped out and they asked if it could be repaired under warranty.

 

-_-

[JaTayler]

Flakes has the right idea...

 

We are doing a similar thing, we have a pile of machines that have broken screens which we aren't replacing at the moment as they cost too much!! So the machines are just sitting in the office until the departments start shouting that they don't have any machines left to use (by which point they might have gotten the message that they can't let the kids keep vandalising the machines!)

 

The keyboards on a lot of them have been replaced - we have been quite lucky and managed to get them all replaced on warranty (once anyway). Any that have been broken again then we aren't replacing them at the moment... they will just sit until the teachers shout!

 

We'll see how long this goes on for.

[Flakes]

Great idea but we tryed this and had 6 laptops in our office for 2months without anyone even asking where they were. Then a member of staff asked if he could book the laptops out for in 3 weeks time (staff are limited to a 2 week period) which set we asked, it was a set on the other side of the school and humanitys laptops were free all day every day that week. He said their laptops were no good so they couldn't use them!

 

Having checked their set only about 4 are fully functional for users to log on due to keys missing, one had 6 keys missing and I'd already replaced 2 keyboards completly last term. Looking at the bookings looks like the past few weeks members of staff have been using free rooms and booking other departments laptops out to avoid using missing sets which are better looked after.

 

you need to take all the laptops out and leave the 4 working ones, then check all the other safes and do the same for them, this will get the teachers attention just takes

time.

[BHMS]

I'm going to buy new laptops with chiclet keyboards where there is laptop frame between the keys will solve the missing key problems I'm having. The gap is so tiny between the keys and the laptop frame that it should be impossible to remove them, I hope! Asus and HP seem to have some models using these types of keyboards these days.

[sidewinder]

I'm going to buy new laptops with chiclet keyboards where there is laptop frame between the keys will solve the missing key problems I'm having. The gap is so tiny between the keys and the laptop frame that it should be impossible to remove them, I hope! Asus and HP seem to have some models using these types of keyboards these days.

 

Trust me, they'll still get them out

[glennda]

The main reason i moved away from laptops

[plexer]

I've replaced 4 keybaords today and from the same set a screen last week.

 

If they cannot look after the equipment they will no longer have them as a resource.

 

Ben

[EvLPhenom]

We had a problem with the keyboards on laptops being trashed. We got to a point where we was spending more time on repairing these than anything else. In short it got ridiculous. In the end we spoke to the head about it as we were spending loads on keyboard replacements. She agreed that it was too much and that if we could prove who it was then they would be paying for it. This worked as we had a couple who paid the top price for a replacement k/b at the time around £50. Notices where put up around the school and since then it has been very quiet. With only the odd one here and there in the last 18 months (**touch wood**)

[Rydra]

I suggest putting some honous on the kids themselves, as well as the teachers.

 

Make it clear to the staff, that if they do not keep their class under control then the laptops will get broken, and it will take time and money to repair them; time and money that would normally be spent making their lives and that of the students better.

 

And it make clear to the students: that if they find something damaged/broken with a laptop, to report it at THE BEGINNING of the lesson/when they get it.

This way the people who keep causing the damage can be caught, or at least the class can be narrowed down.

 

This should work relatively well, because students wont take the blaim for something they didn't do, and teachers are never going to visually inspect every single machine every single time they use them.

[Earthling]

The main reason i moved away from laptops

 

Probably the most sensible thing to do.......we have 2 trollies with 15 laptops each, purchased with money we didn't know what to do with. Nothing but trouble.

 

I had some far better ideas of what to do with the money, but no one was interested.

[glennda]

Probably the most sensible thing to do.......we have 2 trollies with 15 laptops each, purchased with money we didn't know what to do with. Nothing but trouble.

 

I had some far better ideas of what to do with the money, but no one was interested.

 

I've now got 15 it suites which are far easier to manage

[bondbill2k2]

Probably the most sensible thing to do.......we have 2 trollies with 15 laptops each, purchased with money we didn't know what to do with. Nothing but trouble.

 

I had some far better ideas of what to do with the money, but no one was interested.

 

They were purchased before I was here but the same story applys, excess money / magic pot we must spend, fortune on 90 laptops and 30 cisco AP's and manager + install. NM tells me they wanted to improve current and make a new IT room which would be bookable by all departments to use and of course that would still of left us in pocket but overuled by others