School Laptop Programs

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Paul1977

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#195951 13-May-2016 09:20

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/79900291/school-laptop-dispute-shocks

While the article itself has little merit (sounds like a case of not dealing with the school about late payments, and then wondering why laptop is repossessed), it got me wondering if an intermediate student needs a $1120 laptop. I realize it is an optional program, but it seems somewhat pricey and sounds like it is the only laptop option the school itself offers.

It also sounds like they strongly encourage using these laptops as opposed to supplying your own because "if you allowed different devices teachers would end up saying it is too hard". That seems like a somewhat poor argument to me, as they could easily just have a policy that says it must run Windows 10 (for example) - if they are all running the same OS I don't see how that would be a problem.

School could still supply Office (schools get it for next to nothing don't they)?

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#1551989 13-May-2016 09:48

Don't get me started !!

Our local schools and colleges started with Chromebooks two years ago. If you didn't buy it from the 'trust' (which had been set up to handle everything) you weren't allowed to be part of the classes. No consultation, no discussion, nothing. We had to pay $600 for a C720 which included all sorts of 'additional extras'.

I bought one on Amazon the following day and had it delivered for NZ$240. It cost me another $40 to purchase all the teacher software and took 5 minutes to set it all up.

Parents are often being taken for a ride with BYOD classes.

Behodar

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#1551995 13-May-2016 09:56

Would it even be "BYOD" in that case? It seems that you're not allowed to bring your own device at all!

jmh

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#1552005 13-May-2016 10:09

There's big money to made out of schools with the introduction of wifi in schools that already have a wired network, and introduction of laptops and ipads into classrooms. This is pushed by the MOE who want to meet the OECD target on wifi (since they are failing other targets). Of course this is paid for by parents, many of whom are poor, or schools (i.e the taxpayer).

keewee01

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#1552016 13-May-2016 10:23

It really, really pisses me off that a lot of schools see this sort of thing as another way to make revenue.

Those schools are STUPID as they continuosly fleece their own families. Instead they should be looking at ways to bring income in from their wider community rather than the families. Same with school uniform and stationary. Sell it at a reasonable price, not with massive profit on it.

Then use money brought in from the wider community to pay for or subsidies licensing fees, swimming costs, etc etc

martyyn

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#1552018 13-May-2016 10:25

Behodar: Would it even be "BYOD" in that case? It seems that you're not allowed to bring your own device at all!

Sorry, I was using it more as a generic term to define laptops/chromebooks/tablets in classes.

jmh

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#1552023 13-May-2016 10:34

keewee01:

It really, really pisses me off that a lot of schools see this sort of thing as another way to make revenue.

Those schools are STUPID as they continuosly fleece their own families. Instead they should be looking at ways to bring income in from their wider community rather than the families. Same with school uniform and stationary. Sell it at a reasonable price, not with massive profit on it.

Then use money brought in from the wider community to pay for or subsidies licensing fees, swimming costs, etc etc

I think one of the problems is that we've gone from a model where schools were managed by the Department of Education who provided the resources needed by schools and negotiated supplier contracts.

It was felt that a business model would be much more efficient, so they are now business units with the Principal as the CEO and the Trustees are board members. This opens them up to the private sector which uses it's huge resources to sell into schools. Since many Principals and trustees do not have any technical ability they have to employ contractors to advise. Naturally these are not cheap. Perhaps we need a pharmac model for school resourcing.

Bear in mind that the MOE is requiring schools to introduce the new technology, but not necessarily covering the whole cost. Schools in low decile areas get more funding, and also get donations from local businesses. Often it's those in the middle who are hit the hardest in the pocket.

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martyyn

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#1552024 13-May-2016 10:35

keewee01: It really, really pisses me off that a lot of schools see this sort of thing as another way to make revenue.

I need to make it quite clear at this point that it was not the schools who made the money. They were however given an 'ultimatum'. Get involved right now, or miss out.

In our case there was a "trust" involved. This is from their website:

The Trust buys the Chromebooks and enters into credit agreements with parents and care-givers, who elect to pay for them over one, two, or three years. Parents are therefore a major contributor to the digital teaching and learning strategy.

wasabi2k

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#1552031 13-May-2016 10:45

A few things:

BYOD in schools for laptops is a NIGHTMARE. It doesn't matter if you say they must all be Windows 10 - you will get people bringing in Macs, or little Jonny's laptop where the wifi doesn't work sometimes and laptops with passwords noone knows etc.

If you are a teacher trying to, you know, TEACH - rather than fix computers for half your lesson - it would get old fast.

The school could provide laptops - but these are expensive, depreciate quickly, age badly and get damaged, a lot. If they can push that cost off to parents, great, but see above.

If you want to standardize on Chromebooks - awesome, as long as they are using the Google for Education ecosystem properly this is a fantastic solution. If there is a non-profit that can assist with payments for these over a longer term with little to no additional hidden charges even better.

However - a student should never be excluded from learning because of their socio-economic position. If you can't afford one the school should provide one.

Teachers are not going to integrate them into lessons unless they can reasonably expect everyone to have one.

Geektastic

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#1552058 13-May-2016 11:04

Sounds like it was better in the olden days when we had a computer room with two dozen machines in and went there for class.

jmh

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#1552076 13-May-2016 11:38

Geektastic:

Sounds like it was better in the olden days when we had a computer room with two dozen machines in and went there for class.

I run computer courses for parents in schools and these IT rooms are really handy for community learning activities.

MikeB4

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#1552077 13-May-2016 11:39

Geektastic:

Sounds like it was better in the olden days when we had a computer room with two dozen machines in and went there for class.

Mine was a pad and pencil on my lap :P

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

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solival

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#1552078 13-May-2016 11:39

Our school didn't enforce us to buy Chromebook. They just told that we can buy chromebook from their partner or otherwise they will provide it, but our kid will be sharing chromebook with another kid. We decided to buy it. Also price BTW was pretty much average according pricespy.

Though, I would strongly oppose idea of buying laptop for $1.2K. That's price of my work laptop, and there no reason to get so expensive piece of hardware for their needs.

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gehenna

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#1552080 13-May-2016 11:44

Paul1977:

if they are all running the same OS I don't see how that would be a problem.

Depends who's supporting the device, how it's configured, what sort of hardware it has, what drivers it has, etc etc. All that influences how it will work in the classroom on school infrastructure. A teacher's job is not to be the IT support for a kid bringing in a device that takes them 10 minutes to get working for a particular use case in a lesson, where centrally managed and configured devices work straight away because the use case has been defined and catered for. My wife spends a hell of a lot of time supporting kids who have their own device, and very little time supporting kids with school issued devices. All the time spent supporting the kids that need it is time away from giving them the educational support they're actually there to get.

shk292

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#1552082 13-May-2016 11:46

That's not the old days! We had a computer room with one computer (a PDP-11/24 IIRC) and four terminals. One of the terminals even had graphics!

Geektastic:

Sounds like it was better in the olden days when we had a computer room with two dozen machines in and went there for class.

jmh

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#1552083 13-May-2016 11:48

This is not a criticism of teachers, who may be specialists in all sorts of subjects. My experience of working in schools is that there are many with quite low level IT skills. And it's not just the older ones.

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