Hi mate,
Why? Realistically, do they sit in a cupboard for the hols (honestly?)...
Clearly not! There are two issues.
*People treat laptops worst than pool motor cars, they are usually subjected to even more careless misuse during the long teacher holidays and come back with damaged drives, cases & screens and it's not unusual to have to empty them of sand! legitimate use? Why should they and their kids mess up a resource that is then denied to others because of their stupidity and carelessness. If ya wanna mess with stuff (expensive kit that doesn't belong to you) , buy yer own!
I come at this from another perspective entirely. I have to make myself inherently trust the spirit of the people I work with. Yes, it back fires spectacularly, but the pros outweigh the cons. There's no reason why they're significantly more likely to get messed up during these two weeks than any other. And I'm not going to spend any of my hols sorting out laptops. And, yes - I'm very happy for teachers to use them for their own means. In fact, I've been encouraging it madly this last year. The turn around in attitudes of those who don't have their own is well worth the effort that it causes me from their tinkering. I want people to be confident with the kit when they're teaching it. And the reason the kids are confident with it is because they're exposed to it (and mess it up regularly). The group I'm talking about do not own their own - and if they did then they wouldn't be fussed about taking the laptop.
*The weakest point in ANY network is a laptop! The network's all cosy, clean, virus fee and sitting behind a fire wall, then suddenly meltdown! Some dipstick who knows best has loaded all kinds of everything onto the laptop and disabled the AV because their kids game doesn't like sharing a computer with any other software (because the rules don't apply to them) and then decided to plug it into the network - cool!
Agreed. I agree completely technically. But I'm not in the business of taking decisions to make my life easier (and I'm not suggesting you are either, geezer!). Just that I think it's worth it the extra sorting and solving time to have these resources out there.
We like to have a clean-up and software update while the machine is not needed, then we sit them in a secure cupboard so they're ready for use when really needed :-) Of course if we don't get them during the holiday, we have to do it during term time!
Not me. I'm doing it in work time. I'm sure there's a couple of hours it's not being used in term time? (And so they do end up in a cupboard...)
And in any case, why should a sacred few have exclusive access to what is a shared school resource during the holiday? Come on you lot, who swans about in the school minibus and have all your fuel and repair bills paid for by the school?
No not a sacred few. Share the wealth. Have a blinding New Year, one and all! -- Matt ________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping" your friends today! Download Messenger Now http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/download/index.html