Chinook School Division hardware plan replaces laptops with desktop computers for teachers
The Chinook School Division is providing teachers with refurbished desktop computers to replace fiveyear-old laptops.
Rob Geiger, the Chinook School Division's manager of information systems, provided details about the school division's hardware plan for 2018-19 during the presentation of the technology status report at a regular meeting of the Chinook Board of Education, Jan. 14.
The Chinook School Division purchased laptops for teachers in 2014 through the Earn Your Own Laptop program, and as of Jan. 1, 2019 teachers own those laptops.
The school division conducted a hardware preference survey among teachers and decided to purchase refurbished desktop computers that were upgraded with solid state hard drives. Each computer is provided with a new monitor. The cost of this option is approximately $450 per device.
The desktop option is considered more practical to ensure that there is always a device available in classrooms for teaching staff.
“If a teacher was absent for whatever reason, whether they were sick or they were on leave or they were even maybe on a field trip, the biggest challenge we had was that they would take their laptop with them,” Geiger said after the meeting. “Then when a substitute teacher came into the classroom for that teacher, they would have no device because the teacher had the laptop.”
The implementation of the process to provide teachers with desktop computers is about 80 per cent complete. This plan will provide teachers access to a Windows desktop computer for a number of years before the school division will need to look at the next upgrade.
“Generally speaking you can expect any computer to last anywhere from four to six years and by putting in some upgrades in these computers we would expect them to last probably about five years,” he said.
All Chinook software will be removed from the laptops that are now owned by teachers, and these devices will then not be able to connect to the Chinook network. Teachers cannot just take the laptops home, because they have been set up to shut down in about two months if there is no ongoing connection with the Chinook network.
Teachers who want to continue to use their laptops in school buildings, will have to agree to delay transfer of ownership to them. This option will allow teachers to continue using these laptops in school buildings until Jan. 1, 2020.
The school division decided to purchase these laptops in 2014 through the Earn Your Own Laptop program because of the flexibility of use it provided to teachers.
“It had been done in some other school divisions in other provinces and it certainly is workable in many ways,” he said. “It just takes a lot of logistics and a lot of work in the background to make it work, but the idea was to give teachers an opportunity to have a laptop that they could take home and use and then eventually have their own.”
The school division's hardware plan to the end of June 2019 will provide all teachers with access to Windows desktop computers. Chromebooks have already been provided for student use and all office managers have new Windows desktop computers. Bus garage staff, facilities managers and facilities staff will have access to Windows desktop computers, laptops, Chromebook or other device as required.
Hardware plans still need to be developed for Chinook Education Centre staff, Technology Information Systems (TIS) staff and Hutterian teachers.
“Once we complete that, we probably won’t have any significant purchase requirements for hardware for a few years,” he said. “We’ve probably got two or three years before we have to look at it. At that point we’ll probably have to look at our network infrastructure, because that will be getting on to be 10 years old, and then we’ll also have to look at replacing things again. It’s a cycle.”
Geiger made a suggestion to the board during his presentation that funds should be set aside in each year's budget to fund a future hardware refresh. He felt this is a more feasible option than the traditional approach to ask the board for a lump sum of money for new hardware purchases.
“The suggestion is that we put a little bit of money aside every year so that there isn’t a big hit to the budget every five years,” he explained.
The school division will purchase a new server cluster in early 2019 to replace the existing outdated one. The server cluster is a vital part of the Chinook information systems network and it contains approximately 40 virtual servers as well as web and portal servers and authentication servers.
Many of the school division's information technology services are already being provided through cloud computing, and Geiger is therefore not expecting a need for a larger capacity server. This will result in a saving of about $80,000 on the new server that will be purchased.
“In terms of its storage capacity it’s approximately the same,” he said. “In terms of its computing power it’s probably 10 times the speed. In terms of its access of resources on its storage it’s probably about 20 times the speed. So it’s definitely faster and it’s definitely a better device. It’s just that we didn’t need a whole bunch more storage, and we didn’t need a whole bunch more capacity because our needs have not grown.
Cloud computing makes it possible for organizations to use hosted services over the internet, which reduces the need for server capacity. Geiger noted that cloud computing has the same risks as any other data storage option.
“There are risks with any computer environment for sure,” he said. “When you’re trusting a corporation to store your data, you have to make sure they’re compliant and they’re trustworthy and so on, but in terms of security most research is finding that cloud security is actually better than what we call onprem or having the device on our own premises.”
There has been a reduction in the number of TIS staff members, who are providing the technological support for computer services in the Chinook School Division. Four years ago there used to be 12 staff members, but it is now down to eight after two staff retirements in December.
“This is a new reality,” Geiger said. “We’re going to find out what it’s like to live without those two staff in the ongoing months. So we’re going to re-evaluate and find out where we’re at.”
He noted that various changes in recent years will have an influence on the staffing needs of his department.
“One of the big things is putting Chromebooks out for all of our students,” he said. “It has dramatically reduced the amount of staff we need to support them. They just require less support. The other thing was that initially when Chinook was first created we had to do a lot of infrastructure work. That’s things like cabling and networking and installing phone systems and power systems and so on, and all that work has been done. So we don’t need that personnel now.”