Maintainence+Procedures+and+Recycling+Timeline

 graphic from: []  __Maintainence Procedures and Recycling Timeline __

There will be both short-term and long-term maintainance requirements for this technology initiative as well as a timeline for recycling equipment as it becomes worn out or outdated. An acceptable use policy is in place for the district and this will be conveyed to both students and parents who will be required to sign a document stating that they are aware of, and understand, appropriate use of the laptops.

Short-Term Maintenance: Our building houses only Kindergarten students, therefore the responsibility for turning off the computers at the end of each day will most likely fall to either the classroom teacher or paraprofessional. Since the laptops in the classrooms will have a permanent home, they are plugged in and will constantly charge as compared to laptops that are housed on a cart and portable. There should be no food or drink near the computers and the teachers will conduct lessons for the acceptable use of the laptops.(see acceptble use policy as outlined on the link below.) Any problems that are encountered with individual computers will be reported to the building IT person first and if she is unable to resolve the problem, she will contact the district IT department.

Long-Term Maintenance: Since we will address any hardware issues as they arise, the only long-term maintenance should be with software upgrades, network upgrades or installing additional software as it becomes available. Another maintenance concern will be replacing batteries as they wear out, approximately every 2 years depending on usage.

Recycling Timeline: According to Dell customer service a laptop with average use and care has a life expectancy of about 4 years with the batteries lasting about half that long on average. That being said, most schools will use them for much longer than that and will replace them only when they absolutely are unable to fix them or use them in any capacity. If a computer experiences problems while it is still under the manufacturers warranty, appropriate steps will be taken to replace or repair it. However, as systems age they often are unable to run certain software and thus become unusable. In these instances there are several options available. The computers can be used as backups to be used as needed given their limitations. They can be sold to generate funds for replacements, recycled through the states computer recycling program, or donated to needy families or organizations who may be able to use them. Regardless of which route is taken to get rid of old hardware, the drives must be wiped of all data and software.

Links: Evaluation and Modification Strategies Table of Contents