Odd decision by the IT department this year to deliberately provide staff with lower spec PCs than students.
Spec for teachers’ computers:
- Core i5
- 8 GB RAM
Spec for students’ computers:
- Core i7
- 16 GB RAM
We did a speed comparison between them when opening PowerPoint. Whilst the i5 was still thinking about opening it, the i7 had it open already!
The decision to give lower spec PCs to staff was a deliberate one made by the head of the IT department as demonstrated by his reaction to staff swapping their computers for classroom computers (which worked fine on both ends). His response was one of outrage that the staff would think of swapping, he then said that the students were given higher spec computers because they are “our bread and butter”. It is faulty reasoning to think that because the college receives income from government for each student that attends they therefore need or deserve better computers than staff. In addition it is important to note he consciously made that decision. Allow me now evaluate that decision.
This decision does not make financial sense. In any education establishment the number of staff is vastly exceeded by the number of students. So if student computers cost more than staff computers the financial outlay is much more than giving everyone the same spec (or the reverse arrangement of staff having the faster PCs). Either that or if you’re going to buy student computers at a certain price it isn’t necessary to buy cheaper computers for staff because the number concerned is a fraction of the more expensive ones already bought.
The IT department have therefore consciously chosen to spend a lot more money in order to go ahead with this arrangement. That’s a doubly strange choice given the fragile financial state of the country and the institution.
The students who use these computers are science students not media or IT students. They never use college computers for processor intensive tasks (like video editing or serious computations). The most intensive tasks I’ve ever seen science students perform are when they attempt to play games when I’m not looking – which doesn’t last long! So the extra PC power is lost on them.
What change will this effect? Well whilst the teacher is waiting for their PC to load their next resources in the flow of the lesson the students will have more time to chat among themselves. Hmmm… surely equipping the teacher to have their resources ready first would be the better outcome?
What are the IT decisions like at your institution?
Daniel Wilson 