Someone recently emailed me asking for a description of how we check in our 1:1 laptops at the end of the school year. My response follows. These are pretty rough, I haven't spent much time editing/rewriting this description.
Seniors usually leave us about 2 weeks before the end of the year, so we collect their laptops just prior to graduation. The rest of the students' laptops generally get checked in on the last 2 days of school, which are final exam days. The last day of exams is the busiest day, in a about a five hour period we inspect and check in about 1100 laptops.
Some things that we do:
We do NOT collect cases and chargers from students unless they are leaving us (like seniors). We ask underclassmen if they plan on returning. We only collect those items if they inform us that they don't plan on returning.
We rent extra photocopiers to have available for the check-in process. We usually have 3-4 of them for 15-20 inspectors.
Simple cleaning materials are made available to students in supervised areas. Students are expected to carefully clean their laptops prior to check-in. If they don't they run the risk of a $20 cleaning charge. Some years we have made up cleaning kits to check out to homeroom teachers for cleaning during homeroom.
We keep a cumulative file folder for each student that contains their original checkout forms, any repair forms, any re-assignment forms, and a pre-printed custom check-in sheet. We have all of these forms available at each check-in to help clarify in case of any discrepencies.
We use our activity gym for the last day check in. We bisect it lengthways with tables to seat about 15-20 inspectors. Students checking in are on the one side of the gym in front of the tables. Staff helping with the process are in the area behind the tables. Students are not allowed in that area. Have this all set up as much as you can either the day before or get there REALLY early. You MUST be ready to roll when students start showing up. Not being ready can cause an initial backlog that is difficult to recover from.
We call in every favor that we have ever earned on this day. Pretty much all district tech staff helps, as well as friends from our service unit and the University of Nebraska-Omaha. EVERY body makes a huge difference when you are scaling up to meet the load we encounter on that day.
In addition to the tech oriented people that do the actual inspection and check-in, there are other people (district secretaries, educational assistants, my own children) who pull folders, record fines in our student information system, pull boxes of laptops away from the inspector tables, transport laptops to the storeroom, provide crowd control, filing folders, etc. There is pretty much a job for everyone willing to help.
Provide lots of carbs (doughnuts, Twizzlers, etc.) and drinks (pop, water) for your staff. They will not have time to take many breaks and will need the energy that these can provide. Once we complete the process for the day, the inspectors and helpers are fed a nice lunch in appreciation.
Sequence:
1. Student arrives with laptop.
2. Cumulative folder is pulled.
3. Check-in sheet is completed (compare serial number and tag number to actual on laptop, physically inspect laptop for damage, ask students if there are any problems that need to be addressed) and is signed/dated by the inspector.
4. After sheet is completed, we make 2 copies of the sheet...
• The original is taped onto the laptop itself with blue painters tape. The top of the check-in sheet has the student's name, laptop inventory tag (both human readable and barcode), and a quick-mark area to mark common repair problems. This top area ends up being on the "spine" of the laptop (the narrow area where the hinges are). This arrangement allows for the key information about the laptop to be easily visible when the laptops are stored in boxes with the spine/hinges up.
• One copy is given to the student as a receipt.
• The second copy is for the student's cumulative folder. If there are no charges/fines, the sheet is placed in the folder and the folder is re-filed. If there ARE charges/fines the sheet is left outside of the folder and given to people doing fine entry into our student information system. Once the charge info is entered, the sheet is placed into the folder and the folder is filed.
5. The student then leaves. They are expected to take care of any fines/charges during the summer with a deadline of about 3 weeks before school starts if they want to get their laptop on the first day in the fall.
6. Laptops are stored in boxes that we had custom-made by Omaha Box Company. We have heavy duty metal shelving units with plywood shelves that allow us to store all 2000 of our laptops on about 5 units. The storeroom for our laptop is keyed with cores that only a VERY, VERY select number of people have keys to. Even our custodians do not have keys to these areas (we do our own vacuuming and set out our own trash).
...this is one way to check in 1:1 laptops.
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