Laptops for students

[jcollings]

Just been in a meeting where the suggestion was made to give each of our 250 Year 10's a laptop to use in school on the wireless and at home.

Is anyone doing this at their school?

Personally I think the whole thing would be painful at every level - damage, speed of access etc, viruses, illegal software etc.

Answers on a postcard?

[gwendes]

Just been in a meeting where the suggestion was made to give each of our 250 Year 10's a laptop to use in school on the wireless and at home.

Is anyone doing this at their school?

Personally I think the whole thing would be painful at every level - damage, speed of access etc, viruses, illegal software etc.

Answers on a postcard?

To quote Zero Punctuation:

In short: NO.
In Long: 'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO'

Personally I think it's a terrible idea too for the same reasons.

[jcollings]

To quote Zero Punctuation:

In short: NO.
In Long: 'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO'

Personally I think it's a terrible idea too for the same reasons.

I agree but I think my hand may be forced on this one!

[LeMarchand]

Someone asked something similar here.

I've copied my contribution:

<snip>One of my schools implemented something like this for every child, but AUP-wise it was done-and-dusted without any input from me . If I was to write an AUP now, I'd want some sort of "3 strikes and you're out" clause (or immediate removal for serious infringements) covering P2P and pirated software etc along with porn. I'd also have a clause where non-warranty damage has to be paid for by the child's guardians, along with lost chargers and the like. I'd make it VERY CLEAR that such damage/infringements were serious matters.

Having had to deal with the various problems I'd suggest trying to convince them to supply the Linux version (depending on how the school sees the laptops being used) - at least that way the kids won't be loading on loads of games, and (depending on how I.T. literate the kids are) it might at least slow down the use of "frivolous" software. Failing that, I'm looking into using SteadyState on the laptops the school supplies, though this might not be feasible due to the comparatively low disk space on the EEEs. Ghosting is great, but I'm hoping to find something that a teacher can implement.

You might also want to look at getting in a stock of spare chargers and batteries...

All the above assumes that the machines will be the school's property, rather than the kids'. If the latter, you just need to cover anything that might cause offence at school.

Having spent the latter 1/2 of the morning (after spending the first 1/2 trying to track down one of the many in-need-of-repair-but nowhere-to-be-found machines) dealing with a -up computer that I had hidden an anti-P2P program on, only to find that someone had used a tool to discover what was preventing installation of Ares followed by a registry editor to cripple it (and prevent its re-installation), I can safely say that you need to lock the machines down tightly as re-imaging is all very well, but (unless you want to waste your time saving homework from the Gigs of downloaded music/films/worse) not an ideal solution.

P.S. Also set the power settings to turn off the machines when the lid is closed, as the little darlings rarely bother to shut down properly.

[AyatollahPies]

You also need to make sure you aren't expected to deal with Wireless connection issues the kids may have at home.

You WILL get them!

[powdarrmonkey]

We have evaluated it - it took us all of about 4 seconds to throw the idea right where it belongs..

[Gibson335]

I worked at a school who chose to be at the forefront of AAL. Sharing the cost of the laptop with students is the worst part, because you can't stop them doing what they like with it...cue long queues every Monday morning...from what I understand, it really hasn't improved much...laptops in the hands of students equals nightmare for technical support!!

[LeMarchand]

You also need to make sure you aren't expected to deal with Wireless connection issues the kids may have at home.

You WILL get them!

...and the BT software that comes with their hubs often seems to cause problems with the school's wireless.

[bossman]

Aparently there is an investigation into wireless in education as there has been a report from the NHS of a 40% increase in brain related disease i.e. tumours, aneurysm's etc in children between the ages of 8 - 14 due, they think in part to mobile phone 2.4Ghz technology .
Further investigation revealed that at least 23% of age groups 8 - 14 asked in a survey conducted by the NHS had also revealed they slept with their mobile phones under their pillows switched on.
There has been info on the BBC website somewhere which I had been directed to which i think is a follow on from the documentary which ran about a year ago. If proved there will be a lot of concern from parents about this i feel.
Sorry to be negative about this.

[broc]

We have enough trouble keeping that number of laptops working in school, never mind allowing kids to take them home. You had better begin by asking for some serious additional funding for spares and technician time to keep them operational. You may also want to consider how the school will cope with large numbers of machines coming into school each day with flat batteries because the kids forgot to charge them up or their parents/guardians objected to paying for the electricity

[tmcd35]

Aparently there is an investigation into wireless in education as there has been a report from the NHS of a 40% increase in brain related disease i.e. tumours, aneurysm's etc in children between the ages of 8 - 14 due, they think in part to mobile phone 2.4Ghz technology .

We've installed swivel chairs here, so the kids cook evenly

[User3204]

Hmm.. Topical I have just received an email flyer from Syscap, who are offering this as a service. We had spoken to them a few years back, but we ran away because of the licensing issues.

Link from todays email: Learn Anywhere: The benefits

Sends you to here: Learn Anywhere for more information.
I think now, I would use all Open Source software, ubuntu anyone ?

[thesk8rjesus]

We've actually got a primary shool that we do the IT for and they've just all been given a laptop, the best thing to do is to not give the administrative rights and leave them as limited accounts, this is what we have done, and so far the only problem is that one kid put vista on the machine thinking if he didnt like it he could take it off again, NOPE HE COULDN'T

[Sylv3r]

We have ran lease2Own laptop schemes for a couple of years (not doing it this year due to extra support needed for the CfP scheme).

Parents / Students paid £20 per month over a 22 month period, this entitled them to a laptop with Microsoft Office, 3 year warranty and 3 year insurance. At the end of the 22 month period they was an ownership fee of £18 which gave entitlement from our school to the parents / student to take onto University with them.

They are charities out their such as the e-Learning foundation but you must be seen to providing facilities for a cohort and not just the minority. You could receive funding from the e-Learning foundation as well as a parental contribution to help fund this scheme.

[Theblacksheep]

We have 700 minibooks for students.

They are getting destroyed, most screen breaks where the children treat them like crap. If we had replaced the "careless" breakages so far, we'd be down over 8k.

25% of students really look after them and do work on them.
25% dont bother bringing them in.
25% aren't bothered either way.
10% destroyed through carelessness/ vandals.
10% hardware/general use failures.
5% actually destroyed them.

Most children try to install their own apps (linux handy here), most do no next to work on them and just use them for storing games/music/ pictures of themselves in typical bebo poses. They are also considered "broken" when they've deleted the school wireless password ("Inta-nets not workin")... Typical teacher ignorance will not help here either.

What little work they do on them, they dont back it up on the servers, who gets the blame when the laptop "deleted the work".


Our money should have been spent on IT rooms for each department. Infact our money would have been better used if it was given away.



p.s. I'd quit if they had admin access.