Suggest some keyboards to minimise vandalism

[genesis]

Hi

 

The students vandalise the keyboards by pulling out the keys and moving the keys around the keyboard. I have seen some keyboard keys in the past that are not so easy to pull.

Please suggest some keyboards.

 

Thanks in advance.

[hallb15]

CCTV camera in the ICT Suite(s). Make sure everyone knows its there, especially the students. It will save you time and money in the long run.

[6Foot2]

CCTV camera in the ICT Suite(s). Make sure everyone knows its there, especially the students. It will save you time and money in the long run.

 

This may not be an option for some. We have recently re-deployed CCTV around school but omitted classroom monitoring as expressly directed by The Head.

[NokiX]

These days keyboards are designed to look and feel nice to use rather than be hard wearing in an education environment but if CCTV is not an option you could try to enforce additional checks to the staff so that they check the machines (specifically the keyboards and mice) before or after each lesson so that they know what condition they were in at each point of the day.

 

If your also using something like Impero and can see who has been logged on it will help pinpoint who is causing the issues but you will likely find once you crack down on this the teachers won't have to check so often once pupils get the idea that they cannot get away with such damage.

[CyberNerd]

The best solution that we found was to make the room a permanent base for a teacher.

If one person is nominally responsible for a room, and they check it regularly, they start getting annoyed when other teachers let it get trashed. This puts pressure on other staff to make sure the room is looked after. It worked well for us, the only rooms that get trashed are ones where a teacher isn't based and nobody takes responsibility for it.

[Oaktech]

How much money have you got?

 

Vandal resistant keyboards are serious ££££.

 

Vandal Proof Keyboards from KBS. Ideal for use in kiosks, industry, production, walk-in centres, public access and non-managed areas

[6Foot2]

The best solution that we found was to make the room a permanent base for a teacher.

If one person is nominally responsible for a room, and they check it regularly, they start getting annoyed when other teachers let it get trashed. This puts pressure on other staff to make sure the room is looked after. It worked well for us, the only rooms that get trashed are ones where a teacher isn't based and nobody takes responsibility for it.

 

We have found that this approach works well. Until the designated member of staff is off ill or on a course etc. Upon their return, we usually have a list of damage that seems to total more than the accumulated damage that might have occurred over the same period [ie: the period of their absence]

[genesis]

Unfortunately, we cannot make this room as a permanent base for a teacher. I can convenience the management, but is installing CCTV legal in class room ?

[FN-GM]

This is not a technical issue, its a management issue. The school need to make sure the staff are looking after things properly.

[ThatBoringBloke]

Something we do is to number every pc, keyboard, mouse and monitor with a permanent marker in a very visible place so that everyone knows which pc the keyboard should be connected to.

 

This has massively reduced the number of keyboards we have to replace as all the students tend to sit at the same computers time after time and can't move a keyboard from one pc to another.

[bossman]

We don't use keyboards and mice anymore just touchscreen monitors with embedded keyboard just like their mobile phones.............................only thing is they keep dropping them out of their pockets and smashing the screens...........hehe!

 

Only joking we have a similar situation and as @FN-GM has said its a classroom management issue not a technical one!

 

Until SLT turn around and say.........................HOW MUCH!!! for the replacement ones we have to purchase every year and officially do something about tightening up the classroom management of any classroom then we will continue to buy more.

 

Simple!

[6Foot2]

...its a classroom management issue not a technical one!..

 

I agree. However, when there are breakages we are told: Fix it. It doesn't seem to matter how much we are spending nor the time it takes out of our day.

[CyberNerd]

I agree. However, when there are breakages we are told: Fix it. It doesn't seem to matter how much we are spending nor the time it takes out of our day.

 

Treating the symptom, not the cause.

[BJG]

I was recently considering these:

 

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MzQ0WDUyNQ==/z/AwEAAOSwVL1WABOl/$_75.JPG

 

K290 Comfort Keyboard for PC - Logitech

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-Comfort-Keyboard-K290-layout/dp/B00EE7DVTM

 

I wondered if the ZX-Spectrum-style profile might discourage vandalism.

[halbaradkenafin]

I agree. However, when there are breakages we are told: Fix it. It doesn't seem to matter how much we are spending nor the time it takes out of our day.

 

Get management to let you charge replacements to the department who was using the room when it was damaged.

[HappyAdmin]

We have one IT room that has no "owner" and it was definitely where most of the problems were happening with key swapping / removal. We cable tie the mice and keyboards to the computers (nice thick cable ties) so that they can't be moved around randomly. I got so fed up with the continuous vandalism and the consequent need to replace keyboards that I checked all the keyboards in the room after EVERY lesson for a while. This lead to us catching 2 or 3 people, who pastoral dealt with, including sending bills home for replacement keyboards. The problem then stopped - and I stopped checking all the time. We have pretty decent students, and if you don't this might not be enough, but it 99% cured the problem for us.

 

Ben

[6Foot2]

Get management to let you charge replacements to the department who was using the room when it was damaged.

 

We tried that. It was thrown out.

[hallb15]

We tried that. It was thrown out.

If you can't put CCTV in there, then check after each lesson for a while and report any damage. Name and shame (with SLT buy in) If you can put the names of the culprits up on the wall or make them miss the subsequent lesson, they'll soon get the message.

 

Its a pain and very time consuming but as others have said it should only need to be done for a short amount of time before things improve. If you don't have SLT support then you're stuffed anyway.

[mikeprice]

I have had this problem in a couple of schools. Solution in both cases was a smt led initiative which told the teachers that they had to check all keyboards at the start of every lesson - and at the end - and in an obvious manner so the kids know about it.

 

In both cases I can think of , the kids who didn't damage keyboards were grateful for this as they could see something was being done to stop them being messed up by someone from the previou sclass. Some teachers recruited better behaved kids from the class to check so that they only had to confirm th eproblem keyboards.

 

the IT dept (i.e. me) also had a blitz on the problem by checking on keyboard damage several times a day in teh problem rooms. With these approaches the problem was either stopped or tracked down to a few 'troubled darlings' quite quickly so th eextra effort was only for a few days.

 

Main problem after that was always in one room on a Monday (the normal teacher was off on Mondays) so there was often supply in there. I had to keep a close eye on that room for a long time on Mondays and we even lost memory and hard drives!

[6Foot2]

...If you don't have SLT support then you're stuffed anyway.

 

I think that sums it up for me.

[Gatt]

After I was TUPE'd to RM and, after 20+ replacements they just told the school they'd be getting billed for all replacement keyboards and mice in future..

 

Didn't stop it though

 

I'd be tempted now to get a steel box and put a PCB (and the plastic keys) from an old keyboard in it and then plug the "case" into the mains...