cmurdoch062 Posted July 12, 2017 Posted July 12, 2017 Hello everyone, I've been running the ICT network in my school for six months now. I've got all the usual problems (the school want the network to be of similar specs to NASA - budget is an expired £5 WH Smiths voucher). One thing I'm hoping I'll be able to get on top of is the students determination to rip keys from keyboards. I had expected a bit of it but I probably average 5-10 binned keyboard per month. Are there any known methods for putting a stop to this? I've tried numbering systems and methods where the students sign for the equipment. Sadly this has been ineffective so far. Any ideas would be hugely appreciated!
kidpressingbuttons Posted July 12, 2017 Posted July 12, 2017 Visible damage on machines causes more damage. If the machine has any damage here it is removed. If something can be done to repair it then it will be returned. If not it is not replaced. Did this when I started my current school and removed about 20 laptops on the first holiday. After that damages went down to near non existent! 1
cmurdoch062 Posted July 12, 2017 Author Posted July 12, 2017 Interesting idea. What sort of size is your school? We've got five suites (three completely trashed before my time). I feel like removing our damaged kit would be a bit brutal with no money to replace it.
Bedders Posted July 12, 2017 Posted July 12, 2017 Making sure staff lock rooms when they're not in use is a good measure to prevent this. Charging the departments (assuming each of the suites are assigned to a specific department) might work. There's been another thread about this recently: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/hardware/186288-keyboards-keys-pulled-off.html
3s-gtech Posted July 12, 2017 Posted July 12, 2017 Rooms locked when not supervised Get staff to take responsibility - allocate rooms to departments if possible (ownership usually improves the care) Log who uses the PCs and take action against students when evidence allows Replace damaged parts as soon as possible (damage invites more damage) Go mental and throw a full-on temper tantrum in front of small and innocent member of staff and their class, become known as the crazy guy/girl in IT, no-one will dare mess again. Or you may get sectioned. 1
6Foot2 Posted July 12, 2017 Posted July 12, 2017 ...Or you may get sectioned. Too late! I AM working in the madhouse.
jthompson Posted July 12, 2017 Posted July 12, 2017 It's a balance between: Pouncing to repair things asap to minimise how many times a student sits down to a pre-damaged keyboard. As other here have said, existing damage invites further vandalism. This will also help identify offending pupils/classes/staff. Physically removing equipment from rooms for a while. Even if you don't need to, keep hold of it for an artificially extended period of time (up to a few days?). This can be an effective way of bringing about a culture change among staff and pupils. Good luck! 1
korifugi Posted July 12, 2017 Posted July 12, 2017 First: Support from Senior Manglement. Second: This is a classroom control issue - hold staff accountable. Third: Identify kids - hand to manglement Of course - ensure IT suites are locked when not in use and be ready for a little backlash from the staff that can't/won't control their little angels.
kidpressingbuttons Posted July 12, 2017 Posted July 12, 2017 We are a primary school of 700+ nursery. It may not look great removing machines and not replacing them but its the only way people will physically see the cost. Teachers will soon get annoyed when there is no longer a class set of laptops ect and it will get passed up the chain!
arwen Posted July 12, 2017 Posted July 12, 2017 So long as the classrooms are locked when there is no teacher around, it boils down to bad behaviour in class. Which is the teachers responsibility, not your's. Report the damage to whoever deals with discipline in the school. For teachers that routinely allowed kids to wreck computing kit I would give them old keyboards and mice (read - beige, balled mice, ancient looking, remnants of stickers all over them) while their keyboards and mice were getting "fixed". Generally I always have a massive stock of keyboards and mice, but would not replace in these rooms for at least a day or two. For a while we were short on laptop keyboards. Ended up with around 17 laptops with hardly any arrow or F keys. Simply said I was not willing to spend the money on new keyboards for them, as these keys are not vital to their operation. The money then appeared from another budget after an all staff meeting, where the issue of computer damage was brought up by the HT... 1
synaesthesia Posted July 12, 2017 Posted July 12, 2017 CCTV. Catching people at it. Making examples of them and ensuring bills are sent home to parents. Plus making sure rooms are not left unsupervised. Otherwise classroom control. 1
Lonix Posted July 12, 2017 Posted July 12, 2017 This is a classroom control issue - hold staff accountable. Made me chuckle
jthompson Posted July 12, 2017 Posted July 12, 2017 Something I've daydreamed about more than once is to have a one to one program, but just for keyboards and mice. 1
mthomas08 Posted July 13, 2017 Posted July 13, 2017 Hello everyone, I've been running the ICT network in my school for six months now. I've got all the usual problems (the school want the network to be of similar specs to NASA - budget is an expired £5 WH Smiths voucher). One thing I'm hoping I'll be able to get on top of is the students determination to rip keys from keyboards. I had expected a bit of it but I probably average 5-10 binned keyboard per month. Are there any known methods for putting a stop to this? I've tried numbering systems and methods where the students sign for the equipment. Sadly this has been ineffective so far. Any ideas would be hugely appreciated! One thing we did was get a technician to check random lessons before and after. Any damages found during that time was passed on to the above with the teachers name responsible. Making sure the IT is in good condition helps a bit too but we're still burning through far too much mice/keyboards and unless the staff responsible for the rooms get their act together.. you're fighting a losing battle.
cmurdoch062 Posted July 13, 2017 Author Posted July 13, 2017 It's nice in theory. To add some context, I'm a one man band. All in one network manager, technician and password reset extraordinaire! Such checks would consume a boat load of limited time =(
6Foot2 Posted July 13, 2017 Posted July 13, 2017 It's nice in theory. To add some context, I'm a one man band. All in one network manager, technician and password reset extraordinaire! Such checks would consume a boat load of limited time =( Talking of unrealistic expectations a former Head here wanted us to check every PC every day. Not a quick in and out of the room, check that each one is working every day and then fix any issues found. There are two of us and over 600 computers. Later he also suggested that we should check staff laptops and classroom projectors while we were at it. This is no exaggeration, and he was not joking. Every computer every day. Wow!
korifugi Posted July 13, 2017 Posted July 13, 2017 Talking of unrealistic expectations a former Head here wanted us to check every PC every day. Not a quick in and out of the room, check that each one is working every day and then fix any issues found. I had a teacher request this once. I sent her a document detailing how long it would take per machine (provided there were no issues found), multiplied this by the number of machines for her and then asked which departmental budget the T.A.R.D.I.S. was coming out of. 4
jthompson Posted July 13, 2017 Posted July 13, 2017 It's nice in theory. To add some context, I'm a one man band. All in one network manager, technician and password reset extraordinaire! Such checks would consume a boat load of limited time =( Perhaps spend one week on in intensively, fixing keyboards as a higher priority than normal. Let everyone know ahead of time that you'll be doing that, and to expect delays for other issues. Record how much of your time in that week is spent doing keyboard repairs. You can then say X hours per week are needed to repair vandalism that's happening under teacher supervision, and that it's unfair for teachers to not be keeping on top of it. Use the fact that you're a one man band to support your argument: teachers will fully understand the concept of being time-poor. 1
6Foot2 Posted July 13, 2017 Posted July 13, 2017 How do you stop the students damaging keyboards? Add to that: How do you stop the students stealing equipment? We recently put in a short throw projector in one of our rooms. We stressed the importance of keeping the remote safe as there are no 'spares' The remote has gone missing and I can't express how frustrated I am right now. I still have to find an answer. This afternoon.
DJ-1701 Posted July 13, 2017 Posted July 13, 2017 I still have to find an answer. Simple, replace user... I'm guessing they can't reach the buttons on the projector?
6Foot2 Posted July 13, 2017 Posted July 13, 2017 Simple, replace user... I'm guessing they can't reach the buttons on the projector? The smaller students can't. I can at 6' 2" Past caring now though. Roll on end of term.
browolf Posted July 13, 2017 Posted July 13, 2017 The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory explains how damage is contagious.
vikpaw Posted July 16, 2017 Posted July 16, 2017 It depends on who's asking, general teachers, it teachers, SLT...? With the correct support making them responsible is the best method. You could try a policy whereby the teacher hands them out at the start of a lesson and collects them back in again at the end. I know, it sounds like a joke, but with support it could work. We had to do similar with headphones which would end up mangled, so they were hung up on a board at the front of the room and checked in and out. You could do similar with keyboards. A long time ago, the problem with damage was so bad with RAM being stolen after caving in the blank panels, that we custom built cases and furniture to prevent this. Post here with some detail but sadly the link to the image doesn't work any more as it seems they removed their custom showcase (no pun!) page. http://www.edugeek.net/forums/hardware/44564-advice-needed-students-trashing-machines.html#post409568 We got the idea from another school in Northampton that had robust furniture built for their music suites - we took it a step further and built our own cases. We did initially try wooden benching but had massive issues with cooling and the time to repair was a pain as we had to go in after hours to take the desk apart. Fitting case fans to the benches didn't help either. With the steel boxes, surprisingly damage was reduced massively and the keyboards survived much better despite still being accessible. So there is a lot of validity to the argument that if the whole place looks good and is damage free it can stay that way. I guess it depends on your environment - to be fair, when the kids started bringing in screwdrivers to take the desks apart we decided to use security bolts. I don't know if i have the original pics of the case anywhere now, but the desks were like these, with solid steel cases bolted on top. We made the case a PC and mounted a TFT to it, but it could just as easily be a storage case above or below the desk. I must say the thought of introducing a BYOK scheme would be rather amusing, if you could sell it as the next big thing.
seangoodwin30 Posted July 16, 2017 Posted July 16, 2017 It's nice in theory. To add some context, I'm a one man band. All in one network manager, technician and password reset extraordinaire! Such checks would consume a boat load of limited time =( You need an apprentice in your life!
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