Setting up new batch of teacher laptops

[featured_spectre]

Ok, so the school decided they want to go with laptops (against my decision but hey, it happens) so as such I am writing up what the staff get in terms of software and the like. Do you think there is anything I have missed off the list?

 

All staff laptops will be given to them with the following packages pre-installed and configured ready for use.

• Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 3
  
  • Set up ready for network use
    
  • Home drive on network will sync with My Documents folder, to ensure work can be completed at home, and is automatically updated at school.

  [*] Internet Explorer as default Explorer with default teacher proxy.

  [*] Microsoft Office 2003

  • Microsoft Word
    
  • Microsoft Excel
    
  • Microsoft Power point
    
  • Microsoft Publisher
    
  • Microsoft Outlook (Emails will be ready to use, which will include a complete staff address book, with the following groups)
    
    • All Staff
      
    • Senior Leadership Group
      
    • Teaching Staff
      
    • Admin / Office Staff
      
    • LSA’s.

  [*] Open Office 3.0.1

  • Open Office Writer (Word Equivalent)
    
  • Open Office Calc (Excel Equivalent)
    
  • Open Office Impress (PowerPoint Equivalent)

  [*] Smartboard 9.0 Software

  • Includes the complete gallery

  [*] McAfee Anti Virus (Schools Enterprise Edition)

  [*] Media Player Classic

  [*] Educational Links (covering Science, Maths, and English) from Free Educational Software And Games

  • Science
    
    • Ptable – Periodic Table program which links to Wikipedia
      
    • VisibleBody – View the human body in 3D

  • Maths
    
    • Mathway – Program to help solve equations
      
    • Math Playground – Maths games for kids with concepts such as fractions, percentages, geometry, and money.

  • English
    
    • Literactive – Interactive books, worksheets and activities.
      
    • My Story Maker – Write your own illustrated fairy tales.

 

All laptops will be locked down for increased security.

 

Access to Drives A, B and C is no longer a viable option (as some members of staff have deleted vital files in the past and I have had to restore laptops to get them back). Drive D (DVD Drive) will be available for use for running programs direct from DVDs or to play DVDs with Media Player Classic.

 

External hard drives and USB sticks will only be able to use if you are transferring documents, and will be subject to virus scanning EVERY time it is in use.

 

No unauthorised software can or will be installed. Software can and will only be installed by the administrator, and as such, all software purchases should be passed through Me. If I approve it, then it will go to my line manager and bursar (both exceedingly well qualified in the IT department). This is because I have to test the software first, look up any licensing issues, and see if it is compatible with our network.

 

 

You think I missed anything? Bare in mind that they do not get access to SIMS. All help is appreciated.

[FN-GM]

What is the policy using the laptops on teachers hoem internet.

 

You might want to put the combined community codec pack on. Its a simple installer with loads of codecs.

[MatthewL]

Flash, Java, Adobe Reader are just a few bits off the top of my head that we included. What about the Office 2007 compatability pack as well?

[markcuk]

dont see the point in open office and microsoft office will probably confuse most teachers!

[featured_spectre]

What is the policy using the laptops on teachers hoem internet.

 

You might want to put the combined community codec pack on. Its a simple installer with loads of codecs.

 

They can take the laptops home, but when they connect to the net at home it caused all sorts of problems in the school, so I decided that its a big no.

 

And also the combined community codec pack is not a bad idea, infact I will make that a priority with the Media Player Classic.

 

In terms of the following

 

Flash / shockwave / air / java - Will be installed with initial image of the machine

Adobe Reader - didnt think if that, but it is a must, thanks for the reminder!

Office 2007 Compatability Pack - Good thinking, will certainly be handy!

Photo Story / Paint.net / Artrage - None of the staff know these exist aside from either myself, line manager and the headteacher

Google Earth - Again good thinking

WSUS Settings - not going to use WSUS for these, last time we used WSUS for our laptops it caused havok!

Network Printers - next year in theory will be a paperless environment. If anything does need to be printed, they will get 1 master copy printed for them in the admin office and thats it, the rest will be done via reprographics!

 

as for

dont see the point in open office and microsoft office will probably confuse most teachers!

 

We have been running both side by side for quite some time and the staff use both. They know that OOo has some advantages in certain areas and MS has other advantages in certain area's. Its good that they keep the knowledge going!

[FN-GM]

I am interested to know what problems you have with WSUS and Connecting to home internet?

[featured_spectre]

Connecting to home internet - staff seem to change the settings to match there home IP range (not via DHCP, but static addresses), and since I have written scripts to fix this, but its every single day!

 

With WSUS, about 75 of our machines didnt belong to a domain after the first update, The AU client didnt contact the server alot of the time (on machines with SP2 or SP3), and there were various registry errors which occured each time after an update.

[FN-GM]

Ah the static IP addresses explain it.

 

With WSUS i made a script that would force the teacher to plug the laptop into the main network every 14 or it will be disabled from use. This sorted out our issue.

[rdk]

They can take the laptops home, but when they connect to the net at home it caused all sorts of problems in the school, so I decided that its a big no.

 

 

Oh, so if a teacher needs a help file to do something in excel, they can ring you up at night? Or if they're making a worksheet or something and need an image? I'm a teacher with lots of responsibility for IT in my school and I would find that sort of restriction intolerable, frankly. Could you do your job without access to the net when you are working?

[featured_spectre]

no they cant ring me at night. If the staff were so fussy, they would ask politely for me to come out and set up there connection so that the laptop can talk to there home connection and the school connection. I honestly do not care if they dont have the internet access on the SCHOOL laptop at home, as it is SCHOOL equipment and should not be altered in any which way.

 

Oh and yes I can do my job without the net. If it is that important that I need the net, then I use my phone.

 

I dont mean to sound harsh but look at it from our POV. If you had someone constantly mucking up the laptops and causing alot of work for you, you wouldnt like it either so its a case of putting the restrictions on and the staff dealing with it. It has the backing from the SMT, so I am covered.

[mac_shinobi]

had a couple of either bat scripts or vbscripts that basically did a silent add of a registry file ( one registry file to enable and set the correct proxy settings for school and the other to disable the proxy altogether )

 

And just made two shortcuts with two images and called one home and one work and make sure they run the one for work before using internet at work ( when they opened the link it would automatically set the settings and then launch internet explorer ready ) and the same for home.

 

As for static ip address / dhcp could you not use dhcp as the main setting and set a static ip address on the alternate configuration ?

 

That or do 2 different hardware profiles on the laptop one for work and one for home.

[Jamo]

It is frustrating for teachers when the IT in schools seems to be geared towards making their jobs harder rather than easier!

 

Can totally understand it from an admin pov though. A dilema!

[featured_spectre]

We could, but the point is the SMT do not want them to alter any settings, which includes internet configuration for home. If they want the internet at home, they either pay me to set it up for them, or they dont have it. We also revoke staff rights to use them if they take it to PC world for repairs as PC world once formatted the drive and reloaded XP without written consent, and consequently the teacher got fired for gross misconduct (negligence and misuse of school equipment) - the negligence as there was sensitive school data on there, and the misuse as they took it to PC world to get reformatted and didnt come to us. Needless to say we wont go down that route again!

 

I try to make the life easier for the teacher by having EVERYTHING set up and ready to go for them, but when they make life harder for themselves by getting additional software (some cases via torrent sites illegally!!) and such like, its there own fault. Because of a few teachers in this place, the whole set up is geared towards them only being able to do work and thats it. If they use there own personal laptops in school thats fine, but we do not supply any software for them, and we do not allow them to connect to the network as it would breach the code of conduct set in this place long before I got here!

[MatthewL]

Personally I wouldnt recommend Google Earth, we banned it due to bandwith getting eaten up and it wasnt needed for work purposes.

[difinity]

Something to read PDFs ? sumatra or foxit i'd go for, much less bloat than adobe.

[mpe]

Connecting to home internet - staff seem to change the settings to match there home IP range (not via DHCP, but static addresses),

On who's advice, the ISP's? My advice to any teachers is that they are never to put a CD provided by an ISP into they machine without either putting a least three deep scratches from hub to rim on the lable side or at least 15 seconds in the microwave

The other problem along these lines is changing proxy settings.

[srochford]

Personally I wouldnt recommend Google Earth, we banned it due to bandwith getting eaten up and it wasnt needed for work purposes.

 

It's obviously not needed for some people but I know a good few geography people who find it extremely useful.

 

It can be abused just like almost anything you can put on a computer; I think we need to give people a reasonable set of tools and then deal with those who misuse them.

[dalsoth]

If they do take these laptops out of school i would whack on Truecrypt full hard disk encryption to ensure that any sensitive data is not lost if they save it on the laptop and take it off site.

[rdk]

I honestly do not care if they dont have the internet access on the SCHOOL laptop at home, as it is SCHOOL equipment and should not be altered in any which way.

 

You can't expect professionals in 2009 to work without access to the net. Why bother giving teachers a computer at all? Like it or not, IT staff and systems are there to support teaching (and therefore teachers) and not vice versa. What you should care about is being able to set up computers so that they are as useful as possible to the people using them, and posters above have given some ideas on how to do it.

 

As for causing a lot of work - just make a rule that if a teacher needs you to fix something the computer gets re-imaged. Works in our school.

Edited July 9, 2009 by rdk
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