Teachers laptops

[witch]

Recently the teachers laptops have been changed from being on a workgroup to being either full on the network or working locally. When they work locally they have no internet access because if they did they would never log on properly to the network and therefore would not pick up the antivirus updates from the server.

I am getting a lot of grief because they are creating lessons at home, with things from the internet, and then when they come to school they have to log on to the network to get the internet which means that they can only see their area on the network (not the C drive of the laptop) and can no longer access the lesson plans they did at home. Is there any way around this?

If I get moaned at one more time I think I may do something I may or may not regret! :x

[plexer]

Offline files they log onto their laptops as if they were still on the domain and everything is still saved in my documents.

 

When they plug back into the network all changes are copied back to the server.

 

Ben

[localzuk]

Or you could give them a shortcut to the local my documents folder for the other account?

[witch]

The network management software (schoolcare) doesnt let me do a shortcut to the local drive

The powers that be didnt want them to "log on" offline as this really limits their use of the laptop, apparently. Not my choice but there you go

[Norphy]

Give them some USB flash drives?

[witch]

Yes, you'd think so but that is SO difficult.

I thnk I need to sort out a group policy for the group 'staff laptops'

Bit dodgy on this -if I mess it up there isnt anyone here to help!!!

Any ideas?

[Jake]

We had similar issues, staff wanted to be able to save stuff locally on the laptops (often upon investigation this actually turned out to be games for their young relatives, and in one case, porn) , when we took away their rights to save on the laptop drive and issued them with usb sticks they kicked up a right stink about it.

 

Saying the laptops were useless etc etc, that the usb sticks kept breaking, which was amazing considering that I have had usb sticks for years and years without one breaking. God knows what they were doing to them to get them snapped.

 

In the end we, just this week, implemented disk quotas on the laptops, giving them a quota of 200mb on the hard drive in which they could store their "work". Large enough to fit alot of documents, small enough to prevent games being installed.

 

Still amazes me the stuff they put on the laptops, for some reason they think that when they are issued with a laptop, that it ceases to be the schools property and is "theirs"

[maniac]

We use offline files so staff can use their laptop as if they were at work while at home. Staff logon using their normal login credentials even when away from the network, the only thing they get is a warning that their network profile wasn't loaded correctly and that they will be logged on with their cached profile.

 

They have their complete my documents folder cached on the laptops hard drive, they also have the normal network restrictions so they can't install software, but we made them all local power users so they can install a local printer at home if they need to, and connect to a home network as well. Works well for us, very few problems.

 

Mike.

[witch]

....they they also have the normal network restrictions so they can't install software, but we made them all local power users so they can install a local printer at home if they need to, and connect to a home network as well. Works well for us, very few problems.

Mike.

 

And there is the problem. The boss doesnt want to disallow software installation - he seems to think that the laptops 'belong' to the teachers and they are basically allowed to do anything they like on them.

How did you allow them some space, Jake?

[Jake]

We created a seperate partition on the harddrive and enabled Quota Management on the partition, then we set it to an agreed amount, after talking to some staff about how much space they need to use. They settled on 200mb as a workspace.

[maniac]

if you make them local administrators insted of local power users, it will allow this. sorry, didn't read your post properly.

 

We have both options available, but 90% of staff are only local power users, ICT staff and selected other staff have local administrtor rights to their laptop, which does allow them to install software.

 

Mike

[plexer]

You need an aup to cover the usage and ownership of laptops.

 

The laptops are school property and should be treated as such.

 

I'm now giving mine a local logon that enables them to install software/printers on the laptop but they then need to logoff and logon as if on the network to access their documents etc...

 

Ben

[djm968]

I totally agree with plexer, your boss needs to implement an AUP for staff laptops ASAP. What if, god forbid a laptop came back for repair with “inappropriate images” on it, where are the guidelines for acceptable use…. “I leant the laptop to friend…. “

 

Someone also needs to take overall responsibility and a decision made for local document storage, preferably someone with technical knowledge. I like the idea of a separate HD partition but this will not be possible unless you rebuild or re-image all the laptops. Offline files is the next best option but they can be a little tricky to configure correctly the first time.

[witch]

plexor: that is exactly what we have got at the moment.

We have got an AUP but it just tells them to look after the machines and that they are responsible for any software they put on. It isn't great but when I got here there was nothing at all so it is an improvement

 

Jake - are you talking about the laptop hard drive - the problem is that they can't see it at all due to the management software

[Jake]

Yeah the laptop drive. Does the management software allow the creation of partitions? And would it then hide the new partitions too?

 

Our laptops restrict the staff from seeing/using the C drive, which is why we created a new partition and have the quota space on the new partition. Of course, if your management software hides that too, that would be a bit of a snag

[witch]

Think it does which is why I was thinking of some sort of group policy

[contink]

I've got to admit the talk about locking down laptops so they basically only be used for "approved" use is starting to sound a lot like the idea is to remove work for technicians without really providing teachers with the freedom to install software, etc... that could make their job easier.

 

So far the discussion has revolved around worst practice of some very stupid and frankly unprofessional individuals but my experience to date has been that most teachers tend to use their laptops for the job.. Worst case scenario I've seen to date has been teachers with a few MP3's or one teacher who had some accounts data for their husbands farm.

 

In the main though they've had a set ration of software that they need to do their job and then a few other applications they decide they'd use ranging from google earth, geo-doku creators, etc... Then you have printers, and more besides.

 

To be completely honest I also find the 200Mb quota limit an insult when you consider that the hard drive has a shed load of space on it and you're basically saying "you can have 1% of that". If you want to stop them installing anything then just remove admin and super user privs...

 

Setting a space of 200Mb stops teachers from creating backups of work as they progress, or saving large swathes of data such as clipart, databases, etc... which frankly you're not going to want to have stored on the server (assuming you store most of their info on a file server) due to the space usage.

 

I understand the need to protect a network but personally I'd say put the boot on the other foot... Make them sign a restrictive AUP that has a policy of shutting abusers out of the system and their department responsible for footing the bill for any system redress. By all means if they screw up you watch them a lot closer and/or shut them out but the laptop is a tool and giving them a scalpel to carve a turkey is just a waste of time.

 

 

To come back to my original point though I think we're in danger of assuming that teachers are all idiots and given an inch will abuse their laptops.. If we adopt that attitude then what right do we have to demand greater respect from teachers regarding our own roles..

 

Granted I'm engaged to a teacher and had to deal with a really frustrating lockdown policy that was bloody stupid for her... but I also look after 20+ laptops in 2 schools so I see both sides of the coing... Either way I'd like to think there's some sense to my opinion.

[Ric_]

@contink: I can see where you are coming from with the whole freedom thing. However, there is also good reason to make teacher laptops 'standard'. If a teacher is developing a lesson, they need to know that a pupil can do the same thing at school. It is also important to be able to manage the systems to ease your workload.

 

I also agree that not all teachers do spend their time creating dodgy MP3s and performing questionable acts. At the same time though, the school has a responsibility to at least monitor for this activity.

 

I agree that 200MB quotas are a little low but a quota is important because that work must be backed up and if you have 150 staff that's 30GB of data to back up! Also bear in mind that approx. 10GB of the hard disk will be occupied by Windows and applications.

 

Backing up to the same disk that the work is on is just bad practice.

 

If you do create a restrictive AUP, who is going to audit the machines to check for compliance? I know that I would have no time to spend on other jobs if I had to continually audit nearly 100 laptops and there would be a great disruption to the teachers' laptop use.

 

To summarise, in an ideal world the freedom would be allowed but it is difficult to justify given what I have just explained. This is why my teachers get VMWare Player and a VM to test software demos and generally 'mess around'. I am also as accomodating as possible when it comes to installing their own hardware, etc.

[daveyboy]

Here's what we do

 

1) Standard Image - i.e all of the software we use on our network is installed and configured.

 

2) Every staff member has full admin access to "their Laptop" - and they are free to install, configure, etc whatever they wish.

 

3) A long slow horrible death AUP (Fully supported by the Headmaster)

 

4)The important bit - we have webdav access for transfering files (and each staff member has a 512k pen drive - supplied by the school) so no excuse there. My only support is to re-image them when there is a problem. They are 100% responsible for any data, software, etc, etc on them. Thay have internet access on our school network - and its upto them to configure anything at home - Balls it up (i.e proxy settings) and they get re-imaged. Their iTunes - their problem.

 

It is harsh - but we simply do not have time to ponce about with each individual laptop and the different home internet settings. Anti-virus updates automagically across the web, and we 'call in' Laptops every so often for re-imaging (because of updates, patches etc).

 

BTW - Works wonders for your mp3 collection!

[sinky]

and each staff member has a 512k pen drive

 

That is a bit too harsh

[daveyboy]

:oops:

 

Yeah - you know what I meant - too many 1664's for my own good...........

 

Now I know why my head hurts this morning

[Jake]

To be completely honest I also find the 200Mb quota limit an insult when you consider that the hard drive has a shed load of space on it and you're basically saying "you can have 1% of that". If you want to stop them installing anything then just remove admin and super user privs...

 

To be fair, it was not a case of us saying "you can" in any way whatsoever, we discussed with the staff how much space they felt they needed. They came up with the 200mb figure, which we then agreed with. They could of said 2 Gb, but they didnt, they asked for 200mb.

 

As for your post about only a minority using the laptops for non school related stuff. Well that is a very subjective topic, it will and does vary from school to school. That might well be the case at your school, but at our school, on the last laptop checkover, nearly every single one of them had installed their own software, most commonly shopping/holiday related software and very often games for their children/grandchildren etc. Like you say "your experience is most use it for work", I wish that was the case here, but sadly its not, its quite the contrary. At least as far as I know the games Civilisation 4 , Quake and Command and Conquer (to name but 3 which were found last time round), arent part of the national curriculum

[Disease]

I've got to admit the talk about locking down laptops so they basically only be used for "approved" use is starting to sound a lot like the idea is to remove work for technicians without really providing teachers with the freedom to install software, etc... that could make their job easier.

 

So far the discussion has revolved around worst practice of some very stupid and frankly unprofessional individuals but my experience to date has been that most teachers tend to use their laptops for the job..

 

Why then do teachers need the facility to install software, the laptops are owned by the school, they are provided for work purposes only and not as free personal laptops and come with all the software required for teachers to do their work on.

 

There is no arguement in my eyes.

[witch]

Er....just to bring back the topic to the one I started with...

 

Teachers here have the right to do whatever they want on 'their' laptops (every one I have ever seen has got non-school stuff on it)but I have no real objection to that.

All I wanted was to see if there was any way that I could set up their laptops so that when they were on the network, they could still see their C drive to access work they had done at home - specifically work containing links to the internet as they can only see that when on the network.

What I have found out is that quite a few of you have the same system as me - the teachers can't see the internet unless completely on the network.

If anyone can come up with a policy or log on script specifically for the teachers laptops I would be grateful.

If not, I'm sorry to have started a disagreement

[witch]

PS: The slightly more knowledgeable teachers may work out how to put the proxy back which would mean that they could access the internet when logged on 'locally' - is there any way I can stop this? They are administrators so I suspect not, but I just thought I would ask.

I have threatened the one who know with certain death if they help the others get back on the internet, specifically because the laptops will not receive the antivirus updates from the server