Anyone have a boarding house to setup ICT for?

[zag]

We have a boarding house here with around 100 students.

 

Has anyone setup ICT for "live in" students before?

 

Do you let them bring in their own computers? Or provide a separate network? Or maybe use the schools network?

[jamesfed]

We don't have anything like that here but I'd approach it by setting up a site wide wifi/wireless network using 802.1x authentication (letting them login with their AD username/password).

VLAN it out so they can only get to the internet - then through that provide them with a Citrix/App-V infrastructure with the schools programs/documents on.

I wouldn’t say start putting desktops into the rooms (maybe a small social work room with some thin clients in) simply because it would be difficult to continually monitor the (physical) condition of the machines.

[FN-GM]

We don't have anything like that here but I'd approach it by setting up a site wide wifi/wireless network using 802.1x authentication (letting them login with their AD username/password).

VLAN it out so they can only get to the internet - then through that provide them with a Citrix/App-V infrastructure with the schools programs/documents on.

I wouldn’t say start putting desktops into the rooms (maybe a small social work room with some thin clients in) simply because it would be difficult to continually monitor the (physical) condition of the machines.

 

Can really say more than that, great post.

[jamesfed]

Can really say more than that, great post.

 

Cheers I do enjoy designing things just wish I had the funds to build them!

[dave.81]

We have 3 boarding houses with around 60 personal laptops/desktops. We have network sockets at each desk in their rooms, although now we have install Ruckus wifi they rarely use the lan. Ruckus makes them auth using their AD accounts and then have access to our network.

 

We currently do not have a vlan in place but it is something i'm desperate to setup and i'd strongly advise you make this a priority rather than a nice to have. I regret not forcing the issue sooner, although we dont have problem kids it'll only take one to mess things up!

 

Not sure what filtering you enforce but do not under-estimate the amount of bandwidth they will eat up! Our 6th form are allowed youtube etc and soon bring the net connection to it's knees.

[zag]

I'm just trying to decide about the future now, so far we have provided kit and they have used the schools network and resources. But to say this is a drain on our resources is an understatement.

 

My main concerns are security and reliability of our primary network so think I'm going to move towards a dedicated network in our boarding houses.

[Ketlane]

Long term no boarding school is going to be able to provide enough PCs for a workstation for each student - and that's what'll be needed quite soon if you think of the way educational publishing is going, let aloneeducational software and the expectation of internet resources and electronic submission of work. So if the school can't provide as many workstations as beds, the way to go is outsourcing the cost to the parents - make the students use their own laptops. Recent experience suggests it's worth having, as suggested, a small room with a handful of desktops for (a) younger students who don't yet have their own laptops (b) emergencies and © collaborative projects