MkII Posted December 14, 2005 Posted December 14, 2005 You mean you can be more miserable!!! ...and I thought it was US that was supposed to be miserable! Just don't get a job in a school k??
Quackers Posted January 22, 2006 Posted January 22, 2006 When we first got optical mice we had about 5 of the Microsoft ones nicked. After that i decided to tie all the cables togeather and that seemed to stop it. Only had 1 mouse nicked last year. We have almost 100% stopped all vandalism to PC's too, which was very easy. You just have to change the way the kids see the computers. They just saw them as "boring work computers". They were never used for anything fun. What i did was download the network multiplayer demo versions of games such as BF1942, Quake III etc and install them on the PC's, and open up the ICT suites at dinnertime and afterschool for playing on these games. Suddently all vandalism stopped, why would they want to damage the things that allow them to have fun at school? Maybe that would work for the mice, if they nick them, no mouse to play the games with, as appose to no mouse no boring excel.
StewartKnight Posted January 22, 2006 Posted January 22, 2006 but how do you stop them playing the games in lessons Quackers?
ChrisH Posted January 22, 2006 Posted January 22, 2006 Thats a nice idea Quackers but I think most schools would have a problem with violent games on the school equipment. I think something not based on killing would be good to try though. Multiplayer racing or something.
Geoff Posted January 22, 2006 Posted January 22, 2006 Tux Racer or for multiplayer shenanigans how about BZFlag?
RoyG Posted January 22, 2006 Posted January 22, 2006 The problem for us wasn't nicked mice - just the balls. Like Quackers, we abandoned mice with balls a while ago - optical mice are now cheap as chips. In all the computer rooms the mouse, keyboard & VGA cables pass through a hole to the base unit which is in a locked cage under the bench. All the cables, mouse, keyboard, network, VGA, power - the lot, are tie-wrapped together in the cage. It would take at least 5 minutes of grovelling on the floor to free a mouse! Problem solved! Quackers also made a good point about getting the kids on your side. Not always easy to do, but restrictions and confrontation generally produce a totally negative attitude. RoyG
Norphy Posted January 22, 2006 Posted January 22, 2006 We replaced all the mice in our school with nice Logitech optical mice. We cabled tied them to the back of the PCs. Now what the kids are doing is trying to dig the optical sensor in the bottom of the mouse out. I've come across several mice with scratched up sensors which render them completely useless.
webman Posted January 22, 2006 Posted January 22, 2006 Can't remember if it was on here where I mentioned it before, but some of ours started to peel the P4 stickers off the PC case and sticking them under the mouse. Annoying at most :|
Quackers Posted January 22, 2006 Posted January 22, 2006 but how do you stop them playing the games in lessons Quackers? We just have a Group Policy with some banned EXE's in it. Disable the GPO when they are allowed games, turn the GPO back on when its class time. You could also do a "trust" the kids on it, and if they load them in lessons ban them for a day/week from the lunchtime afterschool, so they learn that there is a time and a place. I fully agree with RoyG when he says "restrictions and confrontation generally produce a totally negative attitude" But the head of IT (teacher) does not see it this way, he's the kind that thinks we should always be at war with them he's not a fan of the "Games Club" , but all of SMT are, it keeps the corradoors clear at lunch, kids respect the PC's so i'm happy. Does anybody else have an idiot for the head of IT? I even managed to get a small amount of cash so we could buy full version Age of empires II for a few machines. To says its popular is an understatment. If only you could buy Volume Licence for these games As for the optical mice, i bought these for our 100+ old PC's since the kids really liked the optical ones on our newer pc's http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=2PK1&SearchType=1&SearchTerms=microsoft+optical+mice&PageMode=3&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All&NavigationKey=0 £9.71 for 3 microsoft optical mice, not let us down yet. Cute too. Works out at like £3.20 a mouse! You can do a 30 PC suite for less than £100.
mac_shinobi Posted January 23, 2006 Posted January 23, 2006 The only thing I noticed with regards to that was with smartboards, they obviously dont get a mouse ( unless the computer it is attached to has a mouse ) other then that you can use a virtual keyboard and move the mouse around via the smart board Getting a smartboard just to not give them a mouse seems a bit extreme however lol. Maybe touch screens but I bet they would knacker them up lol. Besides I hate it when people touch screens with there dirty finger prints etc etc. blah lol
mac_shinobi Posted January 23, 2006 Posted January 23, 2006 lol @ webmans signature : mysql> SELECT * FROM teachers WHERE clue > 0; 0 rows returned.
webman Posted January 23, 2006 Posted January 23, 2006 @gecko: A modified version of the popular ThinkGeek.com T-Shirt, altered for the education sector
RoyG Posted January 23, 2006 Posted January 23, 2006 but how do you stop them playing the games in lessons Quackers? We just have a Group Policy with some banned EXE's in it. Disable the GPO when they are allowed games, turn the GPO back on when its class time. How about Internet games - however many games sites you add to the filter, the little darlings find dozens more! You could also do a "trust" the kids on it, and if they load them in lessons ban them for a day/week from the lunchtime afterschool, so they learn that there is a time and a place. Pretty much what we do - running a crash course in "Game Spotting for Teachers" helps here too. Some teachers can't quite understand that there isn't really any difference between playing a game on a computer in a lesson and playing with a PSP or whatever - it really is a class discipline problem, not an IT problem! I have to say, most are OK!
MkII Posted January 23, 2006 Posted January 23, 2006 Doesn't the licence on Quake prohibit use by school age kids? We ran a nightly session without any particular game - the kids just play on whatever they can find online - along with other stuff like making thier own games using game-maker, flash animations etc.. Get about 25 kids regularly. Lunchtime sessions are manned by a teacher and no games are allowed!
Mango_RW Posted January 23, 2006 Posted January 23, 2006 Well, its because the other little sods had removed the balls from the mice and somehow, the pupils found time to swap their mouse for a mouse out of a different computer - what were the teachers doing? Kids do it because that's what some kids do. I don't like it any more than any one else in this group. And you try and get the head to ring the police over a missing mouse. And guess what, even if he does, what do you think the copper is going to say to the prospect of filling in 8 hours work of forms for £2.00. £2.00 for a mouse - thats quite steep!
pete Posted January 23, 2006 Posted January 23, 2006 We bought an AXIS 210 camera for one of our IT suites and it seems (*touches....formica, damn*) to have reduced vandalism - we're certainly replacing less mice in there. You do need a room with a nice high ceiling to get a good view of the room though.
ChrisH Posted January 23, 2006 Posted January 23, 2006 We bought an AXIS 210 camera for one of our IT suites and it seems (*touches....formica, damn*) to have reduced vandalism - we're certainly replacing less mice in there. You do need a room with a nice high ceiling to get a good view of the room though. Yeah I though that about our rooms. We would probably end up with 2 in each room :?
Cowman Posted February 21, 2006 Posted February 21, 2006 We currently have fourteen IT suites on site and had the problem of mice being stolen and keyboards being damaged, we approached this in two ways. Firstly as some of the IT suites are 'department' rooms ie maths, english etc, we sell the specific departments their own supply of mice, KB etc and any malicious damage caused to the computers is solely down to the departments to sort out, we dont mind carrying out the repairs BUT we do not pay for the parts! Secondly we have installed a minimum of two CCTV cameras in each suite, once you catch a couple of the little scrotes in the act and send a bill home to their parents word soon spreads that it's not worth the hassle! It has also proven to be able to improve classroom behaviour due to the SMT being able to monitor the cameras from any workstation with the client software on. CCTV is not expensive when you compare it to the cost of replacing all of the damaged equipment over a twelve month period, I install it, configure and monitor it. I even do the external cameras now! All of the cameras are fixed and cabled directly back to my office using power over cat5e which makes life very simple, one cable, one camera two rj45 plugs..... For more info on the system I use goto: http://www.refreshcorporate.com/default.asp?txtaction= I have used this company for several years for nearly all of my IT needs without a problem.
john Posted February 21, 2006 Posted February 21, 2006 I agree with the CCTV, but not too keen on Refresh, but CCTV sure helps the problems, until the kids know where the cameras are so they hide in the dead spots
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