[Offtopic] School laptop policy (was: Dual booting Macs)

[Jim Maunder]

At 12:06 PM 15/05/2008, you wrote:

Oh dear, where to start?

Firstly, uniformity.
The girls use their own laptops/tablets (from Grade 5) in nearly 
every class (don't ask me what they do, I don't know exactly), and in 
many classes teachers use EWBs to demonstrate how to do a particular 
task. In the junior classes the girls learn basic operations (cut, 
paste, copy etc) as well as the use of office apps (WP, spreadsheet 
etc). The junior clases make good use of MS OneNote, particularly the 
collaboration feature. It makes the teacher's life a lot easier if 
everyone is the same or at least similar.

Aside - the kids can adapt to just about anything - for our French 
immersion stream a few years ago we had a lab set up with dual boot 
PCs - Win98 and the usual stuff, and the French version of SuSe linux 
with StarOffice, Firefox, Eudora etc all in French. The 10 year old 
girls managed this just no problems.

Further aside - senior school maths students are expected to have a 
particular model of TI calculator, and I have heard no-one complain 
about that. (and I prefer reverse Polish HP programmable calculators 
myself - I still run up the old HP-45 occasionally)

Yet another aside - I don't think too many organisations with as many 
client machines as us would tolerate much in the way of user 
individuality. (In 1995 I was working at Monash University - we heard 
of an academic bringing in their own copy of Win95 and 'upgrading' 
their uni provided PC. When he could not get it working on the 
network he phoned the tech centre. The technician came around, 
removed the network cable and left - refusing to help this 
'individual'. A bit rough, but I can see why.)

Secondly, network access.
We use Novell networking here - there is a freely available Novell 
client for the various varieties of Windows, a non-free one for Mac, 
and non-trivial clients for the various linuxes. (the one for SuSe is 
easy enough though). Network printing goes through some sort of 
charging system, and although a smart person could bypass the system 
by install the printers as IP printers, it is not something we wish 
to encourage. Users need to be able to 'log on' to get to the network 
drives - although a user can do this from a browser if necessary, 
again something we don't encourage.

Thirdly, support.
Laptops/tablets bought through the school come pre-imaged. Laptops 
brought from outside are set up by me - Novell client, browser, email 
client, MS Office if needed, and a few other school-specific apps, 
and we charge a service fee for this. I have enough trouble keeping 
up with Win XP and Vista.

Finally, school prerogative.
Students (and parents) should do what they are told!!

Those are our reasons. I accept the gist of the 'rant', and in some 
ways agree with what is written. But we have to manage our 
environment, and this policy is one that works for us.

Boy, that was a long reply!

rgds
non-offended Jim


><rant>
>
>Jim Maunder wrote:
>>... and in spite of a school policy to the contrary some
> > recalcitrant students use MacBooks.
>
>Why does it matter which operating system a student chooses?
>
>I can't think of a single laptop operating system that can't use a
>web browser, can't print using IPP or SMB, can can't access
>files using WebDAV or SMB and can't edit documents, spreadsheets
>and slides in the DOC, XLS, PPT formats.
>
>With respect, it seems to me that a school policy would be
>better off specifying these common and widely-used protocols
>rather than requiring a particular operating system, office
>suite, etc.
>
>If these protocols are not supported at present, then I'd be
>reconsidering the school infrastructure rather than the clients.
>I'll admit to being deeply worried that any third-party client
>software is needed to use a school network. Individualised
>fiddling with client PCs seems to me to be a huge IT support
>cost that is better replaced by good instructions for the
>configuration of software which is already present on the client
>PC.
>
>The alternative simply shuts out new and interesting hardware
>and software. The Asus Eee PC 900 being a fine example of
>hardware and software which does not meet a prescriptive
>policy but which would otherwise be ideal.
>
>Of course, a school could (and should) recommend a particular
>computer retailer, laptop manufacturer and model, operating system
>and office suite with an estimated price for each to give guidance
>to parents which appreciate such guidance and may otherwise
>spend considerably more than necessary.
>
></rant>
>
>--
>  Glen Turner
>_______________________________________________
>offtopic mailing list
>offtopic at edulists.com.au
>http://www.edulists.com.au/mailman/listinfo/offtopic


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Ruyton Girls' School
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Jim Maunder
Ruyton Girls School
Melbourne, Australia