[offtopic] Using School Supplied laptos at home

Tue May 27 20:28:01 EST 2008

Hey Ross, I must agree with most of what you said here but I would say if you are reformatting your laptop when you get it you may have to read your contract again for yes you are allowed to load what ever you want as long as you or the school has the licence and you are ok to use it... but in my copy of the contract it states that there is certain programs that must be loaded onto your laptop and the diet employed technicians have this list... if they are not on your laptop then you are breaking your contract... there are different versions of this contract and yours may something different but I would not want for someone on this list to get fined or in trouble with DIET.  well take this into your thought process when you think about reformatting your machine.

regards
Debra McDonald
Network Manager
Lyndhurst Secondary College
Cranbourne
(03) 5996 0144

________________________________

From: offtopic-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of Meadows, Roslyn M
Sent: Tue 27/05/08 1:52 PM
To: Information Technology Teachers' Offtopic Mailing List
Subject: RE: [offtopic] Using School Supplied laptos at home

DEECD provide (almost) all govt school teachers with a notebook
(although we have a small "payment" deducted from our salary each
fortnight - mine is $8).
There have never been any restrictions on the use of these notebooks at
home or anywhere else. I can use mine at conferences, in cafes and at
home to connect wirelessly to the internet. We also have total control
over what we install, and usually the first thing I do is reformat mine
to get rid of all the DEECD junk installed on it, and set it up the way
I want it.

I think education (of the teachers) here is an issue, perhaps if they
knew that their browsing history could be viewed by others who use their
computer maybe they would be more careful. Obviously there are still
people who don't realize that everything that is done in a browser stays
there until it is deleted. A brief demonstration at a staff meeting of
what can be revealed about staff surfing habits in the history of IE or
firefox would scare most into doing the right thing! Of course you would
have to set up a computer so that the results were "shocking" (but not
too "adult" for a staff meeting!)

Maybe some simple software which deletes browsing history, cookies,
searches etc such as Advanced Windows Care or CC Cleaner should be
installed? Staff should be shown how to use it, and told to use it after
each browsing session outside of the school. Even showing them how to
use the IE or Firefox "delete browsing history" or "clear private data"
would help.

Personally I don't see why staff cannot install software - surely staff
should be able to trial some of the amazing open source software or
other free software which is available which may help their teaching and
learning (eg FreeMind, OpenProj, Scratch etc)

Hope this helps
Cheers
Ros

Roslyn Meadows
Head of ICT Implementation
Head of Assessment and Reporting
Bentleigh Secondary College
| 9579 1044 | 0412 614 062 |

Please consider the environment before printing this email

-----Original Message-----
From: offtopic-bounces at edulists.com.au
[mailto:offtopic-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of WEIR Andrew
Sent: Tuesday, 27 May 2008 1:01 PM
To: Information Technology Teachers' Offtopic Mailing List
Subject: RE: [offtopic] Using School Supplied laptos at home

Alan,
Other then anti virus tools we have no other tools on the local
machine's.
There are some security policies set so that staff can't install
programs.
However it not the viruses that are the issue, it's the content, staff
downloading pictures (of an adult nature) and just generally
inappropriate content for a Work based machine.
Andrew

-----Original Message-----
From: offtopic-bounces at edulists.com.au
[mailto:offtopic-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Alan Oh
Sent: Tuesday, 27 May 2008 12:48 PM
To: Information Technology Teachers' Offtopic Mailing List
Subject: RE: [offtopic] Using School Supplied laptos at home

What are the main concerns with home connection? Would the security
software already installed on the laptop be able to handle "nasties"
from the internet?

Regards

Alan Oh
Waverley Christian College
Tel: (613) 9871-8600 ext 605
www: www.wcc.vic.edu.au
email: oh.a at wcc.vic.edu.au

-----Original Message-----
From: offtopic-bounces at edulists.com.au
[mailto:offtopic-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of WEIR Andrew
Sent: Tuesday, 27 May 2008 12:34 PM
To: Information Technology Teachers' Offtopic Mailing List
Subject: [offtopic] Using School Supplied laptos at home

Dear all,
I am after some recommendations or opinions on solving a few issues.
Currently the school provides all its staff with laptop computers for
use at school and limited use at home.
However staff are not meant to connect to there home ISP's or browse the
internet at home.

We are currently trying to solve the issues so that staff can use them
at home, but we need to be able to monitor/log what staff are
downloading onto these computers.

Does anyone know of or have an ideas for how this could be done.

So far my thoughts run to installing some sort of "Net Nanny" style
program, and using the Sina Black list.

This is the first of three issues that we are facing preventing staff
using the computers at home. However this is kind of the most important
one.

Regards

Andrew

Andrew Weir

Information Technology Co-ordinator

Thomas Carr College

35 Thomas Carr Drive,

Tarneit, VIC 3029

(P) (03) 8734 2566

(F) (03) 9748 4388

(E) andrew.weir at thomascarr.vic.edu.au

IMPORTANT! This email and any attachments may be confidential. If
received in error, please contact us and delete all copies. Thomas Carr
College does not represent or warrant that the attached files are free
from computer viruses or other defects. The attached files are provided,
and may only be used, on the basis that the user assumes all
responsibility for any loss, damage or consequence resulting directly or
indirectly from the use of the attached files, whether caused by the
negligence of the sender or not. Any representations or opinions
expressed in this email are those of the individual sender, and not
necessarily those of Thomas Carr College.

Please consider the environment before printing this email

_______________________________________________
offtopic mailing list
offtopic at edulists.com.au
http://www.edulists.com.au/mailman/listinfo/offtopic

------------------------------------------

DISCLAIMER:  This email and any files transmitted with it are
confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity
to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error
please delete it immediately and notify the system administrator on
postmaster at wcc.vic.edu.au.

WARNING: Although the college has taken reasonable precautions to ensure
no viruses are present in this email, the college cannot accept
responsibility for any loss or damage arising from the use of this email
or attachments.

------------------------------------------

_______________________________________________
offtopic mailing list
offtopic at edulists.com.au
http://www.edulists.com.au/mailman/listinfo/offtopic

_______________________________________________
offtopic mailing list
offtopic at edulists.com.au
http://www.edulists.com.au/mailman/listinfo/offtopic

Important - This email and any attachments may be confidential. If received in error, please contact us and delete all copies. Before opening or using attachments check them for viruses and defects. Regardless of any loss, damage or consequence, whether caused by the negligence of the sender or not, resulting directly or indirectly from the use of any attached files our liability is limited to resupplying any affected attachments. Any representations or opinions expressed are those of the individual sender, and not necessarily those of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.

_______________________________________________
offtopic mailing list
offtopic at edulists.com.au
http://www.edulists.com.au/mailman/listinfo/offtopic

Important - This email and any attachments may be confidential. If received in error, please contact us and delete all copies. Before opening or using attachments check them for viruses and defects. Regardless of any loss, damage or consequence, whether caused by the negligence of the sender or not, resulting directly or indirectly from the use of any attached files our liability is limited to resupplying any affected attachments. Any representations or opinions expressed are those of the individual sender, and not necessarily those of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 10356 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://www.edulists.com.au/pipermail/offtopic/attachments/20080527/2ba9bf81/attachment.bin