On the Problems with Laptops in School?

resistor2004 asks: "My school has recently implemented a program of issuing laptops to all students from 7th grade through highschool seniors, and providing a massive 802.11b network across the campus. As you can imagine, it's a serious nightmare for the IT department. Apart from the usual run of broken laptops we have had a major problem with students usign email during class. Is there any effective way to allow the teacher to monitor the student's activity from his/her own laptop? Some of our teachers have come up with creative methods like installing mirrors in the back of the classroom so that they can see the students' screens, but a method that could be performed on the laptop would be even better." Might VNC be a potential solution to this problem. I would think that with a few creative scripts, and a working VNC client, a teacher can pop up a window to see what students are doing on their school-provided computers. Can you think of other ways teachers may be able to monitor students laptop use in-class to insure that they are at least not horsing around when they should be learning?

Comments

Plenty of ways.

[Violet Null]

VNC is a good one, as mentioned, but it's not exactly an automated solution. Since these are school-provided computers, you could also have a client/service/component/whaddeva on the machine that, when prodded remotely, enumerates the running processes/windows and matches them against a list of what's being looked for (eg, email, webbrowsing, solitaire, etc.) and returns any offenders.

Of course, anything that's done this way can be gotten around with enough time and effort (a reformat is simple, but the lack of the client/service/component/whaddeva would be suspicious), but that's the risk you take when you give laptops to people who might use 'em.

Re:Plenty of ways.

[El Kevbo]

Assuming that these are Windows computers, there are several tools that allow you to query a computer remotely and obtain a list of the currently running processes and kill them. For example, sysinternals has just such a suite of tools available freely.

You could easily set up a scheduled task to look at the processes running on each computer and generate a list of ones that aren't on the "approved" list. I don't think that this is the right solution to this problem, but it is a possible one.

Kevin

One way

[biglig2]

Server-centric, but why not block access to the e-mail server for the student accounts during class hours?

I'm sure you could knock together a script that reads the timetable and determines where each student is meant to be.

Re:One way

[biglig2]

BTW, can we get a proer problem description?

What OS on the laptops? What mail server? What applications might a user legitimately be running while in class? (I presume a word processor?) Does that list change (can you legitimately be sending mail and surfing the net in certain clases?) Does it need to be something the teacher turns on and off? ("Right class, now I'll turn the network on so you can look for the answes to this question on the net")

Re:One way

[GregWebb]

This is exactly what I was thinking of - a database-driven timetabled firewalling regime. Simple and automatic. Remember to take out Hotmail et al, though :-) Oh, the other advantage of this is it reduces the incentive to skip classes. If you know that you'll be offline during classes automatically, that has to help.

Why not make it more than that, though? Why not block all network traffic save user filestore access during classes unless a teacher explicitly enables it? If you want web access for a class, default to the proxy only letting through pre-approved URLs so you know they're reading the right sites. Only if they're doing wider research should free(er) access be provided.

If they're in NT/2k/XP, what about requiring them to log in as a particular user account with extremely limited priveledges (as in little more than their WP) every time they enter a class, and allow the teacher to pull up a list of who's logged in differently? Dunno if it's possible, but do that automatically and you've got an even stronger truancy preventer.

Anyway, there's lots to do (and without much imagination, so I'm a little surprised to see this question getting posted) and it's not going to be that hard...

Loose the laptops

[Ledge]

It seems to me, in a classroom, the last thing these kids need is another distraction. Yeah, technology is great and all, but come on. With the direction that the educational system in the US has been going, it seems like having kids staring at the blackboard is a better method. If you need a laptop for school, limit it to being used in study hall and interactive classes.

Curious...

[Nater]

What's wrong with the non-technical solution (mirrors)? It doesn't have that "21st century appeal" but is there really anything wrong with it? Your IT department is already burdened with the chore of keeping all of this new crap working, so if teachers can solve this problem with mirrors, I say let them.

A possible solution

[haplo21112]

I assume for ease of use for the common student, that these machines are running an M$ OS...easy solution, in that case. Microsoft SMS Server. It has a software inventory, and metering component, which can be setup to tell machines what they are and are not allowed to run. Simplely set that up tell the Machines they are not allowed to run various Email clients, such as outlook.exe ect...if the students try to get around it by renaming that will not work either because the system looks at internal names, not physical names. You could also use windows policy files to accomplish the same effect.

You've got problems?

[n-baxley]

Not to belittle your problem, but you have the resources to issue laptops to all students 7-12 and a 802.11 network and you're complaining about it? Either you have a very small school, or a huge budget. I'd have given my right arm for something like this when I was in junior high!

Not just laptops...

[cperciva]

My school has recently implemented a program of issuing pencils and paper to all students from 7th grade through high school seniors. As you can imagine, it's a serious nightmare. Apart from the usual run of broken pencils, we have a major problem with students writing notes to each other during class. Is there any effective way to allow the teacher to monitor what students are writing from his/her desk at the front of the class? Some of our teachers have come up with creative solutions like hanging video cameras above each student's desk, but a method which could be performed on the paper itself would be even better.

Why even bother?

[wickidpisa]

Why go through all this just to stop kids from fooling around in class? If they are not going to pay attention in class then it is their loss. I not saying that no measures whatsoever should be taken in classrooms to make students pay attention, but there is a limit to it. If it was technologically possible would you really want to prevent students' _minds_ from wandering? I should hope not. I definately think high school students are capable of deciding if they want to pay attention or not, and just locking computers is not going to change their decisions. You might have a valid request for the 7th/8th grade students, but I still think most of them are old enough too.

VNC monitor is an answer

[iamcadaver]

This is under the 'contributed' section of AT&T's vnc site:

VncMonitor John Wilson writes:

VncMonitor is intended for those people who need to monitor several remote systems. A single window is used to present all the displays. The tab or backtab key allows the user to switch between systems. The return key causes the currently viewed system display to be transferred to its own window and the user can interact with the system using the mouse and keyboard. Closing the new window returns the monitored system display back to the initial window.

The configuration of VncMonitor is controlled by a file which contains all the information about what systems are to be monitored.

A version can be downloaded from:

VncMonitor

Another non-technical solution

[pete-classic]

"Put the laptop under your chair during class, or take an F."

A laptop is a tool (and a toy). It is a tool that has NOTHING to do with learning from someone who is standing in front of you.

The only possible use would be taking notes. Is it condusive to a lecture to have 20-30 students all typing at the same time? Is there anything more than a marginal benefit over the students using a paper notebook?

I think you have made yourself a problem, and that the best solution is to STOP making that problem for yourself (doctor, it hurts when I move my arm like this . . .).

-Peter

Re:Another non-technical solution

[stilwebm]

Exactly. The laptops can come to class for reading others' electronic submissions, interacting with a physics lab, etc. They should not be used during the lecturing part of education.

Re:Another non-technical solution

[DaoudaW]

If lecturing to 20-30 students is your vision of education then you're right, laptops don't belong in the classroom.

But, if you are asking students to gather information and work together to analyze it and synthesize a creative response to it, then laptops can play an important role. Even email could play an important role.

My wife had a run in with the sysadmin at her school when she gave an assignment which required the use of email. He said, "But we have banned email during academic hours." She said, "But this is academic email!" She won after the sysadmin went to the principal to get her disciplined.

Re:Another non-technical solution

[Alan Shutko]

Benefits over a paper notebook:

• I'm much faster at typing than at handwriting. I'm much more likely to take detailed notes if typing.
  
• My typing is much neater than my handwriting. I'm much more likely to be able to read my notes later if typing.
  
• Electronic notes can be searched much more easily than paper. I'm much more likely to be able to find something in old notes if typing.
  
• Electronic notes take less space than paper notebooks and are easier to store for long periods of time across multiple moves (ie, when said student goes to college). I'm more likely to continue to get use from my notes if typing.
  

How likely is that? Well, my wife took notes on her laptop throughout college and found all the above advantages to be significant. If one believes in notes at all, they should probably agree that computerized notes are good. If you don't agree notes are good, then the laptop would have no additional benefit.

Re:Another non-technical solution

[pete-classic]

Well, any answer is wrong if you re-frame the question mid stream. Yes, email can be part of education. Sure.

The problem was, however, what to do about students screwing off during class. Part of the answer is "don't let them play with their toys during class."

Point is, there are lots of approaches to education. Handing kids notebooks with wireless and then hoping they pay attention in class isn't one of them.

Now, having said all that, I took a "class" in high school that consisted of three back-to-back periods where the students basically wrote their own syllabus. It was different from individual study in that it was a semi-organized class. That is, you don't really have "class mates" in individual study. It was the best educational experience I ever had in pubic school.

But you can't do it half way. You can't hand out notebook and hope kids learn something.

Finally, all this stuff is great. Technology is great. Independent and self-guided study is great. BUT, I think we could do with a bit more focus on the fundamentals. All that "alternative" stuff is great, but it must be reserved for those who have already learned to sit down, shut up, study and learn, and who have learned to properly read, write and compute (not work a computer, compute).

-Peter