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Switching a College from Desktops to Laptops?
tverbeek asks: "The college of art and design where I work is going to start switching next year from a labs-with-desktops approach to computers, to a students-with-laptops approach. The president appears to have made up his mind that we're doing it, so that's not really up for debate. We'll be starting by equipping all the full-time faculty this year, then next year start requiring (as in 'you can use financial aid to pay for it') each new student to buy a laptop that meets our specs (Apple or Dell, depending on major). Does anyone have experience with this kind of transition? What were the biggest complications?"
"How did you handle software licensing, especially for high-priced apps? How do you do software installs/upgrades? What do you do for resource-hungry apps (e.g. CAD, 3D rendering)? What about traditional lab configuration issues like anti-malware software, classroom restrictions on IM/P2P/network gaming, standard configuration options, etc. that would seem impossible to do with computers you don't own?
I know that many other colleges have done this sort of thing, but what about *art schools* or other colleges with high-end needs but mostly non-technical users, and where something like Photoshop is considered a 'core' application more than MS Office? Also, I'm especially interested in info about much more/less support staff the laptop approach requires; my intuition says that 1000 unsecured laptops will take more work to support than 300 locked-down desktops, but I need data."
I know that many other colleges have done this sort of thing, but what about *art schools* or other colleges with high-end needs but mostly non-technical users, and where something like Photoshop is considered a 'core' application more than MS Office? Also, I'm especially interested in info about much more/less support staff the laptop approach requires; my intuition says that 1000 unsecured laptops will take more work to support than 300 locked-down desktops, but I need data."
Set up a main server with all the software the students need. Then allow them to Remote Desktop in to use the server's resources for all those CPU-intensive tasks.
Let them buy their own copies of PS or whatever if they want to.
Better yet, quit now before the whole thing goes to hell. Find a nice cushy job in the industry rather than eke along in academia.
... what are you going to do with physical security? 1000 persons walking around with laptops is going to be sweet for any thief.
please excuse my apathy
You might check with your local law school. Many of them mandate laptop ownership for all students.
You're taking the intelligent route and making them pay for them on their own, though, so that's a step in the right direction.
Generally the feedback was students liked the mobility but hated being forced into buying a laptop.
Licenses weren't hard; they worked just like a normal lab environment, licensces are obtained from a central license server either on campus or a trusted facility of the software vendor.
As for the malware thing, in order for a laptop to get on the network, it had to prove it was up-to-date each time, and had to prove it was running university-approved, up-to-date anti-malware (provided free by the institute). This worked marginally well with only a few outbreaks.
The downside? Tech support, and lots of it. Students got confused, broke stuff, or generally got mad when things didn't work on the first try. The solution is a tech help desk, staffed by students or well-informed tech support people, where you can simply bring your laptop in and have it checked out by a "professional." That seems to clear up most of the problems.
Art students had little to no trouble, as they all bought macs. :)
This is a horrible idea. Crime in the area around my first college was bad, I'd hate to think what it would be like with _every_ student carrying several hundred dollars worth of pawnable hardware. I also see plenty of students incredibly pissed at having to allocate hundreds of dollars to a laptop that they need for food. Not to mention that it's a laptop that they, effectively, aren't going to have full control over what they run on.
Please, don't be so cheap.
Narrow it down to one laptop type, or better yet, a particular model, and offer a standard configuration for it, and only offer "official" support for that. Try to find a supplier that is willin g to offer the students discounts on it, since there will likely be a large number buying the "prefered" model. Otherwise, you better make sure that all of the apps you will require run on all the possible configurations that meet your spec. Good luck trying to support finicky applications accross different OSs'.
I go to Lawrence Technological University, and they have a Laptop Initiative. They have two sets of computer types: a compaq laptop for architect/sciences and a micron laptop for the engineers. Each Major type has their own 'Laptop Image' that loads the computer with the OS and programs. Since all the computers are the same they just image everything in the labs and hand them out to the students. Then the student is free to do what they wish with the computers. They have no locks on them what-so-ever. The programs on the computers are registered like corporations, and some of them require you to be on campus to use them (Matlab) because they have to contact the campus servers. As for upgrades, its up to the student. However, every two years the computers are returned to the help desk for the next set of images to be loaded. And if you bork your computer, you can just go down there and have them re-image it for you. Any physical damages have to be paid for though. You don't have to use a campus issued computer. If you have your own you can use it on their network, but will not be pre-registered on the domain or given any programs/support. The laptop initiative is very useful because it allows students and faculity to contact each other when ever needed. Our whole school is wireless with printers throughout the buildings, so presentations and class work can be done on them.
These are the types of issues that, in a well run institution, are resolved before any change of this scale is put through. The fact that the president of the school has mandated this without any sort of investigation into the ramifications is a sign that you should polish up your resume and start looking for a new job. Unresearched, unfunded mandates from the higher-ups are a sign that you're working in IT hell.
my sig's at the bottom of the page.
Some programs at the university I attend do this kind of thing already (fortunately, not my program). Specifications for one program of which I am aware require a specific Dell notebook with certain software, etc.
There are all kinds of issues with this approach. First, you lock students into a particular vendor. My university has this annoying tendency to do this all the time (let's start with soft drinks, i.e., the Coke-only contract we have here) because of financial incentives from the vendors for such monopolistic contracts. Frankly, these contracts should be illegal for a public university. I really don't care if it pays for a new scoreboard for the football stadium.
More specifically regarding computers, it forces students into unnecessary purchases. For example, say I have an HP laptop that meets all the technical requirements except for being a Dell. Why should I buy a new one? Well, because we have this requirement that you get a Dell because Dell computers are better... No, the requirement exists due to a contract with Dell, period. Never mind people such as myself who run a dual-boot system. I typically use the Debian side for everything and get by quite well. Rarely do I boot into WinXP -- the last time I did so was to read something off someone else's flash drive because I don't have support for it compiled into my kernel (I don't own one). The last time before that was at least two months before. I do my assignments in OpenOffice. Does it really matter? No.
Finally, I would add that at least at some universities, you can get aid for any computer purchase. Ours allows an increase in subsidized loan amount for one computer purchase per student per degree (basically, one every four years). I am unsure whether such an allowance is available only at the university's discretion or if it is available to all students receiving federal financial aid loans.
I know this isn't exactly the "data" that was desired, and I know that most students in your school probably are not wanting to run Linux on their laptops and don't care about anti-trust issues, so they would be quite happy with the university requirements. But, I think the arguments against such a requirement are rather logical.
-William Brendel
"... a laptop that meets our specs (Apple or Dell, depending on major)"
Never buy computer items before you check with Ed Foster's GripeLog. I get the impression from reading the issues concerning Dell that Dell is a company that should be avoided.
Note that the search above is restricted to Ed Foster's web site, and there are 16,300 hits.
My own personal experience with Dell is that the company is experiencing a social breakdown in which employees are working for themselves rather than for the company or the customers. Some of the things that I experienced from Dell have been more than disfunctional, they have been wacky.
I haven't been paying attention recently, but at one time Dell seemed to be competing with Microsoft to see who could be the most abusive. Sometimes Dell even won.
--
Before, Saddam got Iraq oil profits & paid part to kill Iraqis. Now a few Americans share Iraq oil profits, & U.S. citizens pay to kill Iraqis. Improvement?
Laptops WILL be lost/stolen/broken, no matter what you try to do. Give students the option to engrave their names and a phone number (somthing that dosn't change: mabye the lost-and-found dept.) in large, friendly letters on the cover. Provide insurance to users if they don't have it. Giving backup services and CPU power from a central server is a must. This means a large RAID array and blade servers (running Linux, of course). Even if all the above fail, provide short-term use laptops, that can--hpoefully--boot up from the backups previously made.
Also be sure to lay down wireless access points of all sorts. Put a printer attached to the network in in centralized places, probably in every room. Think of every possable problem.
Wonder what the public key field is for?
And then you have the poor buggers who are paying their own way through school, and don't qualify for financial aid because they make "too much". You're getting to where higher education is something only the rich can afford, and only the very poor can get help paying for. $30,000/yr income and I'm supposed to afford putting 1/6 of it towards tuition? Thats half of what I pay for housing...are you kidding me? And now you're going to make me buy a laptop?
Maybe you need to rethink your goals?
I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress -J Adams
Simple. Provide everyone with a firearm as well...
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
Apple Powerbook or IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad T40.
[insert lame joke here]
But look above, I emphasize "addition" for a reason. They are not a replacement for true computing labs with high performance hardware and licensed software, especially since the colledge/university does not own OR maintain the systems. Yes, they are great from the standpoint that they will reduce your out of pocket costs of maintaining a lab full of high end computers, since the school no longer needs to support that infrastructure, but they are simply moving the costs around. The costs will now move to the students and IT help centers because you no longer have the ability to roll out massive patch sets, automate software installations, upgrades, or security patches. Now you are relying on students to keep their systems running properly, and most if not all of those students can bairly tell you the difference between a Mac or an IBM, let alone be expected to be able to patch their system or configure it to connect to your networks securely. The overhead for fixing these systems will easilly overwhelm your current IT department if they are the ones expected to handle the problems that crop up.
Let us not even get into the issues with software such as photoshop licenses, since you are now no longer in control of the license due to the student being the owner of the computer. You will effectively be requiring the students to need to purchase a full license of photoshop or AutoCAD or Mathmatica for their own use since there will no longer be any school operated systems which they can gain access to the programs. This is adding several thousands of dollars of cost burden onto all students, many of who may decide that they do not like graphics art and change to become an english major or some other major that will never use a full version of photoshop, which means they just wasted all that money.
There are many schools that have embraced laptops, but they are an addition to the rest of their computing systems. My college converted at least 3 major computer labs from your standard desktop setups to hot stations for use with student owned laptops. BUT they still kept very close to the same number of desktop systems throughout the campus, basically moving the desktops to smaller new labs. The students mostly purchased laptops on their own because the entire campus had wireless connectivity which made it easy to just bring the laptop to class and take your notes, etc., on it and work on assignments between class. But when things required true horsepower, they used the regular computer labs or a regular home desktop system to do the work. The laptops were and still are a convience system, not a real replacement for true dedicated computing labs.
So I personnally would try to convince they person who has this hairbrained idea in his or her head that it isn't going to fly for reason X, Y, and Z, or go job hunting because when the stuff starts hitting the fan it will be blowing in the direction of the IT department staff who doesn't have the power or ability to fix the problems generated on systems they do not own, but will be blaimed by the students because the students can not get their assignments completed on their laptops...
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
You may want to contact the Air Force Academy. They were requiring that all students purchase a computer since at least the days of the 486. Back in the early 90s when I was still dreaming of going there, they were talking only about desktops. I'm sure they have evolved their computer requirements since then. You may want to check with the other military academies as well.
Unless you're just teaching the basic functionality, the color rendition of the laptop LCD screen is inadequate for Photoshop.
Conclusion: the Empire squashes the Federation like a bug. Accept it.
I work for an art and design school. While we don't give our students laptops (yet?), most of our faculty are equipped with one.
.EXE/.APP file ends up. Keyserver also allows you to check-out a license to a laptop, but that decreases your total count no matter if it is being used or not.
Network license keying is your friend. FlexLM (AutoCAD, Solidworks, etc. for interior/industrial design) and Sasafras Keyserver (for everything else) are two products that I rely on heavily to maintain legality with licensing. Some products (Quark) come with their own weird licensing thingie (java-based, Windows only daemon).
I'm the Windows/Linux part of a mostly Mac school. We just moved into level 2 of the Altiris Client Management Suite and are planning a rollout in the next few months. This is really going to revolutionize the way we deal with desktops and laptops (software virtualization services (SVS), recovery solution, self-service software delivery portal, etc.). On the Mac side we use Filewave, Netboot, and Netrestore for package management.
IIRC, Keyserver doens't give you the granularity that you are talking about. Buuuut, you could set up different versions of the same keyed app and allocate different license counts to each one depending on where the
Running apps on a terminal server might suck. Unless you are pushing some really CPU intensive jobs, it is probably going to be fine to leave the majority of the processing time to the laptops. By CPU intensive, I mean an AfterEffects render that takes two weeks on a dual-dual Opteron 270. Or a Maya scene that takes a few days on 23 dual Opteron boxes. Patience Daniel-san. =)
Then again, if you are looking into TS for licensing issues... that might suck. People like to use software whenever and where ever. Although network access seems to be as ubiquitous as breathing nowadays, there are still some kids that don't live in earshot of a hotspot. Then again, we make faculty VPN into our network so that they can check out software licenses from home; we block access to lots of stuff from off campus for obvious reasons.
Don't hesitate to give your software/hardware vendors a ring. They know what other schools are doing and might be able to lend a good deal of help. Oh, and software donations are always good.
My $0.02.
~jps
I've worked on a lot of networks as a private contractor, and as a direct employee from operator level to executive level. By far the most frightening thing to me was a recent contract I worked on where an entire company wanted laptops and only laptops.
A lot of things have changed since I worked that contract, but one thing I would advise would be to focus on recovery rather than prevention. These students will break their laptops, they will get stolen, they will get damaged in ways you will never forget.
Secure your network from the students, and work towards easy restoration of data.
I would also advise that your school try to find an insurer willing to insure individual laptops against accidental loss, theft, and damage. If they purchase their machine from Dell they can get most of that.
For backups, I would advise students to setup their email to leave copies of all messages on the mail server -- and keep their local mail storage files off of the backup list. This is very cumbersome, and overall is the most annoying thing to deal with on backups. My personal mailbox has over 7,000 messages and it takes me less than a second to connect and check my mail when there is just a message or two that is new - so aside from the mail server itself there is no real additional load by doing this - and it allows the student to recover their mail easily.
Don't bother scripting profile backups - they rarely work and are more difficult to manage then simply recreating a users profile. Instead, focus on making the users profile settings part of your recovery process, with an emphasis on proper documentation procedures.
Find out who your local dell contractor is. Dell has contractors just about everywhere - you can bet there is atleast one near you. Find out who they are and open a line of communication. Let them know what is going on, and what your future purchase plans look like. I imagine this fellow will enjoy hearing from you.
Most importantly, keep excellent documentation of everything you do. Every complaint a sudent makes, every phone call, every change you make, everything. Don't wait until five minutes later, or the next day, document it right on the spot and date/time stamp it. It has been my experience that when users own a PC that you are given minor responsibilities over -- the users seem to think any problem = your problem. Eventually that works it's way up administration and next thing you know you're pulling your hair out. This way when some student with a family member who's friends with administration level faculty -- you've got the data to backup your position when you're in that drab office being asked questions like your a first year intern that cheated his way through school.
Also, I'd keep my resume fresh and an eye on oppertunities in my area. Just in case such a major shift in your work environment changes your outlook on the position.
Dealing with a network full of laptops has it's challenges, but it can also be fun. But it's not for everyone.
If you plan on taking notes in class, I recommend getting the smallest laptop you can afford and then getting a Monitor and keyboard for your use in your room. The 12in iBook is a good value, but depending on your school, you might want to check if getting a Windows compatible machine is worthwhile.
Except for us middle class people- those who's parents make too much to qualify for any assistance, but not enough to pay for college. Requiring us to have a computer (and we are NOT by any means a trivial population) is NOT a reasonable expectation. I barely had enough money in college to eat despite not drinking, forget about buying a computer.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
It's hard enough getting students through the concepts in one program. Trying to simultaneously teach students how to do 3-D modeling or print illustration while each one is using a different program would be like trying to teach students who are each speaking only their native language how to, say, build a giant tower to usurp the heavenly power of the gods.
What school doesn't "force" you to do certain things on your property? At your school you can write your papers about whatever you want, in whatever format, language, font, and tone you'd like? Can you hand in a cocktail napkin with a drawing of your teacher as a nazi for your final project? Maybe at a few of the weirder art schools.
At any post-secondary school in a non-socialized country, you're paying them to teach you concepts. It's not high school, where the state is forcing your parents to pay it to babysit you and the law mandates your attendance. You're an an adult in a consensual situation and you've already placed an enormous amount of control in their hands by signing up. This is not an issue of freedom.
When I was at Waterloo it wasn't acceptable to simply choose to code an entire assignment in a different language in many of the lower-level courses. That definitely wasn't because Waterloo was a vocational college teaching us how to monkey with Java. Waterloo is about as abstract and conceptual as it gets, but they insisted on a certain language because spending the time to try to mark your assignment done in WeirdLanguage++ would take away resources from students who were willing to just do the damn thing, learn the concept, get the grade and then throw the source code in the trash, where most assignments end up.
Any assignment, any course, any major has requirements. If you don't like that schools require things of you, you learn in your basement. If you're getting bent out of shape over something as minor as whether you get to use open source, you need to grow up.
im not sure if it has been said before, but do NOT equip students with something as shitty as a dell laptop. thinkpad T series is the bare minimum you should consider, not only is lenovo's service GREAT, but they stop the HDD if they detect a fall and are encased in magnesium. a dell? well, have fun with the expense.
You've got a false concept going here. If the result is indistinguishable, they can't force you to do it. It's impossible, and you just ignore the rule. Nobody will notice.
If the result is not indistinguishable, any differences are your problem, not theirs. That's easy.
Most schools mandate so the students will have something to fall back on. If you want to spend extra effort doing something else, that's fine as long as it doesn't impinge on anybody. When students try it almost always does impinge on somebody, which is why administrators start to get pissed off.
My friend was in a class at a prestigious art school. They told her class "We're only teaching Macs in this class because we don't have time to go over the differences on each system and we need the colour matching. If you want to use a PC, taking care of the problems is your responsibility." 70% of the class just nodded because they had Macs. 20% nodded because they were willing to do the extra work to use PCs. 10% of the class spent the rest of the semester asking trivially stupid questions about key combinations and wasting everyone else's time.
So that's the upshot. You're pretending that you're all offended because it wouldn't make any difference, but if it wouldn't make any difference you could just keep your mouth shut and you'd be fine. The rules are there for the incompetent, right? But then you wouldn't get to make Charleton Heston style "from my cold dead hands" speeches. This isn't gays in the military. Don't ask, don't tell isn't a violation of human rights here.
There are *always* school rules that seem unreasonable. Look through any school handbook. Mine prohibits beverages on campus. These policies are unenforceable. Wise students don't make a fuss over it unless someone tries to enforce them. It isn't ok for the government to do this, but it is for a private institution.
While the thief may have a laugh that the owner thinks it's worth stealing, is it worth his effort to steal it?
Especially when the car next to it has no club, and no alarm. The whole point of these security measures is to make some other target more attractive. If someone really wants to steal your car, as opposed to just any car, they will.
Security measures can't prevent theft, they can only make it more likely, and any lock is better than none for that.
While the thief may have a laugh that the owner thinks it's worth stealing, is it worth his effort to steal it?
Just a comment, I have an aunt who lives in Mexico City, and you know, car thief is a thing of everyday there. Once, she told could not opened of her car club (it was stuck or something) in a parking place and went to the closer mechanic, there, the main mechanic sent one of the helpers (a guy 18 to 20 at most). My aunt told the she was completely astonished as the guy "unlocked" the club with a screwer and a hammer. Just some small hits in specific places and it was done. My aunt asked the boy how did he do it? and the boy answered that all the clubs where like that, it was stupid and unsecure, it was only a matter of knowing where to hit it and it would be unlocked. Since then, my aunt changed the club for a big chain and a lock.
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'