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What Restrictions Should Student Laptops Have?
An anonymous reader writes "We're a school district in the beginning phases of a laptop program which has the eventual goal of putting a Macbook in the hands of every student from 6th to 12th grade. The students will essentially own the computers, are expected to take them home every night, and will be able to purchase the laptops for a nominal fee upon graduation.
Here's the dilemma — how much freedom do you give to students? The state mandates web filtering on all machines. However, there is some flexibility on exactly what should be filtered. Are things like Facebook and Myspace a legitimate use of a school computer? What about games, forums, or blogs, all of which could be educational, distracting or obscene? We also have the ability to monitor any machine remotely, lock the machine down at certain hours, prevent the installation of any software by the user, and prevent the use of iChat. How far do we take this?
While on one hand we need to avoid legal problems and irresponsible behavior, there's a danger of going so far to minimize liability that we make the tool nearly useless. Equally concerning is the message sent to the students. Will a perceived lack of trust cripple the effectiveness of the program?"
Easier to use? Easier to administer? Overall a better computer for general purpose tasks? The ability to run Word, Photoshop, and iMovie (all of which were significant parts of my high school experience).
There are arguments in favor of the asus as well (cheap, moderately usable, teach the kids about free software, cheap) but don't act like using a mac for education is so ridiculous.
There's more to the cost of a computer than the up front cost. It doesn't take much worker overhead to make up the difference in systems. Long term cost comparisons have shown macs to be entirely cost competitive in this sort of environment.
How many school admins know how to administrate Linux?
I agree. Viruses aren't really targeted for Macs, so don't put anti-virus on the machine, but use OpenDNS' phishing and adware filters like I do at home on all our machines (except the Boeing owned Laptop that connects to servers that don't have DNS entries) and on my iPod touch. But M$ Office doesn't ever belong on a mac. NeoOffice also shouldn't exist, OpenOffice.org 3.0 runs in Aqua now, with great performance. I thought the reason people bought macs was to not use M$'s shit. Then again, the school district probably already uses failchange (Exchange) for mail, so to use that email account you'll have to use M$ Office. Now if the district used a nice OS X Server for email, SpamAssasin from the Apache Project is already included and you can use just about any mail client, since it just uses IMAP and SMTP, which are industry standards. Thank you Apple for using open source software.
-- Darren VanBuren
6th to 12th grade? Are you people insane???
Kids aged 11 to 17?
That's a vital period of social growth. There's some serious brain development going on during that time in a child's life, and as with all brain growth, it is directed by their social connections with other people.
Did Apple hard-sell this idea or did the voting majority of your board members all fail upward through their teacher's training courses?
I could list all the reasons why this is a terrible idea, but it sounds like Apple has already sold you swampland in Florida, so it's not like it can be stopped at this point. Let me guess: "Computer skills are becoming a vital necessity for success in life, and OUR school in order to face the future. . ." "Not all children have equal access to computers, but with THIS program. . ." Those were the two primary arguments used to sell this thing, right? --That and, "We need to ensure that our program attracts the right kind of demographic, and with an expensive computer program. . ." (But that answer is only quietly mentioned.)
Question: Who was it that convinced your board of the computer need? Was it a corporate sell-job, or was it driven by a genuine sense of need? --I know that there was some serious money changing hands in curious ways -and some VERY- annoyed students and teachers at the local university where a similar deal was put together using far over-priced PC laptops.
The end result? Halls and concourses which were once bustling with life and activity and bright eyes ten years ago, are now dead, quiet places filled with dull-eyed and confused-looking young people in far fewer numbers, quietly clicking on their portable computers.
Great.
The classes themselves are dead spaces. Teachers can expect to look out at a wall of laptop lids and kids paying barely half the attention to you they might otherwise. This is not cool. Not at all. I've seen both ends of it, and it's lousy.
The cool students, the ones with natural spirit will survive this travesty, but they will do so because they are not computer nerds and when at home spend as little non-necessary time on their computer as possible, socializing and making their way through the physical world with joy. --Actually, everybody will survive; that's what humans do. They will manage and they will go on to make lives for themselves. But this is not making it easier to become a fully rounded, powerful person. It is making it harder.
School, for all it's many flaws, (and there are SO many; the main one being that kids are grouped by age; ever wonder why groups of kids of all ages hanging out together during the Summer are kind and supportive while kids in school live in so much misery and fear of one another?). . , but for all the flaws, school DOES allow kids to meet lots of other people and learn social lessons. The introduction of computers, unless you handle it very carefully, will dramatically reduce the level of social contact. The kids are already plugged into TV, game systems and personal computers when they are at home. Moderation is what is needed, and enforced conditions where social activities cannot be hidden from.
So given this, the following are my recommendations. . .
Lock down those computers down as much as possible. Let them be word processors and little more.
Give teachers the ability to turn on wireless access with a wand or something. One click and the computer is able to access the network for the duration of the necessary portions of a class, after which it automatically returns to its native locked-down condition. Maybe lift these restrictions after school hours.
If it is possible, alter the program so that the computers are handed out in class rooms and must be handed back at the end of school. A kid should still be responsible for a given computer with his or her name on it, so that they learn to take care of the thing, (I killed a lot of scho