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Best IT Solution For a Brand-New School?
Iain writes "I'm a teacher at a British 'City Academy' (ages 11-19) that is going to move into a new building next year. Management is deciding now on the IT that the students will use in the new building, as everything will be built from scratch. Currently, the school has one ICT suite per department, each containing about 25-30 PCs. My issue with this model is that it means these suites are only rarely used for a bit of googling or typing up assignments, not as interactive teaching tools. The head likes the idea of moving to a thin client solution, with the same one room per department plan, as he see the cost benefits. However, I have seen tablet PCs used to great effect, with every single classroom having 20-30 units which the students use as 'electronic workbooks,' for want of a better phrase. This allows every lesson to fully utilize IT (multimedia resources, Internet access, instant handout and retrieval of learning resources, etc.) and all work to be stored centrally. My question is: In your opinion, what is the best way for a school to use IT (traditional computer lab, OLPCs, etc.) and what hardware is out there to best serve that purpose? Fat clients for IT/Media lessons and thin client for the rest? Thin client tablets? Giving each student a laptop to take home? Although, obviously, cost is an issue, we have a significant budget, so it should not be the only consideration."
The old lab model is dead. Take your 20-30 computers, make them laptops, and available for any classroom use the teachers need. If demands becomes such that you can't meet demand, then you buy more. Add wireless throughout the place, and you should be set.
I'm UK taxpayer. This question highlights what I think is an endemic problem with the UK teaching system, and frankly the whole of the civil service:
This sort of thing shouldn't even be up for debate.
Developing this sort of infrastructure on a school-by-school basis is incredibly stupid. There should have been a central government review of the options prior to the latest run of school building, and a proper IT spending policy should have been worked out then. Having the decision made by the headteacher and a couple of staff (only one or two of whom are likely to be remotely qualified to understand all the options) means one school ends up with a much better or worse IT system than another. That is plain wrong. It's not fair on the kids.
To answer the question, for the love of God find out how the other schools near you have faired with their systems and copy the best one. Do not do go it alone (or alone with lots of Slashdotters).
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Tell me why throwing computers at the students will educate them "better" than having a professor standing at the front of the room moving a magnet along a glowing glass tube filled with argon showing them how the magnetic field "collapses" the light into a ribbon, with the students first entranced and then eagerly scribbling notes. And then in the next class having the students find the flaw in a mathematical proof covering two blackboards which "proves" that 2+2=5.
Stop thinking about computers & start thinking of the students.
i agree - most people 'taking notes' on laptops in lectures don't pay much attention to the lecture and instead are playing with their computer.
Computers should only be introduced when they are necessary.
If you are putting in a new school-wide network then wifi is probably a good idea. Just remember that every kid/teacher with a wifi-capable cell phone will try to use it too.
If the school is being wired from scratch then put a couple of Cat6s into every classroom. These can always be reticulated withion a classroom with switches or wifi.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Stay away from laptops and tablets! The students will only get distracted. Pencil and paper work much better for most subjects. Also, probably an even bigger issue is the teachers are going to have to focus a lot of their time on working out bugs and learning IT stuff, when they should be focusing on TEACHING. Until Apple makes an idiot proof Epod, stay away from this please. My first year of college, half of the students played Diablo 2 every class. These students didn't make it to their second year.
I think there is a future for this type of class, but not yet. The benefits would be automatic marking of multiple choice tests and math tests where you don't have to show your work. But there's just too many problems right now. Broken laptops, students looking at porn during classes, and instant messaging. Who's going to have the time to deal with all these distractions?
read some interesting stuff at mightyinteresting.com
I'm all for computers, having started programming back in '77 when a highcool math teacher took the private initiative to take some of us to an after school adult education class to learn programming, then building my own NASCOM-1 Z-80 kit in '78, and so on... I've been a professional programmer for over 25 years, and practically live on the computer at home doing hobbyist programming... So, I couldn't be a stronger advocate for the use and fun of using computers...
That all said, I'd have to go with the traditional computer lab model, preferably not just as a resource for homework research etc, but as a place for schedules hands-on computer lessons as part of the curriculum whether it be programming or even general computer use. I don't really see a useful place for computers in the classroom as part of other lessons, as it seems it would only be a distraction. The "enriched interactive multimedia experience" story-line may sound good at some level, but all it's really going to mean is that time that could have been spent covering and explaining core lesson material is instead spent faffing around with computers, watching videos, dealign with computer probolems etc.
If you want to have some cross-over between computer/programming classes and other lessons, then why not just encourage use of the internet as a research tool for homework assignments, maybe accept (or occasionally require) printed assignments as well as hand writen ones. This sort of approach would give the kids a useful introduction to preactical use of computers, an exposure to programming, but not do so at the expense of turning the core curruculum into am extended multimedia click-fest, and taking attention away from the teacher.
If you do take the opposite approach and bring computers into the classroom, then consider the scale of effort requires to develop computer based courses that are the equal of the textbook based material you currently teach. This sounds more like a mult-year national level effort, rather than something that a few teachers are going to be able to hack together in your own school.
I'd also echo what another poster wrote - don't go it alone! Reseach how other schools are using computers and what actually WORKS. Which schools have seen grades increase rather than decrease as a result of use of computers, and how does that correlate to the way they are using them?
I think a lot of this is snakeoil. If it isn't immediately clear what advantage the computer will bring to the lesson, don't use the computer. There are cases when it is clear that the computer brings a lot of positives, but it isn't all cases by a longshot.
Computers can eat up class time with distractions and technical problems. And digital work lacks tangibility. Students respond better to paper homework with actual scores than to digital assignments with scores appearing on some webpage.
I know that these problems may be solvable in the future, but they aren't solved now.
Use the Firehose to mod down Second Life stories!
No matter what setup you choose, don't forget the most important ingredient: Training. Lots of it. Ongoing. Study after study has shown that technology only gets truly integrated into the classroom if both teachers and administrators get ongoing, regular professional development around both using it and working it into the curriculum. Not just one session before the start of the school year - at least a couple of years' worth of regular sessions to help them figure out how to use it in the lessons they're teaching. Without that, whatever you get will just go to waste.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
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Computers are wonderful tools, but for most subjects students learn at that point in their lives (middle/high school in the US), computers aren't necessary.
Think about the primary subjects - Math, Science, and Literature/Writing - where do you see the benefits in using computers? Obviously for English classes, having access to computers to type papers is handy, but it's hardly necessary. Computers can be used in math to help illustrate concepts, but you don't want the students using computers to do their work, otherwise they won't know how to do it without them. And much of science is math - again, not something you want students using computers for.
I don't have as much faith in a computer for every student, in every class.
I think the big problem is that people don't necessarily ask and answer this question before they begin implementation: what are we trying to accomplish with these computers?
I remember when they first started the "computer in every classroom" initiative in my state. It was during the tech bubble of the '90s, and there was a great sense that computers were the new thing, they were a big deal, and the kids should be exposed to them in education. Put them in the classroom, and students will be magically enriched by the experience.
So they put a single computer into every classroom, and they sat there. There were occasional instances where students were allowed to use them to look something up online, but a few kids went looking for porn, and so next thing you know, students weren't allowed on the computers. Most of the teachers didn't really know how to use them, either, and the computers didn't have anything useful for the teachers anyhow (e.g. computerized grade books to test-creation software). So the computers just sat there and did nothing.
I don't want to suggest that computer *can't* be useful. Obviously they're good for writing papers. I'm still keeping an eye out for stories about using textbooks with open licensing and digital distribution, which seems like a great direction for us to take over the long term. The potential is tremendous.
I just believe that projects will generally be much more successful and efficient if you start by formulating a set of goals (and also perhaps things you'd like to avoid), and then figuring out what's necessary to meet those goals. Starting with a set of tools (which is what the computers would be) and then trying to figure out what you might be able to do with those tools tends to end less well.
I do IT for a medical practice. What we ended up with was a central server running Fedora and LTS, with thin clients in each of the exam rooms and in the doctor's office.
This had all the benefits of getting the records available in each room without having to go through individual updates. There are still fat clients/full workstations in the office, but those are primarily for the other work--office manager, accounting, etc.
since each grade level is different (different lessons, different requirements), I would suggest having a server either for each classroom, grade level, or department. For example, your math classes would need different software (and access) than your English class. You could even set up your foreign-language classes to have the locale set to the language they teach--the kids would have to learn French, Spanish, Russian, etc to use the computers...and the casual contact with that language would reinforce the lessons.
True, you would lose some of the benefits of "one admin to rule them all," but the software and changes would be compartmentalized--and the Computer instructors could even have more free reign to fix (or damage) their systems as they see fit.
Never confuse movement with action. --Hemingway
I'm a senior in a private high school where every student has a tablet PC. Save for a few particularly tech-savvy teachers, it's quite lackluster compared to how the plan looks on paper.
First of all, you're looking at high upfront costs. A Lenovo X60 tablet, the model we use, runs between $1,500 and $2,000, and if you include the $300 yearly "technology fee" my school tacks on (presumably to pay the tech department's salaries), that's a pretty steep cost no matter who's paying it.
Which brings us to the maintenance side of things. Teenagers break cars, cell phones, and other crap all the time - why should they not be expected to drop (or in some cases, throw - yes I've witnessed it) their tablets to the floor? Maintenance costs are very likely to go through the roof, and I promise you that over the course of the first two years, you're going to see maintenance costs eclipse the upfront cost.
Moreover, you'll probably need a porn filter to keep them from looking up boobs, MySpace or YouTube. That requires servers, and you're probably looking at close to 50-100 requests per second at peak times. Meaning your transparent proxy will require some serious big iron to handle everything. Make sure your bandwidth is at least 20Mbit/sec, and be ready to block LimeWire, Bittorrent, and other bandwidth-sucking and potentially illegal traffic that your transparent HTTP proxy won't catch.
Lastly, if students have their own tablets and a virus goes rampant throughout your LAN (again, I have witnessed this) reformatting every laptop will be not only a pain in the ass, but also traumatic for students that don't know how to/don't feel like making backups. XP Tablet is also very unstable in my experience, so also think about whether you want to go the Linux route which of course will require manual configuration and extra training.
As for staff, my school has about 170 students in grades 7-12, and our tech department includes a director of technology (ana management), a repair technician, and a network admin. So you're looking at maybe 1 technician per 150 students plus one network admin per ~300 to help with auditing, server maintenance, and security.
All this, and how often does my school use these tablets? Maybe once a week they're a mandatory part of my classes. Most students (myself included) still do most notes on pen and paper and all of my teachers except for one give out all assignments on paper. To be honest, our tablets are probably used more for gaming (think, 2D Flash games) and who-can-find the-first-working-proxy-to-browse-Facebook contests.
Oh yeah. If any of your students know how to use SSH, and you allow unfiltered connections on ANY TCP port, your filtering will be down the tubes in seconds. Yes, I bypassed the porn filter 5 minutes before school started the first day two years in a row, and a few other students did too.
Just a few things to keep in mind if you do a tablet program. Sorry for any typos or inconsistency, I'm on an iPod touch and my thumbs cannot keep up with my brain.
Beyond IT uses for the computers, I recommend the following rather than their computer simulations:
with hardware and software suppliers! If they do, you will end up with expensive Windows systems, and inferior commercial software with "good" prices.
Major hardware and software vendors already have established deals for educational institutions. Linux distributions like Ubuntu are (by most accounts) superior to Windows, and cost nothing.
My recommendation would be to use Linux and other open-source software. Open Office does most of what Microsoft Office does. There is graphics software, video-editing software, and software of every variety you could want, all open-source and little to no cost.
But if they start to "negotiate" with commercial vendors, they will end up with commercial products at substantial cost, and questionable worth (comparatively speaking).
I would start with wiring the building and then if you have a need to establish a lab, then you simply add local switches as necessary. I realise that there is a move to wireless networks, but they don't achieve the necessary speeds for certain applications, and prevents you from easily making your network secure. While this may not matter to students, for the administration this may be an issue. Once you have your physical infrastructure in place, then depending on usage requirements, you add severs and PCs according to needs. I tend to try to try to establish a network where Linux, MacOS X and Windows can all share resources, since that way there is no need to deal with multi-platform support as an after thought.
The other thing is to ensure that a competent systems administrator is in place ;)
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Not everyone is like you, if they were, why even have class rooms and educational establishments, why not just have a list of recommended reading, followed by an exam a week later and dispense with all the time wasted?
You certainly wouldn't have benefited from playing on a computer whilst being stuck in a lecture hall, in your case not going to the lectures and doing something worth while instead would have been the way to aid your education.
In my case, I got a part time job working from home, that perfectly complemented my degree, which I did whilst skipping classes.
The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
The major reason computer technology deployments for K-12 education (in the US at least..)and failed to deliver on it's promises while becoming a black hole of spending in the 90s and early 2000's, is that the approach was similar to the one you describe here.
Back then, we gave teachers and administrators the latest, greatest technology and expected them to figure out how to use it in order to make instruction better. Some teachers did just that, but they were few and far between. These early adopters created pockets of technology and inconsistency/inequality of instruction across the school landscape. In the worst cases, the technology sat gathering dust in the classroom closet.
Several years ago I participated in a large-scale Gates Foundation grant to study various models of instruction and gather measurable data about those models. ( Before you jump up-and-down about Micro$oft dealing Windows to our kids, you should know that of the 9 million in grant funding, only 10% could be spent on technology... the majority had to be used to study the instructional outcomes of the various school models.)
As the result of that study we found a number of proven technologies and techniques that helped to enhance the learning experience.
1) Before you buy a single piece of Tek, you need an instructional technology plan that will show how the equipment and software that you choose will create the instructional outcomes you want. Results MUST be measurable so that you can share them with the public (partial to justify the expense...) and instructional staff so that you can build and refine your techniques. The plan should be at least 3 years in depth and be flexible enough to absorb changes in administration and instructional staff. If you do not do this first, all the tek in the world wont help you educate kids.
2) Develop a support plan and a refresh cycle. This is the IT side of the house. You plan should include long term training both for new staff and a constant refreshers for existing staff. You want admin computing (see #3 below ) to be a no-brainier so you can concentrate your resources on the instructional side of the house.
3) Deploy a standardized technology to instructors and administrators in order to cover the rote administrative tasks like grading, email, communication, Internet research, and word processing. Thin client works very well for this. It's robust and consistent.
4) No Classroom Computers in Grades K-3: Children at these ages need to focus on interpersonal and cognitive skills. Computer Technology at this level has been shown in many studies to decrease the learning process.
5) Deploy Smartboards, LCD Projectors, a Presentation PC with an attached "Elmo", and classroom sound amplification system (such as the "FrontRow" product). Of all this equipment, the piece that will make the most difference is the amplification system. This technology has been proven time and time again to increase student learning/comprehension and at the same time, reduce teacher absenteeism.
6) Consider learning labs and mobile devices such as tablets and laptop carts, if they fit into your instructional technology and support plans and maximize your available resources.
And just some tips from my own years of experience in edTek:
-Break the low voltage data infrastructure wiring out from the general contractor who is building your new school. Generals don't understand the big-picture of data. Be sure that the IT staff is involved in the deployment and design of your plant.
-Don't skimp on power outlets and data jacks!
-Laptop carts can be very heavy when fully loaded. If you use them, go with more small ones with fewer laptops.
-If you engage a consultant(s) to oversee your tek deployment, be sure they have lots of experience with school technology. Business folks often don't understand the differences that exist between the private sector and education.
Don't fret over the Windows/Mac/Linux issue for instruction. If your teachers are edu
- Specialist software demanded by the teachers (and make no mistake, there's masses of it and a lot of it will be demanded) won't run because that tends to be Windows only.
Unless you can solve this problem, you can provide the most fantastic system in the world and it'll be relegated to the sidelines.
You are exaggerating. Most educational "specialist software" these days are web pages.
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Large, slow code is slower to debug. It costs development time. Those who claim there's a development/code performance tradeoff are blowing hot air.
What's the point in teaching them Linux?
The point of the parent wasn't to "teach linux" but to teach whatever subject the teacher is teaching (geography, maths, etc.) using free software to project the presentations, because the legal implications of using unlicensed proprietary software in a class room are financially dangerous.
When they get out into the real world they will find out that most companies actually use Windows and MS Office. {...} Teach them what they need to know to get jobs.
Well, that's the number 1 troll response that people get when they propose teaching with anything else but an exact replicate than what is currently in the workplace.
This is demonstrably bad for a couple of reason :
We're talking about a school. Not some preparatory training course for adults who will be in the workplace within 6 months. But teaching given to 11-19 y.o., who won't be in the workplace before 5-15 years. That's a pretty long time in the computer world.
5 years is what separates several major revisions of softwares.
And in 15 years, the landscape can change beyond recognition. 15 years ago Microsoft wasn't even such a big player in the office field.
So in short, chances are very high that the software with which you teach kids today, and what they will encounter 5 to 15 years from now in the marketplace will share little in common.
Therefor it matters little *what* software you teach them to use.
See how skills under MS-Office 2003 map well with the new MS-Office 2007, and try to imagine how they could even remotely help some future MSO 2012 or MSO 2022 (if microsoft is still around by then and office suite are still used the same way).
The only useful skill that can be taught today to the future is to be at ease with computers in general, and general knowledge about office softwares, etc...
this could be done with any software at hand, and there are some good reasons to pick Linux and OOo.
Mainly financial and legal ones :
- the licensing will be cheaper for the school as OSS is free, whereas MSDNAA requires a tax based on school population.
- also it will be easier and legal for the students to obtain free copies to use at home.
(for example MSDNAA doesn't offer home license for MSO for students, only for teachers, whereas OSS is available for downloading for free).
Currently, if a students wants to use the same software at home, either she/he has to shell out over a hundred buck (cheaper than the normal version, but still not an easy amount of money) or she/he has to p2p-download it from some shady website, putting the family at legal risk and the computer at security risk.
Also other minor reasons :
- teaching diversity : showing that there's more than only Microsoft might help spring more diversity in the corporate world.
Current adults have grown up with a very diverse computing world in their childhood years with lots of different compagnies producing home microcomputers (Apple, Atari, Amiga, etc...) and an incredible lot of varied software solution.
Whereas, current children and youngs have grown up in a world where there has been few thing on computers beside Windows and other microsoft branded software. Showing an inherently diverse world like Linux and OSS might help.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]