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| User | Post |
| mvent2 Posts: 48/76 |
And fucking count your lucky stars you go to a rich school. I have to go to a severely underfunded state school with no air conditioning except in the library and computer labs, roofs that haven't been replaced since they were built, a textbook hire scheme where you shell out hundreds of dollars/year for 10-year-old textbooks and the only tools in the physics lab are off-center vernier calipers, balances and rhetort stands.
Yet, its the best state school in the western metro area. |
| firemaker Posts: 125/194 |
My school doesn't really trust linux users. They know that we can join the network with more network power than most users. Its really stupid. They only like people who know nothing about PC's on their network. But I'lll ask about the linux and mac thing anyway (as i will be getting an x86 mac YIPPEE) |
| mvent2 Posts: 39/76 |
What are the chairs like in the computer labs? Buy some executive chairs for the computer labs if you can't think of anything else to buy. 
Create a new, small computer lab with Linux PCs or Macs. |
| HyperHacker Posts: 834/5072 |
Do both. Online and real books. |
| NSNick Posts: 398/2228 |
I guess I should say additional material. Like videos and interactive graphs and stuff. Not the whole book online. |
| firemaker Posts: 107/194 |
No... *Shudders" trust me no matter what format it is in, it is always better to have a book rather thatn a pc. The portability of a textbook is why I like textbooks so much. I mean its not like a laptop that can run out of batteries or anything like that. |
| NSNick Posts: 397/2228 |
Perhaps look into getting textbooks in online or computer formats? |
| HyperHacker Posts: 816/5072 |
Yeah, a lot of schools use Deep Freeze to do that. It's pretty good; has options to install Windows updates while frozen (I think), make a non-frozen partition, and is pretty secure (runs as a driver, so you can't just kill the process, and prevents BIOS writes so you can't just wipe the boot password with some clever writes). Of course without a properly configured BIOS (boot from HD, password required to change) this is all fairly pointless as a boot disk can take it out in a few seconds. Also it can really slow down the system... |
| neotransotaku Posts: 463/1860 |
Originally posted by Grey cat There are several undergraduate computer labs scattered around my school. What is nice about them is you can install anything you want. However, when you log out of using them, that causes the system to reset itself and restore itself back to a state before you logged on. This is a solution that could be explored to keep systems uniform. |
| firemaker Posts: 104/194 |
Grey while I am all for making sure people don't mess up the actual system the school should allow firefox to be used on all pc's and not just personal laptops. Then they should only give internet access to their main router which could ave the legally required web filtering. |
| Schweiz oder etwas Posts: 406/2046 |
The key here is in idiot-proofing the computer systems at a school. I agree with Tarale that computer maintanence should be more important than just buying pretty gadgets, and I agree with Kas that uniformity is key.
The problem is with the people who DO do things like install Firefox and other programs that interfere with the uniformity of the computers. There should be no tweaking allowed at all, because you can only tweak so much before you start to break things down. Letting students independently install programs on standardized computers will only lead to the eventual state of someone doing the idiotic thing like installing fucking GATOR for crying out loud. And then, if your file system protection is anything like what my High School's was, the entire system is screwed. Control, when it comes to something as delicate as technology, needs to be completely taken away from anyone who isn't responsible/informed/educated enough to use it correctly. |
| Kasumi-Astra Posts: 40/258 |
I have to agree about the school already being up-to-date. My school suffered from having a bloated IT department that drew budget away from other departments. There's no fucking wonder that they key subjects of maths, english and science are failing. They're never going to compete with subjects that appear as trendy and high-tech as Computing. My old IT teacher has a 30" monitor in his office, for christ's sake.
So many subjects could do with bright, interesting, clean new textbooks and a breath of fresh air. The best thing you can give a school is plenty of reasonably fast computers, and make them uniform across the entire school. You don't need toys or gadgets to learn. Just make the computer experience easy to learn and approach. Make sure that there's enough facilities so that it can be a part of every student's study experience. |
| firemaker Posts: 103/194 |
I like the laptop idea but most people already have laptops in school because ofthe wireless system. However what HyperHacker said seems like a very good idea. It would mean that students without as much money as others e.g. scholars could get laptops to help them with their work. |
| HyperHacker Posts: 809/5072 |
Originally posted by Cymoro This is true of any Compaq. The one I'm using at school right now takes about 10 seconds to execute 'rem' (which does absolutely nothing) in a batch file. 
If you have the money, go with the laptop idea. Install some nice software like Firefox/Opera/not IE, maybe Textpad, |
| firemaker Posts: 102/194 |
Originally posted by Koneko Thats what I thought. The school IT facility is very advanced for a high school. |
| Koneko Posts: 179/656 |
And your school needs to be better why?
Unless you don't do upgrade/repair as mentioned by Tarale, you guys are set. If you need to use up some budget though, suggest buying Cray 9. |
| firemaker Posts: 100/194 |
Originally posted by neotransotaku We're a private school so have a £500,000 budget and the whole school is already wireless. Hence laptops and desktops can be connected to their network. As for programs we already have Photoshop 6 Macromedia MX suite Sibelius Office 2003 |
| Tarale Posts: 419/2713 |
I come from an education in schools background and I currently still work in the education sector.
The thing that I have found most IT coordinators don't focus on enough is keeping the state of the workstations up to scratch. Too many focus on "innovating" (read: toys) and not enough on the perpetual cycle of upgrade and repair. Audit your workstations. Remove any that are old clunkers and replace them. Try to upgrade a whole classroom and rotate your machines. Audit printers and data projectors too and submit them to the same treatment if you can. Your students and teachers don't want to work with broken equipment, slow equipment or unreliable equipment. |
| asdf Posts: 238/4077 |
I agree with free Wireless. You could also get some better programs, depending on the software you currently use. If money is left over, try to get some warrenties on some of the video equipment. But most importantly, focus on the little things at first, then if you're still in, work your way out to the big things. After all, you are new at the job and don't want to look like a fool.  |
| neotransotaku Posts: 447/1860 |
what kind of school is your school? High School? Middle school? and what is your school's budget?
some high schools have pilot the idea of renting laptops to each and every student. Video editing and production equipment would be nice if there are plans to offer digital video elective. |
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