The teacher laptop scheme: time to rethink it? #duedchat

A brief history of my computer use as a teacher:

school one

Highly managed. Ask IT to come down and log in so you can unmute the sound.

school two

Very free. I was issued a imac. I could do anything I liked.

school three

Highly managed (I suspect outsourced to the same firm as school one). First laptop I used as a teacher. Very slow because it was loaded with stuff I never used. Far from ideal.

school four (current)

Highly managed Again, slow because it is loaded with stuff I never use. Recently, I have gained admin rights – but it’s not good practise to uninstall dozens of apps, so I haven’t. But at least I can adjust power settings, desktop wallpaper etc.

So?

I favour trust. I trust that my students will work independently (that doesn’t mean I don’t check). I want to be trusted as a professional and I want teaching tools that encourage creativity and are powerful enough to challenge my creativity, not limit it.

I did a little research and found two interesting things:

  • roughly half of teachers within my area have admin rights to their laptop
  • roughly half of them are interested in choosing their own device, setting it up and maintaining it.
Please click on the link to see a summary:

[ PPTA ICT Committee Survey ] – Google Docs

What are your thoughts? Do you as a teacher like the nice people at IT fixing your computer?


					
					


5 Comments to “The teacher laptop scheme: time to rethink it? #duedchat”

  1. […] to the whole country which I found very encouraging. We talked at length on the issue of laptop administration rights. I’m back there in December, and the agenda is probably already full. I’m really […]

  2. Jan Zawadzki 21 August 2011 at 11:54 pm #

    In the Manaiakalani cluster we’re doing 1:1 devices for students, and the students get full admin rights to their machines. We expect them to have the freedom to explore, and we protect the network and our shared resources in other ways.

    If your IT provider is telling you that the laptops must be locked down to protect the teacher or the network or “school resources”, start looking for a different vendor now. This may have been a sound policy a decade ago, but technology has moved on – your vendor may not have.

    The flip side to all this is that you need to empower the teachers to explore, and not penalize mistakes. People do silly things to their laptops, and your staff need to know there is a safety net in place. Part of this is effective PD, part is is an effective partnership with your IT provider, part is your org culture.

    Lastly: move all you can into “the cloud.” Your laptop becomes just an access point: a data entry and display device, and a trashed laptop is a temporary inconvenience rather than a personal disaster. If you don’t know how, get started with your school here: https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/education/new?hl=en

    • stevevoisey 22 August 2011 at 1:08 pm #

      Thankfully, we are not outsourced. Locked-down laptops usually go hand-in-hand with outsourcing – because the contractor is not in the business of education and doesn’t get it.
      I use the cloud a lot. Google docs, evernote, dropbox… My school has google apps too. But for video editing and music production (which I do a lot of), the cloud is no good.

  3. Jan Zawadzki 21 August 2011 at 11:54 pm #

    In the Manaiakalani cluster we’re doing 1:1 devices for students, and the students get full admin rights to their machines. We expect them to have the freedom to explore, and we protect the network and our shared resources in other ways.

    If your IT provider is telling you that the laptops must be locked down to protect the teacher or the network or “school resources”, start looking for a different vendor now. This may have been a sound policy a decade ago, but technology has moved on – your vendor may not have.

    The flip side to all this is that you need to empower the teachers to explore, and not penalize mistakes. People do silly things to their laptops, and your staff need to know there is a safety net in place. Part of this is effective PD, part is is an effective partnership with your IT provider, part is your org culture.

    Lastly: move all you can into “the cloud.” Your laptop becomes just an access point: a data entry and display device, and a trashed laptop is a temporary inconvenience rather than a personal disaster. If you don’t know how, get started with your school here: https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/education/new?hl=en

    • stevevoisey 22 August 2011 at 1:08 pm #

      Thankfully, we are not outsourced. Locked-down laptops usually go hand-in-hand with outsourcing – because the contractor is not in the business of education and doesn’t get it.
      I use the cloud a lot. Google docs, evernote, dropbox… My school has google apps too. But for video editing and music production (which I do a lot of), the cloud is no good.


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