Teacher Freedom vs Account Security

 

Do you use the theory of least-privileged user account (LUA) with your teachers?

While I believe in the theory, I’ve also found that if you use it in an educational setting with the teachers that you increase your workload. I have had to only remove 3 virus/malware infections in the last 3 years on a user base of over 500 computers at my school. All the infections have been on teacher laptops from downloads or internet usage. The student computers, both laptops and desktops are locked down using LUA, so I haven’t had a problem with them.

The teachers need autonomy to use or try different programs to teach their students. The teachers are given administrator rights on their laptops and are given full access to the laptop hard drive. They have their own Home folder on a network server to save important data like grades and documents. I only ask a few things from the teachers….

1. If you are going to install a program let me know ahead of time to see how it installs and if it conflicts with any district applications.
2. Do not install any other anti-spyware, anti-virus software.
3. Do not install anything from Google. I install Google Earth as a default in the image for the teacher laptops.
4. No Instant Messaging software.
5. Do not click on any dialogs for updates to Flash, Adobe Reader, Java or anything else unless I’ve sent an email.
6. No AOL.

Pretty basic, common sense requests. The teachers know that if they do not follow these basic requests and their laptops is not reparable to a previous state within a minimum amount of time that I will have to image it to a pristine state. Also, I am not responsible if they lose any data that they have not saved or that I cannot find in normal locations on their hard drives. A disclaimer here: I do my best to get every bit of data from a teachers laptop even though I state that I am not responsible for any lost data.

I believe in treating the teachers with respect, letting them do what they do best…teach our children. If you do, they actually come to you for help, ask questions and respect you in return. It makes my job much easier.

Technorati tags: Educational Technology, K-12 Education

Filed under: Educational Technology, K-12 Ed Tech , Account Security, Least Privileged User, Teacher Laptops

One Laptop Per Child or The $100 Laptop

Dave Pogue of the NY Times has an interesting review of the $100 dollar laptop program.

Technorati tags: k12 Education, Educational Technology, One Laptop per Child

Filed under: Education, Educational News, Educational Technology, K-12 Education , Technology and Society

Blogging as Part of Your Class

I’ve been working on this post for a month with a teacher at my school. Together we’ve started a blog for his 5th grade class (click here). The idea is to engage the students on the computer in a way that gets them interested in their work, while teaching them how to communicate. We also want to get the parents involved with their children together outside the classroom in an environment that the kids feel comfortable. The blog has been up for two days and in that time the students have already started asking questions about assignments with over 25 comments.

The blog consists of the main entrance page that contains the Upcoming Events post, pages that contain weekly class Lesson Plans in Math & Science, a Homework page and an Online Resource page.

• The Upcoming Events post is static, sort of; Keith will change it depending on events as they change each month. We decided that instead of making new posts, then having the posts scroll down as in a typical blog, that Keith would just write the upcoming events in the text editor and save the update. He will also change the time stamp to reflect the new age of the post.
• The weekly Lesson Plans are short basic overviews on what the students are doing that week, if there is a test and what is expected. It is not a detailed lesson plan, but something that gives a parent an idea about what their child is working on.
• The Homework page gives the students a homework assignment due later in the week. The student can ask questions by using the comments section of the page. The comments are moderated by Keith so that nothing inappropriate gets on the blog.
• The Online Resources page will change, be added to as time goes on and Keith finds sites that he wants his students and Parents to visit.

The Blogroll has basic links to our school page, the county school page and eharcourtschools, which is one of our main math sites. As I mentioned above, the Pages have comments allowed so that the parents and students can communicate with Keith after hours when Keith is online at home. It is also a help to the parents that cannot contact Keith during the school day. They leave a comment and Keith can email them a personal reply or leave a comment of his own if appropriate.

I personally believe a blog is an easy method of communicating your class goals than maintaining a web site. The quickness of editing a post or page is much faster than using FrontPage, DreamWeaver or another HTML program. The manipulation of the pages is easier and you can add video, pictures and other multimedia much easier. Lastly, you can communicate in faster and better with your students and their parents.

Check out Keith’s blog: Mr. Thompson’s 5th Grade Class

Technorati tags: Educational Technology, k12 Education, Blogging, Elementary Education

Filed under: Blogging, Education, Educational News, Educational Technology, Elementary School Information, K-12 Ed Tech, K-12 Education, Web 2.0