Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-edu (303 mails)

[Matt Johnson <johnsonmlw@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi mate,

> > Why? Realistically, do they sit in a cupboard for
> the
> > hols (honestly?)...
> 
> Clearly not! There are two issues.
> 
> *People treat laptops worst than pool motor cars,
> they are usually subjected
> to even more careless misuse during the long teacher
> holidays and come back
> with damaged drives, cases & screens and it's not
> unusual to have to empty
> them of sand! legitimate use? Why should they and
> their kids mess up a
> resource that is then denied to others because of
> their stupidity and
> carelessness. If ya wanna mess with stuff (expensive
> kit that doesn't belong
> to you) , buy yer own!

I come at this from another perspective entirely. I
have to make myself inherently trust the spirit of the
people I work with. Yes, it back fires spectacularly,
but the pros outweigh the cons. There's no reason why
they're significantly more likely to get messed up
during these two weeks than any other. And I'm not
going to spend any of my hols sorting out laptops. 

And, yes - I'm very happy for teachers to use them for
their own means. In fact, I've been encouraging it
madly this last year. The turn around in attitudes of
those who don't have their own is well worth the
effort that it causes me from their tinkering. I want
people to be confident with the kit when they're
teaching it. And the reason the kids are confident
with it is because they're exposed to it (and mess it
up regularly). The group I'm talking about do not own
their own - and if they did then they wouldn't be
fussed about taking the laptop.

> *The weakest point in ANY network is a laptop! The
> network's all cosy,
> clean, virus fee and sitting behind a fire wall,
> then suddenly meltdown!
> Some dipstick who knows best has loaded all kinds of
> everything onto the
> laptop and disabled the AV because their kids game
> doesn't like sharing a
> computer with any other software (because the rules
> don't apply to them) and
> then decided to plug it into the network - cool!

Agreed. I agree completely technically. But I'm not in
the business of taking decisions to make my life
easier (and I'm not suggesting you are either,
geezer!). Just that I think it's worth it the extra
sorting and solving time to have these resources out
there.

> We like to have a clean-up and software update while
> the machine is not
> needed, then we sit them in a secure cupboard so
> they're ready for use when
> really needed :-) Of course if we don't get them
> during the holiday, we have
> to do it during term time!

Not me. I'm doing it in work time. I'm sure there's a
couple of hours it's not being used in term time? (And
so they do end up in a cupboard...)

> And in any case, why should a sacred few have
> exclusive access to what is a
> shared school resource during the holiday? Come on
> you lot, who swans about
> in the school minibus and have all your fuel and
> repair bills paid for by
> the school?

No not a sacred few. Share the wealth.

Have a blinding New Year, one and all!

--
Matt

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