Most of Grayde’s students are studying Computing at the level of BTEC National Diploma, Foundation Degree, City & Guilds etc, not A-levels.
Staff at institutions don’t control the network – don’t have access, can’t install things and FTP is locked down.
Microsoft sell software very cheaply to education institutions to get students used to using it.
Facebook and YouTube are major distractions for students.
Solutions to these problems:
- run software from USB drives
- stand-alone lab for hardware and software – but no connection to the internet in this lab
- Burn stuff to live CDs/DVDs (beware of the installation options – eg students accidentally install ubuntu)
- PXE boot to alternative media
Opportunities:
- Ebuntu – programs junk or obvious but community useful for LTSP
- Slax – runs from USB drive, cannot be ‘accidentally’ installed to the hard drive, have got Slax images so in event of network crash can still run things
- GANTT project – runs from USB drive,
If we block a site students always find their way around it using proxy.
Linux use:
- Installing operating systems
- Comparison with Windows
- Setting up users with privileges
- But need root access, can mess up the system; students play on pointless games
Students will use anything to avoid to do work. On a stripped down and locked down system with no internet or any software, students will open a paint package and play noughts and crosses in order to avoid work.
Linux Server Terminal Project (LSTP) – Thin Client:
- Works
- Need plenty of bandwidth
- Single point of failure
- Local apps can be run on the clients
- Difficulty with local internet access
End user doesn’t care too much that they are using open source software. As long as it works to browse – for example Facebook – then as long as it runs quickly and the experience is good then they are happy.
Speed of running from USB drives is OK – not blindingly fast but not noticeably slow.
USB 3.0 at 5gb/s will give give a better response to local drives. At the moment, you wouldn’t notice much.
The only way of turning the internet off to avoi d students finding distractions is to pull the individual collections out of each computer but we cannot do that. And the main tech support people control the router in a locked room.
Even if we wanted to lock down fully, they would find a wifi signal from down the road.
Students need to develop the skills of planning and prioritising.
DRBL: Diskless Remote Boot:
- NFS shares
- Clonezilla – Partimage, Ghost; Server run, clients can’t choose image to restore; Alternative to caddy system
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My notes from this session:
Options for IT in schools:
Install on hard disk
Boot from CD rom (watch out for HDD install option!)
Boot from network – can send different OS to different machines depending on need.
USB (Student cannot accidentally overwrite the HDD contents!)
Which OSs to use: edubuntu, not bad. Lots of edubuntu hackers work in education. Some useful tools have been developed.
A lot of talk about how to lock down systems and not much about how to free them or their users up! Circumventing proxy servers is seen as a challenge by students. If you block something they’ll try to find a way round it. Sounds like locking down machines is fruitless. But must make best efforts to lock down access as otherwise machines quickly become full of rubbish and unusable. Imaging machines can be a quick resolution to broken systems. Norton Ghost / partimage / clonezilla – server based.
Linux terminal server project: LTSP. Use alt install ubuntu. Need machines with two network cards. Spits out images to clients. Need a stack of bandwidth. Decent server will start to wobble at 6-7 clients. Works better on GigE (but expensive). Local apps are in development. This should relieve server load. Question about USB3 at 5MB/s for thin client use. This may resolve some network issues for thin client setups.
Using linux in classes: have to teach about hardware but can’t do so in working computer lab used for other school work. Teach "what is an operating system" by allowing students to install linux in a lab environment. Install several distributions and compare / contrast. Where does each component fit into the stack and where does each layer begin and end? Students learning with root privs can nuke systems, but they need root to install OS and learn sysadmin.
What is the user experience like? Answer: end user doesn’t care! Only want it to work. Users are after the experience – not interested in the software.
Why manage net access at all?
Is it a good thing or a bad thing that kids are so good at circumventing technical blocks on net access etc?
– Students play tic-tac-toe using drawing packages (paint) when other games are uninstalled!
– Kids are easily distracted and can’t focus when distractions exist. The cream cakes are on the table and they must learn to resist them!
– This is a life skill for working in the internet age. Education needs to change to make sure people can work despite distractions.