Comments on: Politicians still failing to grok technology

By: Princess Poophead

Princess Poophead — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:36:58 +0000

No Purrdence, I don’t teach highschool, but as a single parent I do sometimes have to deal with the unexamined classism of some teachers who really don’t get that it’s often a struggle just to pay for uniforms. I also work in the welfare sector, and am aware of how disadvantaged many kids are when their parents can’t afford the technology that their peers have and I think it’s time the government recognised that. So at least they’re making an effort.

By: Mindy

Mindy — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:18:22 +0000

We had a spate of school robberies here a while ago where computers were stolen. We wondered at the time why the Ed Dept didn’t get bright green covers or something for the computers, so it was obvious that they were school property. They would need to do something similiar with school laptops so that they couldn’t be sold. Note, I’m not suggesting that the kids would necessarily sell them, most of them would probably appreciate having the laptop, but parents, friends, boarders etc all might see a way to make a quick dollar.

By: Quixotess

Quixotess — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:31:08 +0000

On that note, if they do have to pay for insurance, and if the insurance covers theft, and if your school is so stupid as to put markings on it that are easily removed (my school had a couple of goddamn stickers), you’ll have students selling their laptops and claiming it as stolen in order to make a quick thou. We had that, too.

By: Purrdence

Purrdence — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:29:31 +0000

Let’s not buy into Today Tonight’s “youth gone wild” trope, eh?

Taught high school recently? ;p Some (not all) of them are right little blighters who I wouldn’t let near a computer that they hadn’t paid for with their own money and would be the ones that would ruin the whole laptop program for the kids who do do the right thing all the time.

By: Tamala

Tamala — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 08:51:58 +0000

I have to agree with Helen. PC’s are easier to maintain and upgrade. They are either about the same price as a laptop or cheaper and USB’s are more discrete and have less chances of being stolen/broken.

Personally my idea of a school-tech utopia would be a school full of decent computers and a system set up for an IT/design tech class where students would have to put their own box together with components bought bulk by the government or school ( preferably school so the PT associations can have more direct say on whats purchased.) to reduce costs to everybody. And a couple of classes in IT devoted to installing and maintaining computer OS’s and software.

By: Helen

Helen — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 07:52:28 +0000

Bwahahaha! Good luck with preventing the kids finding an easy hack around this so-called blocked laptop. I’ve already thought of at least 3 ways to approach getting past it, and I only read this story 5 minutes ago, and I’m not a dedicated hackgeek.

You’re being overly modest, but that prolly means Boychild would take about that long, and he’s only in 5th grade.

I’m very concerned about the personal security / robbery issue as well. Why don’t they have networked desktop PCs with USBs to take home?

By: tomasr

tomasr — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 06:53:27 +0000

I think this is in fact a great idea. Think what will happen! 1/ Kids with a casual interest in computing will want to learn about hacking their laptop instead of "just using it". A whole generation of hackers sporned! 2/ They will learn all about co operation and community networks when they all put in to get a 3G dongle and then use that instead. 3/ The various education dept people will learn that blocking services like FB, MySpace et al is a waste of time. (as @Trib reminds us "If you are looking for the best communication/collaboration services, check out what your IT dept BLOCKS!") thomasr tomasr's last blog post..Dirty days

By: Beppie

Beppie — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:04:30 +0000

Actually, I think that the computers are all going to run on Open Source software– at least, that was the plan a year or so ago, when they were first talking about it.

By: Meg Thornton

Meg Thornton — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 03:45:23 +0000

Oh good grief. I find myself wondering which operating system they're going to be putting onto the laptops - if they're wanting security, they'll be wanting one of the Linuxes or a Unix (or, let's be honest, an etch-a-sketch). If they're wanting compatibility with the workforce, they'll probably be using Microsoft, and most likely Vista (since MS have this rather severe allergy to people being granted anything but the latest and greatest and most buggy of their current OSen). If they use any form of Windows, the system will be hacked within the first fortnight (I'm being generous here, and presuming the junior crackers are taking time off to do things like go to school and sleep); if it's a Unix or Linux, it'll take maybe a month at most. Either way, I can't see the sense in saying "no, you're not going to be accessing the social networking sites, no way, no how". I'd be more likely to give courses on internet safety (Rule One: no matter what you put on the internet, and no matter where you put it, it will not stay secret) and teach safe behaviour on social networking sites as part of this. Acknowledge the internet exists, acknowledge it can be used by people who don't have the kid's best interests at heart, and teach the basics of how to spot such people from a distance. Meg Thornton's last blog post..So I should be going "baaaa" about now

By: QoT

QoT — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 03:26:44 +0000

Making laptop-ownership universal for pupils of a certain school or district is a fantastic way to turn them into vulnerable targets for thieves. One very well-to-do school in my neighbourhood in Auckland basically made laptops compulsory for all pupils from age 6 up (generally provided by the families themselves, it being that kind of area). Lo and behold, at least one small girl walking to school had a car pull up beside her and a guy tear her backpack off her.

As if most people needed any more reason to drive their kids a whole two blocks every morning …