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High School Student Laptop Policy

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cschw:
Thanks for mentioning TechDirt and Popehat, I will reserve these as 'nuclear options' if I don't get anywhere when writing to or meeting with school administrators.

App, thanks too for your suggestions.  I understand why they want monitoring/logging software installed on school equipment, and am not necessarily opposed if the laptops were to remain at school.  My reservations kick in when they encourage students to take the laptops home for working on homework and projects--and to charge them so they will be fully charged the next morning.  As the privacy policy stands, I do not want the laptop to leave school.  And if it never leaves school, then I see no need to purchase insurance of any kind--however this means not working on homework/projects out of school.

Like mouser, I would prefer there to be an option to bring your own laptop.  The school could publish minimum requirements and offer a generic software package.  Their rationale is that it makes support more difficult, and that the "integrative technology" which provides for communication between the students and teacher may not work on equipment brought from home...that, and the teacher would not be able to use the same "integrative technology" to monitor whether the students were using the laptop for schoolwork, rather than social networking or games.

I will not sign the agreement as it stands, so my plan is:
1. Write to the school board to outline my reservations with the laptop policy.
2. If there is no political will to amend the policy, take my concerns to third parties (media, government, others)
3. If the policy still cannot be amended, attempt to include provision for BYOL (bring your own laptop)
4. If all else fails, opt out and let the administrators and teachers figure out how they will adapt their plans to accommodate a non-conformist.

My child isn't thrilled about the possibility of being unique in this way...but it's an opportunity to further her education.

cschw:
And... I have to wonder.  What kind of laptop that they would be giving students would warrant a $800+ replacement cost?  Hmmm...
-wraith808 (August 20, 2014, 10:24 AM)
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I'm assuming they are getting a quantity discount--so unless these are some pretty stellar machines, it seems like $810 already includes the cost of a replacement.

mouser:
Or we may simply be dealing with the standard overypaying of academic/government contracts, where a product that would cost a normal human $200 somehow costs a government office $2000.

Stoic Joker:
Their rationale is that it makes support more difficult, and that the "integrative technology" which provides for communication between the students and teacher may not work on equipment brought from home...that, and the teacher would not be able to use the same "integrative technology" to monitor whether the students were using the laptop for schoolwork, rather than social networking or games.-cschw (August 20, 2014, 11:17 AM)
--- End quote ---

And they're wrong - I just spent 2 months rolling out a BYOD solution at a school that is using an internally hosted Stoneware LanSchool cloud solution that allows anything that can connect to the school's wireless network to access resources on the school network. All internet - "naughty website" - filtering is done at the border of the network. I have no idea what the cost of the system was (they bought that on their own) but from an IT perspective it's slick as hell.

If the teacher's really want to know which students are screwing off, all they need to do is walk around to the back of the classroom and look ... Just like in the good old days - Surveillance software not required - and there are no maintenance and licensing fees to contend with.

wraith808:
Or we may simply be dealing with the standard overypaying of academic/government contracts, where a product that would cost a normal human $200 somehow costs a government office $2000.
-mouser (August 20, 2014, 11:29 AM)
--- End quote ---

This is what I'm convinced of.  For $800 I can get a pretty good laptop- in fact, my gaming machine upgrade I just did to a pretty hot rig didn't cost much more than this... including video card.

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