OK. Now that I'm back at my email I see Daniel has been busy :)
I am the architect of the Atlanta Public Schools 7 school Linux Thin
client Pilot project. Daniel and I bounce ideas back and forth off
each
other always looking for new ways to make things better.
On Sun, 2007-10-21 at 20:09 -0400, Daniel Howard wrote:
marilyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Daniel,
I am maybe not quite your intended audience, but I am a teacher so
. . .
.
I would have to get a new job if I could not have admin privileges.
However, I
do not need anything other than privileges for my own classroom.
I have to be able to install whatever I want. I am always trying
new
things.
The perfect world would let you give the appropriate privileges to
individual
teachers.
Actually Marilyn you're exactly the intended audience, I was hoping
to
hear from both teachers and admin folk.
Actually, Marilyn is a very atypical teacher. She is very hand-on with
the computer systems and constantly stretching her sysadmin skills to
augment her teaching. She is in maybe a 1% grouping. Probably an even
smaller subset of teachers than 1%.
A priori, I figured admin types
would be loathe to allow teachers to install their own FOSS titles,
whereas I know that our teachers feel completely insulted that the
district won't even allow them to install their own printers, the
result
of which is that about 1/3 of our teachers cannot print from their
teacher's PCs to new printers they purchased with their own classroom
funds.
As an admin, I am partially loathe to allow non-admin types to install
software that has not been tested and found suitable for the specific
systems in use. There is a delineation that does NOT happen in
schools:
the concept of test systems and production systems is well understood
in
corporate circles and a mostly foreign concept in edu. I suspect this
is
due to funding issues (can't have a test server where there is no
money
to buy one).
As it is entirely possible to install an application in a users
personal
account space and run it from there with no admin privileges required,
it requires a bit more skills that "insert disk, wave a product key at
the screen, press new buttons on new application".
There is a disconnect between admin and teachers and in my
professional,
sysadmin viewpoint (and also as someone who comes from a 9 year
teaching
background) there should continue to be a separation between teachers
and admins.
Here's why: It all boils down to authority and responsibility. It is
the
responsibility of the admins to provide an computing environment to
the
teachers. As such, only the admin should have the authority to make
system-wide changes to the environment. I'm sure any teacher would be
loathe to have an admin walk into class and begin teaching students a
topic not scheduled for that day (or grade, or whatever).
As for the situation Daniel refers to about lack of print drivers,
this
is a special case scenario. The printers are not provided by the
school
but by the parents/PTA. Since the teacher are currently still stuck
using legacy operating systems, and every system security protocol
says
don't allow normal users to run with administrator privileges in
windows, the teachers can't add a printer because the permissions
prevent them from doing for their own good and for the overall health
of
the school network.
It is also peculiar to this school system that communications are
stymied such that the group with the responsibility and authority to
add
the printers has not been given the approval to do so. This is mostly
because of politics, I'm sure - why should the school fund this effort
since it wasn't their idea (I'm extrapolating based on other
experiences
here).
Further, several of my teachers that have classroom K12LTSP
servers are already asking about how they can install new software,
but
want training on how to do it.
As long as the software is not something they just went out and bought
from the store - which means is likely not compatible in the Linux
environment they use - they should be able, if they know how, to test
the software within their own account. Further, if there was an actual
Linux sysadmin within the school system, it would be a simple task to
install a new application for every one to use.
But there is no sysadmin with the proper credentials thus it can't
happen.
I agree completely that a teacher should
only have privileges on her own classroom computers, should not be
able
to affect the network, and perhaps even modify the privileges
depending
on the skill of the teacher. Or have a backup system in place that
any
teacher can use on her classroom PCs. Marilyn, have you ever had to
reinstall the operating system after trying to install a FOSS title?
I'm thinking if we can backup the disk drive prior to turning them
loose, it will make it much easier to recover from any errors that
occur.
Careful! Re-installation is the windows way! Linux sysadmins can
uninstall applications gracefully. A few may require some finesse but
most are simple to remove if they are a problem.
BTW, I applaud your efforts to constantly try new software without
concern for cost or licensing. To me, this is the true power of
FOSS.
Hear, hear!! This is really a place where FOSS has much the upper
hand.
Sure you can try out a legacy-licensed application but most often not
without some cash outlay or a crippled version. With FOSS, it's the
full-blown package in a full environment under live use.
But use a test box first :) This is also where FOSS shines. In most
cases nearly any old machine can be used as a test box so the heavy
lifting production machines only get tinkered with by the people who
are
_supposed_ to know how to clean their mess :)
Daniel
--
James P. Kinney III
CEO & Director of Engineering
Local Net Solutions,LLC
770-493-8244
http://www.localnetsolutions.com
GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
<jkinney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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