Managing Computers in a hostile computer lab

OK, so the notion of a hostile environment may be a stretch, but hear me out on this one. Jr High and high school students are not always the sweet and innocent models of decorum we would like. But having been there once,  I  understand. Managing computers in a lab can be frustrating, but with a little forethought you can keep your sanity.

Whether it’s showing off, flirting with a classmate, or just plain horsing around; stuff happens in the computer lab. Keys get popped off of keyboards, mice get ripped free of their chords, and the best one I’ve seen yet is a perfectly sized slice of baloney in the DVD drive. Being able to laugh about it is probably a good place to start.

However, if the problems are getting a little overwhelming with your resource constrained staff, here are some suggestions that might help.

Start with the right equipment

To the extent possible, use desktop computers in student labs, rather than laptops. They cost less to buy, are less expensive to repair, and tend to grow legs less often.  For real savings and administrative advantages, see the article about Multipoint Server in a computer lab, it will reduce the cost of the lab by 75%.

Desktops can often be mounted in cages that prevent physical access, which is an important step in your attempts to secure a computer.

Keep the network simple

Whenever possible, use a wired network connection for student labs. The bottleneck of twenty simultaneous You Tube videos will always impact a wireless network more adversely than a wired network. And wired adapters are much more reliable, given the security protocols passwords, keys, etc. that accompany WiFi.

Once configured, wired network devices rarely need management and access to the hardware is less apparent. In fact normal access is preventable through group policy settings. Speed is much faster on a wired network where even the very fastest wireless internet connection is about half the speed.

Provide Adequate Supervision

Adequate supervision is paramount in a computer lab. And this is the most common challenge we observe. If your staff is unwilling to provide accountable supervision and you as an administrator are unwilling to require it, then you might want to consider a teachers aid or parent volunteer. Even a non-technical individual can readily discern when a student is dismantling a computer.

It makes little sense to assign the task of student-sitting to your desktop or network support engineer. In a well managed environment,  they  are better utilized spending time resolving more complex issues.

Install video surveillance

This may seem  an overreach, but there may in fact be a very good case for this – especially in those schools with high risk populations  or special education requirements. Not only will this reduce vandalism, but in extreme cases may provide a solid defense against litigation. And there may be other very good reasons for videos surveillance.

Just knowing the possibility of videos recording exists can change behavior.

If you elect to use video surveillance, be sure to use digital cameras that are correctly specified as to focal length, field of view, and pixels per foot.  In most cases you can use your existing network infrastructure and Power Over Ethernet to eliminate much of your installation costs.

Summary

Remember that the only way to completely secure a computer is to prevent physical access to the computer.  Even the most hardened computer can be compromised if a student is given access to the physical device. By rebooting a computer with a bootable USB device, a very secure computer can be easily compromised by a clever student hacker.

So start with the right equipment, improve your supervision – either in person or by camera – and be suspicious if you see a student in the lunch room with a baloney sandwich, without the baloney.