Chrome will bring about the ICT revolution in schools
blogs.computerworlduk.com
Chrome will bring about the ICT revolution in schools
1–10 of 13 posts
Re: Chrome will bring about the ICT revolution in schools
#2Finally with the instant-on Chrome-book the domain-logon palaver looks like the anachronistic time goblin it is.
With auto-saving, no more losing of USB sticks, no more 12 min network bootups, the ability to share files and fewer confusing features most of the hassle of ICT in schools is eliminated.
Oh of course, a student waiting a few seconds to logon to a server is clearly wasting too much of their time, and IT departments are just going to _love_ the loss of control over the devices they currently have.
"auto-saving" and "no more losing USB sticks" in the cotext of Google Docs, means a complete lack of control over the backup of said documents, and inability to work on said documents offline.
No software licences, no maintenance technicians (no viruses no, disk quotas, no application/file servers, no software images).
Because the web apps that a netbook uses, are mythical beasts that have no licensing or maintenance requirements, and store data down gumdrop lane, because they're powered by the good thoughts of Google users, not physical servers?
Re: Chrome will bring about the ICT revolution in schools
#3Finally with the instant-on Chrome-book the domain-logon palaver looks like the anachronistic time goblin it is. With auto-saving, no more losing of USB sticks, no more 12 min network bootups, the ability to share files and fewer confusing features most of the hassle of ICT in schools is eliminated. Oh of course, a student waiting a few seconds to logon to a server is clearly wasting too much of their time, and IT de…
Google is a lot better at maintenance than any school sysadmin will ever be. And they've got the infrastructure for it, too.
As for working offline, the offline-capable version of Mail, Calendar and Docs is coming soon. http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/11/offline-gmail/
Re: Chrome will bring about the ICT revolution in schools
#4Finally with the instant-on Chrome-book the domain-logon palaver looks like the anachronistic time goblin it is. With auto-saving, no more losing of USB sticks, no more 12 min network bootups, the ability to share files and fewer confusing features most of the hassle of ICT in schools is eliminated. Oh of course, a student waiting a few seconds to logon to a server is clearly wasting too much of their time, and IT de…
Google is a lot better at maintenance than any school sysadmin will ever be. And they've got the infrastructure for it, too. As for working offline, the offline-capable version of Mail, Calendar and Docs is coming soon. http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/11/offline-gmail/
Google is a lot better at maintenance than any school sysadmin will ever be.
Not necessarily. Even Premium (i.e. PAID) Google Apps users have had issues with feedback/error resolution with things like missing/corrupted docs, and there is nothing more they can do. When I worked in the IT Dept. of a Tertiary education institute, it was not unheard of for students/staff to contact the department manager if they were not satisfied, or even write to the Minister for the Education Department.
If they did the same thing under a Google/Netbook setup, there is nothing to say the IT department (which will _STILL_ be required, they will just have their hands tied behind their back in terms of what they can do) could do _ANYTHING_ about the problem.
Re: Chrome will bring about the ICT revolution in schools
#5Finally with the instant-on Chrome-book the domain-logon palaver looks like the anachronistic time goblin it is. With auto-saving, no more losing of USB sticks, no more 12 min network bootups, the ability to share files and fewer confusing features most of the hassle of ICT in schools is eliminated. Oh of course, a student waiting a few seconds to logon to a server is clearly wasting too much of their time, and IT de…
>>Oh of course, a student waiting a few seconds to logon to a server is clearly wasting too much of their time,
No, but setting up several hundred new freshman every year is a pain in the ass. One that took my school atleast a week to finish up when they did it by a (poorly written, im sure) batch script. Besides, one of the most important points of computers is automation. If adding a new system removes even 15 seconds from every new user, that can add up rather quickly in a large school.
>>and IT departments are just going to _love_ the loss of control over the devices they currently have.
What? What control do they loose are you referring to?
>Because the web apps that a netbook uses, are mythical beasts that have no licensing or maintenance requirements, and store data down gumdrop lane, because they're powered by the good thoughts of Google users, not physical servers?
have you been to a high school in the last ~5 years? Mine probably had ~90% uptime. Meaning it was down/unavailable for use 10% of the time. Multiple hours, almost every night. Godawful. Google is unarguably one of the most reliable web services there is, so, while the author was being a bit hyperbolic, it is almost certainly a stepup from any non-private middle/high school I've ever seen.
Seriously. its a good deal.
Re: Chrome will bring about the ICT revolution in schools
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google is a lot better at maintenance than any school sysadmin will ever be. And they've got the infrastructure for it, too. As for working offline, the offline-capable version of Mail, Calendar and Docs is coming soon. http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/11/offline-gmail/
Google is a lot better at maintenance than any school sysadmin will ever be. Not necessarily. Even Premium (i.e. PAID) Google Apps users have had issues with feedback/error resolution with things like missing/corrupted docs, and there is nothing more they can do. When I worked in the IT Dept. of a Tertiary education institute, it was not unheard of for students/staff to contact the department manager if they were not…
And when things went missing or corrupted at the IT Dept, did you have a better success rate than Google at recovering the items?
Did you have a lower corruption/loss rate?
Google is huge, and a few problems are going to happen... And they'll be blown out of proportion. Without actual numbers to show the reliability, your guess is as good as mine about how reliable it is.
The fact that you can't get in touch with a Google engineer and hold them personally responsible doesn't mean anything. The document is just as lost either way.
Re: Chrome will bring about the ICT revolution in schools
#7Finally with the instant-on Chrome-book the domain-logon palaver looks like the anachronistic time goblin it is. With auto-saving, no more losing of USB sticks, no more 12 min network bootups, the ability to share files and fewer confusing features most of the hassle of ICT in schools is eliminated. Oh of course, a student waiting a few seconds to logon to a server is clearly wasting too much of their time, and IT de…
>>Oh of course, a student waiting a few seconds to logon to a server is clearly wasting too much of their time, No, but setting up several hundred new freshman every year is a pain in the ass. One that took my school atleast a week to finish up when they did it by a (poorly written, im sure) batch script. Besides, one of the most important points of computers is automation. If adding a new system removes even 15 seco…
No, but setting up several hundred new freshman every year is a pain in the ass. One that took my school atleast a week to finish up when they did it by a (poorly written, im sure) batch script. Besides, one of the most important points of computers is automation.
I worked in a department that had a statewide eDirectory (45+ campuses spread across across hundreds of KMs), with students created every night. At the beginning of semesters, it would be creating thousands of new accounts every night. It had a few hiccups, sure, but it was automated. How do you think the Google Apps accounts are going to be setup? Google isn't some magical beast that telepathically knows all the students in a school.
Just because the IT at the school you were at was run by idiots doesn't mean they all are.
* What? What control do they loose are you referring to? *
When you manage services locally - i.e. desktop/laptops with directory services, file&print, email handled internally, YOU (that is, IT) decides what users can do. They can stop users from installing random Apps, or visitng porn/non-educational sites, and do things like prevent students from printing war and peace fifty times just for giggles.
* have you been to a high school in the last ~5 years? Mine probably had ~90% uptime. * again, one bad school doesn't mean the rest are the same. Multiple hours of downtime per night is not the norm - we didn't even have that kind of downtime when we migrated every single networked device in the state into a new Directory Services tree. Sounds like your school needs new IT staff, not an external provider. Incompetent staff will f*ck up anything they're given.
Re: Chrome will bring about the ICT revolution in schools
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google is a lot better at maintenance than any school sysadmin will ever be. Not necessarily. Even Premium (i.e. PAID) Google Apps users have had issues with feedback/error resolution with things like missing/corrupted docs, and there is nothing more they can do. When I worked in the IT Dept. of a Tertiary education institute, it was not unheard of for students/staff to contact the department manager if they were not…
And when things went missing or corrupted at the IT Dept, did you have a better success rate than Google at recovering the items? Did you have a lower corruption/loss rate? Google is huge, and a few problems are going to happen... And they'll be blown out of proportion. Without actual numbers to show the reliability, your guess is as good as mine about how reliable it is. The fact that you can't get in touch with a G…
And when things went missing or corrupted at the IT Dept, did you have a better success rate than Google at recovering the items?
Well we could tell the person, right then and there that we are working on it, so they know their problem is being looked at, and we knew the details of our backup schedule, because we controlled it.
Hell, for a simple "i deleted this by accident" problem, we could often retrieve it with a rightclick before the disk was purged, and if it was already purged or the document corrupted, we just went to the tape backups.
Can you tell me what Google's backup plan is? Do they even have backups for the stuff in Google Docs/Gmail? Are those backups available to free users? How long are old backups kept? What is the response time for a file retrieval request?
* The fact that you can't get in touch with a Google engineer and hold them personally responsible doesn't mean anything*
it's not about holding an engineer personally responsible, it's about transparency of the service. if you ask a (decent) IT department about their backup schedule, they will probably tell you, happily, when files are backed up and how long for, and how long it takes to retrieve them and how often they're checked for consistency.
Re: Chrome will bring about the ICT revolution in schools
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
And when things went missing or corrupted at the IT Dept, did you have a better success rate than Google at recovering the items? Did you have a lower corruption/loss rate? Google is huge, and a few problems are going to happen... And they'll be blown out of proportion. Without actual numbers to show the reliability, your guess is as good as mine about how reliable it is. The fact that you can't get in touch with a G…
And when things went missing or corrupted at the IT Dept, did you have a better success rate than Google at recovering the items? Well we could tell the person, right then and there that we are working on it, so they know their problem is being looked at, and we knew the details of our backup schedule, because we controlled it. Hell, for a simple "i deleted this by accident" problem, we could often retrieve it with a…
With Google, I don't have to care how often they are backed up, or when. If a file is missing or corrupt, they deal with it automatically. I don't have to notify them.
And if a file is unrecoverable, there's no point in contacting them.
It appears the only thing gained by having a local IT Dept is being able to un-delete things you accidentally deleted. In this day and age, I solve that by just not deleting things. Google solves it by having a 'trash can' concept where you can undelete it yourself.
Re: Chrome will bring about the ICT revolution in schools
#10To what degree does chromeOS and google docs contribute to the google intelligence/profiling that they do on every user for ad targeting? Does the educational program opt out of it? Over a few years time would google be developing a full profile of the student including what classes they took when, and perhaps even how well they're doing through reading level analysis etc? Is that kind of thing something we really want to push on our children?