Ask Slashdot: Ideal High School Computer Lab? 268
First time accepted submitter dmiller1984 writes "I am a high school computer teacher and I've been put in the unique situation of designing my ideal computer lab since our high school will be undergoing a major expansion over the summer. I thought the Slashdot community might have some great ideas to help me out. I've never liked the lecture hall labs that I've seen in some schools, but I would like some way to get natural light in the room without worrying about glare on the computer screens (skylights, perhaps?). What are some of your ideas for a great computer lab for education?"
So.. (Score:5, Informative)
Only thing I can think of is add some vegetation. A few well placed plants does wonders for a room. Maybe some geek paraphernalia around the room to get people in the right mindset
As usual, ergonomics are important. Get chairs and monitors that adjust easily, keyboards/trays with the proper support (and again, adjustable) and maybe educate students on how they should set up their work environment before they. Oh, and a decent amount of desk space. Just because they are working on a computer doesn’t mean they won’t be working from a book or have some other reason to need a little room to work.
Of course once you’ve drawn your balanced, well thought out and researched plan, it will promptly be rejected and the school can proceed to bring in some cheap tables and place an order with Dell ;p
best of luck and have a great life!
Nix (Score:0, Informative)
Get something on the computers besides windows or osx. The kids should be exposed to something else, just to expand their knowledge a little. Ubuntu is fine, unlike the stated above comment, as long as it isn't gnome 3. We have some nice canvas-like cloth covering most of our windows, and that is able to bring in enough ambient light to not need the fluorescents. That along with matte screens also helps.
How I Made My High School Lab (Score:5, Informative)
I am also a high school computer teacher, and our building got renovated about three years ago. I was able to ask for lots of goodies too, but be prepared for the contractors to ignore whatever suggestions you make.
That being said, there were a few important elements I insisted on. One is that I could see all the students' screens from a central location. Mostly that meant having all the PCs facing outward against three walls, with me in the middle. This was a huge improvement over the back-to-back rows we had before. The downside is that kids have to turn around if they need to see the board or the teacher.
My class is in the Career and Technical Education school, so I'm training kids to be sysadmins, programmers, and technicians. Due to the nature of the class, we have a central rack with networking equipment that's easy for the kids to crowd around. If this is something you need, make sure there's plenty of space on all sides, and use a cable tray to bring in the wiring. Also, I asked for power to be dropped from the ceiling to the center of the room so we could setup work benches to troubleshoot hardware. (That's one of the things they neglected to give me.)
Natural light is a wonderful thing, but I wouldn't worry too much about glare as long as you don't have shiny glass screens. If students will be sitting in front of these things for an hour or more at a stretch, good (and large) LCD displays will reduce eye strain. Similarly, don't expect kids to sit in crappy chairs for long periods of time. But don't get swivel rolling chairs; they'll just race and spin in them.
Probably the most used piece of technology in my room is the projector. I'd definitely get a decent one and install it where everyone can see it. I also like to be mobile in my lab, so I've got an iPad to walk around with and take notes on student work.
As long as you've got space to spare, give students as much elbow room as possible. High school kids need a little personal space so they don't get on each others' nerves. Also, more space per PC makes it easier for students to work in small groups, as they can gather three or four people around one PC.
I've got some software I'm partial to, as well. It's nice having something like Faronics Insight in the lab, which allows me to monitor what everyone is looking at, limit Internet access, or share my screen with everyone. I'm not tied to that particular brand (thought it's what I'm using right now, and works on PCs and Macs), but rather any software system that has those functions.
My lab is due to be upgraded in a year or two. I might go with laptops if it's in the budget, but we've got to work out accountability (for theft), upgradability, and a few other issues. I certainly wish I had one or two for myself, though.
I hope this helps some.
Re:Duh. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:A lot depends on the equipment and use (Score:3, Informative)
TWX is spot on in his comments. A bit to add...
Get classroom management (for computer labs) software like LanSchool. Then you can face the machines however you want. With software like this you can see all the monitors, lock computers, turn the internet off, etc. You can get a demo version from their website (www.lanschool.com)
Also make sure the room has proper cooling. We have schools losing machines left and right because AC is "too expensive" So is replacing lab machines every 2 years due to failure from overheating. At one school their entire lab failed in about 14 months, and cost 4x what installing AC would to replace. This brings another point, if a tech (like me) tells you something LISTEN TO IT. Usually this isn't a problem as it's the principals that truly don't listen to us. We tell you something, you tell your principal and then nothing happens. If this happens to you, email the tech and get a written suggestion from them, forward it to your principal. It'll save your ass if same principal tries to blame you later on for a failure that could have been avoided by LISTENING TO THE TECH. I hate to use caps, but it's that important.
Raised floor and HVAC (Score:5, Informative)
1. Raised floor. 4", a short one. And get extra tiles. Tech changes and you'll need to reconfigure the room every couple years to keep up. With raised floor you can put network and power on flexible whips and move them around where you need them. This'll allow you to move desks, move computers, move everything. You're going to put holes in these tiles. Later you'll discover you need some of the holes filled in. That isn't possible. So you'll need the extra tiles to cut new.
2. Dedicated supplemental HVAC. A room full of computers will get hotter than the ordinary school HVAC can handle during the spring and fall. It'll get even hotter during the winter when the school heating system pumps out the heat. The normal solution - a thermostat-controlled duct damper - isn't going to do you much good. You need a small, inexpensive HVAC that can put out a couple tons of cooling supplementing the normal school HVAC.
3. Second dedicated HVAC for the server closet unless you're remoting the class servers in the school's IT room. In which case, make sure the school's IT room has a dedicated HVAC.
4. 200 amp subpanel in the room. You'll find you need to reconfigure the electrical when you reconfigure the room. Reconfiguring all the way back to a basement circuit breaker panel will be costly and problematic.
Well, it depends on the type of classes. (Score:4, Informative)
I've used many layouts. For high school I am not sure. Depends on usage.
The silly typing courses many high schools have-- if that is all it is for, then old terminals are plenty good + make it more office like with typical office chairs etc since posture is part of that topic. Adjustable screens, keyboards etc should be part of it-- as the parent post suggests. possibly even have a couple styles to choose from (learning to type is a waste of time, but learning to save your hands and back is so important later...) no desk needed for such a class... Classic typewriters would outlast any computer and work just as well to build that skill. keyboards are cheap; typing programs run just fine on Apple ][s. I might have a WORKING one in the basement, probably still runs typing tutor...
The worst "lab" I've had is a normal room with a parameter of computers desks. This makes it easy to see what people are doing and stand in the center area; its horrible for college lectures because they can't use the computer and see what you are showing; on the plus side, they can't use the computer... Our newer "labs" decided upon this kind of layout to make a clean break between lecture and computer lab time physically; I hate this while others like it. For high school this may work out; despite it requiring more floor space than a normal room - its not all that disruptive to make them move during class; they are kids and likely need some moving around...and some discipline in doing so maturely. Without locked down machines you know they'll goof off and if you lock it down, a kid like myself will be distracted by that challenge... You can easily see what is going on with a parameter layout (plus equip the room far cheaper.)
The coolest lab I've seen was one with individual desks that had monitors IN THE DESK; it was odd to look downward but also really cool. takes a little getting used to-- I've not got that lab, the math dept has it. probably good for their needs.
Daylight is nice; however, a brightly lit room is more important than windows; full spectrum bulbs are enough. When I was in school it was dim all the time; now they seem to have double the lights! A board student or easily distracted student LOVES WINDOWS. I shut the blinds. Skylights waste energy in heating or cooling in most places.
Every computer lab I've used which was full became stuffy after a while; I figured it was the extra heat in the room that caused it to feel that way; except in rooms designed as labs where they had extra venting planned... Those would often seem too cold and dry (I should complain someday.) I would STRONGLY recommend some of the NASA plants... actually, a ton of them would be needed-- hang them around the parameter of the room up high and SOLID. The feeling of the room is greatly improved by this; plus the humidity will be more natural and the oxygen level will be higher. (see snake plant, I think its the best one on the list. I don't have a room of my own or I would do this.) Peppermint. Its a smell, not a taste and its a mental stimulant like ginko (it works, ginko doesn't do jack for me.) Two proven impacts: 1) mental subconscious connection to the room and past situation upon entering the room. 2) it wakes you up mentally although it has to be rather strong for that. There is no official allergy, but I sprinkle the oil around the room secretly before class. The plant doesn't smell as much but you could grow that... (I suggest putting a few drops on the keyboards, haven't busted one yet!)
Metalic PAINT... I hate cell phones... the kids these days (girls) can text amazingly fast... if you could only get them to properly type gossip to each other under their desks...
ANY kind of development work can use LARGE monitors! actually, 2 cheaper ones makes a lot of sense... since most people are going to laptops and will hook up a 2nd display... If you do any graphic work, get nice monitors; if its just typing any crap will do. DO NOT get all-in-one computers. that is just stupid. Also if you do developm
Re:Physically secure things (Score:5, Informative)
Absolutely. Use security screws on the cases, and use cables to secure the desktops, monitors, etc. to something immobile.
Depending on your plans for the course, you might want to disable the USB ports and optical drives, and look into software like Deepfreeze.
My experiences (Score:4, Informative)
I am the entire IT department for a private K-12 school. I also teach an accelerated C++ class to high schoolers in that lab over the summer. We have one computer lab with 25 PCs. Here are some of the things I've done or plan to do to make it a pleasant and productive work environment, in no particular order:
1) Have a good projector. Our projector does not support resolutions above 1024x768 and it can be a pain when the working window is needlessly smaller because of large static elements like the taskbar and toolbars.
2) Install in-ceiling speakers connected to the teacher workstation to distribute sound evenly. I recommend in-ceiling speakers from Monoprice.
3) Have a free-for-all shared network drive for students. We have three shared drives: one for students, one for all staff, and one for just office workers. This is probably one of the features that's easiest to set up yet appreciated the most.
4) Use centralized logins. At my school I have a passwordless "student" account with a mandatory profile, while all other accounts are roaming profiles with redirected folders. I've not heard any complaints about this. Students get the same desktop experience on every computer, and teachers love that their settings are shared between computers. I also offer (through the logon pop-up message) to create roaming profiles to students who want this feature, but no one has yet taken me up on this. Probably because no one ever reads that message.
5) Set up Fortres Grand Clean Slate or Faronics Deep Freeze on at least a few computers and configure them such that every account is an Administrator. There will always be students who'll want to install a legit program you haven't foreseen. Let them.
6) Keep software up-to-date. No one likes using Firefox 2.0 or MSIE 6.0 on locked-down PCs. Do this either through group policy (if you're fearless) or by reimaging PCs on student breaks. Reimaging works because everyone's documents and settings already live on the server.
7) This is controversial, but allow students and staff to attach any personal device to the network. We have a schoolwide wireless network, so this allows everyone to stay connected no matter what part of the building they're in. This has been tremendously popular at my school, and so far haven't had any issues.
8) Use standby. No one minds it, and it saves a huge amount of energy. Use something like Faronics Power Save Enterprise if you want fine-grained control, or just configure Windows power settings to go on standby after X minutes of inactivity. As a bonus, standby is also quick to reveal defective RAM. (Bluescreen, "hardware problem, contact manufacturer")
If anyone reading this is in Cedar Rapids / Iowa City of Iowa, I am an IT consultant [moonlitconsult.com] and would love to implement this at more schools. :-)