Desktop Management

Miguel Guhlin recently posted a few comments about tech support over on his blog Around the Corner. His posting is a reaction to comments made by Dr. Scott McLeod on his recent appearance on Women of the Web 2.0.

Miguel mentions that from his experience "Network Admins ...focus is on reducing Helpdesk work orders and the work they have to do." I would agree that this theory is dead spot on target. He goes on to state that this is the reason that computers in schools have DeepFreeze, Microsoft System Management Server, and Microsoft Active Directory (perhaps he means group policy, which is applied through AD?) installed and running that prevent users from interacting very much with the operating system and/or other installed software. Again I could not agree more!

But, I have to defend the user of the tools to a certain extent. In my school district we are running upwards of 18 servers and 500 desktops/laptops - all with one technician. Sure, I work tech orders right alongside my technician, but there are some things he has to handle (our network script for example). Without Deepfreeze I'm quite sure that students (and some teachers) would un/intentionally damage and render useless computers throughout the district. Sure Deepfreeze is a pain in the neck, but our tech request time is far too high for my taste at it is without turning it off! (We are over 3 days wait time currently - My goal is to get it to same day service in most cases).

With Deepfreeze (for those of you not familiar with it) prevents users from loading programs, changing settings, etc. while it is enabled. Disable it and you can make changes to the computer, enable it again and it's "locked" with the current settings. It can definitely be a hassle for some things (Windows and Java updates for example), but it has a built-in maintenance mode that allows the computer to disable Deepfreeze at night and install those updates then enable again. Problem is…the computers have to be left on. As a way around this issue my school district is purposefully looking at applications that are web-based with no client installation necessary. This allows a technician to manage only one machine (the server) instead of having to manage the client install on hundreds or thousands of computers. Moodle is a great example of such a product (and its free!).

This is another reason why we want our teachers to explore Web 2.0 tools. These tools are much easier to maintain because we do not have to run the hardware that controls the applications (the servers). Sure Web 2.0 tools are great for a myriad of other reasons - the rearrangement of teaching and learning being most paramount - but this is just another reason to put our teachers out there. We see all too often teachers buying what I call "trash programs" from the bargain bin at the local discount store. Many of these programs do not teach anything other than how to sit in front of a computer, push buttons, and click with the mouse. They are merely babysitters intended to keep the students busy while the teacher does something else (sadly, I've seen plenty of enterprise level software programs that do pretty much the same thing too).

As in all things (it seems), desktop management in moderation is a good thing. I can completely understand how some network admins out there carry it too far and loose site of the purpose of the network in the first place. In our case, my department is here to support teaching and learning, encourage teachers to innovate, protect our students in a virtual environment, and try not to say "No" too often.