[K12OSN] Talking to school about K12LTSP

[Henry Hartley]

I recently met with the technology guy at my daughter's school.  He's
not really a Linux person but has no real beef with it.  He's just not
needed it for much up to now.  He does use Linux for a proxy server and
running DansGuardian so he's not averse to using it where it suits him.
He's also got an engineering degree from MIT so I'm guessing he's pretty
bright.

The school is in transition right now, having moved out (in the summer
of 2005 after 16 years) of a rented location into two temporary
locations (one church for the elementary school, another for the middle
and high school).  The school has purchased 60 acres and hopes to be
moving into their new facility by January, 2008 (although it may not
happen before the following summer).

One topic of our conversation was K12LTSP.  Currently, the school relies
almost entirely on wireless networking because of the nature of the
facility.  Plans for the new facility, however, do include network
cabling.  There is something of a lab right now but it is basically
laptop computers that share storage space on a network server.  Windows,
naturally.  I gave a brief overview of K12LTSP, as best I could.  He had
a few questions and I thought I'd start with this one.  Actually, after
this, I may simply suggest he join the list and ask for himself, since
he'll be in a better position to ask the right questions.

Sometimes, when students are using his lab computers, he wants them to
have internet access, so they can do research.  Other times, he wants
them to NOT have internet access, mostly because he wants them focused
on what they are doing.  No point in tempting teens.  He wondered if it
would be possible to schedule this sort of thing centrally, either by
class, by student, or by hardware.  That is, let's say he has two carts
of computers which can roam to the various classrooms.  From 8:30 to
noon, he wants one cart to have internet access and the other not to.
Form noon to 3, they both should.  Or, from 8:30 to 10:00, the students
in this class have internet access, this other class does not.  That
sort of thing.  Is that something that's hard, easy, or just too much of
a headache to deal with?

-- 
Henry