Frank's Big Adventure

FrankG and I have had some discussion here about computer technology and the schools. He has had an opportunity to tour the high school and has graciously offered to allow me to post his observations. Here is his report
I promised that I would report back after my school IT tour because of expressed interest, so here it is.
Let me first say that my hosts were very gracious and helpful to my quest for information. It would be human nature to wonder about this stranger who is asking all these questions, but I found them to be nothing but cooperative, including when I wanted to open 1 of the boxes to see what was inside. I will also say that there are only 2 IT guys to maintain the 1630 computers that were listed in the most current inventory, 1 of them mostly hardware and the other mostly software. This would be a daunting task if all the computers were in the same building, let alone scattered around the town. They have done a great job working with what they have been given.
I have sent Dr. Russell a report on my findings, including recommendations and some follow-up things. I have found him to be very receptive to both my offers of help and my suggestions. We have already had additional conversation on some items, and he told me he will continue to follow-up. I told all of them that I would be glad to be a resource for them, and I expect more communication to take place.
Many of my suggestions were a little off the intended focus of my visit, but since I am a pretty observant guy I couldn’t help noticing some things as well as commenting on them. Some of these observations were around system security in general, users having too much access to things that could raise havoc and create maintenance headaches, and energy conversation. Let me briefly talk about the last one.
Computers use power, even when in the “sleep” mode, and the biggest offenders are the CRT type monitors. The best thing to do with a computer that isn’t going to be used again for a while is to shut it off. The next best thing to do is at least shut off the monitor. The computer only cares that a monitor be connected, not whether it is off or on. We can all save significant energy if we develop the habit of shutting off the monitor when we are not going to be using the computer for a while, say a couple of hours, and furthermore shutting off the entire computer when it will not be used for a long time, say until the next day. The monitor tip is much less important with LCD type monitors, by which the design itself uses much less energy, but still doesn’t operate for free.
Unfortunately the school uses almost all CRT type monitors, I think I only saw 1 LCD in my travels, which was limited to just the HS. In addition virtually every computer in the place was still turned on, although “sleeping”, but to me this is entirely unacceptable, especially during a vacation week. In fairness to those in charge, there is a policy to shut them off but apparently no one is following the rules and it should not be expected for the 2 IT guys to have to be “computer police”. This needs to be dealt with at a higher level and was one of my recommendations to Dr. Russell. I also listed that all monitor replacements be of the LCD type in the future. I wouldn’t have made this recommendation 2 years ago but they are much better now in their ability to render a picture accurately.
Now, here is what the landscape looks like with regard to Mac or PC. Of the 1630 computers, 55.3% of them are Macs, with the density higher in the lower grades. Here is the breakdown:
HS – 24.2% Mac
MS – 55.2% Mac
EL – 92.0% Mac
This includes any laptop type machines. My recommendation is that any future purchases be of the PC variety, and I specifically mentioned the less than $400 Dells, and the $500 Dell laptops. By the way, every PC I saw was a Dell, so this is consistent with my thoughts, and just because they are inexpensive they should not be considered “cheap”. It is not that there is anything wrong with a Mac, but because of the evolution of PCs in the last few years there is nothing wrong with them either, AND a much better value, which is key when budgets are concerned. I furthermore recommended that all new purchases, with the exception of the laptops needed for the mobile carts, be put into the High School and a Mac be rotated out to a lower grade. The one exception to this that I mentioned is that the Graphic Arts area stay with Mac because the industry still prefers them. When I toured this area it was equipped with all fairly new Macs so no attention is needed for a while.
The vast majority of my time was spent with the “what needs replacement” question. The main observation I made is that virtually all computers didn’t have enough memory to run modern software effectively, even some of the newer ones. There were a lot of computers still running an older version of Windows (9x), that is causing them a lot of grief, but because of the lack of memory they couldn’t move to XP. They have an Educational License for XP so it could be put on all PCs for only the labor cost and time to do it.
I found several very old PCs that quite frankly should be taken out of service. These were about 10+ years old and still running the original Pentium processor. We booted one of these and it took a loooooong time for it show anything that looked like “life”. We were just about to give up on it when it finally got to the user interface. These are really not adequate for any current software, and when you add the requirement for network support they just choke. My recommendation to them was to try to get XP on all machines possible because it is not only the best, most trouble free OS that Microsoft has every made, but it allows better security and user restriction which can only help in the long run. It also works much better in a network environment, both wired and wireless. There is a lot to be said just for standardization, let alone ancillary benefits. They like the idea of all XP, even on new purchases.
There were a lot of fairly new computers, so that leaves the group of “middle-aged” ones. Many of these were marginal performers as configured, but a memory upgrade will do wonders for most of them. Any memory upgrade for 1 machine will cost about $45 to $50, and my recommendation is to try and “trickle down” some of what is currently installed to save some money. The most intensive requirement that I saw was the CAD area, so I would start there. I would upgrade those machines, and any memory that is removed I would put into other machines. Since memory RAM sticks come in a variety of capacities and configurations, I would try to match what is needed with what falls out, and is purchased. Using the hand-me-down memory will allow most of the marginal performers to be perfectly adequate for the intended use of a typical student.
Replacing memory is an easy task too, and the IT guys were enthused about being able to expand the total number of good computers available. They are going to do an experiment with some of the middle-aged machines and let me know. I predict they will like the results very much. Some of what they have is similar to 1 of the older computers I have running on my home network, except for the memory, so I am sure their testing will bear fruit. This will allow the need for replacements to be revised, so except for the needed laptops the rest of the list is in flux, and those laptops will most likely be Dells and not Apples, a significant savings.
I enjoyed this project and am sure it will help the school system in some fashion, probably on several fronts, so it was worth the trip.
Thanks again, FrankG. If you and anyone else would like to post here, just let me know and I can hook you up with the necessary passwords and permissions.