are several factors that go into our deciding to reimage a tablet. First
off, in the cast of a virus or spyware infection, you can spend hours
trying to get it out and then find out that the OS needs to be reinstalled
anyway... For the majority of software related issues we will estimate
how long it would take to repair it vs. how long it would take to reimage
it. Whichever is less, wins. We have many clients and a small staff.
Our goal is to get the tablet functional and back in their hands as
quickly as possible as to minimize the impact on the education.
Our tablets are student owned and we provide them with storage on our file
servers where they can store class-related items. We even wrote a batch
script that will automatically backup their OneNote files, Class files (in
a predetermined folder), and Favorites to our server --all they have to do
is double-click the icon. Music, movies and other non-class related items
are the student's responsibility to back up. We encourage them, but do
not require them to have a back up hard drive, but they understand that if
something happens to their tablet and they don't have a back up they will
have issues. In a memo that I sent to the heads of all three divisions
and was approved by our Technology Committee, we specifically say that we
are happy to show students how to back up their work to an external drive,
or to their "H Drive" but we will not do it for them and our office is not
responsible for data loss.
It's important that students learn young and learn quickly that the data
on their tablets is their responsibility... the same way the contents of
their paper notebooks are their responsibility. That's why we start with
the idea of Backing Up at the 4th Grade so that it becomes second nature
and avoids issues like the one described here. We have varying degrees of
success with students maintaining back ups of their data. The new script
has made it easier, but still there are those that don't use it on a
regular basis.
Hope this helps!
________________________________________________________________________________
Louis R. Gephardt, A+, MCP.
Network Administrator
Garrison Forest School
300 Garrison Forest Road
Owings Mills, Maryland 21117
Office: 410.559.3212
Office of Technology Support: 410.559.3456
louisgephardt@gfs.org
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