The NSW Department of Education is using asset-tracking software, RFID tags, and BIOS-embedded filtering smarts to roll out 240,000 netbook computers into what CIO Stephen Wilson calls "the most hostile environment you can roll computers into" - the local high school.
The rollout of Lenovo netbooks, funded under the Federal Government's Digital Education Revolution initiative, is a massive logistical and IT security challenge, and the solution Wilson and his team has put together to address these issues could well be applicable to any corporate IT department.
To take receipt of the netbooks, students and parents are asked to sign forms in which they acknowledge their responsibility to take care of the machines and use them appropriately.
The laptops come armed with an enterprise version of the new Windows 7 operating system, Microsoft Office, the Adobe CS4 creative suite, Apple iTunes, and content geared specifically to students. Incredibly, while the netbooks are loaded with many hundreds of dollars worth of software, 2GB of RAM and a six hour battery, the cost to the NSW Department of Education is under $500 a unit.
More: http://www.itnews.com.au/News/156528,nsw-seeks-to-build-unhackable-netbook-network.aspx
The rollout of Lenovo netbooks, funded under the Federal Government's Digital Education Revolution initiative, is a massive logistical and IT security challenge, and the solution Wilson and his team has put together to address these issues could well be applicable to any corporate IT department.
To take receipt of the netbooks, students and parents are asked to sign forms in which they acknowledge their responsibility to take care of the machines and use them appropriately.
The laptops come armed with an enterprise version of the new Windows 7 operating system, Microsoft Office, the Adobe CS4 creative suite, Apple iTunes, and content geared specifically to students. Incredibly, while the netbooks are loaded with many hundreds of dollars worth of software, 2GB of RAM and a six hour battery, the cost to the NSW Department of Education is under $500 a unit.
More: http://www.itnews.com.au/News/156528,nsw-seeks-to-build-unhackable-netbook-network.aspx