The word used in “issued”, therefor the school still owns them and can put whatever limitations they deem necessary, especially if it’s a pilot program.  

@google-6c18529221b7c616cf54f73f926ce46a:disqus that’s true, BackTrack boots fine on Macs.

@google-c5868c47252dbe2d7b51541d5f7b6f51:disqus , do schools block booting from USB on Macs?  If so, how do they do it specifically?  With the firmware?  I know you can block optical, but don’t see how to remove usb without screwing with kext files, etc. and even then that wouldn’t be practical for various reasons.

This has nothing to do with censorship or legality. School property = school approved use.

1a) Students will probably be able to disable the monitoring systems, unless 

1b) the system is in the HPA (host protected area) area of the HD, which are a complete pain to remove [even Darik's Boot And Nuke won't touch it, you'll need a special custom app to clear it out.]

1c) a BIOS password is installed… well, maybe not. BIOS passwords can be cracked, and depending on your model, there is usually a set of jumpers on the motherboard that can be bridged to reset it.

1d) the system is hardware-based… seriously, if someone were to give me a computer that I were to discover had a monitoring system built right into the motherboard,  my first impulse would be to transfer all my data off it.
My second impulse would involve a hammer and righteous ire.

2) I’m pretty sure the parents of the students who are given the devices could make the claim that keeping the restrictions active outside of the school grounds is a violation of the students’ right to privacy, as well as a case of the schools meddling outside their jurisdiction.
Maybe some of the richer parents could summon a lawyer? That’d change things in a hurry.

Thing is It’s ultimately the school’s property. It is their choice on how they hand these things out. OF course if they allow booting off a USB stick or cd, then that kindof gives people the best of both worlds. Yet at the same time that risks somebody overwriting the primary OS.

Students that use social media accounts as part of the coursework should use “school” accounts that are just for that, and nothing else. They should not use personal accounts at all for this sort of thing. 

Really, I think this is inline with what I said in regards to “But a school computer is a school computer, and should only be used for school purposes.” 

I think a lot of this is we are coming at this from different angles. As a parent, I am concerned with protecting my kid from the school (sad eh?). As an educator, I can see you being more concerned with trying to use all the tools needed to impart knowledge. So when we see this story, our reaction goes right back to our primary goals. 

Maybe I have done too much tech support and had to clean up after to many incidents of malware making not only into the company but onto the servers. But man if was the tech support guy for those boxes I would want them locked down hard. Sorry I know what gets done to computers by the general user and it is not fun to clean up even if you just nuke it from orbit and start over.
I will say that the level of filtering is overkill but I do understand it.

is Ubuntu the best choice? I know there’s Ubuntu optimized for netbooks so I’d go with that over the standard version. Are there other distros that should be considered? Does Puppy Linux make sense for this in an era of 16 GB flashdrives for $13? Do you think the kids would like Mint?

It is the schools property. Are kids allowed to take magic marker and doodle in the pages of the text books? Rip pages out because they are bored and then ask for new one.

Pretty terrible analogy. You don’t have to replace a computer after it’s been used to visit Facebook.

The fact I can check yahoo mail and watch youtube and read Boing Boing on a break is nice but not a requirement for my job.

Maybe not, but I bet you’d have a little resentment toward your employer if they didn’t trust you enough to give you a machine capable of doing those things, even on your own time. And rightly so.

Speaking of which—are you on lunch break now?

It is the schools property. Are kids allowed to take magic marker and doodle in the pages of the text books? Rip pages out because they are bored and then ask for new one. No they are not at least not without having to pay for the book.

I don’t get this attitude of “i need to do whatever i want with school/company property”. No No you don’t. It isn’t your property.
I am given the laptop by my employer to do work for the company on it because it is a tool requried to do my job. Nothing more. The fact I can check yahoo mail and watch youtube and read Boing Boing on a break is nice but not a requirement for my job. Gee it would be nice to install Starcraft2 but thats not what they gave the laptop to me for. Being able to post to Facebook and such is not a requirement to get schoolwork done and is big invitation to getting the machine screwed up.

School administrators, local alderpersons, and other clueless would-be monarchs will continue to foist their beliefs on everyone by hiding the real world and encouraging ignorance.

How can students learn to use technology to prevent their personal information from leaking out online if we spy on everything they do and punish them if they try to stop us? 

Sounds like an excellent way to make at least a few of em really good at it…

Not for nothing, but there is a legitimate question about liability.  The school is certainly in a position to empower students, but with great empowering comes great liability.  There is educational value in social networking, yes.  There is also a legion of attorneys ready to sue the pants off a school board that doesn’t block the porn sites on the school’s computer.

Also, a further question: let’s assume the computer is not an electronic device, but instead a “portal” to the internet.  The school is definitely responsible for any data accessed through the portals on school property.  If they start distributing traveling portals to students, aren’t they arguably then still responsible for data accessed by students?  That’s a not-entirely-unreasonable interpretation of the word “network” made by a layperson trying to cover his or her own ass.

Many of the cheaper systems can still be defeated by stubbing the flash chip at the correct moment, if you are willing to expose the motherboard; but some of the TPM-based ones can no longer. Most are also still defeatable by swapping out whatever device is blessed to boot with another hanging off the exact same bus; but even that is not always possible.

Cost usually forbids this; but good luck if the district has sprung for something with a recent version of ‘vPro… Full remote control, including KVM over VPN, all handled by a service processor built into the motherboard? Yup. It’s an OS-agnostic hardware bug. Intel charges a pretty penny for it, so your odds of escaping are decent; but it is available…

If only the manufacturer offered the lighter weight option of a five-hour battery– after all, you’re going to be splitting your time between the two.

The school can and IMHO should lock them down.