This page discusses the design goals for the 1:1 devices. Some of these are specific to hardware or software, others affect both.
In no particular order:
| No device backup | We do not back up individual devices, therefore any information stored on the device my be lost if the device is lost or needs to be reimaged. |
| Instant-On |
The device should become useful (provide access to an Internet-connected browser) as quickly as possible; within seconds for a boot from standby, and less than a minute for a cold boot. |
| Few/no moving parts |
Fewer moving parts means less potential for breakage and repairs |
| Great wifi |
Good reception means we will have fewer problems with roaming and fewer towers. Good chip means we will have fewer connectivity and roaming problems, and a degree of future proofing around standards (n). |
| Custom branding |
Custom branding of the boot screen / home page is a theft prevention measure. Custom branding should be essentially indelible from a non-admin user perspective (i.e. we can "unbrand it", kids or thieves can't). Additional information such as school name or technical support contact should also be useable here. |
| Personalisation | We would like the ability to easily personalise the device to each student using their account name (login) identifier or similar. This could include configuration of some machine settings (email account for example) or using the account name as part of the home page background image, etc.
The personalisation should be indelible for the user (managed through the technical support). Additional information such as school name or technical support contact should also be useable here. |
| Black-box |
The 1:1 device needs to behave as a browser. Normal mechanics of OS maintenance (patches, log files, disk space management, etc.) should be hidden from the user. The device is a "pen", and we need a simple user environment. |
| Controlled App Store |
The device should not allow unrestricted (unfiltered) access to an App Store. Free educational software is fine, but we need control; whitelist capability at least. If that's not possible, we need to be able to turn off any App Store capability. |
| Fixed proxy |
Secure access to our network may require us to force a Web proxy setting. We need the ability to stop a non-admin user from modifying this setting. This could be achieved by hiding the proxy setup screen, or by making it read-only (non-admin users should also not be able to do this from a command line). |
| Restricted user rights |
Unless specifically requested, students should have non-admin level of access to the device. This should prevent them from installing software or modifying key device configuration settings.
Support team need an override ability that provides them access to device configuration information. |
| Standard image |
The devices should be able to accept regular OS patches and updates from the manufacturer, without losing the customisations outlined here. We don't want to be in the OS image maintenance business. |
| USB re-image | The device should allow a technican to re-image it quickly using a USB stick only. | | | |
|
|
