The Promise of the NetPC/ThinClient: Life Vests in the Raging Storm?

by Michael J. Johnson, Ph.D.

Published in NSBA's Technology Leadership News. November, 1997

Someone gave me an article this weekend that described the vast storm of the ≥user-support crisis≤ on university campuses and the plight of university information services departments to keep their heads above water. What struck me was that the same issues have now hit higher education with the same force that they have been pounding the organizational beaches of K-12 -- and that all of us are in the water together clinging to the same over-turned lifeboat.

User support has been identified in several K-12 studies as a major national problem for K-12 computing. My personal recent experience as Deputy Superintendent for Instruction and Technology for a school district of 30,000 students and my consulting experience in visiting scores of schools in 16 Western States over the last three years evaluating technology grant projects for the USWEST Foundation, amplified the same conclusions. (See http://www.edweek.org/ew/vol-15/32foa.h15 and http://www.edweek.org/search≤connecting schools≤)

The Gathering Storm

The technology support problems seem to be the same for everyone:

∑ Drastically insufficient numbers of technology support staff

∑ Attracting and keeping qualified technology support staff (at education salary levels) -- getting more positions funded may sometimes be of little help

∑ Keeping viruses and the destruction they cause at bay

∑ Installing software upgrades and the questions on how to take advantage of the upgradeπs new goodies, along with all the questions on old software from new users

∑ Keeping troubled machines working and upgrading machines so that they can use the network and the Internet

∑ Increased requests and demands for assistance from faculty who want to use educational technology in their instruction

∑ Fear that newly interested instructors will give up and go back to using chalk, yellow aged notes, or drill and kill workbooks if they donπt get help

∑ Increasing technology access so that it can be a realistic classroom tool requires increased access to machines -- more machines which require more support

∑ The rush to network schools is also increasing the complexity of computer support adding networking software and hardware problems and training issues

Summary: Educational technology departments (K-12 and higher education) need to reduce operating problems and costs for supporting computer technology and networking. In addition, less expensive computers are also needed in order to increase student and teacher access.

The NetPC/ThinClient: A Life Vest in the Storm?

Many techies are hoping that the NetPC/ThinClient may reduce some support problems. Proponents of the NetPC/ThinClient have claimed that these machines will cost significantly less than current computers. That would certainly help solve the access problem and help us meet some of the new demand for computers in instruction. However, the NetPC/ThinClient also holds the promise in reducing some support problems at their source.

The NetPC/ThinClient model is based on the idea that the ≥network is the computer≤. In other words, the software does not boot or run on the individual computer, but off the server via the network. The individual computer has to be connected to the network. The system software, application software, and user files all reside on the server and not the individual computer. The perceived support benefits of this NetPC/ThinClient system are as follows:

∑ the environment can be more easily controlled, blocking out viruses and the problems they cause

∑ when a machine goes down you send out a replacement, the userπs software and files are on the server, the user is up and running in minutes

∑ users can sign on anywhere in the building, floating teachers (those without home rooms) can get to their files and resources from any networked computer in the building

∑ Software loading, upgrades, and maintenance only have to be done on one computer (the server) instead of 200 computers

∑ The system resides on one computer reducing some of the software compatibility problems and if there is a problem, you only have to solve it once

Summary: If these are found to be the benefits of NetPC/ThinClient systems, then they would reduce support problems at the source: the individual computer.

Perceived Disadvantages of the NetPC/ThinClient

In the district I just left and still consult for, we are testing the Thin/Client model connecting all staff members in two large high schools. We will be evaluating whether the NetPC/ThinClient really do reduce support problems. Following is a list of negative factors that faculty in those schools have developed in considering the NetPC/ThinClient model.

∑ Without a school LAN (Local Area Network) of sufficient speed and capacity, the NetPC/ThinClient is not possible

∑ If the Net server goes down, everyoneπs computer goes down

∑ Machine configuration is extremely important. Machines must have multimedia capability in order to have full access to sound, video, and CD-ROM resources (although some CD-ROM resources can be provided via high speed CD-ROM networked towers without CD-ROM drives on the individual computer)

∑ Inputting digital images (scanners, digital cameras, and video) and sound at the classroom individual computer will not be possible if the individual computer and the network server are not configured to use these devices -- this could affect faculty ability to digitize and use information and actually thwart the integration of technology into the curriculum and teaching practice

∑ Adding image digitization and sound capability to individual NetPC/ThinClient computers will increase the cost, therefore these machines may not be less expensive than conventional large RAM and Hard Drive computers

∑ How do users get to their information when they are away from the network? -- How do teachers save work and take it home to work on their computer and how do students do the same?

The Next Two Years Will Tell -- Tell Your Computer Manufacturer NOW

Those of us with waves breaking over our heads see the NetPC/ThinClient as a way to get into a lifeboat where we might have a chance to survive. Only our experience over the next two years will tell us whether our hopes are grounded. I urge everyone involved with educational technology to ask Apple, MicroSoft, and Compaq/Dell/IBM and all the Windows clones to design their NetPC/ThinClient machines specifically to help us solve our support crises. Those hardware/software manufacturers who listen, may win the market share game over the next five years because choices become limited -- when your drowning.