[OLPC-AU] XO repairs by children at school

James Cameron quozl at laptop.org
Wed Sep 15 21:12:40 EDT 2010


In my experience teachers are not sufficiently trained to assess WHS
risks because they don't know enough about the technology, and so they
fall back to not doing what they don't know.  This is terribly
unfortunate.

I'm qualified Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and am heavily
involved in the internals of these laptops.  I've disassembled many.

I can provide some technical guidance to reduce these risks, and this
guidance can form part of your clearance form and approvals in the OH&S
context:

1.  remove the AC adapter and main battery before commencing, so that
the energy in that battery is not accidentally deployed during
disassembly, store them away from the lesson delivery area,

2.  instruct the learners and briefly describe the risks, listing a set
of rules, based on these comments,

3.  teacher and learners to wear goggles, so that any parts that spring
free are less likely to cause eye injury, and so that learners wielding
screwdrivers do not cause injury to other learners,

4.  follow the documented disassembly instructions rather than trying
anything new, ... the teacher should try it first, using a printed and
verified copy of the instructions rather than live viewing of the Wiki,
so that unverified edits to the Wiki are not used,

5.  do not eat, suck on, or swallow any components, so as to reduce the
chance of internal injury,

6.  wash hands after the disassembly ... while the laptop contains no
lead or other hazardous substances, per the RoHS directives and
certification, there remains the possibility of foreign substances that
may not have been tested for,

6.  continually supervise the disassembly, and stop the lesson if
supervision has to be reduced for some other reason (such as an
interruption),

7.  beware of entrapment of fingers; opening the case provides access to
areas that are small enough to put a finger into.

Now, in response to Peter's points:

On Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 10:15:30AM +1000, Peter Williams wrote:
> Because they can be connected to AC power at some point, the rule or
> restriction I have experienced is that both children and teachers
> cannot take apart repair or otherwise tinker with computer equipment.
> Purely battery-powered equipment does not seem to have the same
> requirements.

There is no AC connection to these laptops.  The connection is low
voltage DC only.

It is essential to exclude the AC power connection possibility by
removing it from consideration.  Without AC power present, the laptop is
as electrically dangerous as battery powered robotics kits.

(Even a battery powered robotics kit can be manipulated in a way to
cause electrical risk.)

There is no significant stored energy in the laptops; once the battery
is removed there is no electrical hazard in the laptop.

More information can be obtained from the laptop certifications.

> Even though I have formal technical certifications, I believe that I
> could not have students partake in activities at school where the
> equipment was to be re-used in the classroom.

I don't see the distinction, sorry.

I'd like to share a quote from one of the engineers I work with ...
"Safety, especially when it involves children, is a difficult topic to
discuss logically.  Obviously, it would be good if things could be made
absolutely safe, but clearly that is impossible.  So you end up asking
the questions "is it safe enough?" and "what are the cost/benefit
tradeoffs of increasing safety?".  The questions can't be answered
definitively because everybody has a different risk tolerance.
Especially when children are involved, child-protection emotional
instincts kick in and often raise the risk threshold disproportionately.
Other complicating factors are different cultures' implicit assessments
of the "value" of one human life and differing legal and political
climates."

-- 
James Cameron
http://quozl.linux.org.au/


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