Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (Athens, Georgia), I worked in computer labs. And I don’t think we cleaned the keyboards but once in the year before I moved into more department-specific IT. But now I’m a parent. And I keep hearing that we need to wash the hands of our children, that we need to keep everything they come in contact with sanitized and that we need to be prepared to take 7 business days to stay with them if they get sick or if something happens at their school (not that mine is in school yet). It isn’t that they want to keep our children sheltered in a way that is unhealthy; they’re concerned about H1N1.
If the schools are placing such importance on protecting students of all ages then we need to make sure to keep those computer labs clean. Most are already doing this, but given the number of lab managers that seem to read this site I thought I’d make a few quick recommendations to this end:
- Provide hand sanitizer at the entrance for the labs
- Perform routine cleaning of the keyboards and mice in the labs with sanitized wipes (keep a spreadsheet like you see in the bathrooms of gas stations to make sure it happens)
- Require staff to keep hands clean
- Require staff to go home (or better not come in) if they are sickly
- Instruct house cleaning staffs on the proper steps to clean keyboards and mice
Given the importance being placed on H1N1 this would just be the IT departments on campuses, in media labs, etc doing their parts as well.