--- Forwarded Message from Derek Roff <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:18:29 -0600
>From: Derek Roff <[log in to unmask]>
>To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum
<[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: H1N1 Swine Flu and Keyboard Kondoms

I've done some experimenting with plastic food wrap and keyboards. 
This "Keyboard Kondom" approach seems to work.  A piece of plastic wrap 
can be wrapped around a keyboard in a few seconds, and it remains in 
place acceptably for the duration of the student use.  The students 
don't have to be very careful about the way they wrap the keyboard, and 
bunching the extra underneath the keyboard on each edge, or on just two 
edges, works fine.  Simply draping the plastic wrap over the keyboard, 
leaving the excess on the table surface, also worked OK.  Sometimes the 
wrap shifts during usage, in this case.

Different weights of wrap that I have tried all seem to work OK for the 
keyboards that we have.  I've gotten acceptable functionality on both 
the aluminum Apple keyboards and the plastic third-party Arabic 
keyboards that we have.

Wrapping the mouse with plastic wrap is a little more problematic.  We 
have only optical mice, and they _will_ track when wrapped in plastic. 
However, the mouse no longer glides over the table surface, and the 
feel is terrible.  With care, one can trim the wrap closely to the 
shape of the mouse and wrap it around the top and sides.  This works 
better with the thinner plastic wraps that I tried, but it was too much 
trouble.

The best and simplest approach was simply to take a 8" x 12" piece of 
plastic wrap, and drape it over the mouse, just letting the excess lay 
flat on the desk surface.  8" x 8" is better, since there is less 
excess wrap to deal with, but requires trimming the width of the wrap, 
which takes time.  With the wrap draped in this way, it is comfortable 
and easy to use the mouse.  If there is an excess of wrap under the 
heel of the hand, the plastic wrap may grab the table if the student 
rests the weight of their mouse hand on the table.  This can be solved 
by draping the mouse so that the plastic wrap just covers the base of 
the mouse at that back end, and all the excess length of plastic is at 
and beyond the finger end.

The plastic wrap disables the scrolling ball on the Mac Mighty Mouse. 
However, I was surprised that scrolling still works partially on mice 
with a large, ribbed scroll wheel.  It is easy to scroll downwards. 
The wrap bunches slightly, and then springs back when finger pressure 
is released.  I could easily scroll down a web page or word processing 
document.  On the other hand, scrolling up works poorly, if at all.

In mmy testing, less clingy, heavier plastic wrap works better on the 
mouse.  All the wraps that I tried worked well on the keyboard.  I 
think we will offer this "Keyboard Kondom" option in our labs to any 
students who are concerned with touching a keyboard or mouse used by 
another student.  We will see what level of student interest there is.

We will continue to offer hand sanitizer and sterilizing wipes, and our 
student-staff will wipe the keyboards several times per day.

Derek


Derek Roff
Language Learning Center
Ortega Hall 129, MSC03-2100
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
505/277-7368, fax 505/277-3885
Internet: [log in to unmask]



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