A common requirement in both schools and businesses is having the ability to lock down the desktop and provide certain default configurations.

In Edubuntu, the applications you'll want to use are Sabayon and Pessulus. You'll want to add them from the synaptic package manager. After you've added them both, then you can start them from System->Administration->User Profile Editor

The Sabayon profile editor looks like a window that contains a smaller sized picture of your desktop. Within this window, you can create a default layout: add icons to panels and the desktop, lock down the panels so they can't be modified, remove access to the command line, etc.

Once you're done, you can save your profile. You have the option of applying your profile to either individual users, or all users on the system. Please consult the manual included with Sabayon for all the details.