Wow! What a great day!

[David Trask]

Hi!

Today was a great day!  Today was the first day of school....for the
teachers (the kids come tomorrow morning).  Why was it so great?  I
finally had the opportunity to really show off our new "system" where we
now use a combination of Edubuntu desktops and thin-clients.  I also had
the opportunity to present to the staff on the arrival of "the digital
natives" to our school.  Yep....the children of today....the digital
natives and how we must adjust our teaching and content delivery to
accomodate their "world".  The excitement was electric.  I was a bit
nervous as I really had no idea how things could go.  Yes...we've been a
predominantly Linux school for about 6 years....but this was the biggest
step forward we've taken.  We no longer have any classroom machines that
boot to Windows.  As part of my "dog and pony" show....I showed them
Celestia (ran the cool demo)....showed them a virtual field trip via
Google Earth....showed them how kids can collect research via Google
Notebook or Zoho Notebook....showed them how I was able to put a TON of
clipart into OpenOffice ( I used Open clip art and the extensions from
OxygenOffice)...and a whole bunch of other things.  Once I was
finished....the mood in the room was one of excitement about the new realm
of possibilities.  Shortly after I went around to each of the "team
meetings" to ask what I could do for them (after all...they are one of my
"customers" so to speak).  I was inundated with requests for more
thin-clients and computers.  I was shocked.  I had no idea the impact that
had been made, but I was ecstatic.  But...I'm ready (that's the key)...as
soon as the new monitors arrive later this week.  I have a bunch more
workstations and about 15 more thin-clients that I can deploy to an
already "well-stocked" school.  I'm so psyched!  The teachers are already
asking me about workshops to learn all of the new programs available to
them.  Edubuntu is LOADED with them!  The combination of Web 2.0 apps and
the open source apps on Edubuntu have made for a very exciting combination
and a platform that is poised to make a HUGE difference in the delivery of
content and teaching at our school.  Several computers and thin-clients in
every regular classroom....in addition to the labs that already exist. 
Each classroom is now a min-lab unto itself!  Access!  That's what it's
all about!  

Tomorrow the kids arrive....(tonight at Open House they were pretty
excited).  You can bet I'll be blogging and photo-blogging all of the
smiling faces!  Gosh I love this job!  :-)  It's Open Source and free of
encumbering licensing....I get to design and create new magic every school
year!  This is SO COOL!  (When no one tells you what and how you have to
do something...and you are free to do what you know is right and what will
work....that's VERY powerful and inspiring!)

Gosh...I hope I can sleep tonight!  :-)

David N. Trask
Technology Teacher/Director
Vassalboro Community School
dtrask at vcsvikings.org
(207)923-3100