Edubuntu Feisty

[Uwe Geercken]

there are also other things that are in the way to implement linux.

currently we in germany are still trying to equip a lot of schools that have
been left out in the past for various reasons. as economy is on its way up, in
many places money is made available to buy computers for the schools. 

suddenly, money is not a (prime) issue. it is important to be up-to-date (poor
results of the educational system add to this) and the local politicians want
to have their showcases. and the question they ask is: "how many computers,
printers, etc?" ok that makes lets say 40000 bucks. our local school e.g. has
been extended for a million and in the same go they equipped the computer room:
20 brandnew computers with windows, office, printers, switches and kabeling.
that was just a small bit.

nobody even bothered asking for a second opinion. nobody asked for educational
programs for the kids. for multi-language capabilities. what I see here in
europe is that the kids nowadays grow up with at least three languages: german,
englisch and then the language of e.g. a spanish father, an italian or french
mother just to name some. in school they usually learn englisch and french or
englisch and spanish.

my argument with the teachers was:
- teach them linux and windows. later the kids can decide on their own depending
on where they work and what they work on
- if they know linux, it is easier to adopt to windows, then the other way
around
- give them something interesting (which windows not is). all those issues like
violence is in many cases caused by the fact that the kids don't have anything
to do and no place to go to. although this is not an issue in my town, I say:
give them something to do that they like, using the computer.
- unlike the current generation, kids should understand what is inside the
computer. harddisk, slots, memory, etc. they should know what that is and how
it works.
- you can easily combine the lessons in math, chemics, languages, etc with the
computer. the kids can do something useful and waste their energy. or you can
integrate the computer in school projects.

I believe the combination with the traditional methods makes it interesting.

I hope this will work and will keep you updated, once we start at our local
school. I have no plan yet what to do, but I hope I can bring some of the
spirit of linux, open source and programming (e.g. java, shell scripts,
databases, etc) to the kids and of course the teachers.

the teachers are by the way a big problem. they have in general no understanding
of computers, they don't know what possibilities there are and they do not have
a lot of time to educate themselves. I believe teachers need to be in the boat
as well. that is important.

ok. this is all for the moment. a mixture of hope, entusiasm and resignation is
the best description of how I feel when I discus with them. but I know it takes
time and so I don't give up.

uwe