Advice on getting a computer lab server

[nigel barker]

Hi Joe,

I am using Debian Edu (and a few Edubuntu workstations) in an IB PYP and 
Diploma school. (We were an MYP candidate, but decided not to pursue 
that after all.)  I was wondering if you know of any other IB schools 
using LTSP or other free software? I have searched a bit over the years, 
but only discovered a couple of schools that no longer use it. Is it 
just me and you, or are there others? How can we share ideas regarding 
the PoI, etc? Can we get our kids to work together on some units? Do you 
have to deal with FUD?
I was the one who asked the IB to publish the new PYP planner in ODF 
format. (though I have a better version if you want it). Can we team up 
and make them do more to address open standards?

cheers
(lets go off list, but I hope the list didn't mind me posting this in 
case other IB schools are listening)
nigel

Joseph Hartman wrote:
> Hi Bill,
>
> The current curriculum has just undergone some recent changes in light 
> of my beginning to teach middle school students in addition to 
> elementary school students for the first time but I'd be happy to 
> comment about the reasoning behind the current plan.
>
> It arose out of specific school needs, state and professional 
> organization standards (especially ISTE and Massachusettes since 
> California doesn't have specific computer related technology 
> standards), and my own experience/vision. The primary driving force 
> towards Linux, LTSP, and Edubuntu arose out of necessity as much as 
> anything else. I work at a charter school and we inherited a campus 
> from a defunct public school complete with network and computers, the 
> vast majority of the latter being from the wrong side of the 
> millennium. Many of the machines we are using now were donated by 
> organizations (the border patrol, district attorney's office, private 
> companies, German Consulate) that were upgrading infrastructure and 
> would otherwise have been discarded. Thus the ability to use these 
> many underpowered and outdated machines as thin clients appealed to 
> me. I'd guess we have about 200 workstations on campus altogether, of 
> which about 50 are Pentium 4 and four are Core 2 Duo (the 
> administrators' laptops and my own). The rest are P3, P2, or slower.
>
> I should also mention that my school is an International Baccalaureate 
> (IB) World School on the elementary side while the Middle School that 
> just started up last year is in the accreditation process. 
> Additionally, the elementary school operates under a German Immersion 
> program that has the students spend one week learning in English under 
> an English speaking teacher and the next week learning in German under 
> a German speaking teacher. And the campus we inherited two years ago 
> resides in a primarily Spanish-speaking and relatively underprivileged 
> area of San Diego so our incoming students are rapidly changing the 
> face of the school. All additional reasons to use the similarly 
> multicultural and globally minded products of Ubuntu and GNU/Linux.
>
> Because we are an IB school on the elementary side we have what is 
> called a Program of Inquiry (POI) that is essentially a matrix of 6 
> big ideas per grade (so 36 big ideas total) that are divided up and 
> taught throughout the year in addition (and hopefully in conjunction 
> with) the normal classroom curriculum. POI topics are things like 
> "objects in the sky move in predictable patterns" or "water is 
> essential to life" and typically last for about 6 weeks. Thus my own 
> curriculum assignments are designed around supporting these topics 
> while at the same time teaching the students specific hard skills 
> about the programs they are learning to use. I also try to collaborate 
> with the teachers and their own projects as much as possible, although 
> this is difficult since I only see each class for 45 minutes per week.
>
> On to the curriculum....
>
> In Kindergarten the students learn how to use a computer as many have 
> never used one before or if they have it was for very specific tasks. 
> Mouse practice, Tuxpaint, and learning about the parts of a computer 
> pretty much sum it up, although I do try to collaborate with the 
> teachers as much as possible
>
> In First Grade the students begin typing with Mavis Beacon Teaches 
> Typing 15 (the one and only piece of Windows only software I will miss 
> in the transition to Edubuntu in the lab. If anyone has any 
> recommendations for a similar full-featured typing tutor that will 
> work with GNU/Linux I'd love to hear about it). They also start doing 
> somewhat harder online activities since they can read fairly well by 
> this age.
>
> In Second Grade we introduce Open Office Writer. I thought it was a 
> bit early to start with word processing so young, but the 
> Massachusetts state technology standards called for it so I thought 
> we'd give it a shot. After just a year of typing the kids aren't all 
> that adept at using the program, but I've noticed that it serves as a 
> good introduction to the common interface of toolbars and drop down 
> menus. It also introduces the ideas of saving, opening, and printing.
>
> In Third Grade we introduce Open Office Impress. This is actually the 
> program I would have started with in second grade because it is so 
> visual, but third grade seems to be about the youngest age a student 
> can really begin doing coherent presentations in front of the class so 
> I suppose it works here as well. Of course we continue building on 
> what the students have learned in previous years so they learn more 
> about Writer this year as well.
>
> In Fourth Grade the students begin learning Scribus. Publishing and 
> writing labs are a big part of our school's fourth grade curriculum so 
> this was an obvious choice.
>
> Fifth grade focuses on Kompozer and web design in preparation for 
> middle school and the online portfolios that the students begin in 6th 
> grade.
>
> Sixth grade centers around Web 2.0 sites and strategies like blogger 
> and google docs and posting to forums and emailing experts. I 
> originally wanted to do this in 5th grade but didn't feel comfortable 
> asking elementary school students to sign up for the Internet IDs they 
> will need to access certain sites.
>
> In Seventh Grade the students learn Inkscape in the hopes that it will 
> help them spice up their digital portfolios.
>
> In Eighth Grade the students learn GIMP for the same reason as Inkscape.
>
> Basically the idea is to give students the hard skills they need to be 
> able to satisfy their class requirements in the method they prefer. If 
> they want to fulfill an assignment on the fall of the Roman empire 
> they can choose to write a paper, create a brochure, make a newspaper 
> or magazine, create a website, present a powerpoint or whatever. You 
> asked if the curriculum meets the needs of teachers and I feel like 
> this is where it helps them out (Internet safety and research skills 
> and stuff like that falls in the librarians domain) although I will be 
> asking the teachers to fill out a survey on the whole curriculum at 
> the end of the year so I guess I'll know more after that happens. I 
> also like the idea of introducing students to computer parts and 
> programming at least a little bit, thus the mention of kturtle which 
> I'm hoping to introduce across every grade 2 and up (as soon as I 
> learn Logo a little better).
>
> As much as I'd like some new iMacs and to be able to work with the 
> middle schoolers on video editing and animation I'm also pretty 
> committed to using open source (or at least free) software not only to 
> avoid legacy costs for the school but also so that anything I teach in 
> the lab can be practiced at home by the students for no additional 
> cost (assuming the student has a computer at home). I'm more likely to 
> just hope for some new P4s to come through the school, buy some RAM 
> for them and set up some stand-alone Edubuntu boxes.
>
> Sorry for the long winded response, I wasn't sure where you were 
> coming from and (as with all teachers) once I get started I can be 
> hard to stop. Are you in education as well? If you're in the area I'll 
> be presenting on my Edubuntu experiences at the SCALE conference in 
> Los Angeles next month as well as at the CUE conference in Palm 
> Springs in March. If you're interested you can learn more about my 
> school at aeacs.org <http://aeacs.org> and see my presentation at 
> hartmanbot.com <http://hartmanbot.com>. Cheers! -joe
>
>
>
>     Hi Joe,
>
>     Would you mind commenting a bit about how you are using the software
>     above at different grade levels?  Do the programs you mention meet the
>     educational needs of the kids and teachers?
>
>     Is there software you miss from your old setup (I assume Windows since
>     you mention viruses).
>
>
>     > I was hoping to use Kino and Blender with the middle schoolers
>     at some point
>     > in the future, but it isn't a big deal to postpone those plans
>     if need be.
>
>     I'd hope that the savings from using ltsp would help buy a few nice
>     machines for video editing.  Seems like a few nice iMacs would be a
>     nice addition.
>
>
>     --
>     Bill Moseley
>     moseley at hank.org <mailto:moseley at hank.org>
>
>