Teaching technology: What is important for K-8 ?

Fri Jan 11 16:39:44 GMT 2008

Thanks for your input.  Your suggestions are really
helpful.

I especially like the Indiana success story.  I'll
definitely include that in my pitch.

As far as I can tell, there is one MS-only app that
they absolutely must have: IE7.  Every morning the
teachers must login to an IE7-only website to do their
paperwork.  This is a district requirement and is
unlikely to change***.  There _is_ a wine-based
project (ies4linux) that supports IE6 (and IE7 in
beta), but the license/legal problems are probably
insurmountable. 

I thought that perhaps I could sell them on a hybrid
system:
* Each classroom would have a big Edubuntu box.  
* The big Edubuntu box would serve as an LTSP server
* The Edubuntu box would have a WinXP virtual machine
for running IE7.
* Optional: we buy a small number of terminal services
client licenses so that the students could connect to
the WinXP VM when necessary.

Another option would be to have a single WinXP server
for the whole school.  The teachers could connect via
rdesktop to that server when they need to use IE7.

--------------
*** I think it's a PeopleSoft system.  I'm reminded of
Linus's comment about hardware manufacturers that
don't open their specs: Is "I hope you all die a
painful death" too strong?

I started out as a web developer, and I know that all
you really have to do is code to standards and then
every browser will work.

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> Today's Topics:
> 
>    1. Teaching technology: What is important for K-8
> ? (Jeffrey LePage)
>    2. Re: Teaching technology: What is important for
> K-8 ?
>       (Matt Burkhardt)
>    3. Re: Teaching technology: What is important for
> K-8 ?
>       (Tony Yarusso)
> 
> 
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:49:06 -0800 (PST)
> From: Jeffrey LePage <jeffrey_lepage at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Teaching technology: What is important for
> K-8 ?
> To: ubuntu-education at lists.ubuntu.com
> Message-ID:
> <430995.23041.qm at web36714.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
> 
> Hello,
> 
> Here's my basic question: How do you integrate Linux
> workstations into the K-8 Montessori classroom?
> 
> Follow-up question:  how do you sell this to people
> who come from a MS-centric world?
> 
> Background
> --------------------
> The principal at my son's school has decided that we
> need to emphasize technology more.  They think they
> might get a big grant soon.  However, they don't
> really have a plan for integrating computers into
> the
> classroom. 
> 
> They're a little bit familiar with Linux.  I set up
> 22
> Xubuntu laptops for them (for student use).  By all
> accounts everyone loves the new laptops.
> 
> They seem to want
> 1) to teach basic mouse/keyboard skills
> 2) to teach how to use the internet for research
> 3) to teach how to use common apps like M$ Word. 
> (yes, I told them about abiword and OpenOffice).
> 4) to teach touch typing.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>      
>
____________________________________________________________________________________
> Looking for last minute shopping deals?  
> Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. 
>
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> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 15:04:10 -0500
> From: Matt Burkhardt <mlb at imparisystems.com>
> Subject: Re: Teaching technology: What is important
> for K-8 ?
> To: Jeffrey LePage <jeffrey_lepage at yahoo.com>
> Cc: ubuntu-education at lists.ubuntu.com
> Message-ID: <1199995450.13431.14.camel at mlb-laptop>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> 
> I know this is for openSUSE, but the course guides
> from Novell cover
> ages 10 through 14 and has sections on both Gnome
> and KDE, so that
> should cover Grades 5 though 8.  It's close enough
> to Kubuntu that you
> should be able to get some use out of the
> documentation and instructor's
> guides.
> 
>
http://ocw.novell.com/suse-linux-enterprise-desktop/get-ready-for-open-source-suse-linux-enterprise-desktop-book-1/course-materials
> 
> There's also a second level course available through
> Novell, and knowing
> Montessori, your kids might be ready for it.
> 
> I haven't been able to find curriculum and
> instructor guides for grades
> K through 4 - so if anyone knows, please let me
> know.
> 
> The best way to sell this to MS-centric folks is to
> look at the savings.
> Most schools get their cost per computer down by
> between 40% and 75%.
> The entire state of Indiana and the city of San
> Diego are two examples -
> they both discovered that open source software could
> save them a good
> deal of money between lower requirements for
> hardware, no software
> licensing fees, no anti-virus software and the
> increased security
> available in Linux systems.  They're both aiming for
> a computer for
> every child.
> 
> In addition, using an open source operating system
> also gains you all of
> the great open source software.  For example,
> there's video editing
> software, graphics software and audio editing
> software that is all free
> - only some of it available for Windows machines.
> 
> If you need any additional information, I am focused
> on K-12 open source
> for schools and would be happy to help out.  You can
> also look on my web
> site (http://www.imparisystems.com) for the Links
> page - I'm constantly
> updating it - that only has open source software and
> copyleft course
> materials.
> 
> Good luck!
> 
> On Thu, 2008-01-10 at 10:49 -0800, Jeffrey LePage
> wrote:
> 
> > Hello,
> > 
> > Here's my basic question: How do you integrate
> Linux
> > workstations into the K-8 Montessori classroom?
> > 
> > Follow-up question:  how do you sell this to
> people
> > who come from a MS-centric world?
> > 
> > Background
> > --------------------
> > The principal at my son's school has decided that
> we
> > need to emphasize technology more.  They think
> they
> > might get a big grant soon.  However, they don't
> > really have a plan for integrating computers into
> the
> > classroom. 
> > 
> > They're a little bit familiar with Linux.  I set
> up 22
> > Xubuntu laptops for them (for student use).  By
> all
> > accounts everyone loves the new laptops.
> > 
> > They seem to want
> > 1) to teach basic mouse/keyboard skills
> > 2) to teach how to use the internet for research
> > 3) to teach how to use common apps like M$ Word. 
> > (yes, I told them about abiword and OpenOffice).
> > 4) to teach touch typing.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >      
>
____________________________________________________________________________________
> > Looking for last minute shopping deals?  
> > Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. 
>
http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping
> 
=== message truncated ===

      ____________________________________________________________________________________
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