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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>We do have a few white boards although they are
used with laptops, (WinXp re installed as part of the Laptop of Techers scheme).
However the latest version of the smartboard software does have a linux version.
As of yet I havn't had a chance to test how well it works.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Regards</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Alistair</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=lspinfo@gmail.com href="mailto:lspinfo@gmail.com">London School of
Puppetry</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com
href="mailto:ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com">British Ubuntu Talk</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, January 17, 2007 6:35
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [ubuntu-uk] Open Source
Challenges Vista at U.K. Education Show</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>I have seen whiteboard in a number of schools recently all
working brilliantly. Caroline<BR><BR>
<DIV><SPAN class=gmail_quote>On 17/01/07, <B class=gmail_sendername>Toby
Smithe</B> <<A href="mailto:toby.smithe@gmail.com">
toby.smithe@gmail.com</A>> wrote:</SPAN>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">Hi.
I'm curious: do you have whiteboards and do they work? <BR><BR>On Wed,
2007-01-17 at 09:42 +0000, Alistair Crust wrote:<BR>> Hi, I would have to
strongly disagree with your outlook here.<BR>> I talk from experience as
a systems admin at Skegness Grammar school in<BR>> Lincolnshire. We have
run LTSP with several different distros for 3 years <BR>> (Settling on
Debian, then Ubuntu) on 100+ thin clients with Ubuntu fat<BR>> clients in
most of the department offices and all services web-filtering,<BR>>
email, intranet etc using Linux. Legacy apps are available using win2k3
<BR>> Terminal services. All curriculum teaching is done using Linux. We
are now a<BR>> Maths and Computing Specialist school.<BR>><BR>>
Although I must admit any advances into education by OSS and GNU/Linux in
<BR>> general will be, and have been, hard at first the more it is used
the more<BR>> Managers, Teachers, Software vendors.. even school
governors wanting to make<BR>> the most of their budget will see the
benefits. <BR>><BR>> To clarify I recently read in a blog post by Mark
Shuttleworth<BR>> (<A
href="http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/76">http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/76</A>)
that for hardware<BR>> manufacturers it seems to be about critical
mass... once 5-10% of people are <BR>> asking for Linux support only then
will they care about providing that<BR>> support. IMHO this also is the
case for software vendors.<BR>><BR>> Without that critical mass in
education, shouting to manufacturers <BR>> (hardware/software) then it
will be a struggle for advancement but not<BR>> impossible. Once we have
this critical mass, software vendors and hardware<BR>> vendors alike will
care about why they are loosing out on a viable and <BR>> important
revenue stream. With BECTA et al reiterating the need for OSS this<BR>>
will help to grow the seeds of change..for the better.<BR>><BR>> I
would love to see some way that government could provide funding to OSS
<BR>> projects to continue there sterling work. Funding that would
ordinarily go<BR>> to proprietary systems that bear a great risk for
vendor lock-in. Look at<BR>> the funding for the Compulsory.. sorry
Optional KS3 ICT Online...sorry <BR>> On-screen Test....sorry Assessment.
(This just shows the U turn the<BR>> government has done when they found
out things were not going as smoothly as<BR>> they thought, and they had
spend a shed load of tax payers cash and it <BR>> wasn't going to do what
they wanted it to do). This cash could have gone to<BR>> funding
something useful... even getting someone like Canonicle to build an<BR>>
On-line distro neutral Test... something that works! <BR>><BR>> To
close, I know I haven't been the most active member of the list as I
have<BR>> limited spare time. I did however feel compelled to add my two
peneth here.<BR>> I'll get of my soap box now. <BR>><BR>> Keep up
the great work with OSS promotion.. as I said critical mass, the<BR>>
more we chip away at this the better it becomes. To coin a phrase
"Every<BR>> Little Helps!"(tm)<BR>><BR>> Regards <BR>><BR>>
Alistair Crust<BR>><BR>><BR>> ----- Original Message -----<BR>>
From: "Colin_The_Technician" <<A
href="mailto:binarysignal@gmail.com">binarysignal@gmail.com</A>><BR>>
To: "British Ubuntu Talk" < <A
href="mailto:ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com</A>><BR>>
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 11:21 PM<BR>> Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk]
Open Source Challenges Vista at U.K. Education Show<BR>><BR>><BR>>
>I was at the BETT Show and saw the Open Forum Europe stand and
the<BR>> > Edubuntu CD's. Also the Internet cafe there was
powered by Linux. So<BR>> > while it's good to see them at
BETT I personally never think Linux we <BR>> > make any advances into
education. And I say that as a school Network<BR>> >
Manager.<BR>> ><BR>> > I say that because of the 190 poor
written and designed educational<BR>> > applications we have on our
network NONE of them have Linux versions. <BR>> > That is with one
exception....the new Yr9 ICT SAT software has a Linux<BR>> > version
and I noticed that just yesterday.<BR>> ><BR>> > I do promote
OSS and Linux within education. I have converted one <BR>>
> teacher and two students to Ubuntu. And given OpenOffice to
many<BR>> > students who do not have MS Office on their home
PCs.<BR>> ><BR>> > I believe OpenOffice, The GIMP and other OSS
applications could do <BR>> > well in schools, but I believe the
desktop OS will always be Windows.<BR>> > Mainly because myself and my
colleagues (MS Admins) are ten a penny :-)<BR>> ><BR>> >
--<BR>> > <A
href="mailto:ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com</A><BR>>
> <A
href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk</A><BR>>
> <A
href="https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/">https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
</A><BR>> ><BR>> ><BR>> ><BR>> > --<BR>> > No
virus found in this incoming message.<BR>> > Checked by AVG Free
Edition.<BR>> > Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.16.12/630 -
Release Date: <BR>> > 15/01/2007 20:28<BR>> ><BR>>
><BR>><BR>><BR>--<BR>Help me get to Venezuela!<BR><A
href="http://tibsplace.co.uk/venezuela">http://tibsplace.co.uk/venezuela</A><BR><BR><BR>--<BR><A
href="mailto:ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com</A><BR><A
href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk</A><BR><A
href="https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/">https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
</A><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><BR clear=all><BR>-- <BR><BR>---<BR>London
School of Puppetry<BR><A
href="http://www.londonschoolofpuppetry.com">www.londonschoolofpuppetry.com</A>
<P>
<HR>
<P></P>--
<BR>ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com<BR>https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk<BR>https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/<BR>
<P>
<HR>
<P></P>No virus found in this incoming message.<BR>Checked by AVG Free
Edition.<BR>Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.16.14/636 - Release Date:
18/01/2007 04:00<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>