[ubuntu-florida] who's using Edubuntu?

[Andrew Watts]

Yes you do have a valid point, and if something could not be worked out with
OLPC then the thin client would be the next best option.  Im sure, however,
that if there was some sort of communication between the school and OLPC
that something could worked out.  I'm sorry but if a government of a 3rd
world country has money to spend, i doubt that this will be spent on laptops
for children.  As noble as the idea is, eventually, one needs to see reality
and that if a government is willing to let kids starve then i doubt they
give a crap about the education of said children.  I bet if you were to
contact OLPC (how i don't know) and tell them what you are trying to do they
may work something out, similar to the buy one get one but at a more modest
price point, hell even if it were to be a buy one get one it would still be
cheaper than a thin client system in the big realm of things by the time you
add support in the equation (think about it you need a server,
infrastructure and thin clients...this will get expensive really, really
fast).   I think part of the OLPC mission is to get the laptop in the hands
of children and that is exactly what would be done.  I'm sure that if it
were presented in such a way that OLPC would bite hook line and sinker.  To
me it just doesn't make sense to allow 3rd country to buy them yet not allow
our own children, i thought it was supposed to be about One Laptop Per
Child.  The whole idea is to empower the youth and if other countries and
governments and states see the success OLPC will have a hell of a following
in no time.  Monkey see monkey do.  Remember a school is a government
entity, even if it is private, it still is an institution that has
government ties.  In my opinion that is where energy needs to go, a school
isn't going to go for something because its "free".  How awesome would it be
for the schools reputation to boom because of the contract that was made
between them and OLPC.  It could change the face of education for the entire
country.  It really cant hurt to try, whats the worse that could happen OLPC
or the school say no, then you have a backup plan to go on.  It may be one
of those things, ask and you shall recieve.

I think that edubuntu is a great idea but the problem is deployment.  A thin
client system would be hard to setup, there is a lot of infrastructure that
would be needed in order to facilitate a network of that type and it gets
very expensive very fast.  The other problem is that it isn't scalable.  You
cant bring up and bring down the network quickly if need be.  You also need
to find someone that can manage it full time, if you decide to leave to
program what happens to the school, are they stuck like chuck or is there
going to be someone else that they can hire to maintain the system.  The key
to any network system is keeping it up and running and, even with Linux
being as stable as it is, will require a lot of work to keep it up and
running over the long term, remember kids can break anything.  Kids are
amazing at breaking stuff, if you want to find out how to really break
something give it to a kid it will take a while but eventually it will
break, the question is, however, is it fixable in a quick fix.  With Linux
the answer is pretty quick if you know what you are doing, a few day if you
don't, with windows yes in a day, with XO its about 10 minutes to reflash
the laptop by pressing 2 buttons...easy.  Reliability and easy of use are
going to be the schools biggest concerns, then it comes down to cost.
Schools, especially private, are going to think about what is best for the
school not necessarily the most cost efficient method.  They are considering
Apple computers, one of the most expensive brands on the market, because of
how easy it is to use, that is a major selling point for them.

On 10/22/07, Martin Wilson <martinmwilson at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I hate to chime in mid discussion here, but aren't the XO laptops not
> available for sale in North America?  I don't mean to take down such a good
> argument, and trust me I think XO laptops would rock for this school, but I
> believe OLPC has announced they will only be selling their laptops to
> governments.  The only way to obtain an XO at the moment is to participate
> in the "Give 1, get 1" program, in which you donate $399, and one child in a
> developing world obtains a laptop and you also get one for personal use.
> And this program only runs from November 12th for a short period of time.
>
> On 10/22/07, Andrew Watts <systemstalker at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > You need to sell it to them that this is the future for their students,
> > including the parents.  Honestly though i would talk to the school and the
> > parents about the XO laptop.  If they can afford to send there kid to a
> > private school they should be able to cope with the XO laptop.  It's $180.
> > the kids will be able to bring the system home with them and be able to
> > everything that they can do otherwise.  It may not be Ubuntu but remember,
> > the system was designed for kids, what ever is best for the kids is the most
> > important part.  They will have the ability to communicate and if you were
> > to have a server in every class all the lessons could be put on the XO.  I
> > bet if the school were to work with One Laptop Per Child that they would be
> > all for working out something where each child spent 200 per laptop and the
> > extra $20 went to OLPC.  Again, this IS a private school, don't let those
> > parents tell you they cant afford it.  Those kids wont be able to break
> > anything and will have a laptop that they can take home and work on.  If you
> > are planning to buy new hardware anyway this would be the best solution.
> > Thin clients cost money and the last time i checked the XO OLPC was alot
> > better than a thin client PC, its small, portable, about the same price as a
> > thin client and best of all the student can OWN it and use it at home too.
> > The biggest bonus is that if the kid breaks the OS he/she or a parent can
> > easily fix it at home without any CD or other extraneous software,
> > everything that is needed is already there.  its an all in one solution to
> > the problem and costs the school nothing, everyone wins.  The kids won't
> > care what it's doing nor will the school.  The beautiful thing is that these
> > laptops are self networking, you won't need to add any major network
> > infrastructure it should just work out of box, so easy a child in the 3rd
> > world can do it.  this is a lot cheaper than any PC on the market and its
> > virtually zero configuration, with thin clients and the like it there is a
> > problem it can take days or weeks to fix, money always needs to be spent
> > setting things up.  Thin clients are difficult to setup (for the average
> > user, try telling a teacher to set one up, HA) and if you leave the program
> > goes belly up.  With the XO all you need to have is a few wireless access
> > points and the mesh network in the XO does the rest.  if one child in the
> > room has internet/network access, all of them do.  The teacher can also run
> > all the notebooks at the same time, say during a lecture the teacher takes
> > control and provides an up close and personal interactive lesson right
> > there.  The perfect solution to a very difficult problem.  Not only is it
> > cost efficient, its also time efficient for both the school and the
> > students.  The only problem with it is, how ever, getting OLPC to sell the
> > laptops to the school.  Personally i think that every child in the world
> > should have this laptop issued to them every year in school, there just
> > isn't much you can do to break them. and as they progress through grade
> > school give them more advanced laptops.  The XO is water resistant, drop
> > resistant and most importantly kid tested to work every time with a great
> > battery life (8+ hours) so it will last most, if not all of the day.  Any
> > open source software you want to use should work on it too.  Let me know
> > what you think.
> >
> > Andrew
>
>
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