[ubuntu-za] Free and Open Source Software in Schools

[William Walter Kinghorn]

Hi Sudhashen,

We need to get a pamphlet out, one that will go to all schools, so that when we give it to schools we are all talking the same language

eg. Have you got MS Office, point them to the pamphlet, which describes OpenOffice
eg. Have you got Pastel, point them to the pamplet, which describes GNUCash and webERP
etc

So when a schools ask "what software we have", we just point them to the pamphlet, and if it is not there, then we look for something, if we cant find something, possibly start a fund for financing projects, or the fund can alter already existing projects to do what is required. I know that there are some people who will do this for free, but that is not always the case.

What we can try do, is make a programmer group, which creates software for schools.

These are just my thoughts
William


________________________________________
From: ubuntu-za-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com [ubuntu-za-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com] On Behalf Of Sudhashen Naicker [sudhashen at ixion.co.za]
Sent: 13 March 2009 13:27
To: Ubuntu South African Local Community
Subject: Re: [ubuntu-za] Free and Open Source Software in Schools

I'll contribute where I can

-phone up schools
-offer to provide setup's in Joburg area
etc

Kind Regards

Sudhashen Naicker




Johan Mynhardt wrote:
> I just had an idea, sort of a light-bulb-moment.
>
> If at all possible, what would the possibility be of organising an online IRC
> event, say for one or two days, where we can dedicate time to run a live Q/A
> session but we advertise and encourage schools, especially Technology classes to
> plan for this day, and let every pupil join and ask questions should they have
> any. I can only imagine this to be a somewhat chaotic experience should there be
> any IRC first-timers that play with the technology during the period.
>
> But I still think this might be a great opportunity to reach into classrooms and
> tell the pupils, and the educators about what can be done.
>
> Frank Kusel wrote:
>
>> Hilton Theunissen wrote:
>> <snip>
>>
>>> We have several very successfull schools but that is in the minority.
>>> Saxonworld primary school in johannesburg is a very successfull
>>> commercial model. We did so well over the past year that school extended
>>> the network to teacher workstations into every classroom. 55 diskless
>>> fat terminals running from single ubuntu ltsp.org server.
>>>
>>> Getting back to floss in schools - do it commercially and use new
>>> hardware. Deploy a full-time IT teacher. Purchase propriety Educational
>>> content - must be delivered via browser. Set your SLA for a visit twice
>>> a week in 1st 6-12months. Upgrade software every 12months.  Have a
>>> certification roadmap - Ingots delivered that for tuXlab schools. We
>>> have e-learning solution for OpenICDL but the adoption rate is not good
>>> at all.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> <snip>
>>
>> In my experience the biggest hurdle is IT teachers who are not remotely
>> interested in or brave enough to try FOSS solutions - mostly because
>> they are afraid of looking silly, or that it will be too difficult.
>>
>> I'm not sure how one would counter this.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Frank
>>
>>

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