[ubuntu-za] Ubuntu/Edubuntu in SA Schools

William Walter Kinghorn williamk at dut.ac.za
Thu Mar 26 08:56:27 GMT 2009


Hi All,

This is the next fun part, deciding what we are going to concentrate on, be it Distro, Desktop Environment, Apps, etc

Gnome or KDE or ....

Ubuntu, Edubuntu and UbuntuStudio use GNOME

Xubuntu uses gtk which GNOME uses

There was an article somewhere that said that Mark Shuttleworth was thinking of using KDE as default, but that has not happened.

so, Ubuntu, Edubuntu, UbuntuStudio and Xubuntu, are my suggestion, but i can't stop you using Kubuntu or any other distro/OS based on KDE

No Flame, just facts

I would like to suggest that on ubuntu-za we concentrate on docs for installation, trouble shooting, etc, the docs for apps can be housed on www.schoolforge.org.za

On ubuntu-za we give links to www.schoolforge.org.za, for the different apps.

www.schoolforge.org.za can give links to ubuntu-za, or links to what ever distro for installation, etc

This should minimise duplication

William



________________________________________
From: ubuntu-za-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com [ubuntu-za-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com] On Behalf Of Hilton Gibson [hilton.gibson at gmail.com]
Sent: 26 March 2009 10:36
To: Ubuntu South African Local Community
Subject: Re: [ubuntu-za] Ubuntu/Edubuntu in SA Schools

William Walter Kinghorn wrote:
> Hi Hilton,
Hi

I think schoolforge is better.
A lot of useful "software" is not really FLOSS these days.
Think of web 2.0 tech.

For the desktop, I am a KDE4 fan.
Whatever operating system, be it OS X, Windows or whatever distro
delivers the best KDE4 experience, the better.

KDE4 is our chance to crack the M$ nut.
KDE4 gives a chance to focus the desktop for all, developers and users.

See: http://www.ubuntu.sun.ac.za/wiki/index.php/KDE4

Ok now. Flame on ;-)

Cheers

hg.


>
> Done.
>
> William
> ________________________________________
> From: ubuntu-za-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com [ubuntu-za-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com] On Behalf Of Hilton Theunissen [hilton at inkululeko.co.za]
> Sent: 26 March 2009 10:19
> To: Ubuntu South African Local Community
> Subject: Re: [ubuntu-za] Website for FOSS in Schools
>
> I would like to propose that we changed the topic to "Ubuntu/Edubuntu in
> SA Schools". This way the discussions will be focused.
>
> David Robert Lewis wrote:
>> Great idea. This is exciting stuff and would resolve an issue I have
>> with the current ubuntu-za wiki which doesn't focus on Ubuntu enough. I
>> really believe that we need to grow the local distribution, and there
>> are a number of reasons why Ubuntu is not simply another FOSS and is
>> more than just a flavour of Linux. For one there is the security of
>> knowing other computers are running what you are running. Not all of us
>> can simply hack away at Linux. Then there is the problem of discourse -
>> every Linux distro has different terms and ways of doing things. A
>> teacher would probably go mad keeping a classroom in one place with a
>> general Linux free-for-all. Look, I'm not trying to diss the broader
>> Linux community but rather see this as a parallel development. So if you
>> want the total solution go to schoolforge. If you want the Ubuntu
>> solution, go to ubuntu-za? Seems appropriate?
>>
>>
>> Hilton Theunissen wrote:
>>> Hi All
>>>
>>> We registered the domain www.schoolforge.org.za, we are going to setup
>>> the wiki next week similar to www.schoolforge.org.uk. We will add
>>> "How to" and "SA Projects" pages
>>>
>>> I am going to make contact with a few organisations that have running
>>> open source projects in South Africa to add their projects. Also all
>>> the tuXlab schools and other floss schools will need to upload their
>>> casestudies.
>>>
>>> This for me would be that one-stop for schools that want to learn how
>>> to deploy floss, learn from others experiences, link to ubuntu-za
>>> community, k12ltsp.org community, suse community, etc. Link to
>>> international projects.
>>>
>>> Once we have enough reading material and projects loaded here, we
>>> should then approach Government. I have a link to the Minister but
>>> nobody knows what Gov will look like post April.
>>>
>>> Then we should plan two conferences
>>> 1) Schoolforge SA 2-3 day conference ( uwc, cape town, Sept 2009)
>>> 2) Schoolforge International 5 day in Jozi(csir venue or Wits, Jan or
>>> April 2010) invitee list US, Uk, Finland, Spain, Norway, Malaysia,
>>> Uganda, Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria,Senegal, Germany, Brazil,
>>> India, Egypt, Austria, Netherlands, China, New Zealand, Australia,-
>>> target 50 internationals)Then we need to approach Canonical, Redhat,
>>> Novell, Google and Yahoo for sponsorship)
>>>
>>> If you in call me 0729008001
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Hannes Coetzee wrote:
>>>
>>>> Greetings
>>>>
>>>> Most of the main issues here has been discussed in more detail. I
>>>> hear what everyone else is saying but I don't see any solutions yet
>>>> so it's back to more research. While I'm educating myself some more
>>>> I's like to say the following:
>>>>
>>>> Situation one:
>>>> Some guy installs Edubuntu for a school. Everything works great until
>>>> this guy gets killed in a car accident. Now the school is screwed but
>>>> luckily the person who installed the lab told them that there is a
>>>> site where they could find new support. He even put a sticker on the
>>>> box with the address. Now the school have a few options -
>>>>
>>>> 1) Give up and convert everything back to MS.
>>>> 2) They could go to the site and figure everything out themselves (or
>>>> anything else that involves only the school)
>>>> 3) They can contact the nearest person that's listed on the site and
>>>> find out if this person can help them.
>>>> 4) They could contact their IT company and ask them - "We have this
>>>> system. We know that it is not standard but we'd like to keep it if
>>>> possible. If you don't know how to fix the problem don't worry, just
>>>> go to this site and you will find all the info you could ever need."
>>>> 5) Everybody sit back and do nothing.
>>>>
>>>> Situation two:
>>>> Somehow a school decides they want to use for example Edubuntu in
>>>> their lab. They are told that they should have a look at a website.
>>>> So they go to the site and read up on everything until they are
>>>> convinced that all their questions have been answered. They decide
>>>> that they now need to get this new system into their school. Now they
>>>> have a few options -
>>>>
>>>> 1) They understand enough and everything themselves.
>>>> 2) They install the system with the help of forums and irc.
>>>> 3) They contact the nearest person that's listed and ask him for help.
>>>> 4) They go to their nearest IT company and ask them for their
>>>> assistance. (Once again by just pointing the company to the site)
>>>> 5) They realize that there is no way in hell that they will make head
>>>> or tail of whats going on so everyone just sit back and do nothing.
>>>>
>>>> These are just two cut-down-to-the-basics examples. The point I'm
>>>> trying to make is - Why can we not put something together to help the
>>>> schools help themselves? Why can the IT companies not help the
>>>> schools without support or why can they not help themselves? Why
>>>> could we not point David to one single place where we know he will
>>>> find everything to set up a server at his school? Why can we not
>>>> point interesting parties to a central location where they can get
>>>> leaflets, documents to present to teachers, governing bodies and IT
>>>> companies that's unaware of FOSS, manuals and links on how to install
>>>> a server, info on whatever they need to know before making a decision
>>>> to switch over or info on how and where to get new support. Why can
>>>> this not be done? How will anyone ever find a solution to a problem
>>>> if they always give up?
>>>>
>>>> There's an AIDS orphanage close by and it so happened that I saw the
>>>> person in charge this afternoon. After a bit of chit-chat we started
>>>> talking about their computer lab. A few seconds later - "I really
>>>> don't know what we're going to do. We have a lot of break-ins lately
>>>> and they seem to go only for the computers. After we've build a more
>>>> secure place we'll have to look at something where we only have one
>>>> valuable computer like a central server that we could lock up. It
>>>> would be nice to have all the kid's  files on the server so nothing
>>>> can go missing with the other computers. We'll most likely take the
>>>> server home during holidays. Do you think it will be possible?".
>>>> Edubuntu can do that but the first question I'm always asked is -
>>>> "What happens when you 're gone?". So what should I tell them? They
>>>> are only the third school this month who came to me looking for the
>>>> same solution. I am not prepared to install something that would be
>>>> completely useless should I not be able to support them one day. I've
>>>> told all three these schools I'll get back to them with a possible
>>>> long term solution.  So what now? It is because of these schools and
>>>> countless others in the past that I voiced my opinion in the first
>>>> place. If none of the currently proposed solutions will work are we
>>>> not wasting our time discussing this?
>>>>
>>>> So what will it be? Are we going to stop everything or will we
>>>> continue until we find a solution? Personally I believe this could work.
>>>>
>>>> Regards
>>>> Hannes
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
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