[mdlug] Sad state of schools but hope may be with students

[Michael]

My wife is a teacher and they rely on Windows computers at school. When she
started working there they didn't have a decent word processor and so she
installed Open Office, everyone is thrilled. One of the main reasons that
the school doesn't do away with with the windows tax is purely because they
can find support for anything but.
She is young like me and therefore is asked when it comes to decisions on
the computer side of things. She is excited by the linux star gazer programs
and things like Firefox which can be programmed to only allow access to
certain sites and ad block and the works for enhancing the student
experience with computers.

I think it would be such an awesome service for a local linux group to get
together and roll together a Distribution and provide support to a
classroom. I know distributed upgrades and maintenance is so easy, that kind
of thing would really save a lot of time. I remember a lot of collaboration
ideas and backup thoughts from the OLPC that could easily be rolled out to
computers through out a network.

This has been an idea I have had for the last year or so and really think
that linux could make a huge push in schools where they are paying thousands
of dollars a year for support and limiting student's access to computers due
to spyware and the accidental porn site that kids/teachers tend to figure
out the fastest possible way to navigate to.

I would be really interested to get together with some tech savvy people and
possibly roll together a mock plan if a group were to want to support/roll
out software to elementary schools/classrooms. I don't know if it is
feasible; if people have the time to do something like this, but we all know
the benefits of linux and there is something to be said for volunteering for
our young people to have greater access to information.

Well that is my idea. It might be like the bulk of them and go nowhere, but
I really feel sorry for kids who are only allowed to go in the computer with
the teacher looking over their shoulder and feel like there is so much that
we could do to help out.

My 2c,

Michael


On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 10:36 AM, Mark Kimsal <mark at metrofindings.com>wrote:

> On Wednesday 10 December 08, R. Kannan wrote:
> > A few comments on this article seem to indicate that this story is made
> up.
> > I cannot believe such stupidity exists among our teachers. Has the author
> > of the story been proven to be not credible in the past?
>
> Hah, you can tell it's 100% made up because there's a Windows users who
> thinks
> operating systems cost money.  The majority of technically under-educated
> people I know have no clue how much Windows costs, that you can buy it from
> the store, or that it is even separable from a computer.  POST tests, BIOS
> screens, boot logos and desktops all kind of blur together to make "the
> computer".
>
> The level of technical competence expressed by the teacher in question tips
> their hand too much.  A person with that much computer knowledge has
> probably
> heard of free (even discounting Free) software.
>
> Basically, if you start throwing around the word "operating system", you
> can't
> be so out-of-it as to not have heard of Linux/FOSS.  The situation loses a
> lot of credibility with me at that point.
>
> Add in the end of the letter, which suggests begging MS for old copies of
> Windows (which there's no way you could get even if you tried to pay for
> them), and you get a pretty poorly made up story... at least it seems that
> way to me.
>
>
> On a related note... would confiscating all the CDs constitute a DoS attack
> on
> the kid's software?
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> >
> > >From: - <otakurider at gmail.com>
> > >Sent: Dec 10, 2008 7:54 AM
> > >To: MDLUG's Main discussion list <mdlug at mdlug.org>
> > >Subject: [mdlug] Sad state of schools but hope may be with students
> > >
> > >This may be already know but it was a interesting read - base link from
> > >slashdot and digg
> > >
> > >
> > >
> http://linuxlock.blogspot.com/2008/12/linux-stop-holding-our-kids-back.htm
> > >l _______________________________________________
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