Re: Major interview

[Bill Ries-Knight <brk@slip.net>]

Doug Loss wrote:

> Linux is usable _now_ in K12 schools in a server setting.  There's nothing
> technical standing in its way, only perceptions and the common hesitancy to
> try something new.  I think this is a theme that Jose might be best to advance,
> with special note being made of OpenClassroom's Local Tutors program and Bill's
> LENPP.  These are ways in which members of the Linux community can get involved
> in education and support Linux at the same time.

I agree that LINUX is ready for the back room, it will support traditional and web
based enterprises and most schools are a combination of both in local and
ditributed (disctrict wide) resources.  Also, thanks for the plug.

> Linux provides major financial benefits for education over other operating
> systems, not the least of which is the ability to continue to use computers
> that can no longer run the supported commercial OSs.  This theme works best as
> an advocacy tool for those trying to convince curious school administrations to
> try Linux.  Along with this goes the theme of open source development, the kind
> of peer review of work that is very familiar to the educational community.
> This development model would allow any interested student or teacher to study
> the internal workings of open source software and tinker with them if they
> want to.  As someone said, the Linux and educational communities share similar
> philosophical stances.  These themes are probably mine to address.

This perspective offers a great view of the two sides of education : Rote
memorization of facts and the free thinking to expound upon said facts and grow
into a thinking and reasoning person.

> For use on the student desktop Linux needs some work.  There currently are few
> pedagogical or exploration programs available for Linux that would be useful
> at this level.  While there are open source projects (which we support and
> encourage more of) currently to address this lack, it seems likely that the
> lack of these programs will slow Linux's adoption in schools.  We encourage
> commercial educational software companies to port their existing programs to
> Linux, and will be happy to discuss with them ways of making a profit with
> commercial educational software in the Linux world.  We are generally
> supporters of open source software, but we recognize that that may not be the
> most appropriate development model for all niches of software.  Roman is
> the best one for this theme.
>
> We think that much of the software available, both for Linux and for other
> OSs, is more difficult to use than is necessary and that this is keeping
> many from trying Linux.  That's one of the reasons we want to see high-quality
> programs designed for children on Linux--because a user interface simple and
> obvious enough for children should also be very good for other end users and
> would help advance SEUL's goals.  On the other hand, we think that such UIs
> could and probably should be adopted as alternatives for standard Linux
> programs such as the GIMP.  We'd like to see kids using the GIMP through an
> interface similar to Kid Pix, which could be gradually enriched till they were
> using the full power of the program.  The same goes for word processors,
> databases, spreadsheets, etc.  This is a theme we can all hit.
>
> How does that read?
> Doug Loss            Always acknowledge a fault.  This will throw
> dloss@csrlink.net    those in authority off their guard and give
> (570) 326-3987       you the opportunity to commit more.
>                         Mark Twain

Don't forget the Apple model of "giving" to get a preferred user base.  Also, show
the value of CROSS-PLATFORM and MULTI-LINGUAL. This is what has been happening with
STAR DIVISION, and it is making some waves in the Microsoft user base.  If we can
show how the models work, it may show the ed-soft developers a working marketing
concept.

Bill