Re: Introduction

[Doug Loss <dloss@csrlink.net>]

Evan Leibovitch wrote:
> 
> My name is Evan Leibovitch. I'm very involved in the Canadian Linux user
> community, and I write a column on Linux issues for ZDNet.
> 
Welcome, Evan.  I've enjoyed your articles, even though ZD isn't high on
my list of organizations to look to for useful info on the computer
world.  Thanks for being an exception to this general impression.

> The newest responsibility I've taken on is being in charge of evaluating
> and recommending educational software for Linux systems, as part of what's
> called "the Learnux project".
> 
> (It does look as if, fairly shortly, we're going to have our own
> quasi-distribution tailored to the needs of old, slow hardware. For
> instance, we've chosen Debian as the base distribution because it allows
> for the leanest base install, and for the graphic interface we settled on
> "xfce" as the best balance between functionality and
> resource-thriftiness.)
> 
This would be of major interest to many people.  Here on this mailing
list, Jose Lacal and Ray Olszewski have been discussing the educational
possibilities of using "obsolete" hardware.  Jose is one of the leaders
of the OpenClassroom <http://www.openclassroom.org> and Volks-PC
<http://www.volks-pc.org> projects, and Ray is an insightful programmer
and former educator.  Reading through their discussions could be useful
to you, I think.

One of the things I'm concerned with for educational purposes is
expandable user interfaces, where the interface to a program or window
manager can be made simple and easy to learn for young children and can
be gradually made richer as they become more experienced, till they are
using the full interface to the program or WM in question.  The example
I use (probably not really possible) is a front end for the GIMP that
initally looks somewhat like Kid Pix but can eventually change to
include all the features of the GIMP.  Since it's my personal interest,
I'll advocate that you think about things of this kind.

> In any case, could someone tell me how we could publicize the Learnux
> program on the SEUL website? Until learnux.org is working (it's registered
> but I haven't set it up yet) there's more information about it at
> http://centre.linux.ca
> 
We can put a link to in on our links page, and make an entry in our news
section.  We don't really have lots of visibility in the Linux community
at the moment, but we'll be happy to mention Learnux along with all the
other organizations we promote whenever anyone will listen. :-)

-- 
Doug Loss                 The difference between the right word and
Data Network Coordinator  the almost right word is the difference
Bloomsburg University     between lightning and a lightning bug.
dloss@bloomu.edu                Mark Twain