Re: [seul-edu] Linux in schools

[Harry McGregor <micros@azstarnet.com>]

On Sat, 2 Sep 2000 gringey@sendit.sendit.nodak.edu wrote:

> I am an 8th grade teacher at a small middle school in Fargo, ND.  We 
> have purchases a new lab with 30 machines that are using Linux.

Are the computers networked?  What is the layout?  Servers?  Do the
systems have individual hard disk drives, or are they NFS/diskless?

>  I 
> feel very lost. I have run an Apple lab for 12 years.  
>  I would like to find a management program for my computer lab. I ran 
> At Ease on my Macs and loved how students could login from any 
> computer and saved their work on the server.

In a Linux environment this is 100% unneeded.  Your window mananger and OS
Level permisions will keep the kids focused.  I would suggest that you
look into IceWM.

Keep inmind that Linux was designed from the getgo (as all unixes) to be a
multi user OS, thus you don't have the issues with a mulituser (lab)
environment that you do with windows 9x or MacOS.

> Does Linux have a 
> program that is similiar?  I need a keyboarding program appropriate 
> for 6-8 graders and any other software that is available that would 
> be good for middle school use.

We are right now using Typist (command line based, running though an
XTerm).

> We will be using StarOffice5.2.

Ok.  A lot will depend on your network setup.  This lab could be a royal
PIA, or it could be very easy to administer and run.  100Mbit networking
is your friend, so is NFS, and ssh with lazy keys and scripts.

>  Are we premature in establishing a lab in Linux?  I do not want to 
> have a lab that the average teacher is afraid to bring a class to to 
> work or research.

We have had a working Linux lab at Corbett Elementary School
(http://www.corbettschool.org, and an article about it at
http://www.osef.org) for about two years now.

Feel free to contact me if you want any information on our setups.  Also,
as I am not the only person who worked on the setup (Nick has done most of
the more recent server work) I might have to refer you to other people.


			Harry


> Thanks for any encouragement you can offer.  I am in over my head!!!
> 

--
Harry McGregor, CEO, Co-Founder
hmcgregor@osef.org, (520) 202-OSEF (6733)
Open Source Education Foundation, http://www.osef.org