[seul-edu] [Fwd: Computers in the classroom]

[Doug Loss <dloss@suscom.net>]

I received this from Jim last Monday, and just got his permission to forward it
today.  I think he has some good points relating to advocacy and would like to
discuss them here.

Jim Sansing wrote:

> Doug,
>
> I am a Linux user/advocate, and have been a parent volunteer at my
> daughter's elementary school for 3 years.  I have not tried to promote
> Linux because the support infrastructure for the entire county school
> system is too weak and because, by the time I got involved, they had
> already committed to MS.
>
> However, hopefully some of my experiences will help your advocating
> efforts.
>
>  1) Do you have printed literature that you can hand out or mail?
> Unfortunately, many of the decision makers in school districts are not
> attuned to technology.  So, you may have to use snail mail to get the word
> to the right people.
>
> 2) Have you contacted the National PTA and/or the teacher's unions?  If
> you can get a support from one or more of these organizations, you will be
> noticed by local school systems.  Send them several copies of your printed
> literature.
>
> 3) One of the groups I volunteered for was the Technology Club, where we
> helped 5th graders build robots using the Legos Mindstorms kits.  While the
> OSS alternatives for these kits is too advanced for elementary and probably
> middle school students, I would think that the growing interest in robotics
> would be a good opportunity for some visibility.
>
>    If you could co-sponsor, or at least man a booth at, regional high
> school competitions, then many of the attendees are probably the students
> that keep the computers running in their school.  If they are already
> fighting the good fight, then you can provide them with hard facts they can
> use to convince the powers that be.  Otherwise, you may be able to recruit.
>
> 4) In Anne Arundel, MD, the support of the hardware and software is
> contracted.  However, the county school administration has a group that
> tests and approves basic configurations and educational programs for
> elementary, middle school, and high school.  This is your ultimate target,
> and I expect that there is some equivalent in most school systems.
>
>    Perhaps if you could put together a direct mailing to the IS group of
> every school district in the country describing what you have so far, and
> especially detailing the cost benefits, you may find that the 1-in-10 rule
> kicks in, and you get a 10% (or better) response rate.
>
> 5) When I was in a meeting with this group, discussing the upcoming MS NT
> network, I asked about how they planned to manage student classwork data.
> I was told that each student is given a floppy, because they cannot afford
> to have a sysadmin manage student accounts.  I was so astounded that the
> only thing I could do was to decide to move to another school district.
>
>    However, this caused me to think that if there were a program that
> each teacher could run to manage the students in that class, which created
> a file that could be picked up by a cron job (or something similar) to
> add/delete system userids, then this would be something that even MS
> doesn't offer.
>
> 6) I have thought that what would really kick-start the Linux in the
> schools effort would be if there were a "School Distribution".  If you
> could get one or more of the major distributors to supply a school
> configuration, alongside of their server and workstation configurations,
> then it would eliminate the need for piecing it together.  Since this would
> be good PR, I wouldn't expect that it would be hard to convince at least a
> few of them to do so.  I would think that Mandrake would be a good place to
> start.
>
> 7) Another project I volunteered for was to spend 1/2 day each week
> teaching the kids in my daughter's class to use the computer.  (This was
> before the lab was built, so I only had 2 computers in the back of the
> class.)  I don't know how many schools have T1s, but our school doesn't.
> With 25 classrooms and now a lab with 30 PCs, 56K just doesn't cut it.  And
> I don't see the phone companies making any effort to help out.  So, I found
> that using the Internet for research was not an option.  That meant that I
> had to use online encyclopedias.
>
>    If you could get IBM to put its money where its mouth is and support
> the World Book on Linux, this would remove a major obstacle to Linux in the
> classroom.
>
>    For that matter, if you could get IBM to sponsor SEUL, it might
> provide you with some good exposure.  (Of course, it might not, and I don't
> see that you are seeking sponsors, so please don't flame me.)
>
> 8) Finally, if I can get the major issues in my life resolved (I finally
> got the kitchen remodeled, so now I hope in about another 6 mos. to a year
> to be at some level of equilibrium), I have a plan for a school software
> environment that would allow students and teachers to design their own
> exercise books.  It is extremely ambitious, so I'm hesitant to say much
> about it, but basically, think of spreadsheet-like macros in a visual
> programming environment, creating graphs and number problems for math
> exercises, maps for social studies, fill in the blanks for language arts,
> and maybe even science, art, and music exercises.
>
> So, as with all OSS, this is now yours to use and modify.  Just pass any
> improvements along.
>
> Jim Sansing




--
Doug Loss                 God is a comedian playing
Data Network Coordinator  to an audience too afraid
Bloomsburg University     to laugh.
dloss@bloomu.edu                Voltaire