Re: SEUL: Educational Software

[Wayne Earl <wearl@jps.net>]

EAMorical@aol.com wrote:

> Just some thoughts on getting a list of educational software together.
> Whenever I get the opportunity, I ask kids how are computers being used at
> your school. It varies all over the place. This was several years ago, but one
> highschool student told me they were being used for keyboard (I guess teaching
> typing) and for word processing. In another school where I know the teacher of
> the computer lab, keyboard is being taught at either the kindergarten or first
> grade level. I'm not sure if the lab is used k-4 or 1-4. For 5-8 the computers
> are located in the classrooms. The computer lab is set up with 30 Apple
> computers (class size) networked for easy software upgrades only. No internet
> access due to lack of phone lines. This is similar to many of the schools.
> Very expensive to retrofit for internet access.

How about setting them up with cheap 486's running Linux? I work as a sysadmin,
and we have BOXES of old motherboards, video cards, etc. that would do the job.
Perhaps asking businesses (VA Research, etc.) to donate old machines?

> Several months ago I got a
> chance to see the lab and a demo of one of the programs used. A student would
> type in a word and hear it pronounced by the computer. I think we could
> duplicate this with just writting a simple interface and utilizing the UNIX
> dictionary/spell checker and a speech synthesizer (the software map lists
> several possibilities). Comments on this assessment appreciated. We need to
> get a list of the software desired together, which grades each is appropriate
> for, and how can we provide it.
>
> Bob

  Education is our old hope for tomorrow (what a cliche :) ) My first experience
with a computer was programming in PILOT on an Atari 800 when I was 7. I think
that software that encourages creativity and the like would really get the ball
rolling. As a start, I'm on the lookout for a Linux port of Logo. Will customize
and tweak it, and write a tutorial for it's use.

P.S. I've suggested to some that setting up a webpage in our accounts on cran
would help with information distribution. Perhaps a links page on the main seul
site to them? Just a thought.

-Wayne