Re: [school-discuss] FOSS and FOOD [Was Re: "Educating Tux" + IT apathy]

[Marilyn Hagle <marilyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bryant,

I love your modified version!!  :)

Cool.

Good luck with your conference,

Marilyn


Quoting Bryant Patten <opensource@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

> Marilyn -
> 
> 	Add me to the list of people that think your banquet  analogy is  
> fantastic.
> 	
> 	Next week I am speaking about FOSS and education at MassCue and a  
> couple of weeks after that I am running Vermont's first Open Source  
> and Education conference and I would like to use your analogy in both  
> places.  I was thinking about modifying in the following way:
> 
> "Using Open Source in Schools can be a bit surreal - imagine the  
> following:
> 
>   It is lunch time at your school and all the kids troop down to the  
> dining hall, which is divided in half with a large glass wall down  
> the middle.  On one side, the majority of students are charged for a  
> lunch of mystery meat and instant mash potatoes.  On the other side  
> is a huge buffet of amazing international foods that is all you can  
> eat and free.  Standing at the entrance to the dining hall is the  
> Assistant Superintendent for Technology, telling everyone that they  
> must go into the mystery meat room.  Occasionally, someone will find  
> a worm or some other horrible thing in the meat, complain loudly,  
> dump the plate and then...surreally...get right back in line for  
> another serving.
>   Because some students notice what is happening on the other side of  
> the glass wall, they ask if they can go into that room.  They are  
> told no, because most of the world eats mystery meat, there might be  
> spices in the foreign food and besides, they just put salt and pepper  
> in the mystery meat so it is really better now.   The more determined  
> of the kids wait until the Ass. Sup. of Tech is distracted and sneak  
> into room, enjoy a fabulous lunch and start telling their friends  
> about it on the playground.  So the next day, their friends sneak  
> past...."
> 
> Thanks for the great post.
> 
> Bryant Patten
> Executive Director
> National Center for Open Source and Education
> www.ncose.org
> 
> On Mar 12, 2008, at 11:30 AM, Marilyn Hagle wrote:
> 
> > Joel and James,
> >
> > Oh my . . . state testing and bureaucratic straitjackets!  Don't  
> > get me
> > started!
> >
> > And also the dumb ass  proprietary software packages that promise  
> > miracles
> > (forgive me - I am originally from Iowa where we are plain spoken  
> > folks) -
> > that's another topic.
> >
> > Getting my students to be creative has been more of a stretch this  
> > year than
> > ever before.  They have spent all of their time in school preparing  
> > for
> > tests.  I feel like I need to bring my little kids' building blocks  
> > and
> > just let them play.
> >
> > And rural Texas schools do not believe in the importance of  
> > offering fine arts
> > courses.  Very few schools have choir.  Art classes are minimal.   
> > Band is
> > sometimes required for football programs.  :)
> >
> > So, I think you just need to do what you can, wherever you can, for  
> > as long as
> > you can.  This year I am using Linux for everything and having a  
> > blast - but I
> > know I make some people nervous.
> >
> > Hey . . . what do you think about hosting a fine arts gallery for  
> > student work
> > created with FOSS?  Have we talked about this already?  I am not  
> > big into
> > contests where there is only one winner . . . but a celebration of  
> > student
> > achievement with some positive critiques.  I could send you some  
> > pretty cool
> > student generated Blender, Gimp, and Cinelerra files - then to the  
> > local people
> > we can say "look at this!"
> >
> > Maybe we need a formal online school that home school kids and  
> > rural schools
> > can
> > afford that teaches music, art, science, poetry and general  
> > creativity.
> >
> > James . . . your additional comments on the dumbing down of ed tech  
> > (whew!)
> > really sum it up.  That quest for power thing screwed us.  Is it  
> > just the
> > natural sequence of organizational evolution?
> >
> > To be fair, we all know there are many good people in the group too  
> > - but it is
> > definitely a mixed bag.
> >
> > And yes . . . "But the brown sugar is in reality an artificially  
> > sweetened
> > hypnotic cleverly designed to make the worms more palatable."  LOL  :)
> >
> > Thanks for letting me ramble on philosophically.
> >
> > Marilyn
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Quoting Joel Kahn <jj2kk4@xxxxxxxxx>:
> >
> >> Marilyn Hagle wrote:
> >>
> >>> Many in educational IT management - probably the
> >>> middle managers who are misunderstood and struggling
> >>> to keep everything running - are concerned about
> >>> tightly controlling the teachers. After all . . .
> >>> they have been breaking copyright laws, pirating
> >>> software, and inviting viruses and spyware into the
> >>> LAN.  So now teachers everywhere are in lock-down mode.
> >>> Experimentation is thwarted, new ideas are discouraged,
> >>> and creativity is scorned.
> >>
> >> And let's not forget atrocities like the No Child Left
> >> Behind Act, which forces teachers *and* students into
> >> bureaucratic straitjackets and makes it incredibly hard
> >> to even think about changing anything. A proprietary
> >> software package that is marketed with wild promises of
> >> a "guarantee to boost scores on standardized tests" has
> >> a big edge over any wild and risky creative things like
> >> GIMP or Tux Paint. If you allow those misbehaving kids
> >> and teachers to start really experimenting with any
> >> truly flexible software, who knows what kind of trouble
> >> we all might be getting ourselves into. . . .
> >>
> >> Joel
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> > ______________________________________________________________________ 
> > ______________
> >> Never miss a thing.  Make Yahoo your home page.
> >> http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
> >>
> >
> >
> > :)
> >
> 
> 


:)