On 10/3/06, Doug Loss <drloss@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello everyone. Most of you will remember me, I hope. :)
Indeed, and you may remember me :)
I have some
interesting information and a request for you to discuss.
Great!
I will be visiting Johannesburg, South Africa for about a week at the
end of February.
Enjoy! I here that is Great time of year there.
While I'm there I will meet Edward Holcroft from
NetDay South Africa (
http://www.netday.org.za/) and see some of their
installations ( Hi Ed! :) ).
I'm out of the loop on netday...Let me take a minute to catch
up...Wonderful project. They seem more successful at getting the
software into the schools then I've been her in the US so far.
I've contacted various magazines about
writing articles on this visit in the hope of defraying some of my
expenses and had some interest from Linux Magazine, Phi Beta Kappan,
Converge Magazine, and From Now On.
Excellent!
I plan to write different articles for each magazine, specific to their
needs and expectations about what their readers would like to read.
Ok
What I would like you to discuss and guide me on is just what questions
you would like me to ask,
1) Why did you choose to use Open Source/Free Software in your project?
2) What benefits (if any) do the teachers notice when you put these hardware and software resources in their classrooms?
3) What benefits (if any) do the students notice when you put these hardware and software resources in their classrooms?
4) What benefits (if any) do the administrators notice when you put these hardware and software resources in their classrooms?
5) Do you find that the computer laboratories based on terminal services tend to require a great deal of administration?
6) How many employees/volunteers does it take to set up one school on average?
7) What are the problems that tend to be encountered when trying to convince a school to accept this solution?
8) What are the problems with the actual implementation once a school has been convinced?
9) What improvements are you are aware of being desired/needed?
and what areas to explore, with NetDay,
Ok the above questions were with the idea of interviewing the netday staff/leaders.
with
the students,
See questions #3 and #9.
teachers,
See questions #2, #8 and #9
and administrators
See questions #4, #5, #7, #8 and #9
of the schools they've
installed networks in, and perhaps with others you might think of. (Ed,
don't worry, this won't evolve into a week-long time sink. :)
No It's probably a lifetime "sink" :)
I'll keep
things moving in a spritely manner.)
insert pied piper music here :)
Thanks for your guidance, folks!
Hope the questions are useful.
Doug Loss