[school-discuss] Re: [school-discuss] bootable CDs?

["FRANCIS C WILSON" <fwilson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Suggest y'all look at http://www.theopencd.org/

I give a copy of this CD to each of the Intro Computer students at the Sylmar High School Magnet, where I teach.  If you put the CD into a Windows PC, it allows you to install some excellent applications like OpenOffice.org, Blender, GIMP, and Firefox.  If, on the other hand, you boot from the CD, your get a live version of Ubuntu, with the above applications and more.

/francis 

---------- Original Message -------------
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2006 12:29:47 -0700
From: "" <marilyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "" <schoolforge-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [school-discuss] bootable CDs?


>Does anyone else see the potential in bootable CDs?  
>
>I used them the moment I discovered them back in 2003.  I was teaching
>keyboarding and Knoppix 3.2 had a copy of LyX on it.  The students used LyX to
>write reports for their other classes.  I sent a Knoppix CD home with every kid
>at the end of the term.
>
>Since then I've kept up with Knoppix and frequently have used it as my primary
>OS, using my hard disk just for storage.  Since my technical expertise is not
>at the level of most of you on this list (music teacher . . . yesterday I spent
>the day playing "Hot Cross Buns" on recorders all day), I appreciate that
>Knoppix usually sees my hardware and networks easily.  It's much less
>complicated then messing with an installation.
>
>Last Spring someone from the schoolforge list sent out a link to Frozen Tech's
>Live CD List.  http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php
>
>Wow!  That was like Christmas!  I had no idea there were so many flavors!
>
>I found two I liked for school use right away.  I use Kanotix to print out
>posters, but the most important for me is Musix.
>
>For the past two years I have been teaching music at an intermediate school. 
>Musix is a bootable music studio.  I boot from the Musix CD, it sees the sound
>card and presto - I've got sequencers, synthesizers, music notation editors,
>drum machines, a music theory game and even a guitar tuner.  I have permission
>from my system administrator to use bootables so next week I am taking all of
>my music classes to the lab to run Musix.  We will play the music game, play
>with the drum machine, and write a recorder song using only five notes.
>
>Couldn't we have a bootable CD for each subject area - math, science, writing,
>art?  A teacher can use bootables without the district adopting a new OS.  
>
>We will be using Samba Network Neighborhood to save our work on district
>servers.  
>
>Of course you all know about Freeduc.  I use that with my little kids at home.
>
>I am giving a presentation on bootable CDs at our local TCEA conference on
>10/28.  It will be interesting to see if anyone attends!
>
>Later,
>Marilyn