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Updates and summer efforts



Here in the US, the school year has either ended or will end soon for
many of us.  I'm not sure that's true for the rest of the world, but
summer is generally a time when students and educators are less heavily
burdened with the day-to-day cares of educating.

   I hope that this release of pressure will also stimulate our creative
juices rather than cause us to vegetate and to not think about our
seul-edu projects.  I'd like to see us be able to make a major
announcement or two before the end of the year of things that will make
Linux more attractive to the education community in general and schools
in particular.

   I'd like all the project leaders to weigh in here on the mailing list
with updates on just where their projects are and what their schedules
for those projects are.  Leaders, if you need any help please mention
that also.  For the rest of us, if someone needs help that _you_ can
give, contact them and help!  If you're not a skilled coder, don't think
your help isn't needed.  Testing and documentation are very important to
the success of any project.

   I'll start with an update on 3D Logo, led by Miguel Sepulveda. 
Miguel Angel tells me (he's not on the mailing list at the moment) that
work on 3D Logo is currently suspended due to the press of other
projects.  He asked for assistance a while ago
<http://www.seul.org/archives/seul/edu/Mar-1999/msg00083.html> but
didn't get any takers.  Admittedly, it sounded like he was looking for
coders, and most of the coders on this list are already doing other
things.  Still, if you're interested contact him at the address listed
in the message I referred to.

   Did anyone contact Ghislain Picard as Odile requested in this message
<http://www.seul.org/archives/seul/edu/May-1999/msg00085.html>?  I'd
like to see him get the help he wants from us, as I think his programs
look quite useful.

   Micah, how is your Airline Sim coming?  I believe I remember that you
and Mauricio were going to pass your derive-like code on to either the
Genius or THX-1138 calculator groups.  Am I right and if so what
happened, or am I wrong and what's the status of it?

   Justin and Bradley, how are your gradebook programs coming?  Mike
Goehring, is Misty City working toward a Linux version of its
gradebook?  We're interested in fostering the use of Linux in education,
and if there are commercial apps for Linux that will do that we'll be
happy to mention and promote them.

   Mark Dalton, how is your Cell Biology course coming?  Steve Tonnesen
and Jim Lynch, how are K12AccountAdmin and Roster, respectively,
coming?  Odile and Bill, what about ProMath and the Educational HOWTOs? 
Barret, I know that someone else is to be the contact person, but for
now could you tell us where your translation project stands?

   Jeffrey Elkner, what about the OpenTextbook project?  And did
anything ever come of the idea to start an OpenTextbook on geometry that
used Hilaire's Dr Geo as its examples, complete with lesson plans and
problem sets?

   Joachim, how is Qvocab coming?  Bruno, what about EDUML?  We also
have a few projects listed on the projects page that probably shouldn't
be there, like the seating planner and the library catalog.  If you're
listed as a project leader on something that is moribund or never really
got started, let me know and we'll take it off the list and add it to a
list of ideas for the future (sort of like our old wish list, which is
also going away).  And if there's anyone with an interesting project or
an idea for one, please post it here.

   So let's see where we are in our efforts and try to push for some
completed projects this year!

BTW, I'll be visiting the Greek island of Karpathos with my family
August 6-21.  If anyone on the list is near enough to drop by and say
hello, let me know and we'll make arrangements to get together.

-- 
Doug Loss                 A life spent making mistakes is not only
Data Network Coordinator  more honorable, but more useful than a
Bloomsburg University     life spent doing nothing.
dloss@bloomu.edu                G. B. Shaw