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Re: [seul-edu] Open Source In-service Materials.

I myself have been keeping a case study of using an open source cms platform for running my English classes here:
http://tikiwiki.org/tiki-index.php?page=LearningManagementCaseStudyDaniels

The AP at my school is very much aware of Open Source and its benefits to education (and the budget!). But, his hands are tied because many of the decisions to go with one platform or another are dictated by the district and the CIS folks.

There are few *nix admins out there, often worth their weight in gold, so finding people who are competent enough to run an OS school environment are rare and expensive. Until there are more *nix friendly administrators in school IT departments moving whole schools to OS will be difficult. That said, LUGs are a great resource for getting the help you (we) need in getting OS into more schools.

Dennis Daniels

Scott Brooks wrote:
For those who have not seen the ad
http://www-3.ibm.com/e-business/doc/content/lp/prodigy.html

It is a very nice ad from IBM about the benifits of Open Source.  I plan
on starting the presentation with this ad not only because it's a great
advertisement, but also almost everyone knows the three letters IBM, and
that will hopefully provide some legitimacy in their eyes.

After that I plan to show some clips from Revolution OS(I've not watched
it yet, but It should arrive soon.

To finish up I plan on setting up a LTSP server, and load it up with
software that they can try out.  Image editing with GIMP, e-mail with
evolution/kmail, Office stuff with OpenOffice.  And then to finish up I
plan on having at least 30 mins for a question and answer time.

My only real issue is what to put between the media part, and the hands
on part.  I hope to use that time to promote the Free(not price) aspects
of Open Source, and I will be sure to touch on the low barrier to entry,
and how it levels the playing field for all students.


On Mon, 2003-10-06 at 10:56, Chris Puttick wrote:


My personally most effective line is that of social inclusion: a school that
utilises open source can share the solutions freely with all their pupils
and staff, which disadvantages no one but makes for a more level playing
field for the poorer pupils; open source can have the further incusive
aspect of providing for minority (and other!) language support, with many
web-based applications being able to change their interface language on the
fly and save that as a user preference.

The ease of contributing also attracts many teachers; open source projects
usually welcome input from users seeking further functionality. The idea of
sharing teaching resources and thus lowering the individual work load is
another big plus.

I'd be interested in a copy of your final presentation - especially if it
has the right effect!

Cheers

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Brooks
To: seul-edu@seul.org
Sent: 10/6/03 5:49 PM
Subject: [seul-edu] Open Source In-service Materials.

I am going to be doing an In-service on Open Source at the end of this
month, and I was wondering if anyone had any hints, or tips for showing
teachers the advantages of Open Source.

I brought this up about a year ago on this same list, but I was unable
to do the In-service last time, and have since lost all the helpfull
e-mails.

I hope to sell them on Open Source for more things then just the price.

Thanks for any information you can provide
Scott Brooks