I'm giggling over this thread because for the past several months I have been working on a framework to allow teachers to select the boot params from a menu for the thin clients in their classroom. They can choose from several predefined setup or create a new one and they can select whether it is a one-time boot or permanent for their class (plus some other stuff I'm still mulling over). This idea came from the discussion several months ago around allowing teachers free-reign over the applications on the student machine vs. the needs of the IT staff to not have to support applications that don't behave well in a thin client environment. Plus I'm working on a thick/thin client environment for heavy-weight clients that are workstation ready but still have no local application storage. Need sleep, funding, more hardware for testing and for Les to put LDAP support in OA :) (just poking at you - OA needs to be the cornerstone for schools) On Wed, 2007-12-12 at 16:13 -0600, Les Richardson wrote: > Hi Casey, > > > they never seemed to take off. I am sure there were a variety of > > reasons behind that, our high prices as one, but the feeling I got > > from feedback was that it was simply too complicated. > > Strong Agree! > > > This speaks to > > many issues like training, change management, teacher motivation, etc. > > > > For this to be successful, I think the thin clients would need to boot > > to a specific server with a specific image that had everything the > > teacher needed. The idea of your average teacher plugging and > > unplugging wires isn't going to go very far is my guess. And the idea > > of every teacher having their own server sounds like a logistical tech > > nightmare for IT. It really has to be simple so the focus is on the > > instruction and not the technology. > > >The technology needs to be > > practically invisible in education for true success. > > Exactly right, IMO. Ubiquitous. Reliable. Well Understood. Well integrated > with other classroom activities and curriculum support materials. > > Les Richardson > Open Admin for Schools > > > > > My opinion if it helps! > > > > Casey > > casey@xxxxxxxxx > > > > On Dec 12, 2007 3:10 PM, Marilyn Hagle <marilyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > >> I have enjoyed reading this thread. It is true that when there is overcrowding, > >> teachers often lose their classrooms. > >> > >> This brought back memories of teaching elementary music. The music room is > >> often the first to go, and then the teacher gets the pleasure of pushing a cart > >> of stuff from room to room. When I was a student teacher, we had to push a > >> piano. Yikes! > >> > >> You might be forced to go to a portable class, if there are space constraints. > >> However, for the teacher - it will suck (couldn't think of a better word). It > >> wears you out pushing a bunch of stuff around all day. Organizing your stuff > >> can be a challenge. I think the worst problem is usually discipline because > >> you can't control your environment. > >> > >> I thought you might enjoy the views of an old traveling teacher. :) > >> > >> > >> Marilyn > >> > >> > >> Quoting Daniel Howard <dhhoward@xxxxxxxxxxx>: > >> > >>> I'm talking to several Atlanta schools now that are expecting the new > >>> enterprise thin client system that William and I recommended within the > >>> coming months, and one thing that keeps coming up is what happens to the > >>> computer lab teacher when there are so many PCs (at least 2:1) in each > >>> classroom. Plus, many of these schools are bursting at the seams with > >>> enrollment growth, so the computer lab is a likely target for a regular > >>> classroom anyway. This is what happened at Brandon, e.g. > >>> > >>> One thought I had was the following: suppose the computer teacher went > >>> mobile and had on her cart a server that she could use to go into a > >>> classroom, quickly connect the thin clients in the room to her server, > >>> and voila, she's in command and can run any apps she has on her server, > >>> including TeacherTool, etc. Wireless connection from mobile server to > >>> Internet would likely be best to prevent the mobile server from handing > >>> out IP addresses to other school computers if miswired, and that's one > >>> less wire to mess with too. At the end of the session, she reconnects > >>> the classroom clients to the main school server (single wire from room > >>> switch to data port, e.g.), and the kids reboot and they're back where > >>> they started. > >>> > >>> Any thoughts from the group, pro/con? Assume all rooms have the same > >>> thin client platform, so a single config with dhcp could be used. > >>> > >>> Best, > >>> Daniel > >>> > >>> -- > >>> Daniel Howard > >>> President and CEO > >>> Georgia Open Source Education Foundation > >>> > >> > >> > >> :) > >> > > > > > > > > -- > > Casey Adams > > 205.612.5489 > > > -- James P. Kinney III CEO & Director of Engineering Local Net Solutions,LLC 770-493-8244 http://www.localnetsolutions.com GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics) <jkinney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7
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