Re: [school-discuss] FOSS Professional development courses for teachers

[Daniel Howard <dhhoward@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yolynne Medina wrote:
> I am interested in the letters you have mentioned Daniel and would like to 
> ask for sample copies. 

Kumusta ka, Yolynn!  (I lived in Hawaii for 3.5 years and most of my 
friends were Filipinos.)

I took one of my letters, and modified it to include some recent history 
and included options depending on the target, hope this is helpful. 
Posting to the group in case anyone else can use it or improve it.  Daniel
	
--
Daniel Howard
President and CEO
Georgia Open Source Education Foundation

----------------

To Whom It May Concern,

The purpose of this letter is to seek donations of older computers for 
use in (schools, communities, needy families).  What is different about 
this effort from other computer donation programs is that the older 
computers can actually be given new life thanks to software called Free 
Open Source Software (FOSS), and in most cases these older computers can 
be refurbished so that they run faster and more reliably than ever 
before.  So computers that would have been deemed useless or too slow to 
be desirable can be revitalized and used in (classrooms, community 
centers or homes) and at the same time be kept out of landfills and 
provide a tax benefit to corporations donating such computers.  It is 
truly a win-win scenario for all considered.

The proposed computer donation program and associated Free Open Source 
Software which is based on the Linux operating system have been proven 
in many countries, states, and school districts, and in fact, many 
countries are converting their entire educational computer technology to 
use FOSS and/or Linux.   Examples of countries making a complete change 
include Norway, Chile, Macedonia, and Russia, while the number of 
countries exploring FOSS/Linux in schools globally is too numerous to 
list.  And entire school districts in the United States such as Atlanta 
Public Schools, as well as the state of Indiana, have switched their 
classroom computers to FOSS/Linux with the result that cost of hardware, 
software, and operational expenses have been drastically reduced, while 
reliability, functionality, and academic performance have been 
increased.  At one school in the US, Morris Brandon Elementary, math 
scores in particular went up significantly after FOSS/Linux was used to 
revive older classroom PCs and make use of donated PCs such that the 
number of working computers in each classroom was more than tripled.

Another valuable use of such donated computers running FOSS/Linux is in 
community centers or in needy homes of families with students and/or 
parents that require modern computer skills to stay competitive. 
Donated computers running FOSS have been placed in homes of, for 
example, teaching paraprofessionals (a.k.a. teacher's aids), who often 
cannot afford PCs themselves, but are expected to be computer literate 
in the schools at which they work in order to most effectively teach our 
children.  Having working computers in their homes and apartments can 
make a substantial difference in how effective they are in the 
classroom.  Without computer donation programs using FOSS, many of these 
families would likely not be able to afford to purchase and maintain a 
computer.

The reason FOSS works so well with older donated PCs is two-fold: First, 
computers that previously suffered from viruses, spyware, or even 
hardware failures can be retasked as terminals.  These "thin client PCs" 
 run applications off of servers that contain dozens of educational and 
productivity software titles available with FOSS.  Unlike older 
software, the new FOSS applications are supported by software developers 
worldwide and are virus- and spyware-free, and further can be customized 
for a variety of computer capabilities and hardware configurations. 
Second, older computers can be loaded with a variety of FOSS versions so 
that even older PCs that barely worked before can surf the Internet and 
do word processing and spreadsheets using FOSS titles that are optimized 
for older, less capable PCs.  And a key benefit is that FOSS operating 
systems and applications are free to use and distribute on as many PCs 
as are available.  No complicated licensing structure exists, and the 
same software used in the schools or community centers can be provided 
to home computers at no cost.  This ubiquity of deployment is a unique 
feature of FOSS, and has led to its rapid growth in schools, homes, and 
countries throughout the world.

Thus, we seek donations of any older PCs that you may be retiring from 
use so that needy (schools, community centers, or families) can benefit 
from this technology and keep the electronic waste from occupying 
landfills.  And there is no risk to corporations: hard disk drives are 
wiped completely clean and an entirely new software system is loaded 
which bears little resemblance to the previous software loaded onto the 
computer.  If desired, the hard disk can be removed since using an older 
PC as a terminal or thin client means no hard disk is required.  If you 
have any computers that are ready for retirement and would like to see 
them put to a worthy cause, please contact us and we will make 
arrangements to acquire the PCs, refurbish them, and place them in needy 
(schools, community centers, or families).  We can also provide you with 
a Tax ID so that you may obtain any tax benefits thereunto appertaining.

Thanks in advance,