This is the kind of discussion that I've been looking for, the
reason I joined this mailing list years back.
For K-12 schools what is missing is a stable, working clearing house
& interest from the FL/OSS community. It would also require some
real funding, working disk images, how-to's & hands-on laboratories,
& a plan to get it into the hands of school users & admins.
From what I see the education profession is talking out of their
butts about digital media. The school districts IT dept's have it
sweet. The districts go for weird frills like smart boards &
expensive drawing tablets instead of understanding ubiquity. If you
pin them down on using commercial software & the problem of homework
& bootleg software, their eyes glaze over.
As a teacher at a small school I ran into a real need that - as far as
I know - has not yet been met. I was able to roll up my sleeves &
improvise, building a digital media lab with a mix of Linux &
Windows. It was a rough ride in
spots but it was doable, I did it for a charter school. I saved easily
a few thousand dollars in server, workstation & software licenses
on 70 workstations & 3 servers. I would restart the project again -
I also did a lot of development at a private school a couple of years
back - but instead it looks like I'm going back to SQL database
administration for now. If I could find interest locally or funding I'd
be back in it.
From what I can see the revolution will have to come from small
schools, from below, the small districts, indep. private & charter
schools. If someone can come up with a plan, endorsements & some
funding, I'm interested in working on the effort again.
/Lee
________________________________
From: Bryant Patten <opensource@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: schoolforge-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Fri, January 22, 2010 5:06:20 PM
Subject: Re: [school-discuss] M$ Elevate America
On Jan 22, 2010, at 4:02 PM, Tim Dressel wrote:
Being one that has both feet intermingling with FLOSS and the
commercial side, I think you are right, it is important that the FLOSS
community step up to the plate to put together a comprehensive
training package, course list, and promotional materials.
In the K-12 space, there are several of us scattered around the U.S.
that are trying to bring the INGOTs program ( www.theingots.org )
to the U.S. This would cover the student certification.
Does anyone know the current state of the Red Hat Academy initiative?
After the Open Minds conference, Vern Ceder and I talk with Jim
Lacey, the head of the Linux Professional Institute, about some kind
of teacher certification for FOSS experience. He seemed open to
exploring the idea and maybe now is the time to pursue it.
I would enjoy being part of a group that could create a package
similar to the Elevate America portal
Count me in.
Bryant
*****
Bryant Patten
Executive Director
The National Center for Open Source and Education
www.ncose.org