Re: [school-discuss] K12Linux Texas update...

[Doug Loss <drloss@suscom.net>]

pnelson@riverdale.k12.or.us wrote:

> I am determined however to do better next year when NECC is held in Seattle.
> http://ccenter.uoregon.edu/conferences/NECC2003/
>
> We need folks to give talks on all the cool software out there. The ISO
> project Schoolforge.net is working would be a great focus.
> http://archives.seul.org/schoolforge/discuss/Jun-2002/msg00035.html
>
> I'd like for many of you right now to plan on doing presentations in
> Seattle this week in June next year. I'll be contacting you and twisting
> your arms. We need an open source in education convention and there's no
> reason why we can't just crash this party.
>
> Thanks again to Red Hat Linux and Linuxfund.org for sending me. I was the
> ONLY Linux topic here this week. I can't tell you how many times teachers
> asked why there was not a greater presense.

Thanks for the update, and for all your work, Paul.  It's greatly appreciated.
This is a very important topic, folks.  We can talk and talk among ourselves,
but unless and until we get the message out to the currently-uninformed
educational community, we won't see more than occasional successes.

There are two ways to do that, I think.  A big and important one is just what
Paul says here, attending technology in education conferences.  We need to have
a noticeable and continued presence at such conferences.  And not just in the
US.  Where such conferences exist around the globe, we should be there.  I have
some further thoughts on that which I'll send along in response to Jim Jones's
message.

Another important method is to help LUGs around the world reach out to their
local schools.  There are already some LUGs doing just that, notably the PLUG in
Portland, Oregon that Paul works with.  But there are many more that aren't
doing so, either through lack of interest or lack of knowledge on how to
approach the schools.  We need to develop support materials for LUGs to use as
guides in approaching and supporting their local schools in the use of open
resources.  After we've developed such materials, we need to get them out to the
LUGs and support the LUGs in their use.

Paul, I know you're busy, but could you or someone else with PLUG or Riverside
gather up the materials you've used or write up what you've done with an eye
toward providing tutorials for LUGs on how to interact with schools?  If there's
any way we could help with this, I'm sure some of us here would be willing to
lend a hand.  We can set this up as a separate project of some member
organization if that works best.  SEUL/edu would be happy to host it, but it
might be better from an outside-world-perception standpoint if it lived with
some other member organization.

--
Doug Loss                 All I want is a warm bed
Data Network Coordinator  and a kind word and
Bloomsburg University     unlimited power.
dloss@bloomu.edu                Ashleigh Brilliant