[school-discuss] Re: [K12OSN] Linux in Education Book?

[John McQuilliams <mcquill1@juno.com>]

Hi All
We have now come to a item close to my heart, Computers in Education. I 
am a member of retired professionals who formed a focus group to bring 
our local high school into a paper-less school.
We found all systems go with one exception, that of qualified software 
that meets both teachers needs and the school qualifications. Primarily 
that of teachers preferring to write their own curriculum and the need 
for measuring accomplishments. We were in hopes of implementing this 
program in 9/04, but the district is still afraid of placing any program 
due to cost, even though we showed them how to start the program without 
asking the parents or governments for help.

We have been researching for over 3 years, listed below is some of the 
information and costs we found.

(1)   A tablet type PC with notebook capabilities ( I:E LCD display of 8 
1/2 X 11, 5 gig hardrive, 128 meg memory, modem, CD ROM RW/ DVD 
Play,)These units would survive the idiosycrancies of the typical 14 
year old, and would be used as texts and notebooks in the classroom 
,Cost under $500.00 on orders over 2000

(2)   Full servers and routers to service a 2000 student High school, 
Cost $55,000.00,
(3)   We programmed a cost of a split position for a combination IT 
Manager (this manager would eventually assume the position of the entire 
district)and Teacher carrying 2 classes per day of computer related 
subjects. Cost $65,000.00 per year

As stated earlier one of the primary problems is that of qualified 
software, in that there are no progressive learning programs worth there 
salt. We have looked at several Linux programs on the web, none met our 
standards of reporting.

What we had envisioned was, a student in class with a portable PC taking 
notes from a lecture type presentation, homework would be done on the 
computer and sent to the teacher via the web, the server would correct 
and evaluate the answers for the teacher ( Easily possible in todays 
technology )

Our presentation was based upon starting at the freshman level and 
building to the senior level, a year at a time. The figures we operated 
on were $185.00 average lottery money received from the state per year,+ 
$223.00 average book allowance per student per year.

We polled the parents as to an amount they would consider fair to bring 
there high school into the modern education, average was $180.00 per 
year in assessments, this is over and above the local tax rate to 
education of 51% of assessed tax basis.

The question asked was, Do you believe that your tax dollars are being 
used wisely in regards to education, how much would you pay to improve 
your childs education.

Our focus group was immediately considered persona non grata by the 
local district, we were told they would decide how the tax dollars were 
distributed. Needless to say school board elections will change things.

In writing this missile it is evident that we must bring  the outlying 
groups together and form a single group with a single purpose, the 
larger the number we speak with the more our decision makers will conform.

To those of you who agree get back to me and lets go to work!




John McQuilliams