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Re: [school-discuss] my puzzle about OSS in education
Greg,
I'm not giving you quite the answer you are looking for. It sounds like you
want before and after test scores. We mostly did projects in class and what I
can tell you is that students produced amazing work.
* In keyboarding, many students were typing 50 words/minute by the end with
their hands covered (Gtypist and Ktouch)
* Students used LyX to create better written and beautiful looking reports for
other classes
* They made slide show projects for other subject areas in OpenOffice Impress,
exported them to html, and uploaded them to our classroom intranet server, so
they could easily be displayed in the other classroom
* In animation class, students at all levels were successful and motivated.
Two of my most creative students failed the ninth grade . . . this means they
were so turned on to Blender that they dug in and worked hard, but not in
their
English or math classes. I also had gifted type band kids who went way beyond
and were making computer games at the end. We had contests in class. The tech
facilitator for my campus was also a sculptor and a former art teacher. She
was
our judge. Different kids were winning each time. There was so much good work
to choose from!
At the end of every term I turned out about 100 Linux disciples. I gave them
each a Knoppix disk and sent them on their way. Many of them went home and
downloaded their own copies of Blender, the Gimp, Mozilla, and OpenOffice.
They would say "Linux rocks, Windows sucks."
I taught for 22 years, and it is the greatest thing to see students turned on
to
something and exceeding their own expectations. Open Source Software was a key
to this.
Marilyn
Quoting Greg Farrell <erac_greg@xxxxxxxxx>:
> Does anyone who's switched to OSS applications, like
> the ones Marilyn's listed here, have any available
> statistics that evaluate student's performance before
> and after the switch? What were the metrics used?
>
> I'm trying to get a sense of learning content value,
> so anything along these lines would be a help
>
> Greg Farrell
>
>
> --- <marilyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > Wen,
> >
> > OSS/Linux is important to teachers because of all of
> > the great applications
> > available. There is a dependable software tool for
> > everything. Plus everytime
> > you turn around there is a newer cooler version. I
> > downloaded Knoppix 3.82 the
> > other day and was wowed by the latest Gimp. Open
> > source software evolves in an
> > exponential manner. You don't have to wait forever
> > for buggy updates like with
> > many commercial programs. And often the user can
> > even contribute to
> > development
> > through questions and comments.
> >
> > OSS applications are not weak adaptations of
> > commercial software - they are
> > often superior, with their own unique features (tab
> > browsing, export anthing to
> > pdf, open pdf in word processing, print as poster).
> > Here are your reasons to
> > check out OSS = OpenOffice, KWord, the Gimp, LyX,
> > Blender, Mozilla, Firefox,
> > Gaim, AbiWord, Ksnapshot, Konqueror, KGhostview,
> > Scribus, Knotes, Ding,
> > Audacity, XMMS, Rosegarden, Kmidi, K3B, Kivio and on
> > and on and on . . .
> >
> > regards,
> > Marilyn
> >
> > Quoting Daniel Howard <daniel@xxxxxxxxxxx>:
> >
> > > Hi Wen,
> > >
> > > The main reason our elementary school is switching
> > to OSS is to improve
> > > reliability and reduce maintenance. We have had
> > nothing but trouble with
> > > maintaining Windows PCs (and four different
> > versions of windows throughout
> > > the school) and we hope that OSS/Linux combined
> > with a thin client
> > > architecture will drastically reduce the amount of
> > time the computers are
> > > non functional. And yes, we also hope OSS will
> > improve our student's
> > > understanding of computers, programming and
> > networking, but the other main
> > > reasons we're going to OSS are:
> > >
> > > Lower software and hardware costs over
> > time
> > > Ability to provide students, parents, and
> > teachers with Knoppix CD
> > > ROMs with the school's OSS for extending the
> > learning environment into the
> > > home (and also encouraging the use of OpenOffice
> > for Windows and Mac for
> > > the same reason)
> > > Allow lower income parents to purchase
> > (or get donated)
> > > refurbished or bare bones PCs running OSS so that
> > all school families have
> > > PCs at home
> > > Allow remote access of computer work to
> > reduce printing and
> > > eliminate floppy disk usage
> > > Expand at no additional cost the
> > applications used at the school,
> > > especially for the gifted students (to learn
> > programming, electronics,
> > > music composition, etc.)
> > > Allow students to access files from any
> > PC (thin client) in the
> > > school when changing classes
> > > Provide a scalable solution so that
> > eventually we can support a
> > > network where every student has a thin client all
> > day long (currently we
> > > have three PCs per class that have to be shared by
> > 16-20 students per
> > > class, and usually only one or two PCs on average
> > have been fully
> > > functional)
> > >
> > > Daniel
> > >
> > > At 02:38 AM 6/2/2005, you wrote:
> > > >Hi,
> > > > everyone!
> > > >
> > > > Since Becta published the report on OSS(open
> > source software) in
> > > > schools, many people and school pay their
> > attention to OSS in education
> > > now.
> > > > Why shall we use OSS in education? The report
> > think the main reason is
> > > > that applying OSS in schools should slash
> > school¡¯s IT budgets. Is that
> > > > the only reason or the most important reason for
> > schools¡¯s adoption of
> > > OSS?
> > > > Do you think using OSS in schools have any
> > other advantage? Especially
> > > > do you agree that using OSS in education will do
> > better to help students
> > > > in mastering computer skills?
> > > > Help for your reply.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > wen
> > > > 20050602
> > > >
> > >
> >
> >_________________________________________________________________
> > > >ÏíÓÃÊÀ½çÉÏ×î´óµÄµç×ÓÓʼþϵͳ¡ª MSN Hotmail¡£
> > http://www.hotmail.com
> > >
> > >
> > > Daniel Howard
> > > President and CEO
> > > Quadrock Communications, Inc
> > > 404.264.9123 main
> > > 678.528.5839 fax
> > > 404.625.1593 cell
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
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