Some years back, I dated a woman who'd grown up in NYC. Sometimes, it
took a while for audio input and communications to gel. Like the time
she said: "we were all sitting around tokin'".
"Smoking pot?"
"No! "Tawkin'".
In her case, I eventually worked it out. I think my first read is more
apropos here.
on Fri, Mar 04, 2005 at 01:15:22PM -0800, Michael Dean (michaelldean@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) wrote:
> I think that it is a major blunder to view any rational thrust into the
> schools adaptation of Open Source as a Linux initiative.
Pardon? I'm having a *hell* of a time parsing that.
Have LGMs invaded your ectoderm? Did your brain take a vacation and
forget to provide notice? Was it a good bottle of wine, or TJ's
Two-buck Chuck?
You haven't struck me as overly balanced at best here, but this is quite
the leap, Michael.
> Especially when schools, who are goal and objective driven, must sift
> through thousands of duplicatory packages, many of dubious quality,
> that comprise what I call the "kitchen sink" distros such as Redhat,
> Suse, Mandrake and Debian.
OK. Let's look at this. As it happens, I was just discussing distro
choice at a high school computer lab this morning. Much of the
substance is being worked into a page I'm putting together WRT choosing
a GNU/Linux distro.
http://linuxmafia.com/~karsten/GNU/Linux/linux-new.html
Short answer for the moment is: "probably Ubuntu".
First: the nice thing about kitchen-sink distros is that if you want
to try a particular bit of software, odds are good it's already there.
Mind, with a Debian based system, if it's _not_ already there, getting
it there is pretty straightforward.
Your objection transferred to libraries would read something like:
I think that it is a major blunder to view any rational thrust into
the schools adaptation of a library as a teaching initiative.
Especially when schools, who are goal and objective driven, must sift
through thousand of duplicatory books, many of dubious quality, that
comprise what I call the "kitchen sink" subjects such as History,
Culture, Biology, and Architecture.
Um.
The Computer. Is. A. Tool.
Curriculum _is_ goal oriented. Identify your goals. Pick your tools.
Proceed.
Actually, I'm going through this process ATM, having sort of dropped out
of the sky to assist in an existing class. Fortunately I'm both
well-received and am being given a lot of leeway.
> We must, instead look at open source as a collection of tools to bbe
> selected from the perspective of the teachers and admins.
Um. Like, duh!
However: the selection of tools is *not* orthogonal to "kitchen sink"
distros. Unless you're describing something quite different from what
you appear to be writing. Perhaps a theosophical deconstruction of
pre-Edwardian croquet?
> We must
Oh yes, absolutely. We _must_. Imperative.
Spare me. And the air. And think of the seals!
> produce an Educational System which is based on a minimalist, goal
> driven philosophy.
That's some primer fertilizer you've got going Michael? How about
starting a tomato garden?
> FreeBSD would work equally well in schools, and it has a more rational
> license.
Cap'n! I don't think I canna hold her tagether much longer! She's
breakin' up!
Breath deeply, Michael. Try a paper bag.
If you're trying to say anything remotely close to what you _are_
saying, I think you've just grossly mistaken a curriculum for a distro.
> I am collecting papers for an edited books on Transforming Schools
> Through Goal Driven Open Source Software.
Please do us a favor: burn them.
While you're at it, providing a co-gen facility would provide a social
benefit.
> Any educator, or professional who can produce any
> contribution to this title would be welcome to submit.
Oh dear. Submission.
Nay! Resist!
> Thanks you.
Thanks *you*. Might favor you've done us. Cheerio.
Peace.
--
Karsten M. Self <kmself@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
What Part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?
I think to be successful a DOS update has to...match the garbage that
DR DOS does.
- Bill Gates, Mar 6, 1992. Innovating, as usual.
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