[school-discuss] Re: [seul-edu] Linux Clinic this Saturday

[Doug Loss <drloss@suscom.net>]

Paul Nelson wrote:

> I'm sending out our usual announcement for our monthly Linux Clinic. I'm
> also posting to a wider audience in hopes of sharing a bit of how our
> local user group has helped us.
>
> Our school plays host to the clinic every month on the 3rd. Saturday. We
> invite Linux experts from the PLUG (Portland Linux/Unix User Group) to
> come and help with software installs and configurations for local
> schools, teachers, kids and the public at large.
> http://www.riverdale.k12.or.us/~danh
>
> [snip]

> Let me think about this for just a minute, do I want Linux experts to
> come to my school every month to help me use free, stable software to
> provide cool technologies for my students? They won't charge me anything
> and they enjoy providing support for our schools through our local
> listserv on a 24x7 basis...  Duh... It doesn't take much to realize how
> well this works! It's fun for the experts too though!
>
> [snip]
>
> If you're a school and you want to take your first steps this would be a
> good time to come by. This Saturday we have a special going... We'll
> configure your hardware to be an Appleshare server and toss in a web
> server for free! ;-^)
>
> My hope is that other LUGs out there would start hosting clinics. If you
> are from a school, contact your local user group and offer to host a
> clinic!

Paul,

   This addresses something SEUL/edu has talked about for over a year
(although we haven't had the resources to do anything about it).  I hope
that through Schoolforge we can bring enough people and energy to bear to
develop this further.

   What I'm talking about is support materials for LUGs that want to do for
their local schools what PLUG is doing for the Portland schools.  Obviously,
they will have some preliminary work to do to get into their schools in the
first place; you had already done that bit.  But if we can develop useful
procedures for them to follow in contacting and communicating with the
school administrations and suggested ways in which they can help the schools
with their Linux installations, I think we can make Linux seem more like a
community-supported solution to a problem rather than a risky, eccentric
change to the standard operating procedure that it probably like to many
non-technical educators.

   Could you possibly collect, or ask someone else to collect, the materials
you use for your LUG/school interactions?  We may be able to use them as
templates for developing material useful to a wide range of circumstances.
Thanks!

--
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