[school-discuss] literacy software for Linux thin clients

[Daniel Howard <daniel@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Marc, Doug and Jeff

I and our part time IT person for an elementary school here in Atlanta,
GA just convinced our PTA to fund a transition to Linux thin clients for
our school, and one of the big challenges we had was how to deal with
Accelerated Reader/Math.  They have recently converted to a web
delivery mode, so now we can use any browser to deliver the application,
you might check into it at 
www.renlearn.com

Daniel

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Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 15:04:15 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Re: [school-discuss] [Fwd: moving from Windows 2000 -> linux]
From: jwaddell@xxxxxxxxxx
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Hi Doug and Marc,

> I'm forwarding this in the hope that we can collectively provide Marc
> with some help.  Please include his email address at Ravenswood in your
> reply.  Thanks.
>
> Doug
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject:      moving from Windows 2000 -> linux
> Date:         Thu, 26 May 2005 12:01:02 -0700
> From:         Marc Jackson <mjackson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To:   'info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' <info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
>
>
> Hello,
>
> My name is Marc Jackson.  I'm the systems admin at Ravenswood City School
> Distirct.  I've proposed moving the school district from Microsoft to
> Linux.
> I have to do a proof of concept.
>

That shall be fun :)

> Specifically, I need to run a lab with linux terminal services and provide
> the following services in the lab:
>
> A typing program.

You have several to choose from including ktouch, and tuxtype.  If those
are unsuitable to your situation let me know and I'll come up with a half
dozen more.  And if you choose to serve windows (using windows terminal
services) to the linux desktop using rdesktop you can of course deliver
the favorite windows program Mavis Beacon [altough I'm not sure that the
audio portion can delivered by anything but the newest windows version and
I haven't tested that].

> A MS program, preferably Visio.

I would choose the native linux program Dia instead, however if you must
deliver Visio you have a few choices for that as well.  You can as
mentioned above deliver Visio from a Windows NT/2000/xp/2003 server with
Windows Terminal Services enabled.  I'd be happy to answer any questions
on how to do this.  You could get win4lin and install it for each of the
various user's that need this Windows App.  You could get vmware and do
the same.  I believe there is also a product known as CrossOver Office
which can deliver this same functionality.  It's also possible to use WINE
for this, however, last time I tested that option it was definately less
than satisfactory.  Each of these options have their strengths and their
weaknesses.

That is a lot of choice and you'll wish to evaluate them dependent on YOUR
goals with this proof of concept.

> Authentication to a MS product/Active Directory.

Are you talking about the authentication that SAMBA does?  If haven't done
that in so long I don't remember how it works.  Anyway I *think* what you
are asking for is simply a feature of SAMBA that will need to be
configured.

> Curriculum software which supports Literacy as it's main objective.
>

I can think of several options here, although none that are extremely
straight forward.  Are you looking for a drill and kill type application
or one that helps increase language skills.  Their are several flashcard
type applications, several foriegn language writing skills applications
(especially for Japanese Kana).  With project gutenberg you have access to
several thousand ebooks that you can deliver to the screen in a multitude
of ways as well as have the computer READ them using festival.  Again it
depends a great deal on what your goal at this time is.  Are you needing
to complete it soon?  Do you need to deliver "Oh my God!!!" functionality?
 Do you need to get around political objections?

Again I'd be happy to help in any way that I'm able.

> Any help/ideas in this endeavor would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Regards,
>
> Marc
>
>

Sincerely,

Jeff Waddell
jwaddell@xxxxxxxxxx

Daniel Howard
President and CEO
Quadrock Communications, Inc
404.264.9123 main
678.528.5839 fax
404.625.1593 cell