Re: [school-discuss] Speaking at regional ACSI convention

[Michael Dean <michaelldean@sbcglobal.net>]

First, have you ever given a computer away to a friend or relative?  
What happens next?  Usually, there are a few blue screens of death, I 
just finished cleaning 2500 viruses, trojans, malware from one friends 
computer, time consuming to say the least.  Well, students and teachers 
think of computers in their classroom or technology room as a gift, 
usually an unwanted gift for most teachers.  The very first thing that 
needs to be drilled into teachers and students is that they must "Take 
Control, take ownership, learn and understand how computers are 
protected, what the evils are, etc.  They take ownership of their cars, 
their homes, now they must do this with their computers. 
In the Microsoft world, Microsoft takes control -- how their computes 
may be used, how they may be sold, etc.  And we can't easily modify or 
adapt. 
Second, it should not be about Linux at all!  Your remarks should be 
about Open Source - Libre Software.  Linux is just a small little glossy 
part of the pie taken over by large corporations who wanted a cheap 
platform for their middleware.  Students, teachers and administrators 
don't want to hear about operatings systems, partitions, filesystems, 
boot up, etc ad infinitum.  Show them real applications!  And start with 
Tux Paint on your portable.  Then Openoffice (in jest call the writer 
portion word plus, because it can turn documents into .pdf's for 
distribution (look MA, do .DOC viruses!)

Wrap up by showing them an 85% reduction in their TCO!!  Go open source 
and you immediately have more money for important educational things 
like increased participation in Science Fairs, Chess Club, etc.  And 
always bring to everyone's mindspace that kids learn more from 
Teacher-Student interaction and actually going places than they can ever 
get from a mere glorified typewriter.

Doug Coats wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I am speaking at a couple of workshops at our regional ACSI (Association of
> Christian Schools International) convention.  One of them is about using
> Linux in the school.  I assume most of the attendees will have little or no
> experience and probably most just curious.  I have promoted it as using
> Linux as a Microsoft OS and App replacement for the desktop with enough
> power to get the server side of computing done also.
>
> How would you approach this?  What would you HAVE to include to feel that
> you have done justice?
>
> Doug Coats
>
>
>