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Re: [school-discuss] Linux Tablets?

Actually even more affordable, especially since they don't need the freehand notetaking all the time (math and physics typically) is either the wacom pointing device tablet (better because we're used to writing on a horizontal surface, not a vertical one) or most cost effective is to take the notes normally on pencil and paper and scan them with a single room scanner hooked up to the K12LTSP classroom server, doing character recognition on each page and saving both original and recognized version in each student's home folder.
Now that I think of it, better yet: an Open Source application that took all scanned student notes for a lecture, deleted repetition (automatically or via teacher input), allowed the teacher to choose the best figures (from the more artistically inclined students, or from the more technically accurate) and allowed generation of a composite note file from all students that represented the union of what they all gleaned from the lecture. Students might even try hard to take the best notes so their version showed up in the final class version, which could give references to student authors for each segment. Teachers would have a version they could add to at the end for publishing, even if their initial notes were sketchy but the students did a good job transcribing the teacher's oral knowledge of the subject. Now that's the Open Source mentality: community contributions! 

Daniel
PS: as a former academician, I would comment that while the theory behind university collaborative research and publications was to produce the union of their knowledge, more often than not, it was the intersection. And getting faculty researchers to do a grant proposal together was like herding cats. I long for the day when today's collaborative students grow up into tomorrow's truly collaborative researchers. 

Best,
Daniel


James P. Kinney III wrote:

Hi David,

Linux on tablet PCs does work quite well. However, the tablet PC
platform the _the_ most expensive platform currently available. I have
purchased several and have found no good, compelling reason to use them
except in one situation: taking notes in class where non-ascii
characters are required; i.e. higher math and physics which use math
notation and diagrams.

The drawbacks to tablets are the generally poor handwriting recognition
code (even the stuff from Microsoft - a derivative of a public domain
project funded with Federal money many years ago - doesn't work very
well. Fuzzy logic is not a current hot computing topic.) and the very
high cost. Additionally, any portable device uses a battery pack with a
finite lifespan. So the pack must be replaced periodically and no
insignificant expense.

A much more affordable option is to equip several Linux thin client LCD
monitors with a pen-style touch screen (thin Wacom tablets - but not
from Wacom $$$$$) so the kids can draw right on the screen.

On Wed, 2007-10-17 at 19:25 +0700, David M. Bucknell wrote:

Dear Colleagues,
I am investigating the use of tablets running Linux in k-12/13 schools around the world. Searching for Ubuntu on tablets, I've found lots of promising stuff, so I imagine that someone with more money than I has bought one and installed Linux on it, right? Please let me know if you have any leads on schools using tablets running Linux. 

Thank you.

Sincerely,

David Bucknell

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