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Re: [school-discuss] bootable CDs?



Hi Marilyn,

I may be a bit biased, since I actually have a project that is a live CD aimed 
at public schools, but I think that the Live CD is the perfect format for 
bridging the digital divide in schools and ensuring that all students have 
access to the same high quality software tools.

A project that you may be interested in is Slax (www.slax.org), it is 
essentially a live CD building system that will let you decide which programs 
you want to include by simply copying the cd to your hard drive, adding new 
modules with the programs you want, and reburning the disc onto a new cd-r.  

Of course, I will also shamelessly plug my own Live CD, EDU-Nix 
(pronounced "EEE-DEE-YOU-NIX") (www.edu-nix.org).  The first testing copy of 
Version II was just released, and is based on slax.  It also contains several 
Free Software programs for WIndows PCs as well, including OpenOffice.org 2 
and Mozilla Firefox.  Lyx is not included in the present build, but could 
easily be added, I am sure there is a Lyx module available at slax.org, or I 
will be glad to whip one up for you to add to your own CD.

Regards,
Shane Coyle
www.edu-nix.org



On Friday 29 September 2006 15:29, marilyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Does anyone else see the potential in bootable CDs?
>
> I used them the moment I discovered them back in 2003.  I was teaching
> keyboarding and Knoppix 3.2 had a copy of LyX on it.  The students used LyX
> to write reports for their other classes.  I sent a Knoppix CD home with
> every kid at the end of the term.
>
> Since then I've kept up with Knoppix and frequently have used it as my
> primary OS, using my hard disk just for storage.  Since my technical
> expertise is not at the level of most of you on this list (music teacher .
> . . yesterday I spent the day playing "Hot Cross Buns" on recorders all
> day), I appreciate that Knoppix usually sees my hardware and networks
> easily.  It's much less complicated then messing with an installation.
>
> Last Spring someone from the schoolforge list sent out a link to Frozen
> Tech's Live CD List.  http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php
>
> Wow!  That was like Christmas!  I had no idea there were so many flavors!
>
> I found two I liked for school use right away.  I use Kanotix to print out
> posters, but the most important for me is Musix.
>
> For the past two years I have been teaching music at an intermediate
> school. Musix is a bootable music studio.  I boot from the Musix CD, it
> sees the sound card and presto - I've got sequencers, synthesizers, music
> notation editors, drum machines, a music theory game and even a guitar
> tuner.  I have permission from my system administrator to use bootables so
> next week I am taking all of my music classes to the lab to run Musix.  We
> will play the music game, play with the drum machine, and write a recorder
> song using only five notes.
>
> Couldn't we have a bootable CD for each subject area - math, science,
> writing, art?  A teacher can use bootables without the district adopting a
> new OS.
>
> We will be using Samba Network Neighborhood to save our work on district
> servers.
>
> Of course you all know about Freeduc.  I use that with my little kids at
> home.
>
> I am giving a presentation on bootable CDs at our local TCEA conference on
> 10/28.  It will be interesting to see if anyone attends!
>
> Later,
> Marilyn

-- 
Shane Coyle
Founder, EDU-Nix.org Project
www.edu-nix.org