Hi all,
I've been swamped and unable to reply until now.
The teacher training aspect is vital to the process of adding anything
"new" at the classroom level. To this end, Atlanta Public Schools is
addressing this need for training of teachers for the new Linux thin
clients in place and for more to be placed over the next 1-3 years. It
looks like APS will be converting to an Open Source system for the
students!!!
So part of the plan they are getting bids on right now includes basic
training in things like Moodle, TeacherTool and OpenOffice. They finally
"got it" and recognized that the early adopters and tech savvy teachers
should get the training first so as to act a "lightning rods" in each
school. This is directly related to the Brandon work and the analysis of
the outcome and process.
APS really did their homework on this aspect.
As for specific application usage in classrooms I see the OpenSource
world as being the ONLY place that can actually respond to teacher
needs. The other stuff responds to "market" needs (<cynicism> i.e. the
marketing director talks to the bean counters and they add fluff and
cost </cynicism>).
For example: TuxMath is a really cool game. The kids like it because
it's a game. (it's a real system hog in a thin client environment BTW)
It has a new development team now and they are adding really fantastic
features that keep logs of right and wrong answers, offer game play
based on specific learning needs such as working addition with the
numbers 11-19 or subtraction with positive and negative numbers, and a
report generating feature that can be used to give a GRADE (!!) based on
a fun activity that really is a test.
When it is finished..... (can't wait! I've demo'ed the test code to a
few teachers and watched their eyes pop out)
So to respond directly to Daniel's "open source trainers for schools",
um, yeah, we need to talk as we have assembled just that team to address
exactly that need and they are working to respond to the scope of the
need.
As was discussed at NECC, once the schools stop having to pour million$
into software licenses every year, they can divert their license budget
to supporting that front line - teachers.
On Mon, 2007-09-10 at 15:39 -0400, Daniel Howard wrote:
Yeah, William and I were discussing that over lunch after our meeting.
We mused that it will be great when enough big districts like Atlanta
Public Schools have Linux deployed everywhere and tell the book
publishers that they want Linux versions of textbook support software...
In the meantime, I think my eParent model will have to suffice: William
and I provided much of the initial training of our teachers at Brandon,
and then I formed a new PTA committee called the eParents so we could
get parents to help out in learning new software and showing teachers
how to use it. I'll try to assemble a cadre of technology-savvy parents
from this high school, burn some live CDs they can use at home, and have
each of them help. But I have to say these teachers today looked really
motivated to learn this stuff.
You know Les, that's a really good point: there's probably a growing
market now for software trainers that specialize in Open Source
educational packages. Since Open Source schools are no longer spending
that money on licenses, maybe now they can actually afford to hire a
trainer to come in...
Daniel
Les Richardson wrote:
Hi Daniel,
The larger problem with any of this software use is the training aspect,
and the teaching materials (if any).
If they are being used in a teaching context, then a teacher will want
materials for assignments, etc. Having software without that will mean a
much slower adoption rate.
Thus software is in a symbiotic relationship with support materials and
documentation, teaching materials, etc.
That is another 'issue' that should be considered in any Linux based
solution...
Les Richardson
Open Admin for Schools
On Mon, 10 Sep 2007, Daniel Howard wrote:
Well, William and I met with the High School principal and his
assistant principal this morning, and also met several teachers (math,
physics, music, multimedia) and all of them are tremendously excited
about getting working Linux computers in their classrooms, and the
potential for lots of new Open Source software titles. The teachers
have already heard how successful the other Atlanta schools were, and
don't seem to care a whit that it will not be Windows based. They
just want working computers, and lots of 'em, and they've heard this
is good stuff.
We've asked them to send us ideas for what they'd like to use the
computers for in their classrooms, but at the same time, William and I
are guessing they have no idea what they could ask for, so we thought
we'd put together a system for them to play with with a bunch of high
school appropriate titles on it (like the math titles I listed below).
Can anyone suggest other high school appropriate applications for
math, science, yearbook publishing, web page development (actually I
think William has that one covered), control of MIDI keyboards and
music composition, audio mixing (they have a small studio), etc.
Thanks in advance,
Daniel
Daniel Howard wrote:
I'm meeting monday with an Atlanta High School principal that wants
to use Open Source applications in his school. He's familiar with
the K12LTSP program that Atlanta Public Schools rolled out to 7
schools last year (he was formerly the principal of a middle school
that was in the pilot) and APS apparently has 35 more elementary and
middle schools lined up for it. So he's a big fan of OSS now. But
high schools are different creatures, and there are lots of reasons
why selected classes (like math and science) need stand alone
desktops for CPU intensive processing.
I'm wondering if there is a Linux package that is geared towards
math/science like K12LTSP is to general education. Something that
installs with FreeMat, Octave, SciLab, etc. built into it. Anyone
seen anything like that?
Daniel
--
Daniel Howard
President and CEO
Georgia Open Source Education Foundation
--
Daniel Howard
President and CEO
Georgia Open Source Education Foundation