Re: Spreading the word (was Re: [Fwd: Re: [seul-edu] Want to presentat LINUXWORLD NY/2002?])

[Doug Loss <dloss@suscom.net>]

Michael Hall wrote:

> > This is a perceptual problem, I think.  We should try to turn this argument on
> > its head by asking just what type of applications they want in the classroom,
> > and then pointing out that such apps (if it's true) are freely downloadable and
> > installable from the internet.
>
> This is simply not practical for anyone but a Linux enthusiast. People who
> don't already know and use Linux can't and won't download and install apps from
> the internet, let alone change them themselves. Asking maintainers to change
> apps is not a very sure way of getting what you need when you need it.
>

I agree that it's not an argument that will persuade people to use Linux for the
first time.  But I still think it's an argument that needs to be made.  The
comparison of open source development to academic review in journals is something we
need to make clear to educators.

>
> I believe that a school distribution needs to be developed ... put the CD in,
> load the distro, use it ... no mucking around. It has to be that easy if anyone
> but the converted is going to use Linux in a big way. Being Windows and
> Mac users, most school people (including many IT coordinators) know very
> little about computers. At least, that's my perspective as a primary school
> teacher in Central Australia.
>

This is undoubtedly true.  We even talked about doing our own distro a while back.
We decided not to for various reasons.  However, there are now a number of "school"
distros being developed.  There's <http://www.k12ltsp.org/>,
<http://www.abuledu.org/> (I'm unsure if this is a complete distro), and
<http://www.pingoo.org/>.  There are probably more that I'm not thinking of offhand.

--
Doug Loss                 Always do right.  This
Data Network Coordinator  will gratify some people
Bloomsburg University     and astonish the rest.
dloss@bloomu.edu                Mark Twain