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Re: [seul-edu] Linux in educational computing
El Vie 16 Ago 2002 18:34, escribió:
> Hi Folks,
>
> I want to pick some brains here, if I might.
>
> I'm a former computer consultant turned educator turned technology
> coordinator who went back into corporate IT as an SE a couple of years ago.
> The company I worked for imploded and so I find myself unemployed. I've
> toyed with the idea of doing consulting again but "mainstream" consulting
> doesn't really appeal to me. However, the idea of using GNU/Linux in
> education definitely does, so I'm toying with ideas of how to combine the
> two.
>
> What I'm playing with is ideas of using GNU/Linux in education. The
> area where I live is northern New England, very rural, very poor computing
> infrastructure in schools, and a low level of tech use in schools. I'm
> looking to fill a niche implementing Linux-based solutions. By combining
> Linux's stability and free software apps/tools, I know it'll be an
> attractive solution.
>
> Based on my experience, schools are ignorant of the advantages of free
> software, whether it's lower hardware requirements, avoidance of licensing
> issues, educational/technological empowerment, straight costs, or what have
> you. The general attitude is "these computers are a pain in the butt to
> keep running" and "everybody uses Windows so it's popular and the best
> thing to use." These are schools where a second grader playing a game on a
> CD-ROM is considered a "good use" of technology -- so Linux's inability to
> run Windows programs is a definite drawback.
>
> Well, I'm babbling; cutting to the bone, I'm looking for advice on two
> points:
>
> #1: What Linux-based solutions do you see as "mandatory" for a typical
> school to implement? What tools/software will really "wow" a reluctant
> administrator (either tech administrator or educational administrator)?
> Can you give me some examples?
>
> #2: What are good ways to approach/market to schools? Seeing as schools
> will have to commit to converting (read: hassle and retraining) to
> GNU/Linux, or to run both Windows/Linux in tandem, a school is going to
> need a good pitch to convert. And considering many of the tech coords
> around here are wildly overworked tackling another project isn't at the top
> of their list. Does anyone have any strategies or tactics that can work
> for this?
>
> War stories, examples, thinking aloud -- I'd love to hear it. You'll
> get bonus points for hard data and anything I can massage into use in an
> above-mentioned business, if you have any...
>
> Okay, I lied. I've got another question. I'm toying with the idea of
> doing a project in a school as a real and local example/demo. Does anyone
> have any ideas on what would make a good demo project?
>
> Thanks in advance.
Hi,
I'm happy you're here. A couple of thoughts and ideas.
For going commercial you may consider:
a) Produce lots of data at a low cost and sell it at a reasonable price.
Which product ? Educational games, for example:
http://crosswords.50g.com
you may choose other layout, but that's the idea. Use a crossplatform
language, as javascript, you may hire programmers at low cost. The important
thing is to generate lots of games by scripts.
Extractors of data scripts --> handlers of data scripts, game makers -->
renderers of games into javascript/java/whatever layout.
b) gcompris or his great brother Clic:
http://www.xtec.es/recursos/clic/esp/index.htm
That's you act as a consultant providing the schools with existing material,
adapting it a little or simply letting them know the existence of it. You ask
for a low fee, because you're just an expert that hasn't produced the product
itself but helped to find and to use.
How not to getting commercial in Education (if you're small) ? try to do
something very original, and complex that require lots of coding.
Try to reuse and to "sell" what others have done. For example an EDU-Cd is
something needed, here , at seul, we're trying to do it, but a determined
individual makes much more than 10 commitees. Read our index of software,
eval it, package it, and register a CD with the contents and sell it, as Red
Hat does. You own the copyright of the collection , but each item of the
collection is GPL, add a bit of original data/configuration, so that you
material can't be blatantly copied, as Red Hat/Mandrake does. I think this
would be greatly welcomed. And you may get support/money from Red
Hat/Mandrake/Suse.
---
mga