Re: [seul-edu] [Fwd: Computers in the classroom]

[Doug Loss <dloss@suscom.net>]

We seem to be in a bit of a lull here, so I'm going to try starting a discussion by
commenting on Jim Sansing's message that I forwarded here a couple of days ago.
Please join in!


> Jim Sansing wrote:
> >
> >  1) Do you have printed literature that you can hand out or mail?
> > Unfortunately, many of the decision makers in school districts are not
> > attuned to technology.  So, you may have to use snail mail to get the word
> > to the right people.
> >

This makes intrinsic sense that I hadn't thought of before.  Is this something we
can or should do?  Getting out of virtual space and into real space requires
physical and financial facilities that we haven't been concerned about before, as
we've noticed in our talks about conference participation.  There's another issue,
too.  If we do some sort of mailing like this and people take us up on it, what
exactly will we be offering them?  We're not organized to do much more than R&D and
advocacy, while I think anyone answering such a mailing would probably be looking
for sales-and-support-type assistance.

>
> > 2) Have you contacted the National PTA and/or the teacher's unions?  If
> > you can get a support from one or more of these organizations, you will be
> > noticed by local school systems.  Send them several copies of your printed
> > literature.
> >

Again, this gets to the questions above.

>
> > 3) One of the groups I volunteered for was the Technology Club, where we
> > helped 5th graders build robots using the Legos Mindstorms kits.  While the
> > OSS alternatives for these kits is too advanced for elementary and probably
> > middle school students, I would think that the growing interest in robotics
> > would be a good opportunity for some visibility.
> >

We haven't talked at all about this.  I know there are Linux-based applications
that work with these kits along with other robotic systems.  For us it would
probably be most useful to try them out and develop lesson plans to use them.  Are
there any computer science instructors here who'd like to take a crack at that?

>
> >    If you could co-sponsor, or at least man a booth at, regional high
> > school competitions, then many of the attendees are probably the students
> > that keep the computers running in their school.  If they are already
> > fighting the good fight, then you can provide them with hard facts they can
> > use to convince the powers that be.  Otherwise, you may be able to recruit.
> >

This sounds like a very good idea.  What are these regional competitions?  I know
about Odyssey of the Mind, but I'm not sure if that's what he means here.

>
> > 4) In Anne Arundel, MD, the support of the hardware and software is
> > contracted.  However, the county school administration has a group that
> > tests and approves basic configurations and educational programs for
> > elementary, middle school, and high school.  This is your ultimate target,
> > and I expect that there is some equivalent in most school systems.
> >
> >    Perhaps if you could put together a direct mailing to the IS group of
> > every school district in the country describing what you have so far, and
> > especially detailing the cost benefits, you may find that the 1-in-10 rule
> > kicks in, and you get a 10% (or better) response rate.
> >

This gets back to the decision maker and PTA comments above.  I think what we
currently have might fit better here.  If we did get their interest, they'd do
their own advocacy, installation, and support (with our help and encouragement), I
suspect.  Still, we'd need to compile all the postal addresses, generate the
hard-copy and postage, and do the mailing.

>
> > 5) When I was in a meeting with this group, discussing the upcoming MS NT
> > network, I asked about how they planned to manage student classwork data.
> > I was told that each student is given a floppy, because they cannot afford
> > to have a sysadmin manage student accounts.  I was so astounded that the
> > only thing I could do was to decide to move to another school district.
> >
> >    However, this caused me to think that if there were a program that
> > each teacher could run to manage the students in that class, which created
> > a file that could be picked up by a cron job (or something similar) to
> > add/delete system userids, then this would be something that even MS
> > doesn't offer.
> >

Steve, how much of this does K12Admin already do?

>
> > 6) I have thought that what would really kick-start the Linux in the
> > schools effort would be if there were a "School Distribution".  If you
> > could get one or more of the major distributors to supply a school
> > configuration, alongside of their server and workstation configurations,
> > then it would eliminate the need for piecing it together.  Since this would
> > be good PR, I wouldn't expect that it would be hard to convince at least a
> > few of them to do so.  I would think that Mandrake would be a good place to
> > start.
> >

Well, if you speak German, kmLinux is pretty close to this.  I'm not sure, but I
think Pingoo does some of it in French.  Eugene, would Mandrake be interested in a
similar tailoring of their Linux to meet specifically-stated educational needs?

>
> > 7) Another project I volunteered for was to spend 1/2 day each week
> > teaching the kids in my daughter's class to use the computer.  (This was
> > before the lab was built, so I only had 2 computers in the back of the
> > class.)  I don't know how many schools have T1s, but our school doesn't.
> > With 25 classrooms and now a lab with 30 PCs, 56K just doesn't cut it.  And
> > I don't see the phone companies making any effort to help out.  So, I found
> > that using the Internet for research was not an option.  That meant that I
> > had to use online encyclopedias.
> >
> >    If you could get IBM to put its money where its mouth is and support
> > the World Book on Linux, this would remove a major obstacle to Linux in the
> > classroom.
> >

There are Linux programs to read National Geographic CD-ROMs, but I don't know of
any Linux-compatible encyclopedias.  If World Book is the leader in the classroom,
we should look into what's required to access it with Linux.  If anyone here has
any contacts within IBM, it's probably worth asking them about it.

>
> >    For that matter, if you could get IBM to sponsor SEUL, it might
> > provide you with some good exposure.  (Of course, it might not, and I don't
> > see that you are seeking sponsors, so please don't flame me.)
> >

This is a good question.  Are we seeking sponsors, either as SEUL/edu or as SEUL
inn general?  Other than for attending trade shows, of course; we've established
that we're happy to accept corporate sponsorship for those.

>
> > 8) Finally, if I can get the major issues in my life resolved (I finally
> > got the kitchen remodeled, so now I hope in about another 6 mos. to a year
> > to be at some level of equilibrium), I have a plan for a school software
> > environment that would allow students and teachers to design their own
> > exercise books.  It is extremely ambitious, so I'm hesitant to say much
> > about it, but basically, think of spreadsheet-like macros in a visual
> > programming environment, creating graphs and number problems for math
> > exercises, maps for social studies, fill in the blanks for language arts,
> > and maybe even science, art, and music exercises.
> >

This sounds like a useful plan.  It also sounds similar to MetaCard or VisualTCL,
both of which we've discussed here occasionally for the past couple of years.

--
Doug Loss                 God is a comedian playing
Data Network Coordinator  to an audience too afraid
Bloomsburg University     to laugh.
dloss@bloomu.edu                Voltaire