MESSAGE
| DATE | 2003-05-18 |
| FROM | Marco Scoffier
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Alt schools demo
|
This is not a full write up yet.
NYLXS attendees: Me, Adam Kosmin, Joe Maffia, Rene Ferrer
Our contact: Rob Marino
The demo went well I think.
But there are many things we could do better.
The audience weren't decision makers, but rather teachers struggling to
stay abreast of technology they don't understand, and over which they
have no control.
We were given about two 20min slots, so it was difficult to do much more
than rally the troops, which I think we did. We were certainly one of
the more memorable presentations, I think.
However, it was extremely difficult to do anything in the way of a hands
on experience, or even a simple walk through of the applications
available. The computer lab was locked down I-macs, meaning the knoppix
disks we had could not be used by the audience.
I think it would be a wise investment for the group to buy a laptop for
demonstrations.
Selso has a vendor for a used IBM Thinkpad PII 450 for $380
Other offers suggestions are welcome.
That said I sitting through the rest of the day. There was not one demo
for which we do not have a _better_ free software alternative.
I was most suprised by the number of teachers who had found slash server
like websites to host their classes. Four different presentations were
just an advertisement for some web company
--nicenet.org (is University run and seems the most stable)
--egia.com? ($49 a year because they offer the bsdgames like hangman in
java-applets which didn't run on the Imacs)
--fremilla (something? lost a year of the teacher's work)
--something trove (which rob tells me is a mod_perl based solution
running on Apache somewhere, but not in the school.)
The reliance on external companies, or web-service portals shocked me
because the teachers are imputting their entire lesson plans through
a web form and relying on the continued well being of a distant company
offering a "free as in beer" service over the net, which seems to me to
be an incredibly precarious way of running classes. Why can't the Board
of Ed offer these types of systems in house, to ensure the safety of the
teacher's data. We are talking daily lesson plans entered into a
web-form. One teacher had all of last years pages disappear b/c he did
not update them frequently enough !!!!!
Other memorable moments:
the teacher who decided he would teach "the network" rather than "the
internet" ??? He had the students work in a shared directory. Only
problem was that malicious students could alter and remove other
students work!!!! I had no idea there were no group permissions on
Windows XP.
Also a woman using Imovie took several minutes, yes minutes to animate 7
pictures. Imovie decided it had to render them first, so we all watched
a progress bar, while I was thinking > display image_[1-7].jpg what in
the world has to be rendered?
The guy who teaches SQL by using an Oracle class is definitely
rethinking his strategy.
And on and on.
There are so many ways free-software could improve the technological
situation in the public schools, they could not possibly fit in an
email.
I think, now armed with more examples, having a better idea what types
of problems the teachers are having, we need to find who is higher up,
and get a rapid demonstration going. Perhaps Rob or Camilla Saly can
help out, they are both strong proponents.
The slash server and the teacher training at Concord are both green
lights. I also spoke with a group of interested art-teachers who really
need the GIMP.
____________________________
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