[wplug] wanted: good resources for linux / free software advocacy

Gary Ritchie chocolategary at gmail.com
Thu Mar 31 23:38:50 EDT 2011


Hi Eric,

I'm teaching part-time at a local private school in Squirrel Hill for the
current school year. The year prior they obtained Adobe CS4 Design suite
only to find that their aging computer lab would have a difficult time
running it. The meager funds they did have were spent on a terminal server
that can only effectively serve about four clients, using this software.
Educating the board, administrators and [volunteer] IT personnel will be
key. There are reports coming out about how this school or that has adopted
iPads, or similar technology, and expect reactionary rather than rational
purchases.

In the lab where I teach the WinXP desktops now have Google Chrome and
Inkscape installed directly (not using terminal server) in order to be used
in learning computer graphics. One spare desktop was resurrected using
Edubuntu (and can connect to the Windows server, print, etc.) The plan was
to set up a DRBL (clonezilla?) server for imagining a master dual-boot
WinXP/Ubuntu setup but there's not been time or resources for that. Google
Docs, Picasa Web Albums (for video), and Google Groups are used to share
information with the students.

Here's a few of my bookmarks collected during my experience:
http://oakdome.com/k5/tutorials/computer-cloning/free-computer-cloning.php
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

Also a Google of "Linux in the classroom" turns up some interesting results.

A bit long-winded, I know, and teacher-centric -- but it's a lonely place
for a FOSS instructor.

Cheers,
Gary

Gary Ritchie, Designer + Digital Artist
Pittsburgh, USA
http://garyritchie.com
+1 412 980 4279
+1 412 256 8839



On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 6:05 PM, Eric Cooper <ecc at cmu.edu> wrote:

> I may have the opportunity to advocate for the use of Linux and free
> software to a school board in the near future.  I expect the main
> selling point to be potential cost savings, and the main concerns to
> be about the differences from Windows and questions about equivalent
> free applications.
>
> Does anyone have any favorite resources (white papers, websites, etc.)
> with this kind of material?  Any other relevant experience (success
> stories, or why you were shot down in flames) would be interesting too.
>
> --
> Eric Cooper             e c c @ c m u . e d u
> _______________________________________________
> wplug mailing list
> wplug at wplug.org
> http://www.wplug.org/mailman/listinfo/wplug
>
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