Hi Eric,<div><br></div><div>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Here's a few of my bookmarks collected during my experience:</div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><a href="http://oakdome.com/k5/tutorials/computer-cloning/free-computer-cloning.php">http://oakdome.com/k5/tutorials/computer-cloning/free-computer-cloning.php</a></div>
<div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><a href="http://www.freetech4teachers.com/">http://www.freetech4teachers.com/</a></div><div><br></div><div>Also a Google of "Linux in the classroom" turns up some interesting results.</div>
<div><br></div><div>A bit long-winded, I know, and teacher-centric -- but it's a lonely place for a FOSS instructor.</div><div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div><div>Gary</div><div><br clear="all">Gary Ritchie, Designer + Digital Artist<br>
Pittsburgh, USA<br><a href="http://garyritchie.com">http://garyritchie.com</a><br>+1 412 980 4279<br>+1 412 256 8839<br><br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 6:05 PM, Eric Cooper <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ecc@cmu.edu">ecc@cmu.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
I may have the opportunity to advocate for the use of Linux and free<br>
software to a school board in the near future. I expect the main<br>
selling point to be potential cost savings, and the main concerns to<br>
be about the differences from Windows and questions about equivalent<br>
free applications.<br>
<br>
Does anyone have any favorite resources (white papers, websites, etc.)<br>
with this kind of material? Any other relevant experience (success<br>
stories, or why you were shot down in flames) would be interesting too.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
Eric Cooper e c c @ c m u . e d u<br>
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