Article about F/OSS in school

[lamalex]

http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/57759.html and http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/57760.html
good articles to study and learn for when we start taking on education. There is some very good software recommended there. I think schools are the most effective place we can spread Ubuntu, but will also be some of the most difficult. I know multiple members of the Great Valley (Philly Suburb: malvern, charlestown, sugartown area) school board so there or Philly schools might be good places to start. However I think the sooner we move on schools the better before schools start moving to vista, office 2007, and server 2008 (less likely).

[jedijf]

Great post alex.

One of the next projects with MALT was trying to get exposure in their classroom setting. They have computer classes for adults. These articles with help with the promotion of the idea.

They currently have online courses also, but I don't know how they are being managed. Moodle (http://www.moodle.org/) looks very interesting.

Tonight will be the start of the LTSP project, hopefully all of this will come together soon into one grand project and model for other organizations.

[iqag1060]

Moodle has a LOT of on-line information available, but I still feel there's a bit of a learning curve for the individual teacher implementing it - especially if they're not already using similar products. It would be great to provide training or at least a reading list.
You should also definitely introduce teachers and administrators to the various components of Schooltool/ (http://www.schooltool.org/). Most of the applications and online services which schools use for management and grading are ridiculously expensive and have some of the worst UIs of any software or web application ever. (Edline is just below MySpace in attractiveness and functionality, and GradeQuick looks like what a 3rd grader would produce after reading "Teach Yourself Visual Basic 5 in 2.5 hours" only less fun and more frustrating.)


* SchoolTool Calendar and SchoolBell are calendar and resource management tools for schools available as part of the Edubuntu Linux distribution.
* A SchoolTool student information system is being developed and tested in collaboration with schools in Lithuania and Belgium during the 2006 - 2007 school year
* CanDo is a SchoolTool-based skills tracking program developed by Virginia students and teachers to track which skills students are acquiring in their classes and at what level of competency.


I'm sure there's still lots that's under development, but it looks good, is easily installed on any server and run from the browser, and, as any public school administrator should appreciate, it's free. That's more money for teachers and LTSP labs! (And books too I guess.)

[lamalex]

thanks for school tool, something like edline in opensource is exactly what i've been looking for.