Proposed - An Open House and/or panel on Ubuntu in Schools

[mselva]

Since we have two big events coming up in the next month--the FOSS Camp & the Developer Summit--I think this would be an opportune time for a public event that shines the spotlight on Ubuntu in schools.

I am a teacher and resident techie at an elementary school in Watertown, and we've just converted our computer lab from windows xp to Ubuntu. The principal is delighted that we are among the first Mass. schools to do so, and she is interested in publicizing it.

Ubuntu also stands to gain from such publicity, since its very existence is unknown to most school administrators. I believe that a public demonstration of its capabilities in a school setting might win over some new converts, especially in public schools. If this event were to include a presentation by Mark Shuttleworth and/or other major players, we might attract some reporters from local papers, TV stations, and trade publications.

Since I am quite new to the Ubuntu community, I really need some help making this happen. Does anyone know how to contact Mr. Shuttleworth? Is there an official Ubuntu or Canonical Public Relations department? Are there local folks involved with the planning & logistics for the FOSS Camp & the Summit?

Any suggestions, leads, and comments would be most appreciated.

Thanks!

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MICHAEL SELVA
Technology Specialist
Saint Stephen's Armenian Elementary School
47 Nichols Avenue
Watertown, MA 02472
phone: 617-605-7429
email: ms@ssaes.org
URL: http://baronselva.edublogs.org
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[castrojo]

Hi Michael,

The person you want to get in touch with is Richard Weideman (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RichardWeideman), he's the Education Program Manager at Canonical and can probably help you out with this.

EDIT: I'm helping run FOSSCamp so if you need a time/place for an education session find me early on saturday and we'll set you up.

[cmnorton]

Please keep us updated; I am genuinely interested in your outcome.

When I see Ubuntu's ease-of-installation and its/Linux's ability to run in smaller footprints, I can see our school system benefitting. But my first hurdle is to get people unafraid of Linux.

We have a Windows environment except for our collection system and MUNIS. It's a matter of getting people unafraid of Linux.

I am especially interested in whether or not you would need to work on distributed installation, so you could push out multiple PC client installs instead of installing on each machine. In Arlington, just one elementary school would require a scheme like that, because those PCs come pre-installed with Windows.

[zionad]

I personally am planning to talk to the Technical Advisor at my school to set up a class on the basis of "Linux, The Other Operating System" No pun intended. I want to explain to the people of my technical area (Electronics) what Linux is, how it is different from window$, and how to install and use Linux efficiently.

I will be discussing it with him hopefully this week via E-Mail, and will get back to this topic on what will happen and if me teaching or TRYING to teach the class will happen or not.

[mrsticks]

I have just moved to Somerville from RI. I was invited by my high school vocational teacher to give a short presentation/demo to the 11th graders on OSS and Linux. I had them burn CDs and we played with the LiveCDs for about an hour.

In the spirit of OSS, I've attached the document I made and handed out to the kids.

-peter

[zionad]

Thank you very much for show that to us. I will plan on using that for my class, if you do not mind that is.

[mrsticks]

Go right ahead!

It's been a week or so, if you've used it, did you find it helpful?

[zionad]

It was supposed to be used on the 24th of October but plans changed, It will be used this wednesday, I will report on how it works for the class

[zionad]

I would like to thank you deeply for the basis of my class. It really helped and went very well. I plan on using it for a more classes if possible.I did the class with Mike Rushton, I believe he really liked the packet too.

[mrsticks]

Glad you found it helpful! Keep spreading the good word!

-peter