Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-edu (56 mails)

[Jeff Shantz <jeff.shantz@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

On Tue, 2009-05-05 at 23:58 -0400, James Tremblay aka SLEducator wrote:

> When we create these patterns we should be using the native desktop
> "lock down" \ "kiosk" tools
> for instance Sabayon for gnome. These utilities present a lot of
> flexibility in what can and cannot be presented to the desktop user,
> think M$ group policies, with this we can leave the chat ability there
> but hide the tool.  
>
> I would summaries that adding choices here just makes the work more
> difficult for the end user and you, let them make choices about "use"
> when they use it, an then they can modify the "groups" profiles in
> Sabayon or the Kiosk Tool.

Completely agreed.  The mandate of the module is not to create/edit
Sabayon/Kiosk tool templates, but instead to assign them to groups of
students.

What I'm saying here, though, is that if I'm a more knowledgeable
parent/teacher/administrator, I should be able to create a custom
Sabayon/Kiosk tool template and have the option in the Education module
to associate that template with a custom group that I've created.

Returning to my example, suppose we have an "elementary" school group
and we've edited the Sabayon/Kiosk templates associated with that group
to hide all chat programs.  Our grade 6 class is corresponding with
other students across the world, and we want to allow them to use chat
programs without allowing these programs to all other students in the
"elementary" group.  I believe that I should be able to create a custom
Sabayon/Kiosk template for these grade 6 students, and the Education
module should allow me to create a new "Grade 6" group, assign my custom
templates to this group, and add my grade 6 students to this group.

This way, my class can undertake their penpal project without opening up
chat programs to everyone in the "elementary" group.  I think providing
3 or 4 pre-defined groups, as you mentioned, is absolutely necessary for
administrators that lack the knowledge to create their own templates,
but I think disallowing the creation of custom groups to be limiting.
Simplicity and ease of use are ultimately the goals here, but the option
should at least be there for users that have the knowledge/abilities to
create their own templates.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Jeff

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