On Thu, 2003-10-30 at 09:05, ICT Support Officer wrote:
Education authorities are also to blame as I believe they probably receive a slice of profits from industry by pushing commercial software into schools.
I don't think that there is any particular evidence for this. Its more likely that they just take the line of least resistance. Its not their money so why cause themselves hassle? Why should they learn new things? (Obviously lifelong learning is for other people) Its incompetence more than conspiracy.
There is so much free and fully functional software out there for education.
Yes but marketing is a key part of getting any product to the customer otherwise companies wouldn't spend masses of money on it. FLOSS has cracked the technical development side of things to a much greater degree than it has marketing.
I must repeat, I am so saddened to see so much money from schools being "wasted".
So what do we do about it? Better to put the time into constructive
action than just worrying about it. Here are a few suggestions.
Join the AFFS (Association for Free Software)
Come to the FLOSSIE conference in February and get as many others to as
possible.
Join the OpenOffice.org education project
Make sure you buy as much equipment as possible from companies that also
support non-Microsoft solutions in schools
Educate the kids about FLOSS so they become better informed
Run an after school IT club that supports a FLOSS project or producing
FLOSS teacing resources.
Use theINGOTs.org assessment for certificating pupils
Get pupils involved in theINGOTs.org competitions
Contribute some basic teaching materials in free formats to Schoolforge
Remember - Give a brick, get a house. All we need is every teacher who
thinks like you do to get a dozen pupils to produce some a few
resources.
--
ian
On Thu, Oct 30, 2003 at 10:34:16AM +0000, ian wrote:
On Thu, 2003-10-30 at 09:05, ICT Support Officer wrote:
Education authorities are also to blame as I believe they probably receive a slice of profits from industry by pushing commercial software into schools.
I don't think that there is any particular evidence for this. Its more likely that they just take the line of least resistance. Its not their money so why cause themselves hassle? Why should they learn new things?
Nor is it frequently their time either. Often these same people expect everyone else to learn new things. e.g. Windows XP, SIMS .NET -- Mark Evans St. Peter's CofE High School Phone: +44 1392 204764 X109 Fax: +44 1392 204763
Ian et al Can we support the FLOSSIE initiative by pre-installing an appropriate version of Linux and OpenOffice on all the computers that we refurbish ? We have still not been able to find a basic Linux OS that is suitable for a Pentium 1 machine with 31Mb RAM. It would be nice to be able to launch this at the FLOSSIE conference. Regards, Grahame ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Grahame Leon-Smith, Chairman of Trustees Tel +44-1932-874303 Fax +44-1932-874068 FREE COMPUTERS FOR EDUCATION Registered Charity No. 1059116 PLEASE VISIT OUR WEB SITE AT < http://www.free-computers.org> and for further information just send a blank email to: < mailto:free-computers-news-subscribe@yahoogroups.com> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -----Original Message----- From: ian [mailto:ian.lynch2@ntlworld.com] Sent: 30 October 2003 10:34 To: suse-linux-uk-schools@suse.com Subject: [suse-linux-uk-schools] reply from edexcel uk On Thu, 2003-10-30 at 09:05, ICT Support Officer wrote:
Education authorities are also to blame as I believe they probably receive a slice of profits from industry by pushing commercial software into schools.
I don't think that there is any particular evidence for this. Its more likely that they just take the line of least resistance. Its not their money so why cause themselves hassle? Why should they learn new things? (Obviously lifelong learning is for other people) Its incompetence more than conspiracy.
There is so much free and fully functional software out there for education.
Yes but marketing is a key part of getting any product to the customer otherwise companies wouldn't spend masses of money on it. FLOSS has cracked the technical development side of things to a much greater degree than it has marketing.
I must repeat, I am so saddened to see so much money from schools being "wasted".
So what do we do about it? Better to put the time into constructive
action than just worrying about it. Here are a few suggestions.
Join the AFFS (Association for Free Software)
Come to the FLOSSIE conference in February and get as many others to as
possible.
Join the OpenOffice.org education project
Make sure you buy as much equipment as possible from companies that also
support non-Microsoft solutions in schools
Educate the kids about FLOSS so they become better informed
Run an after school IT club that supports a FLOSS project or producing
FLOSS teacing resources.
Use theINGOTs.org assessment for certificating pupils
Get pupils involved in theINGOTs.org competitions
Contribute some basic teaching materials in free formats to Schoolforge
Remember - Give a brick, get a house. All we need is every teacher who
thinks like you do to get a dozen pupils to produce some a few
resources.
--
ian
On Thursday 30 October 2003 14:05, Grahame Leon-Smith at Free Computers wrote:
Ian et al
Can we support the FLOSSIE initiative by pre-installing an appropriate version of Linux and OpenOffice on all the computers that we refurbish ?
We have still not been able to find a basic Linux OS that is suitable for a Pentium 1 machine with 31Mb RAM.
Having spent hundreds of hours trying to build something thin enough to run on a 32Mb machine, I think it is fair to say that you cannot build a desktop distribution which will run on that level of hardware that does not make gnu/ linux look like the poor relation to windows. By the time you have X, a window manager and the required underlying services going, there is just no room left to do any useful work without the machine thrashing around in swap. Sorry! That's not to say that such machines are useless. As firewalls, file and print servers, thin clients and for console use, they still can be useful. Cheers -- Phil Driscoll
On Thu, 2003-10-30 at 14:05, Grahame Leon-Smith at Free Computers wrote:
Ian et al
Can we support the FLOSSIE initiative by pre-installing an appropriate version of Linux and OpenOffice on all the computers that we refurbish ?
We have still not been able to find a basic Linux OS that is suitable for a Pentium 1 machine with 31Mb RAM.
It would be nice to be able to launch this at the FLOSSIE conference.
I don't think you are going to have much joy in 32 meg. Not unless you
dispense with a GUI - but then you are talking Wordperfect on DOS type
image. OpenOffice.org is not going to run on a machine with < 64 meg at
all satisfactorily. There is currently a long discussion thread on an
OO.o Lite for this sort of purpose in discuss@OO.o and the implications
are probably writing something new from scratch that uses the OO.o file
format. By the time that is produced 64 meg machines will be common
place second hand so you might as well just use one of these with
Windows 98 or a standard GNU/Linux distro. or look for RAM upgrades for
older machines to get them to 64 or 128 meg. Best use P1s with 32 meg as
thin clients.
--
ian
On Thu, Oct 30, 2003 at 05:46:11PM +0000, ian wrote:
On Thu, 2003-10-30 at 14:05, Grahame Leon-Smith at Free Computers wrote:
Ian et al
Can we support the FLOSSIE initiative by pre-installing an appropriate version of Linux and OpenOffice on all the computers that we refurbish ?
We have still not been able to find a basic Linux OS that is suitable for a Pentium 1 machine with 31Mb RAM.
It would be nice to be able to launch this at the FLOSSIE conference.
I don't think you are going to have much joy in 32 meg. Not unless you dispense with a GUI - but then you are talking Wordperfect on DOS type
Possible if you dig up an old distribution. Something like fvwm and netscape 4. Probably not too useful.
image. OpenOffice.org is not going to run on a machine with < 64 meg at all satisfactorily. There is currently a long discussion thread on an OO.o Lite for this sort of purpose in discuss@OO.o and the implications are probably writing something new from scratch that uses the OO.o file format. By the time that is produced 64 meg machines will be common place second hand so you might as well just use one of these with Windows 98 or a standard GNU/Linux distro. or look for RAM upgrades for older machines to get them to 64 or 128 meg. Best use P1s with 32 meg as
If they use SIMMs it could be hard to find upgrades.
thin clients.
-- Mark Evans St. Peter's CofE High School Phone: +44 1392 204764 X109 Fax: +44 1392 204763
On Thursday 30 October 2003 11:34, ian wrote:
On Thu, 2003-10-30 at 09:05, ICT Support Officer wrote:
Education authorities are also to blame as I believe they probably
receive a
slice of profits from industry by pushing commercial software into
schools.
I don't think that there is any particular evidence for this. Its more likely that they just take the line of least resistance. Its not their money so why cause themselves hassle? Why should they learn new things? (Obviously lifelong learning is for other people) Its incompetence more than conspiracy.
There is so much free and fully functional software out there for
education.
Yes but marketing is a key part of getting any product to the customer otherwise companies wouldn't spend masses of money on it. FLOSS has cracked the technical development side of things to a much greater degree than it has marketing.
I must repeat, I am so saddened to see so much money from schools
being
"wasted".
So what do we do about it? Better to put the time into constructive action than just worrying about it. Here are a few suggestions.
Join the AFFS (Association for Free Software) Come to the FLOSSIE conference in February and get as many others to as possible. Join the OpenOffice.org education project Make sure you buy as much equipment as possible from companies that also support non-Microsoft solutions in schools Educate the kids about FLOSS so they become better informed Run an after school IT club that supports a FLOSS project or producing FLOSS teacing resources. Use theINGOTs.org assessment for certificating pupils Get pupils involved in theINGOTs.org competitions Contribute some basic teaching materials in free formats to Schoolforge
Remember - Give a brick, get a house. All we need is every teacher who thinks like you do to get a dozen pupils to produce some a few resources.
-- ian
Hi Ian. Hi everyone. It's really hard being ouside the uk and the acronyms you guys use really defeat us at times here in here in Spain. We'd love to share stuff with you all and your point about getting involved is excellent. An example came about today as we've produced some good dtp stuff with Scribus which was the last stage on our road to gcse edexcel-and-having-to-do-what-they-say. We could certainly help with Spanish contact too. How about some fast webspace with a place to put the kid's work examples? Just thinking out loud as I have to install the OOo patch on 20 clients. Cheers, Steve.
On Thu, 2003-10-30 at 19:55, fsanta wrote:
On Thursday 30 October 2003 11:34, ian wrote:
On Thu, 2003-10-30 at 09:05, ICT Support Officer wrote:
Education authorities are also to blame as I believe they probably
receive a
slice of profits from industry by pushing commercial software into
schools.
I don't think that there is any particular evidence for this. Its more likely that they just take the line of least resistance. Its not their money so why cause themselves hassle? Why should they learn new things? (Obviously lifelong learning is for other people) Its incompetence more than conspiracy.
There is so much free and fully functional software out there for
education.
Yes but marketing is a key part of getting any product to the customer otherwise companies wouldn't spend masses of money on it. FLOSS has cracked the technical development side of things to a much greater degree than it has marketing.
I must repeat, I am so saddened to see so much money from schools
being
"wasted".
So what do we do about it? Better to put the time into constructive action than just worrying about it. Here are a few suggestions.
Join the AFFS (Association for Free Software) Come to the FLOSSIE conference in February and get as many others to as possible. Join the OpenOffice.org education project Make sure you buy as much equipment as possible from companies that also support non-Microsoft solutions in schools Educate the kids about FLOSS so they become better informed Run an after school IT club that supports a FLOSS project or producing FLOSS teacing resources. Use theINGOTs.org assessment for certificating pupils Get pupils involved in theINGOTs.org competitions Contribute some basic teaching materials in free formats to Schoolforge
Remember - Give a brick, get a house. All we need is every teacher who thinks like you do to get a dozen pupils to produce some a few resources.
-- ian
Hi Ian. Hi everyone.
It's really hard being ouside the uk and the acronyms you guys use really defeat us at times here in here in Spain.
Sorry, FLOSSIE is Free Libre Open Source Software in Education INGOTS are International Grades in Office Technology (Just need to translate the assessment criteria into Spanish ;-) )
We'd love to share stuff with you all and your point about getting involved is excellent. An example came about today as we've produced some good dtp stuff with Scribus which was the last stage on our road to gcse edexcel-and-having-to-do-what-they-say. We could certainly help with Spanish contact too.
I have a Language College that we are just installing a Linux thin client network with 64 machines in that specialises in Spanish. If you E-mail me off list, I'll put you in touch with the Head of languages. I'm sure he will be keen to make contact.
How about some fast webspace with a place to put the kid's work examples? Just thinking out loud as I have to install the OOo patch on 20 clients.
I'm doing some maths teaching things in OpenOffice.org Impress as a
start so I can send you the files. Since its maths it should be pretty
easy to translate into Spanish as its mainly diagrams.
If we can make a start other people can add to it and we can then mirror
it on Schoolforge UK, AFFS web site and perhaps OO.o
Carpe diem mañana
--
ian
participants (5)
-
fsanta -
Grahame Leon-Smith＠FreeComputers -
ian -
Mark Evans -
Phil Driscoll