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K12Linux + LTSP = .edu Terminal Server Distro
Paul Nelson, writing "We are educators who think using open source software in public agencies is the responsible thing to do," says "We have released a turn-key terminal server distribution based on RH7 and the LTSP packages. Simply install Linux and start plugging in your diskless terminals. Very little or no configuration is required. We've included some cool educational software and have (with permission) bundled StarOffice as part of the install. To kick things off we have 1000 Intel Celeron processors to give to schools building Linux terminals. We also have some Xeon processors to help schools building servers. Our goal is to have 1000 terminals in 100 schools by one day (July 4th.) For more info including links to download the CD-Install image (650mb) head for http://www.riverdale.k12.or.us/linux/." Any parents (or other aggrieved taxpayers) out there might be interested in showing this off at a PTA meeting. You may also be interested in the Simple End User Linux and the Debian Jr. projects.
People, particularly kids, do not want to run the junk (sorry, but it's true) that passes for apps on Linux. If you're looking to turn them against Linux from a very early age, you're off to a good start.
Kids are smarter and more adaptable than adults. Kids can operate the VCR, the computer and virtually every other kind of complex technical gadget in the house with a mastery their parents usually can only envy.
A typical adult has simply stopped learning -- if you learn one thing a day you're unusual. Kids learn dozens of things every day. They aren't afraid that their superiors or subordinates will see they don't know something. Kids have to be taught shame of the process of learning the way they are taught shame over their bodily processes -- neither is natural. As adults we accept not only that having knowledge is a good, but we believe that ignorance is shameful. Once you believe ignorance is shameful, then real learning stops and pretension begins.
Software marketers have latched onto this shame in adults the way they latch onto every possibility to sell to us. They have created a cult of ease. Of course there is no virtue in superflous complexity, but we have been brainwashed into making ease of use the highest and only value. It's a faustian baragin: to join the cult we have to accept disempowerment. Their vision of software is to free software what Club Med is to learning a language and spending time living in another culture.
Children are more adaptible, faster and better learners than adults, because we do not allow them to shirk discomfort, whether it is learning multiplication tables or drilling historical facts. Their minds retain flexibility because we sanctimoniously deny them membership in the cult of ease. Computers, especially equipped with free software, are particularly rewarding for children because with the exception of people and the library, they are the only educational tool that matches and rewards their intellectual flexibility.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Having worked for a high school-focused company, I can appreciate how much this will help. A lot of schools need help in getting the latest technology to their students.
Linux (and open source in general) is poised to do this. Schools are in need of large systems that students of all degrees of expertise can disect. What's more, a lot of students need to be given positive feedback on their work. What better feedback than having IBM ship the modification that you made to Apache or having Red Hat ship the documentation that updated for the GNOME login?
Now, even better: which platform is more likely to support the privacy rights of these kids?
You can go on and on. The only reasons schools use anything but open source software is marketing.
I took a look at the site, and while the goals are laudable, the benefits are buried several clicks through. If this is to take off they need press coverage so every PTA knows the relative cost of the systems their kids use.
They could really do with a 'press release' page, which plugs the cost angle mercilessly, since that is what this one comes down to for most schools.
Interested in providing big businesses an alternative to the cyclical licensing scheme of Micro$oft and it's cohorts, the LTSP crew thought the name Linux Terminal Server Project would appeal to these poor, Micro$oft inflicted Systems Administrators and IT Personel. Its name was not chosen for its more appropriate application in the UNIX and X11 world, referring to serial port dummy terminal servers.
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assert(expired(knowledge));
I haven't checked recently but last time I looked in to what schools were doing with computers, the computer had replaced the TV as a place to park the students when the teacher needed a break.
If you're not interested in teaching computer related concepts and principles and just want a place to park the kids to vegitate, Windows is where it's at. You'll find lots of nice "educational" games they can play and they'll come out none the wiser for the experience.
If you want them to actually understand what they are doing when they sit down at a computer, Windows isn't your best choice for a first OS. And someone who understands what they're doing can sit down and work with a Windows based PC or a MacOS based PC because they have a good grounding in the fundamental concepts that make it all work.
Of course all that presupposes teachers who know what they're doing and a school system that won't get all hung up because all the Internet filtering programs mandated by Congress are only available on Windows. I'll leave how likely that is as an exercise for the student.
Keep in mind that I am rather biased, since my first real OS coming off the cheesy TI/99 and Commodore class machines was a Sun version of UNIX. As far as I'm concerned, Microsoft has been playing a rather poor game of catch up since then, and IBM's OS/2, while better, still didn't hold a candle to UNIX.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
That's ridiculous. I wish people would keep activism out of the classroom. The decision on what software/products to use should be based solely upon what is the best tool for the job. I'm not saying Linux is not the best tool for schools but this decision was not made on that basis.
I wouldn't trust my children to educators who put the interests of projecting their viewpoint over the interests of the children to learn with the best tools available to use.
Mmmm.. Donuts
You can choose what you teach, or you can let it be taught for you -- often by commercial interests. As long as it fits within the defined curriculum, there's nothing wrong with expounding your own thoughts on things -- as long as you identify it as your own opinion and not official dogma.
I went to Junior high at a Catholic boarding school. The priests there were willing to discuss things like the gritty parts of the history of the Catholic church and creationism vs darwinism and why a literal reading of Genesis was problematic. Some of what we were taught was not completely flattering to the Catholic Church. When it diverged from the official church line, it was generally identified as such...
I'm glad that my teachers were willing to 'step out of the box'. I think that it gave us all more room to think about things for ourselves.
_____
I think that exposing students to Linux is a great thing.. At least then they know that they have a choice. What they do with that choice once they get home should be up to them.
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Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
I went to Junior high at a Catholic boarding school. The priests there were willing to discuss things like the gritty parts of the history of the Catholic church and creationism vs darwinism and why a literal reading of Genesis was problematic. Some of what we were taught was not completely flattering to the Catholic Church. When it diverged from the official church line, it was generally identified as such...
They're not allowed to do that any more. There's been a crackdown at the Vatican. Read On the Vocation of the Theologian, by Cardinal Ratzinger, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. (One the official titles that goes with that job is Grand Inquisitor.) Teachers must follow the official line, or else. "The freedom of the act of faith cannot justify a right to dissent. In fact this freedom does not indicate at all freedom with regard to the truth but signifies the free self-determination of the person in conformity with his moral obligation to accept the truth". This reads like something Orwell might have written in 1984. But it is real, and is enforced against teachers employed by the Catholic church. Cardinal Ratzinger has signed excommunications based on this rule.
on that note, i wonder just how much Microsoft earns from all things government?
Does anyone know if they are required to split out gov. buyers from com? is this public info?
anyway, i think this is okay, as long as the kids don't suffer too much on the UI. i mean, i don't like staroffice at all, that whole "take over the screen cuz unix desktops suck" idea...kde and gnome have pretty much become the future of the unix desktop, it's just a matter of time.
hopefully SO will improve after they break all the apps out, but we all know what happened to the "new improved netscape"...
Treatment, not tyranny. End the drug war and free our American POWs.
See my user info for links.
And when exactly will there be a *NIX equivilant to Citrix Metaframe? Then and only then would I see these diskless thingys as a serious contender.
Booting from a network server is nice and everything, but having the processing power moved from the client, and to the server, makes for dumber terminals, smarter servers, and less trips to hold the hands of the lusers.
For some odd reason, I seem to have developed a wee bit of respect for the antiquated mainframe technology of the forgone years.......
Feed The Need[goatse.cx]
Remember all that buzz about the iOpener? It was loved here on /. because it made a good X client; a computer in your kitchen!
This seems to me to be a MUCH better solution. Just set up a dedicated server in your attic running this Linux distro and buy two or three of those thin clients to put around your house. It may be marginally more expensive to do it this way, but if the server soft is as easy to use as the site proclaims, the ease of setup and use would more than make up for the price difference.
-inq
One of my friends that I graduated with got a job at our old schools library and he is showing them the way of Linux by installing a server to get their Mac networks and their Windows networks to work together. So the willingness of school administrators to try out new things is there. Giving them easy access to these "new" technologies and incentive is necessary for them to make their way into the classroom.
Apple made a big push to get their systems used in schools. One way they did this was by giving away computers. Today if you go into any public school you will find Macs in greater numbers than any other type of computer even though they are not used in industry as much as other computers.
So this is a great step into getting Linux tough to students and getting more widely accepted by the majority of computer users that are not the computer elite.
-Grant
|grant.henninger.name|
rumors to the contrary, it is simply not possible to be an expert in *everything*. so this is very worthwhile
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Microsoft's profitability makes it an ubiquitous brand name. Kids are inundated with all these brand names already. They will grow up thinking that it is how life is supposed to be. Isn't that called indoctrination?
So now some kids can enjoy learning about computers while using reliable systems that don't draw (too) much attention to their brands. That's a positive step. Our government needs to stand behind this.
If you love God, burn a church!
Ewige Blumenkraft!
Firstly, this is a great idea, and it deserves all the best. However, I see one major problem with getting it implemented - this might just be specific to .au, or smaller schools (my perspective), but I suspect not.
The PTA's and school management's techno-literacy will be a real problem. Down here, at least, it's very much a Windows world - and the people who make decisions with regard to technology aren't always the admins. People who don't understand Linux will probably prefer that their kids use Windows (and Office, and Outlook, and IE - but I digress) because that's what they know and like.
What I'd like to know is, if anyone's tried this before, have you run up against the same technophobia? And if so, any suggestions for getting around it?
That said, more power to the project - and I'm beginning to think that it could well help stop what I just described. That, and the cost savings from going to Linux are always a good thing for (generally!) cash-strapped schools.
Joshua Giersch
In my e-mail, it's not "whom", it's "hoo".
I'am currently going to high school in Canada and the school i attend recently received a $700 000 grant to make our school one of the most wired school's in Canada. The entire grant was sought after by students, the buying of the computer equipment was done by the students and the networking was done by the students. We added 117 computers to our already 149 computer-strong network...all done by students. It has been probably the most enriching and meaningfull "lesson" i've ever been taught in school. From learning Solaris on our Sun boxes to mandrake on our custom boxes to win98/me/nt/2000 on our Dell and Alienware boxes and MacOS on the Imac's i have learned more than i ever thought i would. All because some students were willing to take some initiative and were willing to put the time and effort into it. Now, how this relates to the article. After we received all of our new machines we had a huge amount of old 133's gathering dust. Some local elementary schools were wanting to get some free computers so we said we would give them what we had...on one condition...we hold "computer camps" to get the kids oriented on Linux. That's right...grade 6,7 and 8 kids working on linux. It's truly amazing how quickly these kids picked it up...much quicker than anyone at our school! Anyways...i'am not sure where i'am going with this but i thought it was a cool story to share.
As a parent, I am always encourage when I hear about this type of program.
I have a 12 year old daughter who has shown an interest in computers, and thanks to the efforts of a businessman who is a memeber of the local rotary, her school was recently able to aquire fifteen used computers, most of them Athlons. I was especially excited to learn that eight of them had Red Had Linux installed.
One of the teachers at her school is also a long time Linux administrator and user, and it's simply amazing the progress and learning that she is making. Admittedly, I am far from an expert, but she has already passed me by!
I want to encourage anyone who is considering donating computers to a school to please do so. They very much do make a difference in some of the technologically inclined children's education.
"The night is long that never finds the day." -- William Shakespeare