How about Edubuntu?

[Squidward]

I work in a school located in a 3rd world country. As such, financial
issues are primary to us. Does anyone here have any experience with
Edubuntu? Before we install it in our computer labs for our upper- and
middle-school students to replace Windows 95 (yep, we dont have the
cash for upgrades), I want to make sure Edubuntu and Open Office will
be okay for our students. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[El Gee]

I work in a school located in a 3rd world country. As such, financial
issues are primary to us. Does anyone here have any experience with
Edubuntu? Before we install it in our computer labs for our upper- and
middle-school students to replace Windows 95 (yep, we dont have the
cash for upgrades), I want to make sure Edubuntu and Open Office will
be okay for our students. Thanks in advance for your help.

What are your requirement? Ubuntu and its variants serve the community
very well. If I get to go on my trip to Nigeria this year, Ubuntu is
what I am selling the locals.

--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
El Gee // www.mistergeek.com <><
Know Christ, Know Peace - No Christ, No Peace
Remove .yourhat to reply
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

[Squidward]

Thanks for your quick response. I have actually considered Ubuntu, but
I heard that Edubuntu is more suited for students in their teens. Is
this true? There has been a lot of crackdown on unlicensed software in
our country, and we feel that open source is our best alternative. We
plan to make our curriculum for the school based entirely on free
software.
I have read all the arguments for and against Linux-based OS especially
here in the group, but for us in a 3rd world nation, I can say that we
don't have much of a choice.
Thanks.

 

[MoiMeme]

Perhaps take a look here. There you'll also find links to "almost all" other
Linux distros as well and links to downloads, and discussions.
Good luck

 

[JP Loken]

I work in a school located in a 3rd world country. As such, financial
issues are primary to us. Does anyone here have any experience with
Edubuntu? Before we install it in our computer labs for our upper- and
middle-school students to replace Windows 95 (yep, we dont have the
cash for upgrades), I want to make sure Edubuntu and Open Office will
be okay for our students. Thanks in advance for your help.

Schools in Norway are also cash strapped.
As a result of that, a lot of people volunteered to create Skolelinux, a
Custom Debian Distribution designed for schools with old hardware.
(It's not intended to be a single desktop distro.)

The international portal is here:
http://www.skolelinux.org/portal/

"What is Skolelinux?
-Skolelinux is made as free (as in speech) software, and is an overall
computer solution based on school's resources and needs.
-Skolelinux is a network architecture tailored for use in schools.
-Skolelinux is developed and supported by a large and growing
international community.
-Skolelinux is designed to be easy and cheap to maintain.
-Skolelinux gives the students their own usernames, home directories and
services.
-Skolelinux includes OpenOffice.org"

"An advanced network solution
Despite how easy Skolelinux is to install, asking only a handful of
(non-technical) questions, it is an advanced network solution, with many
pre-configured services. With ordinary, closed, proprietary software,
these services have to be configured manually for every single school –
and that needs careful planning and expertise!
Amongst several pre-configured services are the following:
-Central user catalogue: One username and one password for several
machines and services.
-Central storage: Regardless of which machine you use in a Skolelinux
network, you have access to your files and meet an interface with your
settings – an interface you are familiar with.
-Thin client solution: The applications are run on a thin client server,
which is a powerful machine. The image from those applications is drawn on
a "thin client", which usually is an old and cheap machine. This enables
you to use old hardware. Moreover, it eases administration, as you have
one server to maintain.
-Printers may be shared and made available in the network.
-A proxy server caches files downloaded from the Internet, resulting in a
faster surfing experience."

 

[MoiMeme]

Sorry, seems the link got lost during my post ! Here it is :
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=edubuntu

Alternative are EduLinux, EduKnoppix ( same www.distrowatch.com site) or
http://www.linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=62

 

[El Gee]

Thanks for your quick response. I have actually considered Ubuntu, but
I heard that Edubuntu is more suited for students in their teens. Is
this true? There has been a lot of crackdown on unlicensed software in
our country, and we feel that open source is our best alternative. We
plan to make our curriculum for the school based entirely on free
software.
I have read all the arguments for and against Linux-based OS
especially here in the group, but for us in a 3rd world nation, I can
say that we don't have much of a choice.
Thanks.

Edubuntu is just Ubuntu with different programs and IIRC, you can
install all/none/any you wish on any *buntu distro.

--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
El Gee // www.mistergeek.com <><
Know Christ, Know Peace - No Christ, No Peace
Remove .yourhat to reply
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

[Steve H]

I work in a school located in a 3rd world country. As such, financial
issues are primary to us. Does anyone here have any experience with
Edubuntu? Before we install it in our computer labs for our upper- and
middle-school students to replace Windows 95 (yep, we dont have the
cash for upgrades), I want to make sure Edubuntu and Open Office will
be okay for our students. Thanks in advance for your help.

I read a recent article in PCPro about using Linux in schools.
It would seem that the limiting factor ( in the west ) is the cost and
hassle of training up the staff, plus the difficulty in finding
curriculum software to run on it.

It seems to me that these issues might be secondary to you, in which
case you have a very strong motive for making the shift.

I believe PCPro archive their articles on their website...might be
worth your taking a peek.

Regards,

 

[KHaled]

PÃ¥ Tue, 17 Jan 2006 12:30:50 +0100, skrev Squidward


Schools in Norway are also cash strapped.
As a result of that, a lot of people volunteered to create
Skolelinux, a Custom Debian Distribution designed for
schools with old hardware. (It's not intended to be a
single desktop distro.)

The international portal is here:
http://www.skolelinux.org/portal/

"What is Skolelinux?
-Skolelinux is made as free (as in speech) software, and is
an overall computer solution based on school's resources
and needs. -Skolelinux is a network architecture tailored
for use in schools. -Skolelinux is developed and supported
by a large and growing international community.
-Skolelinux is designed to be easy and cheap to maintain.
-Skolelinux gives the students their own usernames, home
directories and services.
-Skolelinux includes OpenOffice.org"

"An advanced network solution
Despite how easy Skolelinux is to install, asking only a
handful of (non-technical) questions, it is an advanced
network solution, with many pre-configured services. With
ordinary, closed, proprietary software, these services
have to be configured manually for every single school –
and that needs careful planning and expertise!
Amongst several pre-configured services are the following:
-Central user catalogue: One username and one password for
several machines and services.
-Central storage: Regardless of which machine you use in a
Skolelinux network, you have access to your files and meet
an interface with your settings – an interface you
are familiar with. -Thin client solution: The applications
are run on a thin client server, which is a powerful
machine. The image from those applications is drawn on a
"thin client", which usually is an old and cheap machine.
This enables you to use old hardware. Moreover, it eases
administration, as you have one server to maintain.
-Printers may be shared and made available in the network.
-A proxy server caches files downloaded from the Internet,
resulting in a faster surfing experience."

What is the install language ?

--
KHaled

e-mail: khaledihREMOVEUPPERCASELETTERS at gmail dot com
(correcting antispam crap..)
please start your subject line with the string "==NG=="

 

[Roger Johansson]

I read a recent article in PCPro about using Linux in schools.
It would seem that the limiting factor ( in the west ) is the cost and
hassle of training up the staff, plus the difficulty in finding
curriculum software to run on it.

You can use Wine in linux to run Windows software inside linux.
This works well for software which uses text, pictures, etc and
curriculum software in general should work well inside Wine.

As more and more countries are going over to linux for schools and
authorities the user base for linux will increase a lot, and that will
speed up development of linux itself, and increase the curriculum
software written directly for linux.

Authors of curriculum software who have some sense use formats
like html, xml, txt, doc, etc which work well no matter what
operating system is used.

 

[Steve H]

You can use Wine in linux to run Windows software inside linux.
This works well for software which uses text, pictures, etc and
curriculum software in general should work well inside Wine.

As more and more countries are going over to linux for schools and
authorities the user base for linux will increase a lot, and that will
speed up development of linux itself, and increase the curriculum
software written directly for linux.

Authors of curriculum software who have some sense use formats
like html, xml, txt, doc, etc which work well no matter what
operating system is used.

The author of the article specifically mentioned a lack of compatible
programs under the Wine project. I know from my own involvement in
education that "should work well" just doesn't cut the mustard with a
UK head who's juggling SATS stats, Panda data, Ofsted 3-day
inspections and PPA rollout...not to mention implementation of
whiteboarding.
It shouldn't be forgotten either that admin staff may well be tied
into an accounts system that's centralized at the LEA.

As regards the software, it's not the document format that's the
problem.

Here's the link to the article:

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/realworld/80495/linux-flunks-high-school/page1.html

Regards,

 

[Roger Johansson]

The author of the article specifically mentioned a lack of compatible
programs under the Wine project. I know from my own involvement in
education that "should work well" just doesn't cut the mustard with a
UK head who's juggling SATS stats, Panda data, Ofsted 3-day
inspections and PPA rollout...

Okay, if the authorities force teachers to specifically use Windows
there is no choice.
But it is incredibly stupid. This cannot be the limitation in other
countries, so who cares what they are doing in britain? They can afford
to be fools, teachers in most other countries have to use their brains.

not to mention implementation of whiteboarding.

Can't you use a paint program? A computer screen projector should
already be the standard equipment in a class room.

As regards the software, it's not the document format that's the
problem.

Programs have to be very badly written if they cannot work inside Wine.
I would never touch learning software made by such authors who cannot
write sensible software.

By the way, there is no need for any software at all, you already have
enough software in your computer, you just need learning resources in
general formats.

Teachers in other countries than britain can find enormous amounts of
knowledge and training resources on the web. If they cannot find
suitable resources on the web these days they don't have enough
education to be teachers.

All teachers in the world can cooperate to gather and organize the
resources they need, and a lot of them are already doing that.

Use english for all learning above 12 years old children, no need to
translate material or programs. English is the world language now,
don't waste the pupil's time with learning in local languages.

 

[Roger Johansson]

To the teachers of the world:

A little math example:

6 billion people, 20% of them are schoolchildren.
That's one billion.

To teach them there are one teacher per 30 pupils.
That gives 33 million teachers.

If every teacher puts together material for one single
lesson, we get 33 million lessons.

If they share that material freely with each other they all
have 33 million lessons to use as they like.

A child has time to attend 8 lessons a day, 200 days per
year, that's 1600 lessons per year.

The child goes to school for 12 years, that's 20000 lessons.
So, you teachers of the world have an enormous overcapacity.

You need 20000 lessons, and you can easily create 33 million
lessons if each of you create one single lesson.
A thousand times overcapacity. (If you work with that one single day in
12 years.)

(You could actually create just 3,6 seconds of education each and it
would still be enough for 12 years of education to all children and
youngsters in the world. The next generation of teachers wouldn't even
have to do that, because the material would already be available.)

With the communications available today you have to be incredibly
incompetent if you cannot create good education for 12 years for each
child,
without having to pay anything at all.
Use universal file formats like html, txt, avi, flash, and it works no
matter what operating system you will use.

Even lazier:
Record the best 20000 lessons on video (with the best teachers in the
world) and you can just turn on the computer projector and sit back and
watch the children learn.

You can sit there and think about the past, when a teacher really had
to work for his money, because he was alone and isolated and had to do
everything all by himself. Those days when you had to get hold of
printed books to be able to teach. Education was expensive then.

Today you only have to learn to cooperate with each other.

"Oooh, it is soooo difficult to cooperate."
Well, you should teach your pupils how to cooperate globally, so you
have to learn it yourselves first. (You should already have learned
that, by the way, and learned how to use computers and internet. What
were you learning in the teacher education?)

 

[Craig]

To the teachers of the world:

A little math example:

6 billion people, 20% of them are schoolchildren.
That's one billion.

Hopefully, you don't "teach" either math /or/ logic.

Craig

 

[Steve H]

Okay, if the authorities force teachers to specifically use Windows
there is no choice.

I don't see what Windows has to do with SATS stats, Panda data, Ofsted
inspections and PPA rollout ( although the Ofsted form can now be
filled out online ). I suspect you don't know what these things are,
therefore you're not really the person to comment on them.

But it is incredibly stupid. This cannot be the limitation in other
countries, so who cares what they are doing in britain? They can afford
to be fools, teachers in most other countries have to use their brains.

I'd say that taking into account the cost of changing an OS,
retraining the staff, perhaps changing the hardware and, not
forgetting what schools are actually for, evaluating the corresponding
effect on the pupils' education seems like pretty sound thinking to
me.

Can't you use a paint program? A computer screen projector should
already be the standard equipment in a class room.

If you think whiteboarding is just about using a paint program on a
giant screen then you're not really the person to comment on it.

Programs have to be very badly written if they cannot work inside Wine.
I would never touch learning software made by such authors who cannot
write sensible software.

In your original post you said "curriculum software in general should
work well inside Wine."
The PCPro article proves otherwise - and whatever your opinions of the
software authors it still doesn't alter the fact that Wine isn't a
solution.

By the way, there is no need for any software at all, you already have
enough software in your computer, you just need learning resources in
general formats.

Technology's a wonderful thing, but far too many people are dazzled by
flashing cursors and impressive refresh rates - and they forget that
it's very, very easy to end up working for the technology rather than
have it work for them.
Incorporating structured curriculum subjects in a nationwide rollout
system ensures consistency - and better still, provides a central
point of feedback for the user base.
In effect it makes IT transparent, and allows teachers to get on with
their job without having to find time to structure the data as well as
the lesson, as well as providing a means for teachers to share their
expertise without having to reference the physical IT.
Such practices are considered 'highly effective', and not just in the
UK.

Teachers in other countries than britain can find enormous amounts of
knowledge and training resources on the web. If they cannot find
suitable resources on the web these days they don't have enough
education to be teachers.

I'm not at all convinced you have any idea as to how long it actually
takes to structure a lesson. Just when do you suppose the teachers are
going to track down, collate and arrange the necessary data? Let me
guess...in their spare time..and they have such a lot of that.
I mean, just off the top of my head I can think of one issue alone
that would bring the concept of collecting data and resources from
disparate sources crashing to its knees. If you can't tell me what
that issue is then, again, you're not really the person to comment on
it.

If the school has access to IT, and the lessons fall under the
auspices of the national curriculum, why not use that IT to centralize
and distribute the necessary data?
That would then leave the teachers to get on with their job. It would
also leave them time to adjust their lessons as they saw fit,
depending on such factors as class make-up, demographics and
personality.

All teachers in the world can cooperate to gather and organize the
resources they need, and a lot of them are already doing that.

In other words, a central pool. What a great idea...and one that's
already in use in the UK.

Use english for all learning above 12 years old children, no need to
translate material or programs. English is the world language now,
don't waste the pupil's time with learning in local languages.

I would imagine that's why you're not in education.

Regards,

 

[Steve H]

To the teachers of the world:

A little math example:

6 billion people, 20% of them are schoolchildren.
That's one billion.

To teach them there are one teacher per 30 pupils.
That gives 33 million teachers.

If every teacher puts together material for one single
lesson, we get 33 million lessons.

If they share that material freely with each other they all
have 33 million lessons to use as they like.

A child has time to attend 8 lessons a day, 200 days per
year, that's 1600 lessons per year.

The child goes to school for 12 years, that's 20000 lessons.
So, you teachers of the world have an enormous overcapacity.

You need 20000 lessons, and you can easily create 33 million
lessons if each of you create one single lesson.
A thousand times overcapacity. (If you work with that one single day in
12 years.)

(You could actually create just 3,6 seconds of education each and it
would still be enough for 12 years of education to all children and
youngsters in the world. The next generation of teachers wouldn't even
have to do that, because the material would already be available.)

With the communications available today you have to be incredibly
incompetent if you cannot create good education for 12 years for each
child,
without having to pay anything at all.
Use universal file formats like html, txt, avi, flash, and it works no
matter what operating system you will use.

Even lazier:
Record the best 20000 lessons on video (with the best teachers in the
world) and you can just turn on the computer projector and sit back and
watch the children learn.

You can sit there and think about the past, when a teacher really had
to work for his money, because he was alone and isolated and had to do
everything all by himself. Those days when you had to get hold of
printed books to be able to teach. Education was expensive then.

Today you only have to learn to cooperate with each other.

"Oooh, it is soooo difficult to cooperate."
Well, you should teach your pupils how to cooperate globally, so you
have to learn it yourselves first. (You should already have learned
that, by the way, and learned how to use computers and internet. What
were you learning in the teacher education?)

Class of 30 kids...
Little Jimmy's not feeling very well, he's coming down with chicken
pox - so he's not really paying much attention.
Dina's parents had a row last night, daddy walked out, she doesn't
know if he's coming back.
Lesley and Gabby hate each other's guts, Gabby is going to beat up
Lesley at break time.
George doesn't really hear that well.
Martin struggles with reading.
Cathy hates this particular topic, she's bored, she's rather be in
physics.
Evan missed three weeks of school due to a broken shoulder.
Misha thinks she might be pregnant.
Keir speaks Finnish as a first language, his English isn't as good as
it needs to be yet.
Terry and Kelly are new pupils, they feel a little lost.
Luke knows all this stuff like the back of his hand, so out of
frustration he starts flicking pellets at Peter.
Jerry doesn't want anyone to know that his eyesight's not that good,
he dreads having to wear glasses.
Simon's got a toothache coming on.
Maruka is worried about guerrillas spotted on the outskirts of her
village.

...and so on...all over the world, in every classroom...

Your post is pretty much indicative of the rot that plagues our world
today - the hideous desire to convert everything down to mere numbers,
no individuality...no passion...the corporate line.
The truly sad fact is that there are those out there who really do
believe this kind of perverted accountancy.

I could have laughed at the absurdity of your post, but I have an
awful, sinking feeling that you believe it actually a viable
proposition.

Fortunately there are guys out there like Philip Beadle, who really do
understand what education's all about. ( Don't tell me..you never
heard of him, right? ).

Regards,

PS. Your maths are crap too.

 

[Roger Johansson]

Hopefully, you don't "teach" either math /or/ logic.

Well, I do actually.
I am an electronics engineer if you look at my formal qualifications.
I often hang out with the other engineers in sci.electronics.design and
we discuss how to teach and write about electronics, including math,
physics, some chemistry and science in general.
We demonstrate our teaching methods on beginners in
sci.electronics.basics and compare the methods and the results.

I am used to making long calculations in my head.

To simplify the task I make the numbers simpler to work with by
adjusting up or down. If it is an important calculation I make sure I
adjust up and down by the factor 100% in the long run. I keep track of
how many percent over or under I am for each step because I use more
convenient numbers, and adjust the end result if necessary.

For example above I thought, 5 billions is easier, now I'm nearly 20%
too low.
Later I take the chance to adjust upwards to get convenient numbers
again and change the factor fault in memory accordingly. But in this
case there was little need to even keep track of the factor error,
because some input numbers were like plus minus 40% quick estimations.
And the result would be fine if it was in the right decade, like.
I just wanted to show that there are many millions of teachers out
there, and I wanted to do a rough estimation for myself, because I had
no idea how many teachers there are.

If I need more precision I use a calculator. And use input values with
better precision.
You see, I use the kind of precision that is needed in each case.
I don't use 200 decimals precision for a calculation where the end
result is fine if it is within plus minus 40%, or in the right decade.

To estimate what kind of precision you need in each case is important
knowledge to teach the pupils. They will never have practical use for
200 decimals precision. You can calculate the circumference of the
known universe with an error less than an inch with 40 decimals value
of Pi.

I have also written a lot about logic and mathematical models in
alt.philosophy, busting many old myths about the nature of formal
sciences among mainly american youngsters. A lot of people do not
realize that such models are theoretical, they think you can find out
some truth about reality by playing with theoretical models.

You are welcome to use my articles in the teaching of math, logic,
electronics, sociology, religion history, etc.. All I write is
copyleft, public domain.

 

[Sparky]

Craig wrote:




Well, I do actually.
<snip>
I am used to making long calculations in my head.

<snip>

I take the chance to adjust upwards to get convenient numbers

<snip>

You are welcome to use my articles...

Thanks anyway

Craig

 

[Al Klein]

Even lazier:
Record the best 20000 lessons on video (with the best teachers in the
world) and you can just turn on the computer projector and sit back and
watch the children learn.

So the kids in NYC have to sit through lessons on being wary of fresh
lion tracks, because kids living 100 miles out of Nairobi (who
wouldn't know a fire engine from a Sherman tank) are in danger if they
don't keep their eyes open.

What has to be taught varies by location, culture and circumstances.
The world isn't all like your neighborhood.

Laziest is sitting behind a computer in a nice warm house, thinking
you can teach third-world children when you've probably never spent a
few years teaching kids whose most fervent wish is to be anywhere but
in your classroom.