Re: Advice on elementary school environment
Hello,
I wanted to point you to the desktops of the Linex Edu people for three
different age groups (pages in spanish, but nice screens). They are gnome
based in this case.
http://www.educarex.es/linexcolegios/
Pablo Pita
Michael Hanke wrote:
> Hi DebianEdu,
>
> first, thanks for all the advice I got.
>
> On Tue, Oct 30, 2007 at 04:13:13PM +0100, RalfGesellensetter wrote:
>> Am Montag 29 Oktober 2007 schrieb Michael Hanke:
>> > [ I'm not subscribed (yet), please keep me CC'ed ]
>>
>> Dear Michael,
>>
>> thank you for your intereset in free educational software - and welcome
>> to Debian Edu (in case you didn't know: there is also a mailinglist in
>> German).
> I know, but English is fine.
>
>> From what I heard, Debian will very well run on old machines as well -
>> but you might consider replace KDE or Gnome by a lighter desktop
>> environment (such as IceWM). There is also educational live CDs - but
>> taken the weak configuration of your school's machines, installation
>> would be a wise thing to do. How many disk space is there BTW? I
>> recommend a minimum of 4 GB for a full workstation. But if you drop
>> Openoffice and KDE, you will get along with 3 GB.
>>
>> What other plans are there? How about internet usage? As you start
>> setting up a proxy and possibly even user accounts why not take the
>> 1 hour to install a main server including squid?
>>
>> And if you want to save N-1 hours installing your N computers you may
>> consider using the Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP). Thus, all
>> desktops look alike and any additional application needs only to be
>> installed once.
> What I learned so far the LTSP is the way to go. As there is very little
> money to spend (if any at all), it is best invested in a single machine.
>
> I hope to improve the hardware situation by organizing some donations --
> will see if that works.
>
> Concerning the desktop environment: As we are talking about 6-11
> year-olds I don't see the need for a full-blown desktop. ATM I think
> a simple screen, where the children can choose from a number of apps
> should be enough.
>
> I'd be happy to hear about other oppions on a suiteable
> environment for children of that age. At the moment my daughter uses
> XFCE to start her tuxpaint and she is happy with it ;-)
>
> Internet-Access: There is a DSL line and it is used to let them surf the
> net. I really want to learn more about clever filtering of net traffic.
> I hope to find something that enables the teacher to deliver a message
> like: 'There is a lot on the internet, but also a lot of crap.'
>
> ATM the policy/capability seems to be that the children are told that
> if they see porn, they should not look at it -- somehow suboptimal....
>
>
>> P.S.: May I ask 2 questions myself? Whereabout is that school (region),
> Sure, the school is in Halle (Saale), Sachsen-Anhalt, but concerning
> financial or technological support I guess it is no different than any
> other third-world country. Hmm, I have to apologize: There are probably
> a number of such countries that do better than Germany in this respect
> :(
>
>> and how did you find Debian-Edu?
> I cannot really remember. I know it for a long time (knowing like:
> knowing it is there), but I haven't had any use for it. But now things
> seem to screem for it ;)
>
> I'm working with Debian for a long time now, but usually my focus is on
> neuro-imaging software.
>
> You can find me here:
>
> http://www.debian.org/devel/people
>
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Michael
>
--
Pablo Pita Leira
Software Developer & Consultant
http://www.pitagoral.com
Tel (de) : +49 (0)201 9227310
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