Sure, in an ideal world, but we don't live in Utopia. Teachers are the
weakest point of using the computers in the classroom. I'm not worried
about kids. My sons can use many more electronic devices and desktops
that most teachers.
I'm afraid this thread is not going anywhere.
Hi José, I don't think that I have anything substantive to add to the well articulated positions that have been expressed in this thread, but I do want to thank you for initiating this discussion and to everyone who has thus far contributed as they have. This thread has really clarified my thinking about the subject and I'm very sure the best option is for each system to retain what it believes (after rigorously questioning their assumptions) to be a core requirement for their distro and merging the rest. That which is retained should be scrutinized as "need" or "want" with careful consideration given to the great long-term advantages offered by merging as *much* as possible.
There's obviously not only a lot of technical talent on this list, but also many (in some cases the same people) who have thought very deeply about *why* they are doing what they're doing and not just *how* to do it.
This newly merging community of LinEx and Skolelinux clearly has much more to offer to education than just technology.
Cheers,
Mark
We must make a total
distinction between what we (maybe as geeks, parents or teachers) would
love and what a part of the civil servants would like. When we are
dealing with a human mass of some thousands of people you can be sure
that an important rate will hate your decissions, or hate technology, or
hate making a new effort to learn where in the hell is now the applet
that allowed him last week change the speaker volume. In the last years
I have had to learn to live with all these things: you can not even
imagine how many people complaint because we changed from openoffice 1.1
to openoffice 2.0. That's something a techie can not understand, but we
have to live with it. Don't misunderstand me: I'm not saying everybody
is like that, there are also many people who like learn new computer
things, but I work also for those who only love learn new math,
geography or history things and don't know what most of the buttons of
their tv remote control are for: they just care about some of them and
want them there.
> > Linex is probably the world leader in widespread linux adoption. We should
> > listen to their advice.
>
> no disagreement on that, there's lots to be learned from LinEX, but as whith
> everything, there's also lots of room for improvement.
Sure, that's one of the reasons to be here, but I'm not going to ask
Debian Edu use GNOME nor ask my users use KDE. I would like to include
both desktops in the installation of the computers, but one has to be
the default one, and I only see problems if we dare to change it.
Andreas Tille pointed the EuroNews video out to a better understanding
of our model. I'm afraid that you didn't notice that every classroom in
the region has one PC in every desktop. That's not optional for the
principal or the teachers. Nobody can "escape" from having the computers
in the classroom and, with the new applications to evaluate or fill
attending lists, now every teacher must use them. So, think of those
teachers who 5 years ago never has used a mouse and have learnt the few
things they need for their subjects. It's not the same as having several
computer classrooms where teachers go with their pupils sometimes. When
we had that model many teachers did never go to those labs, and teachers
who went were much more like us, who like learning and explore the
possibilities of our technical world.
Regards.
José L.
Regards.