RalfGesellensetter wrote:
If we for example use Mac, iLife is a good start for the students (elementary school). Now we'd like to see for possibilites to combine for example iLife and Skolelinux. I guess that it wouldn't beDoes anybody here know iLive? Comparable to gcompris? XO-Live? So, you are an elementary schools with kids aged 5 - 12 ?
iLife is the collective name for the applications that come pre-installed on the mac, including easy to use apps for sound and video editing. At my school we have a couple of macs that we use for just that purpose. On linux you would need rosegarden and cinerella, or similar, but I wouldn't want to try cinerella with primary kids, to be honest.
Do you work in a school enviroment and if, in which ways do you useLinux? I'm looking for the pedagogic angle of this solution.
I teach with Linux to all grade levels from age 5 to 18. I don't use much that isn't already in Skolelinux, and what I do can be installed easily from the Skolelinux repositories (kturtle, kolourpaint..), or by downloading from other web sites (kompozer, adobe reader...). We don't teach kids on windows at my school, though many teachers have windows for their own use. This is because I don't like arguing with people.
How we use Linux (computers) is to teach skills and do work for/related to the normal classroom lessons.
Would Skolelinux be useful for a 1to1 programme? - most definitely. (almost) everything you need is already there. Compare with windows where you basically have nothing apart from paint and notepad, and your start page is MSN, with its gossip and scandal. You don't want your kids going there every time they go online, nor do you want them using the unsafe IE. That means lots of installing and configuring to do.
Compared to Mac? It annoyed me recently when a security update brought in some Apple adware (instead of NeoOffice, did I want to buy iworks?). I also don't like the way they turn free into proprietary. However, its great for making movies with primary kids, and some commercial edu software will run on Mac.
What Skolelinux offers? - they have done all the hard work for you. Your network is ready, and so are your workstations :) .
For your 1 to 1 programme, there is one problem. Skolelinux workstations don't work away from the school network (they work, but only with root login). The solution would be a standalone install, I suppose. Then you would need to train kids to save files onto the server.
If I were you I would investigate the new small laptops such as eeePC and OLPC. I intend to do just that in the near future.
nigel