Doug LaRue wrote:
> ** Reply to message from Tracy R Reed <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> on Wed, 16 Apr
> 2008 12:29:47 -0700
>
>> We also set up an
>> LTSP lab at Hickman elementary school but none of the teachers aside
>> from our sponsor there were interested in using it and as soon as he
>> left so did the lab.
>
> Was there any teacher training or any curriculum advising program in place
> or just a "we built it, you figure out how to use it" kind of thing?
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. The core of KPLUG
membership showed up to provide support. No teachers were in attendance. We
have for many years looked for these opportunities. Many of us have
participated in ever opportunity that appeared.
> I'm also thinking that if the $$$ in savings can be shown and associated with
> how many teaching jobs that might save, we just might get some interest. Heck
> I'm even thinking of sending another email to the governator to see if there
> isn't
> anybody up there trying to push some software and hardware savings down
> the chain to the States school system. It is going on in Indiana already.
Good luck with that. Our experience over the years has been that they are not
really interested in our help. They don't have time for our help. And they
really wish we would stop bothering them about this helping thing.
> If there is nothing "behind" the project to help educators use the system,
> then
> it should be expected to fail. If they have only the interest to teach say
> Microsoft
> Word and have no other use for such a lab, it will fail. But will they not
> understand
> the money for the Windows OS licenses, the MS Office licenses, and the added
> hardware to run those will equate to a good percentage of one teachers annual
> salary? Maybe not but when times are tough, new ideas might become
> acceptable.
It's not their money. And if you save money this year, your budget will be cut
next year.
> Hey, do you think all the attention being put on hybrid cars and solar
> electricity is
> because it is cool stuff do you? It has everything to do with $3+/gal fuel
> costs
> and high electricity and environment impact costs.
>
Seems like a reasonable argument. Our experience shows it doesn't work in
education. Free is worth less than you pay for it. We probably would do better
offering over priced consulting, lobbying for special programs costing tens of
thousands of dollars for a single source contract. That would attract the
decision makers in education.
--
Neil Schneider pacneil_at_linuxgeek_dot_net
http://www.paccomp.com
Key fingerprint = 67F0 E493 FCC0 0A8C 769B 8209 32D7 1DB1 8460 C47D
"Work to eat, eat to live, live to bike, bike to work." -- Naomi Bloom
--
[email protected]
http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
