[ubuntu-uk] Open Source Schools Project

[Rebecca Newborough]

On Mon, Sep 5, 2011 at 11:49 AM, Sarah Chard
<sarah at streetentertainers.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> We are now only a couple of weeks away from the launch of HLUG's Open Source
> Schools Project  and it has been very interesting helping to set the whole
> thing up. The project is launching at our Software Freedom Day Event in
> Hereford and we have a lecturer from one of the local colleges speaking on
> open source in education and the importance of ensuring that students
> understand the fundamentals of computing - if you are anywhere near on the
> 17th Sept do come and support the event - details can be found at
> http://www.herefordshire.lug.org.uk/node/89
>
> We are working on the project which is running during the autumn term with
> support from Hereford Councils education department and have had meetings
> with the engineers responsible for the networks at the schools we will be
> visiting to ensure that they are happy with our plans - we have been very
> pleased at the amount of interest and support there has been so far and our
> first in-school visit is on sept 19 following SFD.
>
> Ubuntu is the main OS that we will be demonstrating at our SFD event and
> also the one most likely to be suggested to schools we visit alongside our
> Tuxedu OS which has been designed (initially using lubuntu as a base)
> specifically for the project.
> We are not intending to convert schools wholesale to using open source but
> to start movement in that direction, helping them to increase their use and
> confidence in Open Source Programs and give them an experience of using a
> linux based OS. By giving teachers the information and the tools in an
> easily usable form which will not dramatically increase their workload we
> hope to encourage teachers, students and hopefully parents use of open
> source software.
>
> It's an ongoing project and I hope some of the people on this list will be
> encouraged to take it into schools in their area - as materials are
> finalised we will be sharing them online.
>
> cheers
> Sarah

Hi Sarah

Thanks for sharing this and good luck with the project.  Please post
back with how it went.  I would love to get our daughter's school to
embrace Open Source computing, so would be very interested in reading
any posts/write-ups you do about the success of this initiative, and
how it was received by teachers, parents and kids alike.

Regards

Becky Newborough