OPEN HOUSE on 10/31/07 showcasing Ubuntu for schools -- meet the SABDFL

[Michael Selva]

On Wednesday, October 31st, St. Stephen's Armenian Elementary School  
is holding a Technology Open House.  It will take place between 9 and  
11 a.m. at the school, which is located at 47 Nichols Avenue in  
Watertown.

The purpose of the Open House is to announce our recent adoption of  
Ubuntu Linux to meet our educational computer needs. We are inviting  
school officials and IT staff from schools located in Watertown and  
adjacent communities.  They will be able to test-drive the Ubuntu  
workstations in our computer lab, and to discuss the details of the  
Windows-to-Linux conversion with our own IT staff.  Visitors will  
find a gallery of sample work that students have produced with Open  
Office, Tux Paint, and other open source programs.  We will also give  
away copies of the Ubuntu Live Install CD to our guests.

St Stephen's appears to be the first school in Massachusetts to adopt  
Ubuntu Linux as our main computing platform.   Now that we have seen  
how well it works here, our next step is to initiate a technology  
transfer project with our sister school in Armenia.  In June 2008,  
our 5th grade students will travel to Armenia and help set up a  
computer lab at an elementary school in an impoverished region of  
Armenia.  Our plan is to ship a complete, turn-key set of  
workstations and servers that have already been localized for the  
Armenian language.

We are looking forward to a very special guest who will join us for  
the Open House next week.  We have invited Mark Shuttleworth, the  
founder of the London-based company that distributes Ubuntu Linux.   
He is also a civilian cosmonaut who spent 10 days visiting the  
international space station in 2002.

For more information, please contact Michael Selva by telephone  
(617-605-7429) or email (ms at ssaes.org).  You can also read about  
Ubuntu Linux at our technology web site (http:// 
baronselva.edublogs.org).

If you plan to attend, please RSVP by calling the school's main  
number (617-926-6979).  For directions, visit our Google map (http:// 
tinyurl.com/278q42).

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   MICHAEL SELVA
   Technology Specialist
   Saint Stephen's Armenian Elementary School
   phone:  617-605-7429
   email:  ms at ssaes.org
   URL:    http://baronselva.edublogs.org/
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