[Inschool] Re: Tool Kit

[Adam Williams]

>>Hey there, I found this web site that gives some good sources for doing more with 
>>the school?s web site.  Let me know what you think.
>>http://www.pluggedin.org/tool_kit/
>VERY interesting.  Seems the school center organization may be more
>interested in making money
>than serving students/teachers but their stated goals are great.  Looks
>like just the kind of 
>project a LINUX user's group could start up with FREE software and
>documentation.

If you mean the website, OK.  They mention calendars, multiple choice
tests, file sharing, etc... phpgroupware (and several other packages)
offer this out-of-the-box.  The web services they offer (as far as I can
tell), leave mean thinking: "So?  Big deal".  A volunteer effort could
offer such services with very little effort given they had some IT
infrastructure (servers, backbone connections, UPS, etc...)

I could EASILY see something of this nature hosted under the KLUG
umbrella if someone pulls together a knot of sincerely interested
volunteers.  I'd help get the rolling.

>I also found the plugged in group itself interesting.  Would be great to
>build up a physical location
>where students AND parents and any other interested local citizen could
>come to learn some simple 
>computer skills, learn of some useful websites, learn how to use email. 
>Wonder if some local Internet
>Service Provider might be interested in taking on such a community
>project with volunteers maintaining
>the actual location and the ISP providing free or very low cost internet
>access.  Aside from
>the public service aspect, it would be a great way to promote the ISP
>for internet connection away from the center.

The requirement for physical facilities and volunteer assistants makes
this a MUCH larger effort.  KLUG  and myself have attempted in the past
to orchestrate entry-level training with community organs before,  but
the community organs have always exemplified fickle-ness, lack of
commitment, poor communication, etc...

>Note that I'm passing your suggestion to the Kalamazoo LINUX users'
>group - the education subgroup. 
>Any comments?

Always. :)