[Inschool] Re: [KLUG Members] Linux in schools

[Adam Williams]

>>Most of what I've encountered with teachers is "fear" toward anything at 
>>all.  They are NOT a technologically proficient demographic.  If a few 
>>comforatable people can be added to the mix it seems to really help.  
>Don't get me going on teachers or we will have to start another list! ;-)

MMMMMMmmmmmm, yes.  I did a research paper during my brief stint in 
college concerning the education of american educations (college gpa's, 
act/sat scores, etc...) compared to other professions.  Not a pretty 
picture.  In part however I think this has something to do with gender 
inequity and stereotyping.  When I worked inside a mega-church I met many 
many females who choose teaching not out of genuine desire to be a 
teacher, but primarily becuase it was an acceptable profession for women 
(working with children, etc...).  Most only intended to do it until they 
were knocked up by a sufficiently employable male who gave copious lip 
service to "family values".  Occasionally I would dare to bring up the 
fact that the divorce rate for affluent protestants is actually higher 
than that of the general population....  that was always REALLY fun! ;)

>>*For those of you who don't know: Sheep are real stupid, behaviorally very 
>>'routine' and tend to be easily frightened.  A goat is 4x intelligent as 
>>the average dog, as well as (typically) calm and confident.  It is common 
>>practice to introduce a couple of goats into a herd of sheep.  For 
>>whatever reason the sheep will follow the goats and the goats' behaviour 
>>sets some kind of psychological precedent for all the sheep.  This makes 
>>the sheep alot easier to manage.
>My neighbor uses donkeys. They also help keep the coyote's away.

Yep, I've seen that too.  Doesn't much matter whether its a donkey with 
its hooves or a 300lb french alpine goat with an pair of 45cm horns.... the 
average canine can figure those odds.  And they only get to figure them 
wrong once.
 
>>Yes.  But not in English (yet).  It is being translated.  There is quite a 
>>bit of it in German and Italian.  Those people are not switching from 
>>Office, they are upgrading to SO6.0.  It is important to remember that 
>>LOTS (including corporate ones) of Star Office users have existed for 
>>nearly a decade in Europe.
>Cool. This we need.
>>Right,  there is lots of edu-ware.  99% of it for Win32.
>>But my experience with game-ish stuff is that WINE actually works very 
>>well,  so I don't think this is impossible.  WINE falls down on the real 
>>'application' software.
>Accelerated Reader I would put in the real application category. 

I've never seen "Accelerated Reader".  Someone would need to aqcuire a 
copy and test.

>BTW, I spoke with the Follett people a few months ago and they were
>porting their library software over to Linux. I'm not sure what progress 
>they have made since then. Anyone else heard anything about that?

No.  

>>I don't see Linux and Novell cohabitating as a significant problem.
>Excellent. Most schools that I know are running Novell. The last version 
>of Netware I really worked with was Netware4.

This would be Tony's area of expertise.