education May 2006

education@lists.fedoraproject.org

7 participants
5 discussions

Fedora Education Initiative Launch
by Warren Togami 31 May '06

31 May '06

I met David Trask and Matt Oquist at LinuxWorld Boston last week and we had a great discussion with a few other Red Hat folks about the current successes of K12LTSP and ways to improve the software and community around it. This is significant because this is the first time we got other Red Hat people aware of and excited about the K12LTSP project, which today exposes Fedora to hundreds of schools and countless thousands of students worldwide. We came up with some objectives and action items from this meeting to further the goals of both K12LTSP and the Fedora Project. I believe that we have a huge opportunity here to work closer together and better the software for the education community. Goals for us on this list are mainly development and administration of Fedora related education initiatives. I envision keeping k12osn as mostly educator end-user support for now, and we can later reorganize the community infrastructure around K12LTSP when we have a clearer picture of what it becomes. Strawman Objectives for the next six months include: ==================================================== - Development discussion related to merging K12LTSP to become an official supported part of the Fedora Project. This means that more contributors will help K12LTSP development goals. - Perhaps K12LTSP can be a "mode" to enable in the standard Fedora. - Eventually convert K12LTSP to use the Muekow framework. Muekow potentially aligns with the basic building block goals of the Fedora Stateless project, so hopefully we can combine resources from multiple Fedora projects and achieve this by FC6 in a clean and Fedora supported way. - Collaborate on Samba and LDAP related integration possibly with Fedora Directory Server in order to achieve out-of-the-box centralized authentication between mixed platform school networks (Linux, Mac, Windows). - Plan Fedora's involvement in Open Source in Education conferences coming up, like the ones in ME and NH during June and July. - Reorganize the community to better support educators in the use of K12LTSP. - Design messaging for the promotion of the K12LTSP model. - Write more documentation to promote the K12LTSP model, and make it easier to setup a K12LTSP lab. - Professional production of an educational documentary video demonstrating the success of the K12LTSP model. A well made video would make it easier for LUG's worldwide to convince schools to try K12LTSP. http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-education-list Please share your ideas, comments, or questions here on fedora-education-list. http://k12ltsp.org/contents.html K12LTSP Home Page Warren Togami wtogami(a)redhat.com

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Testing Needed: squidGuard
by Warren Togami 16 May '06

16 May '06

Hey folks, https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=165689 We need your help in testing the squidGuard package candidate that is heading into Fedora Extras. We need to be sure that it is a smooth upgrade from the K12LTSP version, it retains K12LTSP settings and the blacklist, and everything works as expected. You would need to download the newest .src.rpm linked from this report and rpmbuild it in order to test it. Please leave any comments about this package working or not working when upgrading from your existing K12LTSP squidGuard in the report itself. Thanks, Warren Togami wtogami(a)redhat.com

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Northeast Linux Symposium - A Great Opportunity to Learn!
by David Trask 11 May '06

11 May '06

NELS 2006 at Gould Academy is only a month away! Summer is fast approaching and with it is the opportunity to begin refreshing your mind and body and also your technology knowledge! While the users are on vacation (either the long school vacation or shorter vacations taken by organization or company employees) the IT folks (who never seem to get a vacation :-) ) take the opportunity to refresh the infrastructure and upgrade their skills. That's why I'm writing today. Classroom teachers, Technology Directors/Coordinators, Technicians, and others are all entitled to professional development (contrary to popular belief). All too often many folks think of the technology director, coordinator, teacher, IT guy/gal....etc...as the go to person when things go wrong or whatever. They are also expected to stand guard as if something will go wrong during school closing, grading, upgrades, etc. Unfortunately, this is a reactive way of thinking rather than a proactive way of thinking. This thinking also makes it difficult for IT folks to upgrade their own skills by attending professional development workshops and conferences. So!....I encourage you to break free and set a new tone with your staff and administration. Learn new ideas, learn about new technologies, and network with colleagues from other schools and organizations to increase your own skills that will eventually benefit everyone in your school, company or organization. So where is this all going? Once again we are offering an excellent opportunity for IT teachers, directors, coordinators, technicians...etc. to gather and learn more about some fantastic ways to better deliver services to your users. The Northeast Linux Symposium in now in it's fourth year! Now the name is a little misleading as it's not just about Linux, but about Free and Open Source software and ideas for nearly all platforms. Mixed networks are pretty much the norm in todays schools and in many companies as well. Many of the sessions we offer show you how to tie it all together with things like single sign-on, common data storage, web based technologies, and much more! Classroom teachers can learn all about some really great programs and techniques that will help them in the classroom without affecting their already slim budget. Remember...you too....need the opportunity for quality professional development! This year we're offering two great opportunities for learning and professional growth. NELS at Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine on June 17th - 20th and NELS at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, New Hampshire on July 16th 19th. Each has a unique focus and each will offer you a great opportunity to learn in a hands-on environment among friends and colleagues. I am VERY EXCITED about some great new things that will be happening this year at NELS. First, is the new users track designed for end users and more specifically, classroom teachers, who use technology with their students. I, too, am a classroom teacher and I'm excited to be presenting with some really great folks who have years of experience with technology and kids. We'll be exploring a lot of the great software that is in the OSV FOSS catalog [ http://www.cybersource.com.au/about/education_FOSS_catalog.pdf ]([ http://www.cybersource.com.au/about/education_FOSS_catalog.pdf ]http://www.cybersource.com.au/about/education_FOSS_catalog.pdf) [ http://www.cybersource.com.au/about/education_FOSS_catalog.pdf ] Download the catalog and take a look at all the great free programs (Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux) that will go great in your school or classroom! Another thing I'm excited about is we have a company that will be attending NELS and using that time as a opportunity to discuss with several of our presenters and attendees about how to Open Source their product! We'll get to see first hand the process by which a software product goes Open Source! This is especially cool since many of you may actually be using this product (my school does!). At the UNH NELS we'll also get to see Open Source in action! The folks from the SchoolTool project will be holding a development sprint at NELS. What does this mean? They're coming from all corners of the globe to meet at UNH....talk to all of the attendees about what you'd like to see as a part of the SchoolTool Student Information System (on day one of the conference) and then they'll take your ideas....and put them into action to show all of us the result on Day Three! Open Source program development in action right before your eyes! That's pretty cool! So...we really hope you come and join us! It's going to be the best NELS ever and I want you to be a part of it! Visit [ http://www.nelinux.net/ ]http://www.nelinux.net for more information on sessions and registration. Register today as the first NELS is only a month away! Also remember if you are in Maine and you're an ACTEM member (http://www.actem.org)....you can apply for up to $400 in reimbursement of professional development funds! So whaddya' waiting for! :-) Hope to see you all this summer! David N. Trask Technology Teacher/Director Vassalboro Community School dtrask(a)vcsvikings.org (207)923-3100

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Development Focus
by Warren Togami 03 May '06

03 May '06

Since opening this list I was surprised by the enthusiasm especially for educational conferences. However I strongly believe that both my and Red Hat's efforts, time, and resources going toward K12LTSP at this point should be focused mainly on developmental priorities at first. 1) Development work to get K12LTSP merged as an official part of the Fedora distribution. - Submit all K12LTSP packages to the Extras review process - Adapt to the MueKow framework in order to eliminate lots of the redundant OS building. - Make K12LTSP into a "mode" you can enable and configure from a GUI interface after you install Fedora. - Write improved tools like selection of interfaces and it tells you what it will happen. That way you aren't surprised when a DHCP server pops up on an existing network, causing all kinds of fun conflicts. =) 2) Development work of marketing, promotional and educational materials in order to allow the message to scale to greater audiences with less effort and low marginal cost. - Educational videos - Pamphlets - Books I *will* participate in the New England Linux education conferences because I am relatively nearby. If we have a hack-a-thon I will probably want to participate in that too. Maybe we could set aside some private time for K12LTSP integration or MueKow integration design discussion sessions at one or both of the NELinux conferences? Warren Togami wtogami(a)redhat.com

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Subject:,Re: Development Focus
by John Baillie 02 May '06

02 May '06

I agree Jim, scalability is a major factor. We are running 3 K12 servers to push K12 out to the school. It works good for me but I eased my way into it over the past four years. I would rather have some sort of load balancing in place but the chooser screen has worked well for us this year. John > Subject: > Re: Development Focus > From: > "Jim Kronebusch" <jim(a)winonacotter.org> > Date: > Tue, 2 May 2006 08:39:53 -0500 > To: > Fedora Education Initiative <fedora-education-list(a)redhat.com> > > To: > Fedora Education Initiative <fedora-education-list(a)redhat.com> > > > <---- snip ----> > > I really think that scalability is huge to make Fedora/LTSP catch on in >larger school districts. >

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education May 2006