[Freeschool] Fwd: [school-discuss] FOSS and FOOD [Was Re: "Educating Tux" + IT apathy]

[Michael Shigorin]

----- Forwarded message from Bryant Patten <opensource/whitenitro.com> -----

Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:37:14 -0400
From: Bryant Patten <opensource/whitenitro.com>
To: schoolforge-discuss/schoolforge.net
Subject: [school-discuss] FOSS and FOOD [Was Re: "Educating Tux" + IT apathy]
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.753)

Marilyn -

	Add me to the list of people that think your banquet  analogy is  
fantastic.
	
	Next week I am speaking about FOSS and education at MassCue and a  
couple of weeks after that I am running Vermont's first Open Source  
and Education conference and I would like to use your analogy in both  
places.  I was thinking about modifying in the following way:

"Using Open Source in Schools can be a bit surreal - imagine the  
following:

 It is lunch time at your school and all the kids troop down to the  
dining hall, which is divided in half with a large glass wall down  
the middle.  On one side, the majority of students are charged for a  
lunch of mystery meat and instant mash potatoes.  On the other side  
is a huge buffet of amazing international foods that is all you can  
eat and free.  Standing at the entrance to the dining hall is the  
Assistant Superintendent for Technology, telling everyone that they  
must go into the mystery meat room.  Occasionally, someone will find  
a worm or some other horrible thing in the meat, complain loudly,  
dump the plate and then...surreally...get right back in line for  
another serving.
 Because some students notice what is happening on the other side of  
the glass wall, they ask if they can go into that room.  They are  
told no, because most of the world eats mystery meat, there might be  
spices in the foreign food and besides, they just put salt and pepper  
in the mystery meat so it is really better now.   The more determined  
of the kids wait until the Ass. Sup. of Tech is distracted and sneak  
into room, enjoy a fabulous lunch and start telling their friends  
about it on the playground.  So the next day, their friends sneak  
past...."

Thanks for the great post.

Bryant Patten
Executive Director
National Center for Open Source and Education
www.ncose.org

On Mar 12, 2008, at 11:30 AM, Marilyn Hagle wrote:

>Joel and James,
>
>Oh my . . . state testing and bureaucratic straitjackets!  Don't  
>get me
>started!
>
>And also the dumb ass  proprietary software packages that promise  
>miracles
>(forgive me - I am originally from Iowa where we are plain spoken  
>folks) -
>that's another topic.
>
>Getting my students to be creative has been more of a stretch this  
>year than
>ever before.  They have spent all of their time in school preparing  
>for
>tests.  I feel like I need to bring my little kids' building blocks  
>and
>just let them play.
>
>And rural Texas schools do not believe in the importance of  
>offering fine arts
>courses.  Very few schools have choir.  Art classes are minimal.   
>Band is
>sometimes required for football programs.  :)
>
>So, I think you just need to do what you can, wherever you can, for  
>as long as
>you can.  This year I am using Linux for everything and having a  
>blast - but I
>know I make some people nervous.
>
>Hey . . . what do you think about hosting a fine arts gallery for  
>student work
>created with FOSS?  Have we talked about this already?  I am not  
>big into
>contests where there is only one winner . . . but a celebration of  
>student
>achievement with some positive critiques.  I could send you some  
>pretty cool
>student generated Blender, Gimp, and Cinelerra files - then to the  
>local people
>we can say "look at this!"
>
>Maybe we need a formal online school that home school kids and  
>rural schools
>can
>afford that teaches music, art, science, poetry and general  
>creativity.
>
>James . . . your additional comments on the dumbing down of ed tech  
>(whew!)
>really sum it up.  That quest for power thing screwed us.  Is it  
>just the
>natural sequence of organizational evolution?
>
>To be fair, we all know there are many good people in the group too  
>- but it is
>definitely a mixed bag.
>
>And yes . . . "But the brown sugar is in reality an artificially  
>sweetened
>hypnotic cleverly designed to make the worms more palatable."  LOL  :)
>
>Thanks for letting me ramble on philosophically.
>
>Marilyn
>
>
>
>
>
>Quoting Joel Kahn <jj2kk4/yahoo.com>:
>
>>Marilyn Hagle wrote:
>>
>>>Many in educational IT management - probably the
>>>middle managers who are misunderstood and struggling
>>>to keep everything running - are concerned about
>>>tightly controlling the teachers. After all . . .
>>>they have been breaking copyright laws, pirating
>>>software, and inviting viruses and spyware into the
>>>LAN.  So now teachers everywhere are in lock-down mode.
>>>Experimentation is thwarted, new ideas are discouraged,
>>>and creativity is scorned.
>>
>>And let's not forget atrocities like the No Child Left
>>Behind Act, which forces teachers *and* students into
>>bureaucratic straitjackets and makes it incredibly hard
>>to even think about changing anything. A proprietary
>>software package that is marketed with wild promises of
>>a "guarantee to boost scores on standardized tests" has
>>a big edge over any wild and risky creative things like
>>GIMP or Tux Paint. If you allow those misbehaving kids
>>and teachers to start really experimenting with any
>>truly flexible software, who knows what kind of trouble
>>we all might be getting ourselves into. . . .
>>
>>Joel
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>______________________________________________________________________ 
>______________
>>Never miss a thing.  Make Yahoo your home page.
>>http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
>>
>
>
>:)
>

----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
 ---- WBR, Michael Shigorin <mike на altlinux.ru>
  ------ Linux.Kiev http://www.linux.kiev.ua/