Educators

Technology applications are often taught in a vacuum where there is a disconnect between the classroom and the home. Imagine the effectiveness of learning an application in class and then being able to legally install it when you get home without licensing restrictions.

Demo in class, try at home.

Distance Education and Online Collaboration.

Save money on software for your teachers and students.

Currently Available:

  1. Textbooks: There are many textbooks available electronically and freely downloadable. We hope to get permission to include them with out curriculum.
  2. Project Gutenburg: With over 10,000 books for download and 400 added each month, Project Gutenburg (www.gutenberg.net) is an enormous wealth of knowledge.
  3. Govia? – A project that creates ­multimedia educational curriculum. So educators will not have to worry about having the license to show a bullet going through and apple. They are creating it all.
  4. Linux Projects: There are already several Linux projects out there. Some are aimed at kids, some at education, and some just are. Free Learning Linux will attempt to pool the best from all of them together.
  5. Tux4Kids – Primarily just games. Little educational value, but headed in right direction.
  6. OSEF/ Freeduc – Educational Linux, but it is a static CD. Could contain more variety.
  7. K12 LTSP – Just what the name says: Linux Terminal Server Project for K through 12th grade. They are based on Fedora (Red Hat), though, and are static. I’m hoping they’ll eventually jump onboard with use. If not, we will continue to share ideas.
  8. Etc. I’ll list a gazillion eventually. One stop shop of what’s out there.

One problem is that there is no rating system for some of the games. A 0.1 release of some games is superior to a 4.0 release on others. We’ll have our own criteria, plus user feedback.

Things we want to create and share:

  1. Free Life Tracking. mention it does grades, slices and dices. Project sharing.
  2. Lesson Plans: I’m working with a lot of educators and teacher to make detailed lesson plans to help others teach. These are teachers/professors with an average of over ten years teaching experience. There will eventually be different levels of Lesson Plans for various capabilities of children in each grade. The hard part will be getting parents to realize it ok if your child is not on the Super-duper-advanced-track.
  3. Activities & Projects: Recommended learning activities and projects.
  4. General: For some projects, there will be a list of supplies needed and instructions. “Building a successful Science Fair project.” This is how to build a volcano. You will need the following supplies. Etc.
  5. Area Localization: A constantly updated list of local happenings. Science fairs, clubs, museums, etc. This will never be complete, and will only be as good as its user feedback.
  6. Educational Forums: Kids learn more when they interact. Forums will be a way for them to do this. They will have instant pen pals all over the country and even the world. They will be able to post papers for peer review, just chat, or get topic ideas for papers and projects. They will even be able to work on a project together from states aways.

­