-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On Sat, 2006-07-22 at 12:00 -0400, k12osn-request@redhat.com wrote: > > Message: 7 > Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2006 16:58:04 -0400 (EDT) > From: "Jim McQuillan" > Subject: Re: [K12OSN] success stories? > To: "James P. Kinney III" > Cc: "Support list for open source software in schools." > > Message-ID: > <56315.70.52.116.87.1153515484.squirrel@www.mcquillansystems.com> > Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 > > On Fri, July 21, 2006 4:55 pm, James P. Kinney III wrote: > > On Fri, 2006-07-21 at 08:28 -0400, Jim McQuillan wrote: > >> There was an excellent story on Newsforge on Wednesday. This is > one of > >> those that gave me goose bumps while reading. > >> > >> Here's the link: > >> > >> > http://business.newsforge.com/business/06/07/10/2115242.shtml?tid=37&tid=138 > >> > >> Jim McQuillan > >> jam@Ltsp.org > >> > >> > > Just wait 'till you what is happening in Atlanta next :) > > > > The real thing that is needed is to get some hard statistics on > academic > > performance, make the K12LTSP switch and then test again. Daniel > Howard > > managed to pull some numbers from the big test score (the CRCT) and > > compared Brandon to 3 other schools with very similar demographics. > The > > other 3 were neck-and-neck and Brandon was trailing them all before > the > > Thin-Client infusion/invasion. The stats changed dramatically after > a > > year of thin-clients. Brandon took the lead from the other 3 by a > nearly > > 35% jump ahead (from nearly 20% behind the year before)!! > > > So, from that data, can we deduce that k12ltsp makes kids smarter?I think so, because you have a different point of view from the OS they have at home. So learning to work on two different OSes makes them have 2 different aproaches to the task. > > Or maybe it would be better to say that k12ltsp doesn't get in the way > of > learning, like some other operating systems do. > > Jim. Our teachers were telling us it made them smarter in several ways: 1) As my associate, Daniel, say. "time on task". They simply could spend more time practicing math facts on K12LTSP programs and on web sites such as firstinmath.com. Since they had so many computers that were working, they could practice until they knew the stuff. 2) Another teacher remarked that, for her, the real juice was the increase in science and social studies scores. By doing real research projects, the kids were able to delve deeper into subjects instead of scanning a brief paragraph out of a text book. The oceanography project the 5th grade knocked out the last two weeks of school (that time period usually reserved for cleaning out desks) was a great example - the kids were able to explore the subject more deeply through their individual work and more broadly by collaborative learning with their classmates. I'd suspect that this sort of learning process favors analytical thinking rather than rote learning. Many schools have figured out how to "get out of the way". That explains the dark screens in so many of them ;-). Regards, William _______________________________________________ K12OSN mailing list K12OSN@redhat.com https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn For more info see