[K12OSN] Some "community friendly" presentation ideas

[Dan Hawkins]

Ohhh Shawn,
 
I know just how you feel, and I'm sorry to hear that.  A couple of years ago I did a workshop on Thin Client computing during a "Tech Show" at a major school district here in Idaho.  It was an all day thing were administrators and teachers milled around and went to various workshops.  I had a whole classroom set up and was planning the same type of thing.  Granted I was using a Windows based Terminal Services solution, but the whole concept is the same.  Not one person showed up, not even the tech people.  Talk about disappointing.
 
I guess that has been just one bit of fuel that pushes me further along to not only question every technology decision made in regards to spending, but to question publicly the whole concept of technology in K12 schools in general.  It's really sad, there ARE a lot of people out there in the schools that REALLY do KNOW what they are doing.  The people on this list are a shining example.  I've been watching this list for a couple of years now.  But what's so sad is for every one person who knows what they are doing there are 10 who don't have a clue, and what's really sad is that most of those 10 are either school administrators or the general public who "try to be helpful."  In the state were I am from there has been over $400,000,000 sunk into technology over the past ten years, and the state of technology in this state is inadequate at best.  At one time I had visited (either myself or a member of my team) almost every school in this state and documented the level of techn!
ology and
 people supporting it, and for every one person like the people here we left thinking WOW, they are doing really good (still need some work here and there :-) ), there were 10 schools we left shaking our heads wondering where did the money go?
 
I don't believe the problem is really an Open Sources -vs- Microsoft or Novell or whoever else is out there.  I believe it is a fundamental problem with how K12 education is setup and administered at all levels. I believe it is a total lack of qualified leadership that focuses more on the politics of education instead of setting standards, making intelligent decisions, and following though with a sound plan.  I personally think it's a miracle that kids even get an education and I truely believe it's because the teachers actually teach.  From what I've seen, what we call the Education system should not work.
 
Well enough of my soapbox, this sort of hit a nerve with me and I could go on for quite a bit.  For anybody out here I may offended, I'm apologize, but just like many on this list, I've been in the trenches and seen the follys of others.  Once again, I'm very impressed with the level of expertise on this list, and Shawn I am sorry to read that that happened, I've been there too.
 
DanH

Shawn Powers <spowers at inlandlakes.org> wrote:
On Sep 14, 2005, at 9:17 AM, JohnG wrote:

> I'm curious, how did the presentation go? What was the reaction? 
> What worked and what didn't? Thanks!
>

Well, I had 32 computers that varied in brand and CPU booting to a 
newly installed 4.4.1 server. I had planned to have the whole group 
log in and "play" while I answered questions and talked a little 
about Linux and thin clients.

I had 1 man show up. I was told to expect 30, and I had 1. He was 
already a Linux user, and came because, well, because if you see 
"Linux" in our local newspaper, it makes penguin lovers curious.

So hardware-wise it went perfectly (never did solve the glx issue on 
the macs though) but I was lacking in attendance.

Thanks for asking though,
-Shawn


_______________________________________________
K12OSN mailing list
K12OSN at redhat.com
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn
For more info see 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listman.redhat.com/archives/k12osn/attachments/20050915/f2354226/attachment.htm>