[K12OSN] Morley's Computer Rollout status

[Tom Wolfe]

CC: Gord Breen Morley, MCS Principal; Yvonne DePeel SEA Superintendant; 
Ron McWhinnie, Computers for Schools; K12LTSP user list; Geoff Wasdell, 
Grade 5 teacher.

The rollout of the "new" computers we received yesterday is going very 
well, in fact it's exceeding my expectations. Teachers & students are very 
excited and pleased.

Within 24 hours we have over 40 of these "new" units up & fully 
functional. Added to our existing 50 workstations we have a total of 90 
workstations in 11 classrooms. I estimate by the end of next week that all 
labs (26 total) will be running.

Our total costs for 150 workstations (including last year's order) and 2 
servers is approx $7000 plus and a bit of effort on the part of the 
teachers & their kids to put the computers in the classrooms & get them 
lit up. And of course the time it's taken me to set up the servers and 
learn about the system.

Compare this with the rollout in 2003 of our 85 Dells, which cost $100,000 
in hardware, $30,000 in consultant's fees for the setup, to say nothing of 
the Windows, Office & other software licensing, not to mention that it 
took about 3 months to complete. This is very exciting!

Thanks:

- to Computers for Schools for giving us hardware that is ready to go with 
PXE boot default!!
- to the folks involved with the Linux Terminal Server Project, especially 
K12LTSP, Edubuntu, and the K12LTSP user list
- to a visionary school admin who is willing to support this in the first 
place
- to Geoff Wasdell and his Grade 5 class, who acted as enthusiastic guinea 
pigs during out testing, and who have helped classes with younger kids get 
their labs set up!

Regards,
Tom Wolfe

---
 	Tom Wolfe, IT Specialist 	twolfe at sawback.com
 	Stoney Educational Authority	tel: (403) 881-2650
 	Box 238, Morley AB, T0L 1N0	fax: (403) 881-2793
Morley Community School | Chief Jacob Bearspaw School | Ta-otha School