[education-wg] Hi education-wg

[Jesse Griffin]

Great to get to know the other list members!
I am a system administrator at a small school district in Colorado (though I
live in the Boston area right now).  Our network is primarily Windows based
but it has been my slowly progressing delight to introduce open source
software into the district.  In addition to this role I also aid churches
with their networking and website needs (Drupal is great!).

I would be very interested to hear dialogue on Software As A Service
systems.  For example, Google Apps is free (as in beer) for K-12 public
schools.  Should this be a viable option when discussing open solutions or
not?

I'm also interested in the success or failure of efforts to use open source
on the desktop.  In our network it has been relatively easy to introduce
open source software into the server environment because the technology team
are the only people who need training and because many of the systems
integrate with Windows.  For us, the desktop environment has not been quite
as easy of a step to tackle.

Looking forward to collaboration!


Thanks,
Jesse Griffin
http://www.ekfocus.com


On Sun, Oct 18, 2009 at 3:40 PM, Zoey Kroll <zoeyk at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

>  Hi,
> Zoey Kroll here. I am enthused about the introductions thus far -
> interesting people doing great work! As a user experience designer and
> information architect, I work with open source (Drupal) creating websites
> for progressive organizations. I am a Partner at CivicActions, a technology
> strategy and development company, and I also do media education for a
> gardening/ecology elementary school program in San Francisco.
>
> I'd like to add social media as a topic to the list - issues and
> opportunities surrounding blogging, mobile technology, and social
> networking, as they are used or could be used by youth and by schools.
>
> It would be great to have a Bay Area meet-up to learn more from each other
> in person.
>
> - Zoey
> zoeyk at sbcglobal.net
>
>
> On Oct 16, 2009, at 12:21 PM, Mike Huffman wrote:
>
> Keep up the great introductions!
>
> Mike Huffman here.  I am very excited about this effort and look forward to
> hearing all sorts of great ideas - and seeing  them take hold.
>
> I was with the Indiana Department of Education for a long time, and had the
> pleasure of being the IT Director there for 10 years before moving into
> instructional technology.  In the instructional technology area, I served as
> the Special Assistant to the Superintendent which gave me a good platform to
> begin talking to schools about open-source software.  In future posts, I
> will share some of those experiences and more importantly, where that led us
> in Indiana.
>
> For this group, my personal hope is that it becomes a communication forum
> that leads down many paths.  To see real change  in K12, we will need a
> clear vision, documentation that will back up our positions, some brilliant
> brainstorming, and a commitment to our kids' futures.  Some of the topics up
> for discussion probably should be:
>
> - one-to-one computing
> - affordability
> - sustainability
> - scalability
> - repeatability
> - cost effectiveness issues
> - management methodologies
> - professional development issues
> - transition programs
> - more ideas from you!
>
> If you have suggestions or ideas about how you would like to see this list
> run, please feel free to email me on the list or individually.  I hope
> everyone participates.  If you have suggestions for changing the web page,
> let me know.  I plan to get a list of software that schools can begin using
> posted soon.
>
> I encourage you to go to http://www.doe.in.gov/olt/InACCESS/
> to learn more about what we accomplished in Indiana.  It is not perfect but
> was a good start.
>
> I am looking forward to a spirited discussion and your ideas!
>
> Mike
>
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>
>
>
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