Relevancy. To remain relevant in many job fields, students must learn about open source software and Linux. To prepare our students and our future work force to be relevant when they enter the work force, academia and the business world need to be aligned and that alignment, in many ways is with open source software. Running open source or COTS software is seldom a business differentiator today, it may only be a (negative) differentiator based on licensing and support costs. Pharmaceutical research, weather forecasting, climate and environment research, simulations of all types, manufacturing, design, you name it, it predominantly runs on Linux and open source. For example, visit https://www.top500.org/statistics/list/ and filter on TOP500 Release: June 2016; then Category(ies): Operating System, Application Area, and Segments. You will find that of the top 500 supercomputer sites in the world, not a single one runs either Windows or Mac OS X. Only 16 - just a hair over 3%, run something other than some obvious distribution of Linux. On Mon, 2016-08-22 at 15:22 -0500, Rick Engebretson wrote: > When my kids were in High School I tried working with our school > district (Mora, MN.) in about 1998 just to get programming taught, > somewhere. The school used all Macs but had at least one MSWindows 95 > in > some kind of lab. On a day they canceled school because of an ice > storm > I called and they said I could install the QBasic from Windows, > along > with program examples galore. So I left my kids home and drove to > town > and installed it all. I later went to school board meetings and they > fought me until my kids all graduated. "Political" is an > understatement. > > I use Linux because I can program it. I don't know how kids can make > it > in the future without knowing electronics and programming. It seems > they > are trying to cripple kids with sports, and retard them > intellectually. > It sure wasn't that way in the 1960s. > > Linda Kateley wrote: > > > > > > I started working with my school district about 10 years ago. The > > problems I find there are always political and never about > > technology. > > > > What worked for me is to find one champion in the system that > > speaks > > the administrations language. I found there were a ton of people > > who > > wanted to know, just not at the top. > > > > I introduced scratch to the elementary STEM school about 5 years > > ago, > > https://scratch.mit.edu/. It was the districts first involvement > > with > > opensource or community. The project has been very very successful > > and > > it opened the doors to more. But then they hired a new > > superintendent > > that thought it was stupid so..that happened ;( > > > > linda > > > > > > On 8/21/16 10:43 AM, Sandwhich Eyes wrote: > > > > > > I have already given one presentation at the Blair Taylor > > > School > > > with the principal and an IT guy and have been asked to give a > > > follow > > > up talk to them and the head of the IT department. > > > They had macbook air for the older kids and ipads for the > > > younger > > > ones. They bring these home at the end of the school day. This > > > time > > > they decided to go with cromebooks. It one of the best.. rated > > > or > > > testing, can't think of an appropriate word, but with the quality > > > of > > > the teachers out here i am pretty sure they could give my kids > > > sticks > > > and a box of sand and they would still be well prepared for life > > > on > > > their own/college. I am 100% positive they will be much better > > > off if > > > they can learn without restrictions from open source hardware, > > > software, classes (like MIT offers open courseware) and the > > > ability > > > to choose, to not be scolded for breaking some license agreement > > > or > > > for reading and modifying code should that be an interest. I > > > want > > > them to have Linux. > > > I have gave a compelling argument in the last meeting. This > > > time I > > > want to have as many resources available to provide for them, > > > including reasons why schools frequently choose to not use > > > Linux. > > > Anything will help. I had quite the presentation last time and > > > the IT > > > guy didn't know what Unix or BSD 4.4 was; or Linux, BSD, > > > Solaris. > > > Seems Ubuntu provides computers reloaded with Linux and tablets > > > so > > > how they didn't find anything about open source or Linux/BSD/ETC > > > is > > > beyond me. I gave them a live Ubuntu OS on a thumb drive. I > > > wanted to > > > make some more and use persistence to load up some information > > > to > > > give to the IT people who are possibly way under informed, to > > > give > > > them plenty of time on their own to absorb what open source has > > > to > > > offer; mostly community! > > > They asked many questions about community. Yes we work > > > together > > > and keep our favorite distributions alive often without > > > corporate > > > support! > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > > > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > > > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20160822/c1c1c2f1/attachment-0001.html>