Cambridge Friends School/Tech

Introduction

This is a status and task page for the technical aspects of the CFS deployment. You can Technical support for the CFS pilot is managed by the Olin chapter. Anybody can participate; we will train newcomers. Contact Mel Chua if you'd like to get involved, or begin contributing directly to one of the projects listed below.

What we are doing, in a nutshell

School Server

In conjunction with the actual deployment, we want to set up a server to support the XOs. The server is configured to do the following:

1) Provide WiFi for the XOs 2) Host EJabberD for collaboration 3) Host Moodle for classroom activities 4) Provide backup

The status for each of these are shown below

Repairs

The Olin repair center will repair damaged computers. We will also train people at CFS to handle minor breakages.

Immediate help needed

• Moodle gurus able to do, advise, or assist with Moodle teacher training. We can handle this ourselves, but we'll be going in with about 3 weeks more experience with the software than the teachers we're training, and it would be good to have people who have used/deployed this in a classroom setting help out.
• Instructional designers to give feedback on curriculum design activities (and to participate!)

School server

Next milestone

Our next milestone is March 9, 2009. Yifiy is managing this milestone. We'll be rolling out the following features:

• XS deployment: XS is physically deployed and connected at the CFS campus
• Moodle: Moodle is up and running (and a basic teacher/student-techteam training workshop is available for it)
• Jabber: ejabberd is up and running (and a basic teacher/student-techteam training workshop is available for it)

Our todo list for this next milestone (please help if you see open tickets!)

• (Mchua) - schedule a deployment/training date with the teachers, via the CFS loop team at 1-for-all (Note: in progress, last email sent 3/2/09 - I'm going to keep pinging until I get a response.)
• (Yifiy) - arrange and execute physical deployment of the XS at CFS (getting it to their campus and physically hooked up and turned on, ready for training)
• (Xyz321) - coordinate ejabberd deployment for this milestone.
  • ensure ejabberd is set up on the XS during installation on Olin's campus
  • ensure ejabberd works once the XS is deployed on CFS's campus
  • prepare and run a training session for teachers (and the CFS student tech team, if applicable) on how they will use ejabberd at their deployment
• (Open!) - coordinate Moodle deployment for this milestone.
  • (Xyz321) - ensure Moodle is set up on the XS during installation on Olin's campus (current: installation in progress) - Done!
  • (Open!) - ensure Moodle works once the XS is deployed on CFS's campus
  • (Open!) - prepare and run a training session for teachers (and the CFS student tech team, if applicable) on how they will use Moodle at their deployment

Upcoming milestones

We have not yet set a date for delivery of these features (sometime in March/April 2009), but they are next up on the priority queue.

• Wifi connectivity via the XS
  • (Xyz321) - fix the drivers for the RaLink wireless cards to make enabling wireless easier
    • Installed RaLink drivers available from http://www.ralinktech.com/ralink/Home/Support/Linux.html and disabled OSS drivers. (Not enough documentation exists regarding the configuration of OSS drivers)
    • Further configuration of wireless may be necessary. No testing of wireless systems has been completed.
  • (Open!) - test this on CFS's campus
• Backup and datastore

Build and Activities

• Testing

Infrastructure

• Ticket tracking

Testing

To make your XO laptop run the same software as the CFS students have (note that this will completely erase anything else you might have on your XO!), you'll need a blank thumbdrive with at least 350MB of space.

1. Reformat the thumbdrive to FAT32 format. This is important - the Activities won't install otherwise! Here are instructions on how to do this for Windows, Mac (use Disk Utility and choose the FAT or MS-DOS format), and Linux (make sure you're formatting the right drive - it may not be sdb1).
2. Download the following files and put them on the thumbdrive. (Note for the technical: These are the base build files for a clean-install procedure; md5 checksums are available here.)
   • os767.img
   • fs.zip
3. Download cfs-customization.zip (not a stable download link - these instructions will always be updated to link to the correct file) and unzip the contents into the thumbdrive.
4. Check that your thumbdrive has the following - and nothing else - in its root directory (the one you see when you first open the thumdrive itself):
   • os767.img
   • fs.zip
   • customization-2
   • boot (a folder with 2 files inside it, actos.zip and runos.zip)
   • bundles (a folder with many .xo files inside it)
5. Power your XO off. Insert the thumbdrive into any USB port. While holding down all 4 game keys (on the right side of the screen), turn the XO on. When the screen tells you to release the game keys, do so.
6. Sit back and relax. You will see black and green blocks filling up the screen as the software installs. The XO will then reboot itself (you'll see the XO-person icon on a gray screen) then switch to a black screen on white text as it installs the Activities, then shut down.
7. Remove the thumbdrive, boot the XO, and enjoy.