User:Sj/school-projects

Answers to questions people starting projects in schools don't know how to ask:

• Q: How do I get support for starting a 10-500 student trial of 1-to-1 computing in the classroom (and perhaps outside of it), possibly with Sugar, on XOs? [this is often misphrased as "how do I get 10-500 XOs"]
• A: Let's start with the last part first. If you get to the point where all that remains is to finalize the hardware platform you use, first leave a description of the project and a pointer to your work on this page: 
Then you will have a few options.
  • If this trial is part of a larger ongoing project...
  • You may be able to borrow XOs from a local laptop pool for the project,
  • You may be able to get laptops directly if you have local support and tech infrastructure in place. (for instance, OLPC has run a "give a school" program for a few months in 2008 and early 2009 that allowed purchases of 100+ laptops for a school)
  • You may be able to find other hardware that serves your needs for the duration of the trial.
• To start a trial with 1-to-1 computing and Sugar in the classroom, there is a community of practitioners and developers at Sugar Labs who work with such groups and can provide more detailed support. Options include Sugar On A Stick, or Sugar-flavored builds of Ubuntu, Debian, and Fedora.
• To start planning a 1-to-1 computing initiative with students and teachers, there are many online 1-to-1 computing groups working with Squeak and Scratch, with new digital interactive texts, with online environments. These projects cover many age ranges, from elementary to high school students. You can find support for both software and pedagogy efforts. [see our friends in Canada; Skolelinux and Edubuntu outreach groups; teacher and edupunk guilds/social nets]
• To start planning a new educational initiative in your community or school, there are many groups online such as the Global Educational Collaborative working on open ed and education reform efforts around the world.

(should add something about elem. vs other ages, and OLPC's focus on the former)