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NewsVac: News from around the Web
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Why Microsoft and Intel tried to kill the XO $100 laptop
2 months ago
Nicholas Negroponte had a vision: to build a $100 laptop and give away millions to educate the world’s poorest children. And then the fat-cat multinationals got scared and broke it... -
New group makes broadband a national priority
3 months, 2 weeks ago
Federal Communications Commission commissioner Jonathan Adelstein joined tech policy pundits, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists Tuesday to launch a new initiative aimed at making broadband a priority in the U.S. -
Linux in Education: Concepts Not Applications
4 months ago
One of the biggest arguments used against Linux in grade school level education is that we aren't teaching kids to use the applications they'll use in the "real world". As the Technology Director for a K-12 school district, I've heard that argument many times. After all these years, I still don't buy it. -
K-12 schools’ cyber safety declines
4 months, 3 weeks ago
CDW Government announced the results of the 2008 School Safety Index, the national benchmark on the current status of public school district safety. Measured on a scale from zero to 100, the national cyber safety average this year was 38.6, down 25 percent since 2007. This year’s Index finds that NAC is emerging as an essential IT tool for K-12 school districts, with 57 percent using NAC to view and control who and what is on the network. Rural districts lead NAC adoption at 60 percent, followed by suburban districts at 54 percent and urban districts at 45 percent. -
$100 laptop program's new president
5 months, 1 week ago
"This week, with orders for its laptop having failed to meet expectations--and the plunging dollar driving up the computer's purchase price--the One Laptop per Child program installed a new president...." -
LinuxCertified Announces Linux Device Driver Development Course
5 months, 3 weeks ago
LinuxCertified Inc, a leading provider of Linux training and services, today announced its next Linux Device Driver Development Course class to be held in South Bay, CA from May 19th to May 21st. -
Schools fear being frozen out
5 months, 3 weeks ago
The planned £4.5bn schools IT revamp today faces a barrage of criticism. -
Business IT Grads Have No Trouble Finding Jobs
6 months, 2 weeks ago
While the economy crumbles, jobs are plentiful for graduates of business information technology programs. They are seen as good employment prospects because they have IT skills as well as business knowledge. Meanwhile, BIT program enrollment is down sharply. -
IT job strategies: Vendor vs. generic certifications
6 months, 3 weeks ago
IT pros are divided on the value of brand-name certifications. On the one hand, vendor-neutral certifications seem a better fit today’s world of commoditized products. Then again, a Red Hat certification certainly appeals to majority of Linux-friendly employers. -
Nigerian Patent Suit Still Dogs OLPC
6 months, 4 weeks ago
A potential $20 million problem for the group behind the "$100 laptop" isn't going away easily. -
OLPC: A Lost Cause
7 months ago
OLPC is a lost cause. It's amazing how an otherwise interesting project with headline-grabbing mission could spiral out of control with disastrous results. The project has always had noble intentions. I can't fault them for that. Anytime an organization is giving back to the community and contributing back to society is a good organization in my book. However, the management is ludicrous. Not only did they not realize the magnitude of the ramifications for changing their mission, but they couldn't pinpoint their ultimate desire either. The latest is their search for the CEO to run OLPC as a non-profit business, similar to Microsoft. Great aspirations! -
Educating Tux: Case studies of Linux deployments in high schools around the world
7 months ago
"However, the experiences by schools that have gone this route are a mixed bag. Let us investigate some and see what lessons there are..." -
Online university program covers device engineering
7 months, 1 week ago
The University of California, Irvine Extension has launched a Device Software Engineering studies program and announced an online course called "Linux Driver Primer." Beginning March 31, the course will explain how to develop and write code for Linux device drivers and develop Linux device frameworks. -
Why the '$100 laptop' project is under siege
10 months, 1 week ago
In 2005, Nicholas Negroponte unveiled an idea for bridging the technology divide between rich nations and the developing world. It was captivating in its utter simplicity: Design a $100 laptop and, within four years, get it into the hands of up to 150 million of the world's poorest schoolchildren. -
Stallman: students should be taught to share with the class
11 months, 3 weeks ago
"Richard Stallman, in receiving an honorary Doctorate from Italy's University of Pavia, brought back memories of the basic primary school principle that students bringing cookies to class should bring enough for everyone .... " - More News
Linux.com : Education & Training
Italian LUG turns Pakistani school into educational model
The students of a missionary school in Pakistan, from first graders to graduates, have become enthusiastic Edubuntu users thanks to the cooperation between their administrator and an Italian LUG.
Three typing tutors and a boy
I recently sat down with my 12-year-old son Ian, who agreed to sit still long enough to try a few typing teacher applications on Ubuntu Hardy Heron. Ian has a lot of experience on the computer but, until now, he has subscribed to the hunt and peck typing philosophy. Fortunately, we found a number of open source typing tutorial programs to download and test. Ian and I looked at three GPL-licensed apps: Klavaro, TuxTyping, and KTouch.
FOSS for students
Whether you're a high school student or just starting out with your college coursework, the free software community has provided a wide range of solutions to make life easier. Browsing the package repository of my Linux distribution led me to applications for everything from gene sequencing to particle physics, but there are a few real gems I think any student could benefit from, including math and chemistry tools such as TiLP, wxMaxima, Kalzium, Gnome Chemistry Utils, and OpenOffice.org Math.
China takes lead in Linux education
Since the Chinese government began supporting domestic open source communities in 2005, hundreds of thousands of young people in the world's most populous country have become a part of the open source world.
Open source technology is hungry for new college grads
Many college graduates are finding it difficult to enter the information technology world with little or no work experience. There is no such thing as an entry-level position anymore, and more and more graduates are finding themselves in a catch-22 situation because of this.
Seneca College teams with FOSS projects for hands-on learning
Where most computer science departments emphasize theory and mention free and open source software (FOSS) only indirectly, Seneca College in Toronto, Canada, offers a different approach: a hands-on introduction to the community in partnership with the Mozilla and Fedora projects. Now in its third year, the program is expanding rapidly and receiving attention from other academic institutions that hope to imitate it.
Lessons learned from NCSU FOSS class
Free and open source software (FOSS) is only beginning to find a foothold in computer science departments in North America. FOSS tools may be used in teaching or be the subject of research or special committees, but few departments include courses that introduce students to the FOSS community. As a result, when North Carolina State University created a FOSS graduate course in the 2008 spring semester, it turned to Red Hat to find an instructor with a suitable background of FOSS involvement and university teaching experience. Community manager Greg DeKoenigsberg recommended performance tools engineer Will Cohen, who now looks back at the experience with an eye to how what he and his students learned might help other instructors.
SELF-made site for courseware
Where on the Web do you go for free education and training materials? A project called Science, Education and Learning in Freedom (SELF) has created a site where educators and students can upload and download courseware without charge, or create courseware collaboratively. It maintains free-as-in-freedom content, and is intended for courses on free/libre software.
The latest in Novell Linux certifications
At BrainShare 2008 in March, Novell introduced a set of Linux certifications for administrators. Rather than being directed at higher-end Linux managers, like the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) or Novell's own Novell Linux Certified Engineer (NLCE), the new certifications are meant for entry-level Linux administrators, one step above the Linux Professional Institute's entry-level LPIC-1.
What Edubuntu can teach your kids
Edubuntu is a customized version of Ubuntu aimed at children in educational environments. According to the distributions homepage, Edubuntu is "Linux for Young Human Beings." That works out well for me, since I have three of those in my house. I homeschool my children and use Edubuntu on a couple of our computers. My boys love having an operating system that was designed with them in mind, and I appreciate the way its applications encompass the total learning process.
Comic strip aims for a fun way to educate new Linux users
Jeremiah Gray wants to provide an interesting way to learn about Linux, so he's created a new comic strip, called Hackett and Bankwell, about the open source operating system. The strip will be published as a series of comic books that Gray hopes will appeal to new Linux users, but he says it is "more than just a comic book version of a Linux training guide."
Humanitarian projects and open source: Working together to revitalize computer sciences
Ralph Morelli, professor of computer science at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., has a double motive in spearheading the Humanitarian FOSS Project (HFOSS). The project's mission of providing free software development to help solve real-world social issues is a noble reason to rally the participation of college students who will spend their summers learning how to be part of the open source development community. But this NSF-funded project also hopes to show that humanitarian software development projects are a great way to revitalize undergraduate computing education.
Interview with organizers of the BSD certification exam
The BSD Certification Group, (BSDCG) held its first in-person BSDA certification exam session for systems administrators during SCALE last month in Los Angeles. Subsequent tests were then held held during FOSDEM in Brussels, Belgium, and Linux-Tage Chemnitzer in Chemnitz, Germany. During the events, we were able to catch up with several people involved in the testing. Here's what they had to say about the exam development process, the events themselves, and reasons for becoming certified.
Exploring Etoys on the OLPC XO
Etoys is one of the most interesting activities included on the OLPC XO laptops distributed during the Give One Get One program late last year, which gave North Americans a first look at the controversial laptop. The XO's unique vocabulary -- Etoys as an activity instead of application -- underscores the fact that the XO is designed as an educational tool for the classroom.
IT managers can turn to peers at CMG for solutions
Making changes to your existing infrastructure is fraught with decisions. What's the best way to consolidate servers? How can we better manage the resources we have? How will the changes we're planning impact service and performance? Sandbox environments only provide theoretical information. Vendor solutions can number into the dozens, so it's easy to get overwhelmed. The Computer Measurement Group (CMG) understands that, so for more than 30 years it has been amassing a huge database of knowledge so you can learn from the successes -- and failures -- of others.
Watch and explore outer space with Stellarium, Celestia, and Xplanet
Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth spent about $20 million to go into space, and he never got farther away from Earth than a few hundred miles. Using three free software programs, you can look at and virtually travel to places millions of miles away without leaving your GNU/Linux desktop or paying a dime.
iTALC promotes learning on a classroom network
iTALC, or Intelligent Teaching and Learning with Computers, is a didactical tool designed to assist teachers. Despite its name, the tool itself isn't a learning environment. It's meant to let teachers control their students' computers in a computer-driven classroom setting. Thanks to its powerful remote desktop control features, simple setup, and lack of cost, it's a potential remote assistance tool for any type of network.
Learn and teach geometry and algebra with GeoGebra
GeoGebra, a GPL-licensed teaching and learning tool that integrates geometry, algebra, and calculus, benefits both teachers and students alike. Developed by Markus Hohenwarter at Florida Atlantic University, GeoGebra constructs geometrical figures and demonstrates the relationship between geometry and algebra. GeoGebra can help you create interactive demonstrations and precise images of geometric figures for inclusion in teaching and testing materials.
European Union sponsors new FOSS education portal
Heavily funded by the European Union, the Science, Education, and Learning in Freedom (SELF) consortium launched the beta version of its site this week with the motto, "Be SELFish, share your knowledge!" By the end of the year, SELF hopes to develop into the Wikipedia of free learning materials, with a heavy emphasis on material about open standards and free and open source software (FOSS). All contributions, says David Megías, a Lecturer at the University of Catalonia and one of the SELF's organizers, will be "encouraged and accepted, unless they have to be removed for legal reasons." The twist here is that all contributions will be evaluated by the community, so that users can assess the quality of the materials that they are using.
Red Hat High campers are bridging the digital divide
One of the things Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik loses sleep over is the digital divide, especially when it comes to children. He wanted to do something about the disparity in the availability of computing resources and skills between social classes, so he set aside corporate funds to create Red Hat High, a week-long technology summer camp for eighth- and ninth-grade students.
