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NewsVac: News from around the Web
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$100 laptop program's new president
1 week, 6 days 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
4 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
4 weeks ago
The planned £4.5bn schools IT revamp today faces a barrage of criticism. -
Business IT Grads Have No Trouble Finding Jobs
1 month, 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
1 month, 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
2 months ago
A potential $20 million problem for the group behind the "$100 laptop" isn't going away easily. -
OLPC: A Lost Cause
2 months, 1 week 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
2 months, 1 week 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
2 months, 2 weeks 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
5 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
6 months, 4 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 .... " -
Lessons to Learn from the OLPC
7 months, 2 weeks ago
Whether you're impressed with it or not, the XO-1 is having a major impact on notebook design. It's development has brought outside-the-box thinking and cost-consciousness to a level that we rarely see in portable computing. There are a number of lessons that can be learned the from its unique design and we can already see that some of these concepts have been noticed by manufacturers. From the article, "The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project is by no means a success yet, but its development has taught us a great deal about mobile design and what people want from a laptop. Their XO-1 notebook was not developed with the American consumer in mind- it is intended for children in developing countries- but any time that this much effort is put into designing a laptop (especially one this small and inexpensive) it is going to have an impact on the industry." -
Bruno Coudoin on GCompris: 8.4 release imminent, reorganization underway for 8.5
8 months, 1 week ago
GCompris is a fantastic educational program aimed at children. I installed it for a family some time ago, and found myself getting caught up in it as I showed them how it worked. I caught up with the lead developer, Bruno Coudoin, to ask him a few questions about the widely-used GCompris project. -
Open source booming in K-12 education
8 months, 2 weeks ago
"Can open source succeed where Windows and the Mac have failed? I’m talking here of K-12 education. An eSchools report says open source spending is growing 70% per year, and will be up 800% in 2011 from last year’s level .... " -
Red Hat is going on the road: The Red Hat Value^2 Tour
8 months, 2 weeks ago
"Just as we have worked closely together to provide best-in-class, end-to-end virtualization capabilities, Red Hat and Intel are excited to bring you the North American Value2 seminar tour. The tour consists of half-day interactive seminars where IT decision makers can learn how to transform their enterprise with an open source-based approach to virtualization and service-oriented architecture .... " - More News
Linux.com : Education & Training
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.
Google offers free teaching materials for computer science instructors
Google Code for Educators, announced during Google's Faculty Summit last month, offers tutorials, sample course content, video lectures, and a Curriculum Search tool that focuses on Web-based materials from computer science departments worldwide.
Mind-blasting Japanese language learning tools
Knowledge of a secondary language has long been a coveted skill, whether it be for academics, business, or travel, but learning another language can be a challenging task. While many Western languages at least offer a level of familiarity by sharing the Roman alphabet, Japanese and other Eastern languages offer no such comfort. Here are three applications that can help you overcome some learning roadblocks.
