[MakeLV] Fwd: [PLUG] Can FOSS help school districts in trouble?

[Will]

Once again, Hack-a-day seems to captivate my interests. Little idea that I
have tossing around in my own mind that is very rough (and something that
could be easily extensible) are little devices like Dave mentioned last
thursday at the space. In terms of reducing the cost to science based
instruments while retaining their ease of use and displaying data, I found
this after some searching
http://www.splashnology.com/article/15-awesome-free-javascript-charts/325/
 .

http://hackaday.com/2012/05/14/garden-sensors-measure-soil-moisture-and-greenhouse-temperature/

http://hackaday.com/2012/05/15/standalone-usb-temperature-logger/

So... the question. How hard would it be to design a simple web interface
using what we all can learn in CodeYear combined with projects like the
ones from Hackaday to produce basic open hardware solutions for classrooms?

-Will

On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 6:05 PM, David Smith <david at davincisciencecenter.org
> wrote:

> Thanks, Will (and you can always feel fee to share my name, too - it's
> part of my job to be available to schools)
>
> One of the keys to any initiative like this is appropriate professional
> development for teachers.  They are extremely busy people and may have
> widely varying degrees of comfort with new technologies.  One issue that
> will surely arise with any software migration is that some teachers have
> prepared very detailed lessons (at the click this button and then click
> that button kind of level of detail) that would have to be migrated, too.
> BTW, I'm not defending those sorts of lessons, which I think have little
> value, just pointing out that there are teachers who feel the need to
> structure lessons that way who have to be brought along in any migration
> attempt.  All a disgruntled teacher has to do to kill almost any innovation
> in almost any district is find an active and engaged parent and say, "Boy,
> I used to be able to do all this cool stuff with the computers and then
> they went to this new system because it was cheaper and now I can't use any
> of my computer labs any more."  Parent calls principal, principal says "You
> know, I understand your concern, we had a great program here and now I
> don't see nearly as many teachers using the new system.  I'm going to look
> into this and get back to you."  And the innovation is on its way out.
> I've seen it happen more than once locally.  To avoid that, teachers have
> to be on board from the very beginning, their concerns have to be addressed
> in meaningful ways, and they have to have sufficient and ongoing support.
> Districts will pay for that support, but only if it is of demonstrable
> value in achieving the strategic goals of the district.
>
> BTW, districts pay for worthless professional development (a three-hour
> workshop with no follow-up has been well-established to be worthless) on a
> regular basis, it's not just overpriced IT that is a problem. The bigger
> issue is a pervasive lack of systems thinking.
>
> One more important note, FOSS is also the acronym of one of the three
> exemplary comprehensive K-8 science curricula (Full Option Science
> System).  FOSS science is in use locally in the Allentown School District,
> is under adoption in Saucon Valley, and was being piloted a few years back
> in Catty as well, so you want to be sure everyone around the table knows
> which FOSS you mean.
>
> Dave
>
> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 10:28 AM, Will <staticphantom at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Forwarding this message as per the email below explains. Apparently there
>> is interest for helping out school districts with reducing IT costs.
>>
>> Dave, I mentioned your position but not your name about ideas with open
>> hardware in the classroom. I believe if you wish to make an effort with
>> working with teachers and making the science classroom experience better,
>> this maybe the proper way to go.
>>
>>
>> If anyone is interested please subscribe to the PLUG mailing list! Also,
>> FOSS stands for Free and Open Source Software in case any newer mailing
>> list members were wondering.
>>
>> -Will
>>
>>
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