Check out this YouTube Video:
IT@School with GNU/Linux and Free Software
The reporter doesn’t speak of Free Software - but yes, the children are working on GNU/Linux!! And, this might perhaps be one of the world’s largest deployment of Free Software!
Now that we have got GNU/Linux into the hands of our school kids, we should make sure that it doesn’t just become a tool for them to draw pretty pictures … won’t it be great to have a curriculum where Free Software is integrated with the syllabus - say for enhancing the teaching of math and science? Wishful thinking? No - with really great stuff like Phoenix in our hands, it should be possible. I,for one, would love to work to make this happen ….
3 responses so far ↓
1 Dinil // Mar 18, 2008 at 3:21 pm
“this might perhaps be one of the world’s largest deployment of Free Software!”
- This might be true. Surprisingly, I have found here that, not many users of GNU/Linux systems are aware of the philosophy behind it. Almost all the machines here, in the labs of our department, are GNU/Linux; but still the concept of FSF is not that wide-spread. This is strange given that, I haven’t met a French researcher who is not a socialist .. they keep talking about social issues .. but still, not many are well aware of FSF philosophy.
On a different note, I was expecting an entry on GATE scores of your students .. or is it that, not many have opted for higher studies?
2 Pramode C.E // Mar 18, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Same is the case in India - except perhaps in Kerala. But the fault I believe lies with us - we have to be active in telling people that “Linux” is not just a cool operating system …. that there is a philosophy behind it and there are *real* issues to be addressed if the benefits of the digital revolution are to be made available to the whole of humanity.
Regarding GATE score - yes, there is one good news! After a long time, we have a good rank from GEC CS dept - a girl student has been placed 44 (99.75 percentile)! Two or three other people have qualified - but scores are not really good.
3 Dinil // Mar 18, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Yes, you are right .. we have to be more active.
Okay, that’s a good result. I am not sure how useful this site - www.btechguru.com - is .. but, it is a new site created for helping GATE qualified students. You can pass it on to students looking for information.
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