On 6/13/07, David Joyner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On 6/12/07, Ted Kosan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > I have been studying SAGE for the past few weeks in preparation for > > creating a SAGE tutorial for 12-18 year olds. A topic I would like to > > discuss is the best way to make SAGE available in the typical high > > school classroom. I have found that the computer systems in most high > > schools in my area are very tightly controlled by the IT personnel > > that are responsible for these systems. The IT staff are also often > > located in an off-site facility that services multiple schools and it > > is very difficult to get them to install special software in a given > > computer lab. My guess is that this kind of problem is common. > > My wife is a middle school teacher and the stories she tells me > are completely consistent with what you say. I teach at an > undergrad school and even there, IT support can be difficult > and slow. > > > > > > I will provide two examples of the kinds of difficulties that I have > > run into. The first difficulty was related to a request to have > > VMware installed on the computers in a high school lab so that I could > > teach the students how to install Linux on a VMware virtual machine. > > The IT personnel that were in charge of this lab would would not > > permit this because the machines were frozen with Deepfreeze and they > > did not want to change the machine's configuration. We ended up > > switching to plan B which was to install Linux on some older PCs that > > the school just happened to have. > > > > The second difficulty was related to a second school's firewall > > policies. The students were only able to access certain sites on the > > Internet and it was difficult to get the IT personnel to change the > > firewall policies in a timely manner, if at all. As a side note, > > access to services like yahoo groups and google groups was not > > permitted at all. This means that if these students needed support > > from the SAGE support list, they would be unable to access the google > > group. > > You did not say which sage sites were blocked by a firewall. > However, I can confirm that firewalls are a problem even > in a university setting. For about a year I wasn't able to access > the wiki or notebook at work, but finally they opened them all up. > > Honestly, I think if you were able to write a SAGE tutorial for > middle and high school students then I this would serve as > evidence that SAGE sites should not be blocked and that > SAGE is useful for fulfilling the mission of the school system. > My impression is that school administrators almost speak > a different language. > > > > > > I have thinking about this problem and so far I have come up with the > > following two possible solutions: > > > > Solution 1) Create a SAGE livecd that would contain SAGE, Firefox and > > misc. applications that would be useful to have. If this solution was > > pursued, I think I would be able to create a SAGE livecd which is > > similar to this other livecd that I have already created: > > > > http://download.java.net/general/jdos/releases/jdos_2006.alpha2.iso > > > > > This is a great solution and the only drawback is that such a > live cd should be maintained. In fact, I believe that a live SAGE CD > has already been created by Alfredo Portes > http://sage.math.washington.edu/home/alfredo/ > Can you look at that and see if it work for you? > > Thanks very much for your comments and feedback. > > > > > Solution 2) Of course, the second solution is to simply set up a SAGE > > server in the computer lab or somewhere on the Internet if the > > firewall policies would allow for this. The problem I am encountering > > with this solution, however, is that with the current SAGE notebook > > paradigm, students are able to see the contents each other's > > worksheets which will be a problem when using SAGE for homework and > > tests. > > > > It would be nice if SAGE had something like a bookcase that could > > contain multiple notebooks. The way I see a bookcase possibly working > > is that a user would log into a bookcase and zero or more notebooks > > would be displayed. The user could either create a new notebook and > > give it a password so that other user's could not access it, or they > > could open an existing notebook if they had the password for it. The > > bookcase's administrator would have a separate 'root' password so that > > all the notebooks in the bookcase could be accessed for purposes such > > as grading. > > > > Anyway, does anyone have any thoughts on this issue? > > > > Thanks :-) > > > > Ted
There was some experiences on using linux on public schools here in Brazil and the only solution we could come up with was making a live CD bundled with everything needed. i'll keep looking forward to an other idea, but i am beginning to think that there is no way around it. The problems encountered were almost the same. ciao --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to sage-support@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-support URLs: http://sage.math.washington.edu/sage/ and http://sage.scipy.org/sage/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
