Fwd: School Promotion

[Bhikkhu Mettavihari]

Dear Friends,

Redhat, TLC, and LKLUG has for some time been involved with promotion of Linux in Schools.

This has finally concluded in a project funded by Redhat in which we will be going to schools and teach Linux to Teachers of the CLC Centers.

Each lecture will have 40 teachers and will be taught basic Linux based on Redhat V8.0 which is already installed in most of the learning Centers.

The schedule is as follows.

1. April 27 Isipathana MV
2. April 28 Lumbini MV
3. May 2    Gurukula MV Kelaniya
4. May 3    Good Shepard BMB Hendala
5. May 5     Dharmashoka College Ambalangoda
6. May 6     Prajapathie Gothami V Ambalangoda
7. May 10   Servatius College Matara
8. May 11   Mamamaya Girls Schoool Matara
9. May 15   Kalutara MV, Kalutara
10. May 16   Tissa MMV Kalutara North
11. June 23  Theraputta, Hambantota
12. June 30  St. Aloycius MV, Ratnapura
13. July 1      Sumana Balika, Ratnapura
14. July 4      Kegalu Balika MV, Kegalle
15. July 5      Dudly Senanayake MV, Kegalle
16. July 7     Swarnamali BMV, Kany
17. July 8     Sri Rahula MV, Kandy
18. July 14   Talawakele Tamil MV Talawakele
19. July 15   Sirimawo Bandaranayake BV Hanguranketha
20. July 17   St. Mary's MV Putlam
21. July 21   Provincial IT Center, Kurunegala
22. July 22   Lakdas MV Kurunegala
23. July 27   Crist Church MV Matale
24. July 28   Vijaya College Matale
25. Aug 3    Provincial IT Center, Anuradhapura
26. Aug 4    Giritalegama MV Polonnaruwa
27. Aug 17  Uva Maha Vidyalaya, Badulla
28. Aug 18  Vishaka Balika MV Badulla

This is the full list with all dates planed at the present.

We have a need for a few young students to come along and help in this project (They will be paid).

It is a great opportunity to have personal chats with some of the teachers in the rural areas and help them to get on with working in Linux.

It is also a great opportunity to promote LKLUG and we have got permission to put up LUG banners and e-PC banners at these events promoting Linux in schools and home.

TLC is likely going to offer free call in service for all the teachers and free pop mail accounts to all the teachers who like to get more involved with Linux in Schools.

TLC is also thinking of setting up a membership list where a quarterly newsletter is posted out to members with the latest CD's.

So, dear friends, many of you already know what is going on with FOSS-ed. I think we can say that this year is going to be a very active FOSS year.

with metta
Mettavihari

--
Get you Linux supplies at http://foss.metta.lk

[Nandalal Gunaratne]

On 4/17/06, Bhikkhu Mettavihari <metta...@gmail.com> wrote:

This looks great. Let us hope that the feedback from teachers and
students will help do things even better in the future.
Will there be introduction to Moodle, Fle3, schoolbell like,
teacher-centric education planning software as well? software as well?

Nandalal

[Manoj Mallawaarachchie]

Dear Bhikkhu Mettavihari ,

It's proud to know my school also in the list. St Aloysius collage at
Ratnapura. please add me for the event.

Bhikkhu Mettavihari wrote:

> Dear Friends,
>
> Redhat, TLC, and LKLUG has for some time been involved with promotion
> of Linux in Schools.
> This has finally concluded in a project funded by Redhat in which we
> will be going to schools and teach Linux to Teachers of the CLC Centers.
>
> Each lecture will have 40 teachers and will be taught basic Linux
> based on Redhat V8.0 which is already installed in most of the
> learning Centers.
>
> The schedule is as follows.
>

> 1. April 27 Isipathana MV
> 2. April 28 Lumbini MV
> 3. May 2 Gurukula MV Kelaniya
> 4. May 3 Good Shepard BMB Hendala
> 5. May 5 Dharmashoka College Ambalangoda
> 6. May 6 Prajapathie Gothami V Ambalangoda
> 7. May 10 Servatius College Matara
> 8. May 11 Mamamaya Girls Schoool Matara
> 9. May 15 Kalutara MV, Kalutara
> 10. May 16 Tissa MMV Kalutara North
> 11. June 23 Theraputta, Hambantota
> 12. June 30 St. Aloycius MV, Ratnapura
> 13. July 1 Sumana Balika, Ratnapura
> 14. July 4 Kegalu Balika MV, Kegalle
> 15. July 5 Dudly Senanayake MV, Kegalle
> 16. July 7 Swarnamali BMV, Kany
> 17. July 8 Sri Rahula MV, Kandy
> 18. July 14 Talawakele Tamil MV Talawakele
> 19. July 15 Sirimawo Bandaranayake BV Hanguranketha
> 20. July 17 St. Mary's MV Putlam
> 21. July 21 Provincial IT Center, Kurunegala
> 22. July 22 Lakdas MV Kurunegala
> 23. July 27 Crist Church MV Matale
> 24. July 28 Vijaya College Matale
> 25. Aug 3 Provincial IT Center, Anuradhapura
> 26. Aug 4 Giritalegama MV Polonnaruwa
> 27. Aug 17 Uva Maha Vidyalaya, Badulla
> 28. Aug 18 Vishaka Balika MV Badulla

>
> This is the full list with all dates planed at the present.
>
> We have a need for a few young students to come along and help in this
> project (They will be paid).
>
> It is a great opportunity to have personal chats with some of the
> teachers in the rural areas and help them to get on with working in Linux.
>
> It is also a great opportunity to promote LKLUG and we have got
> permission to put up LUG banners and e-PC banners at these events
> promoting Linux in schools and home.
>
> TLC is likely going to offer free call in service for all the teachers
> and free pop mail accounts to all the teachers who like to get more
> involved with Linux in Schools.
>
> TLC is also thinking of setting up a membership list where a quarterly
> newsletter is posted out to members with the latest CD's.
>

> So, dear friends, this year is going to be a very active FOSS year.
>
> with metta
> Mettavihari
>
> --
> View Streaming Dhamma video http://dharmavahini.tv
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>_______________________________________________
>advocacy mailing list
>advo...@lug.lk
>https://secure.lug.lk/mailman/listinfo/advocacy
>
>

[Bhikkhu Mettavihari]

On 4/18/06, Manoj Mallawaarachchie <ma...@mobitellanka.com> wrote:

Dear  Bhikkhu Mettavihari ,
It's proud to know my school also in the list. St Aloysius collage at
Ratnapura. please add me for the event.

Thank you Manoj,
If any one of you see your city or school in the list
please let us know, and come join in this venture.
It is going to be quite a bit of activity.

with metta
Mettavihari

 

[Manoj Mallawaarachchie]

where is the people list???

Bhikkhu Mettavihari wrote:

> On 4/18/06, *Manoj Mallawaarachchie* <ma...@mobitellanka.com

[Bhikkhu Mettavihari]

On 4/18/06, Manoj Mallawaarachchie <ma...@mobitellanka.com> wrote:

where is the people list???

FOS...@googlegroups.com is a very small list.
Most of the people are on the advo...@lug.lk

with metta
Mettavihari

[Bhikkhu Mettavihari]

On 4/17/06, Bhikkhu Mettavihari <bhikkhu.m...@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Friends,

Redhat, TLC, and LKLUG has for some time been involved with promotion of Linux in Schools.
This has finally concluded in a project funded by Redhat in which we will be going to schools and teach Linux to Teachers of the CLC Centers.

Each lecture will have 40 teachers and will be taught basic Linux based on Redhat V8.0 which is already installed in most of the learning Centers.

The schedule is as follows.

1. April 27 Isipathana MV
2. April 28 Lumbini MV

The first 2 lectures went on extremely well, with 40, and 30 participants.
they were eventually both kept in the Lumbini CLC lab.

Many of them are interested in getting Linux installed in their schools.
I guess this will keep TLC busy for the next few years with about 600 schools that have CLC labs around the country.

It is only very few of the 600 schools that have linux installed in  them.

1. May 2    Gurukula MV Kelaniya

1. May 3    Good Shepard BMB Hendala

We will be going to Gurukula MV, Kelaniya on Tueday.
anyone interested is welcome to join us in this venture.


Lets here more as the days go on.

with metta
Mettavihari
 

1. May 5     Dharmashoka College Ambalangoda

1. May 6     Prajapathie Gothami V Ambalangoda

1. May 10   Servatius College Matara

1. May 11   Mamamaya Girls Schoool Matara

1. May 15   Kalutara MV, Kalutara

1. May 16   Tissa MMV Kalutara North

1. June 23  Theraputta, Hambantota
   

1. June 30  St. Aloycius MV, Ratnapura

1. July 1      Sumana Balika, Ratnapura
   

1. July 4      Kegalu Balika MV, Kegalle
   

1. July 5      Dudly Senanayake MV, Kegalle
   

1. July 7     Swarnamali BMV, Kany
   

1. July 8     Sri Rahula MV, Kandy
   

1. July 14   Talawakele Tamil MV Talawakele

1. July 15   Sirimawo Bandaranayake BV Hanguranketha
   

1. July 17   St. Mary's MV Putlam
   

1. July 21   Provincial IT Center, Kurunegala
   

1. July 22   Lakdas MV Kurunegala
   

1. July 27   Crist Church MV Matale
   

1. July 28   Vijaya College Matale
   

1. Aug 3    Provincial IT Center, Anuradhapura
   

1. Aug 4    Giritalegama MV Polonnaruwa
   

1. Aug 17  Uva Maha Vidyalaya, Badulla
   

1. Aug 18  Vishaka Balika MV Badulla
   

This is the full list with all dates planed at the present.

We have a need for a few young students to come along and help in this project (They will be paid).

It is a great opportunity to have personal chats with some of the teachers in the rural areas and help them to get on with working in Linux.

It is also a great opportunity to promote LKLUG and we have got permission to put up LUG banners and e-PC banners at these events promoting Linux in schools and home.

TLC is likely going to offer free call in service for all the teachers and free pop mail accounts to all the teachers who like to get more involved with Linux in Schools.

TLC is also thinking of setting up a membership list where a quarterly newsletter is posted out to members with the latest CD's.

So, dear friends, this year is going to be a very active FOSS year.

with metta
Mettavihari

--
View Streaming Dhamma video http://dharmavahini.tv

[Bhikkhu Mettavihari]

On 4/23/06, irshad ahamed < irshad...@yahoo.com> wrote:

Even if we go there with all the CDs, I think we'll be facing some problems esp because we are planning to use Redhat V8.

The whole course is planed around Redhat-8
The reasoning for that is that Redhat 8 is the version that was installed in some schools.

We we need to work out and download rpm packages for applications like
gimp 2.0

Gimp is on the machine

open office 2.0

Open office 1.1.2 is on the machines.
we did a sampling and found that OOo 2.0 is not able to run on those machines.

mozilla firefox 1.0.7

We chose to go with mozilla as they have composer also along with that program
they would allow them to do some  amount of simple web page editing using open software.

We need to get details about configurations of their machine to make some decisions, for ex :
If their configuration is low, we can't rely on kde apps for a nice demo.
whether to introduce open office or koffice.

 

We would love to have you along on one of these events
we have now done already  5 schools as pilots projects and faced most of these problems

 We have to remember that time taken to load an application will have a great impact on the audience if the machine's configuration is low.

Yes you are quite right. 

It would be better if we can plan out what to teach. when  we  say that we need volunteers to go and teach, some will be reluctant since they don't know what the subjects would be.

We have planed it out and prepared a demonstration CD which is available with us at  TLC.

It all starts next week, and we have a lot to do.

IMHO, only a demonstration will just give an inspiration to explore a new os, but rarely anything long lasting.

You are quite right.
There is a lot to follow up with.
Join us and we can all do a lot for the sri Lankan schools

  A short and well thought out syllabus, along with some study materials will be much more productive.

Yes, let us come up with something for stage 2

with metta

Mettavihari

[Bhikkhu Mettavihari]

Dear Friends,

Redhat, TLC, and LKLUG has for some time been involved with promotion of Linux in Schools.
This has finally concluded in a project funded by Redhat in which we will be going to schools and teach Linux to Teachers of the CLC Centers.

Each lecture will have 40 teachers and will be taught basic Linux based on Redhat V8.0 which is already installed in most of the learning Centers.

The schedule is as follows.

1. April 27 Isipathana MV
2. April 28 Lumbini MV

The first 2 lectures went on extremely well, with 40, and 30 participants.
they were eventually both kept in the Lumbini CLC lab.

Many of them are interested in getting Linux installed in their schools.
I guess this will keep TLC busy for the next few years with about 600 schools that have CLC labs around the country.

It is only very few of the 600 schools that have Linux installed in  them.

1. May 2    Gurukula MV Kelaniya
2. May 3    Good Shepard BMB Hendala

We went to Gurukula MV and Good Shepard BMB Hendala on the 30th to install Linux on the computers.

Gurukula MV had a very good lab with Linux on most of the machines, fine teachers and students that had already started using Linux. We made good contacts with students 15 - 16 years old who where very enthusiastic about what is going on.
Suchetha in his own way got permission from teachers and parents for one of the best of the students to follow us further on this trip. Gurukula installation was finished in the Morning

Good Shepard BMB we started just before lunch and managed to make a network install. The Nuns and teachers of that school was also very happy to have us installing Linux on their machines.

Guess what happened,
On Monday the 2nd we got to know that the venue has been shifted from Good Shepard BMB to St Paul's MV in Keleniya.
You can see how disappointed everybody was. Now we had to keep our class in Gurukula school only and not go to Good Shepard BMB.

The first Day went fine at Gurukula, and everybody was very happy with the class.
Like in all the other classes certificates were distributed by the ministry officials etc.

On the second day when we came to Gurukula we where told that there was a power cut in the school for several hours, perhaps a full day.
What NOW ?

Listen to the so called Red-tape snapping.

We called the ministry and explained what had happened and suggested that we hire a bus and take all the teachers to  Good Shepard  BMB.

To our utmost surprise we were told that it was a very good suggestion and for us to hire a private bus and we will be re-reimbursed with the amount. (No questions?!?)

Off we went in a private bus to Good Shepard BMB and quickly the class started.
You should see the faces of the Good Shepard BMB teachers when they got to host the class, we all felt very welcome in the school.

This must have been a good day for them as on that very same day the SLT came and installed the Modem and lease line connection to the school and they were up and on the net.

Initially the school net is limited to an Intranet of all the schools.
Later on it will be expanded to cover part of the Internet though a filtering method.

1. May 5     Dharmashoka College Ambalangoda
2. May 6     Prajapathie Gothami V Ambalangoda

4th morning, off we went to Ambalangoda to start installing in those 2 schools.
Even here we found a very interesting group of teachers that had been interested in Linux for some time but had not had the opportunity to learn what it was all about.

With us went young Kusun from Gurukula school on an adventure that he would not have expected. From school to school installing Linux via net work. every thing went so fine. We also had an old Linux fan from Dodanduwa joining us in this adventure.
He is likely to come on to Matara when we start that trip on Tuesday.

At this point it is important to mention the support from the Linux community.

We were at Dharmashoka College and wanted info on some of the computers.
Can they boot via LAN and how do we set it up. Suchetha called Bud and a few others and within minutes  we had all details on how to do a LAN install of the DELL machines that was supplied to the schools. Even the suppliers were very helpful in this case by providing quick information.

I think this is an important point to keep in mind about the open source spirit.
Help when-ever possible. Well it is not only in the Open Source World we get that,  but it is something that well established in this country.  Let us not forget about those qualities and values, they are so important for life in Sri Lanka.

The two days in the schools went very fine with a very good spirit from the students.

It all ended up with them demanding an in-depth class to be held in Galle for the teachers.

They were so interested that they among themselves arranged for a class to be held in Galle and for us to come down on 17th 18th 19th which are off days for the teachers. (what a lovely spirit)

Nanasalas
As some of you may know we did not waste a single moment of the 3 days in Galle.
On the evenings we went to visit Nanasala's and installed Linux in one of the Nanasala's,  the other may follow later on.

So this is all for now.
It is only 6 of the schools done, but so many good vibrations has come out of this.

For the next days we will again be on the school road, so we are unfortunately not so much available in Colombo, but be rest assured that we will be there for the FOSS event <period>

with metta
Mettavihari