<html> <head> <style></style> </head> <body class='hmmessage'> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=unicode"> <meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft SafeHTML"> <style> .hmmessage P {margin:0px;padding:0px;} body.hmmessage {font-size:10pt;font-family:Verdana;} </style> <br>Hi Caroline,<br><div><br></div><div>>>What grade levels are they doing one-to-one with? <br><br>He was referring to if they were to put in place a one-to-one initiative his choice for a device and OS would be different<br>than the XO and Sugar. I get the feeling they want to take advantage of previous investments, so they need a platform<br> to take advantage of all the licenses they have purchased. Only if they could start from scratch!<br></div><div><br></div><div>>>Does Oakland country still have free wireless for all? As I recall they are one of the countries leaders in broadband and wireless and a pretty wealthy area.<br><br>They have connected all the schools but the actual plan for free wireless never became a true reality because its not a supportable<br>model. The area that Oakland Schools serves goes from wealthy to very economically disadvantaged with areas that border Detroit<br>and the City of Pontiac and everything in between.<br></div> <div><br></div><div>>>I think Sugar on a Stick competes well with virtualization where you have students without internet access at home and schools without good bandwidth.  That is most of the US except wealthy suburbs and a few cities that have really invested in broadband.<br><br>Do you see a situation where Sugar on a Stick acts like a backpack for the students work and while at school it is able to work<br>with the virtualized desktop Sugar environment and provides the backup services we would like to see?<br></div> <div><br></div><div>>>I do agree that technically we could get it work with virtualization and it would be great if someone was working on that but I don't know anyone who is.</div><div>Does the work that some in the community have done with virtualbox fit into this solution or is this a whole different approach?<br></div><div><br>>>Unless I'm confused about my demographics Detroit might be a better target.<br><br>The idea is to get things started with Oakland Schools ISD and then look to partner with<br>Wayne County ISD which works with the Detroit schools. I have brought to their attention<br>the Investing in Innovation Funds grants that the Department of Education recently announced<br>and they are looking into the possibility of applying for a pure innovation or strategic grant with<br>open source being a key piece of the puzzle. I've attached article that explains Investing in Innovation<br>grants.<br><br>Best-<br> <a href="http://edpublishing.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/dept-of-ed-announces-investing-in-innovation-fund/" target="_blank"></a>JT<br></div> <div><br></div><div>>>Good luck! no one said it was easy. :)</div><div><br></div>>>Caroline<br><br><div class="ecxgmail_quote">On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 2:39 PM, John Tierney <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jtis4stx@hotmail.com">jtis4stx@hotmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br> <blockquote class="ecxgmail_quote" style="padding-left: 1ex;"> <div> Hello All,<br><br>This email is from Marc Dubois who is Career Focused Education Technology Manager for Oakland Schools ISD who<br>helps support and deliver services to the 29 school districts in Oakland County, MI. It gives you an idea of the<br> technical direction large US school districts are going in. For this particular situation it would seem Sugar running<br>in a virtual machine would be the answer? Do we have something presently available that fits this scenario?<br> Would Sugar delivered through a virtualized desktop work along with Sugar on a Stick? <br><br>Any suggestions on what I should get to Marc to test/take a look at would be helpful. In this situation Sugar's<br>ability to run alongside all the other applications in a larger system seems to be the key. Not being a technical<br> guru I need some guidance in this area. <br><br>The BMMT refers to Business, Management, Marketing, and Technology Instructors who I will be meeting with<br>here in the near future to discuss creating an Open Source curriculum for High School students at the four<br> technical schools they operate. Hacking and testing Sugar will be high priorities for me to get embedded into<br>the curriculum structure. Their idea is to test drive some things at the four technical campuses and then offer <br> them to the districts when they are refined. Figuring this out gives access to the 199 elementary schools they<br>serve.<br><br>Along with the two XO's I lent him, I also gave him a Sugar on a Stick and Sugar on a SD card to test out. <br> <br>Your thoughts would be appreciated!<br><br>John Tierney<br> <br><br><hr>Subject: RE: Follow-up XO Laptop/Sugar<br>Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:28:19 -0400<br>From: <a href="mailto:Marc.DuBois@oakland.k12.mi.us">Marc.DuBois@oakland.k12.mi.us</a><br>To: <a href="mailto:jtis4stx@hotmail.com">jtis4stx@hotmail.com</a><br> CC: <a href="mailto:Mary.Kaye.Aukee@oakland.k12.mi.us">Mary.Kaye.Aukee@oakland.k12.mi.us</a><br><br> <div> <span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">John – Thanks for following up.  With the start of school we’ve been very busy.</span><br> <span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"> </span><br> <span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">The XO laptops are being used by the BMMT instructors at the SE and NE campus – I’m hoping they’ll have lots of insight for you when you meeting with them via Mary Kaye’s meeting.</span><br> <span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"> </span><br> <span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">I haven’t had any time to review them myself but the research I’ve done leads me to believe that they sugar OS would not really support the type of applications we deliver to the students.  So, I don’t see this OS or device as being part of the infrastructure that Oakland Schools Career Focused Education delivers to students like a one-to-one initiative.   I’ve also installed the Sugar OS on a netbook and again think that we’d go with a more standard XP, windows 7 or virtual client to support our applications.  We are undertaking the virtualization of our devices used by students and plan to provide student access to applications and data via a browser interface in the classroom and at home.  Perhaps a different computing device would be more appropriate in this situation.</span><br> <span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"> </span><br> <span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">I do, however, hope that our BMMT instructors will jump on this as a great teaching and learning tool as part of an open source curriculum.  That is out of my scope but I’m sure you’ll have a good experience with the BMMT instructors.</span><br> <span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"> </span><br> <span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">I also appreciate your loaning the devices to us.  At any time I will be happy to return them to you.  They are hopefully being used by the BMMT instructors.</span><br> <span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"> </span><br> <span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Thanks again,</span><br> <span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">marc</span><br> <span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"> </span><br> <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Marc DuBois</span><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"> <br> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Technology Manager, Career Focused Education</span><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"> <br> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">(248) 209-2183</span><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"></span><br> <div> <div style="border-style: solid none none; border-color: rgb(181, 196, 223) -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color; border-width: 1pt medium medium; padding: 3pt 0in 0in;"> <b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">From:</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> John Tierney [mailto:<a href="mailto:jtis4stx@hotmail.com">jtis4stx@hotmail.com</a>] <br> <b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, September 29, 2009 11:53 AM<br> <b>To:</b> Dubois, Marc<br> <b>Subject:</b> Follow-up XO Laptop/Sugar</span><br> </div> </div>  <br> <span style="font-size: 10pt;">Hi Marc,<br> <br> Just wanted to check in while I await next meeting with Mary Kaye Auckee and<br> BMMT Group.<br> <br> I was wondering if you might have some time in next couple of weeks to meet and discuss some <br> of the technical implications for you and the other IT Administrators in moving down or thinking<br> about moving down the Open Source path. Would also like to get your feedback on XO and Sugar.<br> <br> Please let me know what might work for you.<br> <br> Best-<br><font color="#888888"> <br> John Tierney<br> Educational Outreach-Sugar Labs<br> #248-613-7392</font></span><br> </div> </div> </blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Caroline Meeks<br>Solution Grove<br>Caroline@SolutionGrove.com<br><br>617-500-3488 - Office<br>505-213-3268 - Fax<br><hr id="stopSpelling"><br><br> </body> </html>