TeamBILD: FLOSS Desktops
*last updated June 6

Areas of focus
  • "obstacles to 'yes'" - how to get schools or similar organizations to participate?
    • preconceptions?
    • funds?
  • Issues during
    • location
    • class sizes
    • ethernet/internet access?
    • supply of computers and parts
      • storage
      • transport?
    • lessons - what needs to be or should be covered during the run of the program?
  • Learn about FLOSS?
    • curriculum
      • troubleshooting
      • repair/refurbishment
      • time
    • HTML coding
  • Take-home issues
    • what to do with left-overs - deliver them? re-use them for the next set?
    • transportation of goods from school to home - maybe packaging options?
    • follow-up questions (see impact)
  • continuing clubs
    • after initial run, can the program be extended to allow "alumni" to go deeper?
    • use prior participants as mentors?
  • Impact
    • use surveys to measure/gather thoughts from kids/teachers as follow-up?
    • what kind of questions would we be asking?
  • Training
    • instruction for teachers in FLOSS
    • after-school programs?
    • open source programs/equivalency to proprietary software (MS word, photoshop, etc.)
  • end goal: make computer science more accessible 

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7/10/2017 We reviewed pre/post-assessments from the FLOSS Desktops camp, discussed how we could have made the camp better and how we could have better assessed the skills and knowledge the kids picked up over the week. Overall, the kids seemed to claim more confidence in their knowledge about the inner workings of the computer. There were very few "I don't knows" responses on the post-assessment compared to the pre-assessment they took on Monday. We found, however, that the format we chose for compiling their responses to certain questions made comparing and assessing difficult. We also talked about finding a balance between hardware and software. Having been the creation of OSI, the curriculum focuses heavily on open-source software and less on the hardware, the physical thing sitting in front of them that they most likely were more interested in. Their age levels all varied but they also came from families who had computers (most were gamers), and I think they were...
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FLOSS Desktops Questions

Could we talk to other schools about recycling their old computers? I might have some connections to schools in the area. (Hillside Elementary, Rosendale Elementary, Iroquois Middle School, Niskayuna High School) Other potential sources of computers or parts? community donations for example? What issues (ethical or legal) would be associated with complete strangers donating computers? Other forms of communication What are some of the important Open Source Software programs and should we familiarize ourselves with them? How familiar do we need to be with HTML? How do we safely transport all of the computers to where they need to go? What is the class size going to look like? What has changed in the program since the first time it was done?
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Resources: IRC client: FreeNode - use #FLOSSdesktops wiki: https://wiki.opensource.org/bin/Main/Projects/FLOSS+Desktop+Refurbishment+and+Distribution/ FLOSS curriculum/documents: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/0B2V3n1i8irYqUTJ3LTRlOTRTRXM blog: http://sienaflossdesktops.blogspot.com
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