Re: Gnome for Educational Usage

["Matt Jezorek" <matt bluelinux org>]

Hello,

 What we would like to accomplish:

    1. Create an interface that a child ages 5+ could sit down in front
without feeling much has changed from there home computers of windows.
    2. The ablility to easily convert from Windows to Linux, what I mean by
this is that there is a sense of comfort when they (children/teachers) sit
in front of a Linux box.
    3. Disable all needs for a shell (this is pretty much done for the basic
user which we are talking about)
    4. Remove the shell icon no need for them to even think about using it
or directly accessing the filesystem. (the filesystem itself is protected
with acl and other security measures as well as they (students) dont have
root access. But the teacher more then likely will have it and we dont want
he/she to have to much trouble adminstering the system.

These are the basics of what we want to do.

The Problems:

    Are we limiting the user? Can all this be done and still maintain
integrity of gnome?

and many more this is just the begining. All thought processes have not
completed on this yet we are still coming up with requirements and problems.

-Matt
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Vandersloot" <kfv1
01 psu edu>
To: "Matt Jezorek" <matt bluelinux org>; <gnome-list gnome org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2001 10:31 AM
Subject: Re: Gnome for Educational Usage


> Hello. To the best of my knowledge there is not a group trying to do an
> educational version of GNOME. That being said, a lot of the things you
> describe can be done already (though maybe not in so easy a fashion). For
> instance you can get rid of the ctrl-alt-Fn shells by editing /etc/inittab
> (If I remember correctly).  You would also want to patch gnome-core to
> remove a lot of the menu entries and initial panel applets etc (maybe
there
> is a way to do it without recompiling). Ximian GNOME
(http://www.ximian.com)
> has a nice default layout that is much easier to use than the standard
> GNOME. My point here, though, is that there is no central place to do what
> you want.
>
> Some of the administration should hopefully get better in GNOME 2.0
> including the ability to clamp down on the users ability to change things.
> The usability team is also working on providing a nice default desktop
that
> is much less cluttered and easier to use.
>
> Personally I would love to see GNOME being used in schools. It is beyond
me
> why KDE users would laugh at you. Perhaps you could write back with more
> specifics of what you want to accomplish and the problems that you
> anticipate. I think it would be definitely possible to make GNOME usable
for
> the children especially if it is just a kiosk thing you want.
>
> Regards,
> Kevin
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Matt Jezorek
> To: gnome-list gnome org
> Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2001 10:55 PM
> Subject: Gnome for Educational Usage
>
>
> Has anyone tried or know of a project that is working to simplify the
Gnome
> interface for educational purposes. I posted a similar quesiton to the KDE
> Edu group and I got laughed at I feel.
>
> Here is the situation.
>
> We are working on building a distribution that will be used in educational
> groups. K-12 mostly it will be packed with various educational
applications,
> games, administration packages . We are wanting a very simple interface
with
> as much point and click as possible. We are wanting to run Gnome in a
kiosk
> kinda mode that will disable scripting access, shell ALT-F2 kinda things.
> The reasons behind this is, we feel that a kid will break what they can
> break without meaning to. Also we are wanting them to have a very smooth
> transition from Windows to Linux (so school systems can avoid licensing
> issues) The goal is not so much as to teach children Linux but to get
Linux
> into the school systems with minimal fuss (they can later learn the
workings
> of Linux once its in the school ) but we know in order to get Linux into
the
> schools it has to be very easy to use. Most schools are administered by a
> teacher or something of this nature we want it easy to do. For more
> information reply to this with questions so I can answer them
>
> Matt Jezorek
> http://www.bluelinux.org/
> matt bluelinux org
>
>
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