Re: Gnome for Educational Usage

["Kevin Vandersloot" <kfv101 psu edu>]

Hi.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Matt Jezorek" <matt bluelinux org>
To: "Kevin Vandersloot" <kfv101 psu edu>; <gnome-list gnome org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2001 11:21 AM
Subject: Re: Gnome for Educational Usage


> 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.

I think GNOME already provides this. As long as users don't have to
administer the computer, GNOME is pretty easy and straightforward to use.

>     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)

It sounds like this would definitely be possible considering what you are
doing. Most often it seems that I use a shell when I need root acess for
something like installing software or programming, neither of which the
students will need to do.

>     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.

Yah, you could remove all the terminals from the menus and from the initial
panel. The users could still run commands (if necessary) with run dialog.
You could even remove the control center from the menus so users could not
change desktop settings.

>
> 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.

It would seem to me that the first big step is just removing a lot of the
excess garbage in GNOME that only geeks would use (like the many funky
applications in the menus). One problem I could forsee is some of the
customization of the panel. For instance users can easily remove panels,
menus etc. with a right click which would mean more calls to the help desk.
It would be nice to be able to lock down certain aspects of the desktop. I'm
sure it wouldn't be too hard to modify the source to change some things. For
instance it would be easy just to remove the menu item that lets you remove
a panel or applet from the source.

You also might want to take a look at a usability test done on GNOME.
http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/ut1_report/report_main.html
Another issue you might run into mentioned on the report is the lack of
feedback when starting applications. For instance users will often click on
the netscape icon over and over because their is no feedback and it takes a
while for Netscape to start. Most of the problems listed in the report
should be fixed for GNOME 2.0.

Hmm, you could probably even contract Ximian to produce a nice version of
GNOME suitable to your project.

Kevin

>
> -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
> >