Linux on Netbooks and Whiskers on Kittens

This is going to be a long post, but I think (hope?) it will be worth it to many of you.

I�ve blogged previously about the Inspired Writing project that began this summer in my school district. Briefly, all 5th grade classrooms, all 6th grade Language Arts classrooms, and all 9th grade Language Arts classrooms now have ASUS EeePC 1000 netbook computers. (We hope to expand it to grades 5-12 eventually.) Those teachers also went through staff development this summer based around improving reading and writing skills through the use of technology.

At Arapahoe this means that we have 198 new EeePC 1000�s this fall. This gives us a 1:1 ratio in our 9th grade Language Arts classrooms (we have a few sections using Dell laptops that we had previously purchased with grant money), plus we purchased an additional twelve for our Special Services Department, four for our Study Center, and twenty-four for our media center for student check out. (For now, students can check out a EeePC for use in the media center for a class period at a time. Once we get settled in, we�re hoping to expand that for longer time periods and not restrict it to the media center.)

Our district settled on the EeePC�s for many reasons, two of which were licensing costs and imaging issues. We ordered EeePC�s with Xandros Linux, and they utilize our PODnet wireless network to connect to the Internet, meaning that we don�t have to worry about Microsoft licensing costs (they�re running Open Office). And the Eee�s have a built-in restore mechanism that will reset them back to factory condition, thereby minimizing technical support issues (which is critical as my district, like most these days, has had to cut positions).

So one of my self-assigned jobs this summer was to learn more about Linux in order to both support and hopefully improve the implementation of this project. So at NECC I approached Steve Hargadon, who is my go-to person in my PLN for all things open source. For those of you who know Steve, you won�t be surprised that when I finally tracked him down he was running from one presentation to another, but he kindly gave me several names to contact that he thought could help me out. They all did, but one in particular ended up helping me out more than I could�ve expected.

Jim Klein is the Director of Information Services and Technology for the Saugus Union School District in the Santa Clarity Valley in Northern Los Angeles County. When I contacted Jim with some questions, he answered them, but then also mentioned that he had an imaging process I might want to take a look at. Well, not only did he have an imaging process, but he had extensive, step-by-step documentation for how to do it. This documentation is so good that even I, pretty much completely new to Linux, could figure it out. (Jim and I did end up trading well over fifty emails over a variety of questions, which was way above and beyond the call of duty on Jim�s part, but that was mostly due to one typo on the documentation that we eventually figured out and my apparently inexhaustible capability for asking questions.)

So why am I blogging about this? Because I think this is a process that many of you should take a look at for your schools. Basically, here is why I think this image is so good:

1. Jim (and his team) have created a custom Ubuntu Netbook Remix image that's optimized for battery life and made it available for anyone to download and use (with step by step directions). You can use their image or modify it for your own needs. (For my school, this included customizing the launcher to add the apps and shortcuts we wanted available to students on the main screen, changing the default save settings in Open Office, changing the homepage and security settings in Firefox, adding the Diigo toolbar to Firefox as well as the Compact Firefox extension, adding the right printer, and running a script at startup to change the keyboard settings � more on that below.)
   
   
2. This image installs from a flash drive in about six minutes.
   
   
3. It uses open source software, so less of your limited dollars are going to licensing costs. Linux is also a relatively "thin" OS, so it runs pretty well on netbooks even though they have less horsepower.
   
   
4. The image has a built-in, 10-second system recovery option on reboot (adds 10 seconds to the normal reboot time). Yep, I said 10 seconds. Wait, it gets better. The recovery preserves user documents. (You can also choose to wipe out user docs, but that process takes a little longer.) And, unlike the built-in recovery option in the ASUS Xandros distribution, this doesn�t restore to factory settings, but to your image � with all changes, settings, and printers preserved. This is also a recovery process that a teacher can do, without having to track down a tech support person or wait until they have time to troubleshoot it � they can restore on the fly in the classroom (assuming it�s not a hardware issue), so it minimizes impact on instructional time.
   
   
5. It uses the Netbook Launcher interface, which I think is more productive for students and also looks nicer. (IMO, the Xandros interface doesn�t look as professional, which I think makes a difference for high school students, and also requires more clicks to get to what you want.)
   
   
6. It doesn�t lock things down (although you could if you really wanted to) � students can make modifications as they need to. And the beauty is that if students make a modification that causes a problem, you�ve got that 10-second restore option. To paraphrase something Jim said to me, instead of trying to lock everything down, let�s allow students the flexibility to do creative things with their devices. We protect our servers and infrastructure with solid security, but instead of locking down their devices we focus on quick recoverability. (This fits in well with my school�s overall philosophy of having high expectations of students and trusting them to do the right thing most of the time.)

So, what did this mean at my school? After tweaking Jim�s image I then put that image on sixteen 4 GB flash drives (the image would actually fit on a 2 GB drive). Creating that initial set of flash drives did take several hours, but now they are ready for any subsequent image I want to put on them. (And you can quickly add two files that Jim calls �Simple Updates� that I used for adding the printer I wanted for each cart.) We have 32 in each of our carts, so I then imaged half of the cart in about 10 minutes, then the other half in another 10. After about 20 minutes, I had a cart of 32 done, with all the apps, shortcuts, printer and settings I wanted, and with a built-in recovery option. Compare this to the Xandros distribution, where I was looking at 30-45 minutes per machine out of the box to get them ready to go, and without a recovery option that kept my settings. (Plus the Xandros by default doesn�t have things like Audacity or Gimp that are part of my image.) When I went to the next cart all I had to do was replace two small files on each flash drive to add a different printer to the image. I was able to have all 198 netbooks ready on day one with students, with the apps, interface and settings we needed.

Here are some screenshots:







Now, full disclosure, it did take me longer than twenty minutes per cart, but that�s because I decided to do one more thing � switch the functionality of the right-shift key and the up-arrow key. On the Eee 1000�s the up-arrow key is in the place where you naturally press when you try to shift with your right hand. During our staff development, that meant that every time someone tried to capitalize something on the left side of the keyboard, they ended up arrowing up instead of capitalizing. So I went out and found a script on the web, figured out how to modify it for the Eee 1000, and that�s now part of my image. It runs at startup and switches the functionality of those two keys. The reason it took me more than twenty minutes per cart is that after I imaged them, I also took the time to physically switch the right-shift and up-arrow keys on the keyboard. This is not difficult, but it is a pain, and about every ninth or tenth one I messed up the little connector and it would take me anywhere from two to twenty minutes to get it fixed. But, if you chose not to do this, it�s about twenty minutes a cart.

If you have netbook computers in your district, or are considering them, I would urge you � or your tech folks � to take a look at the wiki documentation Jim and his team have created (which includes a ready-to-go image you can download). Also, keep in mind that his image should work on most netbooks, not just Eee�s, although you may have to do a little tweaking. Thanks Jim and team, for making a difference for the teachers and students at my school (not to mention for me personally), and for being willing to share your hard work.

With apologies to Rodgers and Hammerstein . . .

Linux on netbooks and my great P-L-N;
Jim Klein, his wiki and Steve Hargadon;
Meaningful learning tied up with (virtual) string;
These are a few of my favorite things.

When NCLB bites,
When the filter stings,
When I�m feeling sad,
I simply remember my favorite things,
And then I don�t feel so bad.

Sixty Months

I wonder what implications this article from the February issue of Fast Company has for the future in our classrooms?

After more than 100 years of dashed hopes, several companies are coming to market with technologies that can safely transmit power through the air � a breakthrough that portends the literal and figurative untethering of our electronic age.

The article describes three main variations of this technology. The first, inductive coupling, was scheduled to make it to market this month. Basically, it�s a charging pad, and you drop any device (that has the right electronics to utilize it) on it and it will recharge.

No more tangle of power cables or jumble of charging stations . . . And the pads are smart: Their built-in coils are driven by integrated circuits, which know if the device sitting on them is authorized to receive power, or it needs power at all. So you won�t charge your car keys. Or overcharge your flashlight.

It�s initially being made available to police, fire-and-rescue, and contractor fleets, and is also being integrated into a truck console (think a box connected to the electrical system of the truck, and contractors drop all their rechargeable devices into it while driving from place to place.)

The second variation is radio-frequency harvesting, which works across distances of up to 85 feet, and is also supposed to be available this month.

In this system, electricity is transformed into radio waves, which are transmitted across a room, then received by so-called power harvesters and translated back into low-voltage direct current . . . down the road, it will appear in wireless boxes into which you can toss any and all of your electronics for recharging.

But it�s the third variation which is the most tantalizing: magnetically coupled resonance (dubbed �WiTricity� by its MIT inventor). This one is supposed to be available in 12 to 18 months.

Like acoustical resonance, which allows an opera singer to break a glass across the room by vibrating it with the correct frequency of her voice's sound waves, magnetic resonance can launch an energetic response in something far away. In this case, the response is the flow of electricity out of the receiving coil and into the device to which it's connected . . . Importantly, then, WiTricity doesn't depend on line-of-sight. A powered coil in your basement could power the rest of the house, wirelessly.

The rest of the house � or your classroom.

Say you�re a classroom teacher. (Altogether now, �I�m a classroom teacher.� Thanks.) And let�s assume for a moment that you�re not in a 1:1 environment, and that you�ve been assuming that it�s going to be quite a while before your students each have their own computing device that works reliably and effectively in your classroom.

But then you notice that netbook computers are getting pretty darn good at a price point of around $300 to $400. And then you read this article and realize that in the next five years (conceivably), that the price of that very capable netbook could easily drop to perhaps $150 (or the iPhone could evolve into the netbook space at that same price point), and either of those might include the necessary technology to receive �WiTricity� right in your classroom, so no more worries about batteries going dead.

So, if you�re that classroom teacher (or principal, or central office administrator), and you�ve got sixty months until that�s a reality: what should you be doing right now to get yourself � and your students � ready for that very-near-future? You�ve got sixty months � shouldn�t you be getting started?

Inspired Writing

Last month I wrote a post about my district�s Powered Up Writing project. Dan Maas, my district�s CIO, has now followed up his previous post with a description of Inspired Writing, a new project that we've proposed as part of our Educational Technology and Information Literacy Plan that�s required by our state department of education:

Using the vehicle of the Educational Technology and Information Literacy plan, we proposed to place netbook computers in every 5th grade, every 6th and 9th grade Language Arts classroom in the district. Building on the successful support of the Learning Services' Universal Literacy Framework in five 5th grade classrooms at East, Field, Moody, Whitman and Hopkins Elementary schools, we proposed a project we call Inspired Writing.

The ET-IL Plan (still in draft form) is a highly structured document to meet the requirements of the Colorado Department of Education. Our attempt to write a document that both meets the requirements but also communicates our vision is presented here.

I�m sure Dan would love to hear some feedback, so head on over to his blog and leave a comment. Please keep in mind that this proposal is limited to current, already allocated technology dollars (just re-purposing them), as we � like many districts � are in the midst of some huge budget issues. But this is also laying the groundwork � the pitfalls to avoid, the best practices for instruction, the hoped-for increase in student achievement � for a grade 5 though 12 implementation for our district. If this first step is as successful as we think it will be, then hopefully we�ll find a way to expand it to 5-12 in the near future.