ELDER Project in Sandy Lake
On Thursday, October 28th, 2010, I had the pleasure of flying to Sandy Lake First Nation to install ELDER software and reboot a One Laptop Per Child Initiative! It was my first time going to Sandy Lake, and I had some great shots from the air:
On the view from the airport, it was extremely picturesque with the beginning of winter:
At Thomas Fiddler Elementary School, we sat down and sorted which XO laptops could be updated and used in the computer lab, and which needed to be sent back to K-NET for repairs. In the school, there were a total of 81 XO laptops, 50 damaged and 31 that needed to be updated. I created a sort of “octopus” update/recharge set-up:
While the multiple updates were taking their time, we turned our attention to the desktop lab. There, we took the time to show how to install Edubuntu (dual boot with partition) on their desktops, and then proceeded to work on installing Edubuntu on EVERY single desktop at their lab! (There’s even a video – check it out!)
Some of the highlights of the implementation:
· Successfully installed Edubuntu 10.04 on all 23 desktops
· Successfully installed OFRIS (Linux “Deepfreeze”) on all 23 desktops, with a “student” user being frozen
· Successfully connected to computer lab printer on all 23 desktops – I was even able to print out the entire book of software descriptions from the ELDER site!
· Hooked up an ELDER desktop to a Smart Board, SMART software should work seamlessly with Edubuntu
· Updated 31 XO-1 laptops with the latest OS, providing a teacher’s manual with lesson plans and recommendations on how to use the XO laptop in the classroom
· Provided documentation USB with the USGAR manual, ELDER brochure, Ubuntu 10.04 manual, 2 Edubuntu installation sticks, 2 QIMO installation sticks, 2 QIMO installation CDs, and 5 USBs for XO wipe/update.
Thanks very much to Michelle Wotton, the computer science teacher at TFMES and the IT team in the school for their great help with this successful implementation!
Some plans for the future:
· Unfortunately, the individual desktops from Computer for Schools in the classrooms cannot support QIMO software because the BIOS on the computers cannot read USBs or CDs. I was a little disappointed because QIMO would have been great in the elementary school - some classrooms don’t have ANY educational software installed, or they have corrupted Windows XP. Floppies need to be created to fix up the BIOS, or because Tux Math, Tux Typing, and Tux Paint have windows versions, we can create a USB with educational open source software that is compatible with Windows. Computer for Schools should also be contacted so that they can provide some support for the computers they provided.
· The 50 XO laptops brought back to Sioux Lookout will be repaired to the best of my ability, as well as being updated with the latest OS. They will be sent back once they are complete!
· When installing Edubuntu, sometimes it would be great to pack an emulator in a windows environment to demonstrate Edubuntu on windows (especially when you can’t access the BIOS). In addition, the VLE again would be great for students wanting to bring back software to their home computers to play with! Instructions and student training needs to be provided though.
Overall, it has been an extremely rewarding experience - I hope to hear from Sandy Lake and share what creative ways they have been using ELDER and the XO laptops!
