[Edu-sig] Reinventing the classroom...

[kirby urner]

So once we agree we want some kind of computer lab, the question is, what kind?

They already come in many flavors, one of my favorite being the
virtual hosts approach, where all software and lessons for the day
come preloaded such that you experience a properly equipped distro
right out of the starting gate, MySQL, SQLite, povray, VPython, some
x3d browser, everything you need.  No time waisted with RPMs or
apt-gets or any of that.

Of course from the teacher's perspective, it can't be that labor
intensive to manually reconfigure each workstation nightly, which is
why the virtual hosts model provides check box menu driven type
interfaces, not saying I've seen but a few, schools tend to roll their
own sometimes.  So as Mr. Urner, I say "tomorrow I want Python 3.x",
then that's what'll be there, perhaps turning off install options for
every 3rd party package with no compatible version yet (smart menu!).

Having been doing some work in the private sector around multiple
pyprocessing clients talking to a host via Pyro, I'm thinking my ideal
classroom lets students practice teamwork across workstations, even if
these are virtual, i.e. the actual classroom hardware is more terminal
than desktop computer, the racks being elsewhere.

It's not like every day we need interprocess communication across
hosts, but some days we might, and this classroom makes it easy for
the teacher to set that up ahead of time (e.g. by getting pyprocessing
installed -- not Standard Library, emulates Threading but with process
dynamics under the hood).

I realize we're not there yet, except in some of these executive
training centers, i.e. the "students" I'm talking about are business
professionals with six figure incomes, hoping to stay in the game
during the next tech cycle, where there's lots of hiring but precious
few with the skills.

That's why I think ramping up more in high school makes a lot of
sense, wouldn't mind shoving a lot of that "old Europe" approach to
mathematics to one side to make room, but that's just in our more
radical / surreal encampments, not saying to try this at home.  Maybe
a Quaker school here and there might be into making a go of it.

However, if we play our cards right, this kind of TuxLab type
executive training lab could become more part and parcel of the
ordinary pre-college experience, as well as college, where wired dorms
are already the norm and computer labs abound.

Vendors are already gearing up for this market, as mentioned earlier
on edu-sig, with products that'll temporarily limit access or even
disable the keyboard at the teacher's discretion, not saying every
course need confer such godlike powers (including powers to snoop,
lurk).

If it's a Quaker school, likely students will share sysop
responsibilities so there's a clear view against abuses of power all
round, whereas (on the other hand) in some classes, e.g. martial arts,
students willingly consent to temporary restrictions i.e. having
keyboard go dead, flickering terminals -- could be a valuable
simulation and/or learning experience, given likely field conditions
this crew is training to handle, maybe erratic power supplies,
frequent brown outs.

Anyway, if you've been tracking my blogs you see my focus is more the
Portland coffee shop scene these days, not so much classrooms, where I
just use whatever PSU has to offer.  These storefronts already host
artists, sculptures, photographers, double as art galleries in other
words, which these days might as well include a few LCDs, i.e.
flatscreens, framed TVs.

Nam June Paik and friends, Hell's Kitchen and so on, have already
paved the way for TV screen as art vista, so it takes very little work
to get these exhibited, with public buy in that these aesthetics are
OK.  LA has many examples, with Portland playing catch up (Costello's
on East Broadway a good example of what I'm talking about, but also
Back Space downtown).  Screens host "screen savers" done using Python
in some capacity, maybe just playing off a DVD at this point (or
streaming) no live CPU in this picture.

http://www.paikstudios.com/
http://www.costellostravelcaffe.com/photos/#id=interior&num=1
http://www.backspace.bz/index.php

Kirby