Promoting Free Software in my school (was: hello)

Hello Matthias,

thanks for answering Repentinus' question (other email, same thread).
Waiting for it made me forget to reply to your mail here. Apologies.


On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 05:53:23PM +0100, Matthias Kolb wrote:
> 
> free software is hardly used at my school, Firefox and GIMP are
> installed on some Computers, and Geogebra is used for Maths stuff.

That's still good and much better than nothing.

> Some time ago an openSUSE derivative was installed on some PCs, however,
> these were replaced by newer ones without Linux. I'm afraid the teachers
> are not really familiar with free software, except Firefox.

Could you check with someone if this was in fact the reason for it?
Maybe a math teacher using Geogebra or anybody you get along with and
might have open ears for Free Software.

You may read/print our leaflet [1] prior to the conversation.

If you really approach the Geogebra teacher, you may start the
conversation by pointing out that there is a new book (in German)
about it [2].

> 	The most of my class mates use the pre-installed software on their
> computer, but there are also special requirements e.g. one class mate
> uses photoshop, others play the latest video games, so I'm afraid their
> requirements can't always be fullfilled.

They can't. But that doesn't matter that much. It's important to get
the thinking process started. Most people move to FS gradually and
begin to grasp its importance for society even later. You can't win
them in a day. 

Please keep us posted and feel free to contact me or the edu-team for
advice or matters that might not belong on a public mailing list.

Greetings,

Guido


[1] http://fsfe.org/projects/education/leaflet-edu-reasons.en.html
    printable version in German:
    http://fsfe.org/projects/education/leaflet-edu-reasons.de.G.pdf
    other printable leaflets:
    http://fsfe.org/about/printable/
[2] http://www.bookzilla.de/shop/action/productDetails/15453783/mit_geogebra_mehr_mathematik_verstehen_3834817570.html?aUrl=90006951

-- 
Guido Arnold                       Free Software Foundation Europe   
http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido      []         Edu team & German team 
OpenPGP Key-ID:  0x82F6A8F2    [][][]                  Get active! 
XMPP: [email protected]      ||     http://fsfe.org/contribute

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