Education - From the Board Room

Education - From the Board Room

It has been said that "It takes a community to raise a child". My hope is that this blog will be such a community. That together we can pool our resources to educate our children, and give them the gift of "life long learning".

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Arduino - The little Robot That Could

Blog 4
To this point everything that I've talked about has been free and open source software.  This time I have a free and open source project that while it isn't free is fairly low cost. This time it is not only free and open source software, but free and open source hardware as well. The Arduino project www.Arduino.cc has all the information about the robotic software and the hardware.  While I haven't got my hand on one of these kits, it sounds like the perfect project for that student that is hard to challenge.  I first heard of the Arduino project through a podcast Floss weekly 61 on www.twit.tv .  This robot project will give the student an introduction to programming as well as robotics. While the project was actually started in Europe, there are a number of places here in the United States that have kits or parts available.  If you are lucky the high school in your area has joined the robotic competition which can lead to scholarships, and other benefits including a great group of kids to run around with.  Check out arduino.cc . Read their papers and forums, and then pick one of the companies listed that supply kits.  I think you will find you'll be pleasantly surprised at the prices.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

A Library at Your Fingertips

Blog3

Here it is just before Valentine's Day and I thought I might do something special for all the lovers.  When Valentine's Day rolls around they say that a young man's fancy turns to love.  Well we older men have some similar thoughts.   Thoughts about love poems, and poets such as Elizabeth Barret Browning or Robert Browning just to name a couple that comes to mind.  If you have a student that is studying poetry, you can find a lot of books on the  INTERNET that have poetry and talk about their authors and the type of poetry that the authors wrote.  Books are a very important part of education, and it is nice to know that you don't have to make a trip to the library every time that you need to research a subject.  Google books has a huge library in a pdf format that is easy to access, and if you search you'll find a number of websites that offer free or low cost books on the INTERNET.  I hope to soon add audio to this blog, and I may include a couple poems.


How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

The love poem of all love poems, and if you go to the website listed below you can find several interpretations of the poem, but for me I think I'll just remember it as a beautiful love poem.
http://www.eliteskills.com/c/2193

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Gcompris and Open Source Software

Blog #2
Gcompris is an award winning sweet of open source software for kids between the ages of 2 and 10 years old.  The software was developed for Linux but is available for Windows and Mac.  One of the nice things about Gcompris is that it will teach the kids to use the keyboard and mouse, as well as a tool to help them learn the numbers and alphabet.  Advanced games teach math, spelling and other skills.  There are also puzzles, and strategy games in the mix.  My twin Grand daughters seemed to enjoy a number of the games in the suite.  I think it may have been developed in France which is where they live, but they played the games in English.  As I said in my first blog, I set up two computers with Linux for the girls to play with when they visit.  After a little instruction I basically turned them loose to play what ever they wanted on the computers.  When they found out that one was a little slower, each wanted the fast one, but they were content to share.  

I suggest that you check out their web sight for a download.  Their download page is     
 “ http://gcompris.net/-Download-"      They have a limited edition for Windows and Mac or if you want to try Linux, they have a cd for the Linux distribution for Knoppix which contains the whole version of Gconpris.  As they explain, you set your computer up to boot from the cd you download and make from their website.  The cd contains the whole operating system and a number of other Linux programs, including word processing, other educational games, Internet browsers, and many other programs that you may enjoy.  They all run off the "live cd" and do not disturb your hard drive or Windows or Mac based operating system.  Be careful, you might get hooked.  All the programs that you might have to pay big dollars for in Windows or Mac have free counter parts in Linux.  Generally you can do most anything you want to with Linux.  In fact a lot of programs are developed in Linux and transported to Windows and Mac.  Many Linux distributions are now available as downloads for a "live cd".  The one I use is Ubuntu which is supported by Conical, and has a large community of volunteers that work on bugs in the software.  I'm actually writing this blog in "Open Office", a multifaceted word processor.  Open Office is available for Windows as well for free at      “http://www.openoffice.org/"   If you try any of the programs I recommend,  I'd like to hear from you.  If you have anything to suggest to help educate the kids, let me know and I'll pass it on to everyone. 

In future blogs I hope to add sound and maybe even video to the blog.  My three sisters have all worked with kids, and I hope to hear from them in the weeks ahead.Gcompris and Open Source Software