Wazobia Linux™

Education

The e-classroom:

Educational institutions around the world are being confronted with increasing pressure to reduce costs while delivering better educational services that meet the needs of their students in a continuously changing technological landscape. |

The role of the computer in the classroom is changing. Today's technically literate students use PC's in the same ways adults use them in the workplace and in college. Today's classrooms are evolving from simple classrooms to e-classrooms.

In order to establish an e-classroom, schools around the nation are looking for stable, virus-free, cost efficient solutions. Wazobia Linux™ Educational Desktop, is a specially customized version of Wazobia Linux that provides a full operating system and suite of applications as well as a suite of special educational tools.

It is also an ideal open platform for students to learn about the architecture, development and administration of an operating system. The Open Source nature of the operating system as well as the availability of source code for thousands of applications makes a Linux based system the ideal learning platform. Wazobia Linux™ Educational Desktop also includes development and system administration tools for students who are pursuing advanced studies in computer science.

Linux is also largely un-touched by viruses and worms that are currently plaguing other known Operating Systems.

There are four main uses of computers in classrooms:

Collaboration

Students can use PC's for e-mail, sharing files to complete group projects, passing on links to web sites and articles from on-line databases. It's not uncommon to have two or three students working together with one serving as the "record keeper" keeping track of information which is later saved and shared electronically with the other group members.
Every student has a home directory, which becomes a virtual notebook where they organize important documents. The /public folder enables file-sharing as a means of exchange.

The students in an e-classroom can incorporate a networked environment into their day to day school life. They use it to get their work done and may find some ingenious social adaptations as well.

Communication

The most used applications in an e-classrooms are not the flashy, multimedia based, tutorial programs that you see in the educational sections of software stores. When students in an e-classroom are working they use the same programs the rest of the world uses, word processing, e-mail, spreadsheets and presentation software. There is little room for the computer as tutor concept in today's busy classrooms. The use of computers should enhance the childrens abilities and prepare them for their future working environment.

Teachers can use presentation software to add multimedia content to lessons. Students use these software tools as "virtual poster boards" for class reports. Some things just don't change and telling everyone what you know is still a big part of learning. Creating the presentation is still what brings it all together for many students.  Desktop publishing is an important use of PC's in today's schools. From one page flyers to student run newspapers, PC's make it happen. This is an area where computer use has acted as an equalizer in that everyone can now publish their ideas.

Analysis

With spreadsheets and graphing tools now on every PC, students have the power to ask and answer "what if" questions and to make ready comparisons of data. Preview buttons and updated windows make it easy for students to interact with the software and make choices.

Creativity

Some of our most empowered users of technology are art and music students. Our art teachers were quick to see the potential in computers. PC's are seen as creative tools by our students after taking PC art classes where before they were only seen as productivity tools.

For further information please contact info@wazobialinux.com.