Thanks to Kim Cofino I learned of Green School in Bali, Indonesia. Kim linked to their enlightening slideshow describing alternative sources of energy, the use of bamboo and volcanic rock to build essential structures, their organic permaculture system, the extraction of methane from cow manure for fuel, and other fascinating endeavors.
As an IT teacher and free software in education advocate, I was curious to know what kind of software systems they use and sent an email of inquiry. The pessimist in me assumed they would not have considered (or known) to connect their choice of software to their mission and philosophy. I was fully prepared to suggest a GNU/Linux alternative to their Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac OS so imagine the smile on my face when I received the following reply:
Dear Peter,
Thank you for your email. At Green School we do advocate free and open-source software. Students use Ubuntu/Edubuntu 8.10 for their computer OS. They are being introduced to HTML and CSS for web programming using simple text editor. We are also using Alice Programming language of Carnegie Mellon as an introductory course to the basic of computer programming.
Best Regards,
Yongki C. Andyka Jong
IT and Technology
Green School
What haven’t they thought of?
Tags: green school
November 18, 2008 at 3:48 pm |
Cool school. Bet the kids get a good education. Something they may not have thought of are XOs. Don’t they come with a crank or pull string or something like that for charging?
November 23, 2008 at 2:06 am |
@thinkgreen I would guess Green School has electricity outlets and adapters which they can use to run desktop computers and charge mobile computers. I don’t know if the XOs come like that. I think there was such a model for students in areas without the convenience of outlets and adapters but I may be mistaken. My XO came with a power adapter so I’m not sure.
The XO-1s are certainly not power hogs though. Mary Lou Jepson brought some innovation that cut down on power consumption. Less power consumption is great. As well, students can easily read the XO screen in sunlight. I wonder if Green School students spend much time outside? :)
November 29, 2008 at 3:20 pm |
Great idea to write to the school! Not only am I impressed at how quickly the responded, but that they were on the ball in the technology area as well. Indonesia is not so far from Thailand – I may have to head over for a visit!
December 2, 2008 at 7:44 pm |
Very impressive. Would love to see this school action!