[plug] Linux, Devices and Schools

[Oliver White]

Hey folks.

One of the HP fellows helped out my sister, giving her a cable and a
windows app for entering her notes, reducing the data entry time to
4hrs, from an estimated 20. Hooray for them! </plug>

Anyway, this has got me thinking... our schools are already using basic
networkable embedded systems. What sort of cheap, fun and educational
applications could we come up with to help teach kids about the
possibilities for technology in the very near future? It seems to me
that although PDAs are becomming quite common, they're not used for much
except solitare and buzzword bingo.

I think with a little cheap hardware, free software and some innovative
use of IO, we could really get our kids teaching us about technology,
and at the same time gaining an appreciation for technology that they
(or mum or dad) can extend and improve.

I'd like to get a few people with some hardware and software clues to
discuss making a few open spec toys.

Anyone interested?

I'm moving to melbourne in mid december, so it would be good to do it
sometime soon. Maybe at a PLUG meet in the near future.

--
Oliver White