This post from the ubuntu-education mailing list more or less speaks for itself.

Hello,

I’m the Technology Director for a school district in the Kansas City area and we’ve been playing around with Edubuntu here in our test lab. I’m sure our experience is similar to many of you in education. People want more “stuff” and they want it yesterday.

Well, we’re to the point where we’ve got plenty of “stuff” but nobody knows how to use it. So we’re looking at solutions in that realm not only to be more savvy with the existing technology, but also where that will take us.

We are 95% a windows shop with 1,000 computers and 3,000 students in district. We have one computer lab per elementary school and two computer labs in our Middle and High School – all running Windows XP. We have 25 Windows 2003 servers in district.

Edubuntu is intriguing to us because it offers a pre-packaged suite of applications designed to cater to the teachers and the students. So often, the stuff we roll out to the staff is enterprise oriented. i.e. Office is designed to increase productivity of an office. But we’re not really looking at the student, which should be the main focus.

Anyway, I’d appreciate any help you all can give on where we go from here. It is absolutely possible we could use this product in our classrooms soon. But I do have some questions:

Is there a primer out there telling us what programs are available and “best” for different age groups? The stock version of Edubuntu seems to have the “greatest hits” that cover several different age groups. I’m especially interested in the following categories:

Pre-K
Kindergarden
1st-2nd Grade
3rd-5th Grade

And then we’ll work up from there.

We’d really like to know what other “standards” these programs meet. We’re discussing in our district currently which programs are “best” and also meet “state standards” – They should also be measurable in some way. What products does Edubuntu have to offer in those areas?

Well, enough questions… I’m excited to be part of the list and look forward to speaking with you all!!

[name snipped]
Technology Director
Excelsior Springs Schools

Any time the IT department for an entire school district — with 1,000 computers and 3,000 students! — asks for suggestions on Edubuntu, it’s definitely worth noting! 😀