[ale] Notes from Jun 19th meeting

[Geoffrey]

Daniel Howard wrote:

> Another key Windoz app brought up as a barrier to transitioning to Linux 
> was PrintShop.  However, if teacher's PCs are still Windoz, then they 
> should be able to print banners, science projects, etc. without any 
> problem.  I did some playing around and found a great way to do banners 
> with OpenOffice and Adobe Reader: Open Impress (presentation), set page 
> width to say 22 inches (or multiples of 11 inches), and then make a 
> banner using graphics, fonts, and word art ("Fontwork") gallery, and 
> then copy the entire page.  Then open the spreadsheet Calc and set the 
> page format to landscape, and then paste the image into the spreadsheet. 
>   You can then print the banner and Calc will automatically tile it so 
> you can cut and paste the individual pages together.  Geoffrey, see what 
> your wife thinks of that approach compared to PrintShop, and point out 
> that anyone can do this at home as well as at school, students and 
> teachers without requiring that they all purchase PrintShop.

I know what she's going to say.  Why go through all that when she can do 
it much more straight forward with Printshop.  I know this woman, been 
married 23 years. ;)  Thanks for your efforts, but it's got to be 
something that's going to be much less painful.  Ideally, getting it to 
run under Wine or Crossover office will be the right solution.  I'll 
likely revisit this in the near future.  I'll keep folks updated.

> Many thought what made the GOSEF story work for Brandon elementary was 
> the combination of buy-in by principal and PTA first, then being ignored 
> by the district IT staff, demonstrating the benefits, and luckily having 
> the test scores go up.  I'd say we just kept meeting whatever obstacles 
> arose case by case.  Since I'm about to do the whole thing over for 
> another school, we'll see what makes it happen this time.  But we're 
> starting with buy-in up front, and no district IT leadership to battle 
> this time.

I agree completely here.  If you can get buy in from the school itself, 
that gets your foot in the door.

Thanks for a great presentation.

-- 
Until later, Geoffrey

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
  - Benjamin Franklin