Link to Open 1-to-1 Announcement Letter
From Open 1-To-1
Welcome to Open 1-to-1!
Mission: To establish a support framework for 1-to-1 computing that is focused on the needs of education.
The founding members of Open 1-to-1 include passionate educators and technicians dedicated to the cause of educational technology.
There is a major need in Maine, and the rest of the world, for a framework that enables schools to not only take ownership of their computing initiatives, but to work together as a united body to transform learning through technology. Open 1-to-1 will serve as the arbiter of this effort by establishing and identifying a comprehensive set of technical solutions, professional development and training resources, and support services to make Open 1-to-1 the best solution for schools.
The necessary elements are readily available. The recent advent of netbooks and low cost laptops has greatly reduced the cost of computing hardware. The open source community has created a plethora of powerful, high quality software solutions that can be implemented by schools and students without the hassle of proprietary licensing or high price tags.
These Open Source programs provide the same skills while, more importantly, allow for greater accessibility to all students. Professional services and support for these open source solutions have been developed to provide the needed infrastructure to implement and maintain open source computing.
The advantages of joining Open 1-to-1 are numerous and exciting:
The possibility of using netbooks/low cost laptops reduces the cost of deployment.
The operating system and software used will be open source allowingschools to gain tremendous functionality, and be able to share it with students, educators, and the community at large without licensing constraints.
Professional development and training will be open to everyone, so teachers with a great idea will be able to share and train others, and be reimbursed for their time.
And there will be no vendor lock-in: Choose your hardware, your support services, your training resources for what best fits your schools needs and budget.
The Open 1-to-1 board is working hard to put all the finishing touches on this solution. They are pulling together all the elements: the software, the netbooks, the technology, the training resources, and the support. Open 1-to-1 will provide a streamlined, comprehensive set of solutions.
An outline of the Open 1-to-1 solution is available online, and more details are being added every day. The first technical and professional development training will be kicked off at FOSSED in late June, followed up by other training/workshops over the summer. From now until then, Open 1-to-1 will be hosting bi-weekly webinars for interested parties to learn about new developments and ask questions. You can subscribe to a mailing list for more frequent updates and a forum where Open 1-to-1 will be answering questions.
Most importantly, if you are interested in getting involved with Open 1-to-1, join us! We want you to be involved! We are looking for people that would like to assist in technical development and support, teachers interested in providing training/development, and anyone else that might have something to offer.
Sincerely,
The Open 1-to-1 Board http://www.open1to1.org
