Hacking pedagogy via netbooks

Netbook with Linux installed

Phase 1 of the school’s 1:1 netbook has begun (and I’m documenting some of my activity for that project in my Netbooks at NBCHS blog). This year, all teaching staff will be given a netbook to play and explore with. One of my first explorations has been to install the Ubuntu Netbook Remix. My findings so far is that it is has a much better interface and is more responsive than the pre-installed OS. The Unity GUI is designed specifically for the screen size of a netbook so my big sausage-like fingers can easily move the cursor into position without having to dance around a tinier icon that is the result of a scaled down version of a desktop GUI. I’ve left the Windows 7 partition on the computer only so I can use it for demos to students who are only have access to Windows 7 laptops and netbooks.

The importance of having Ubuntu or some other version of Gnu-Linux isn’t just because of performance or GUI improvements. It has more to do with what we think students need to learn. A Gnu-Linux OS is inherently more open that a locked down OS like Windows 7 or even (my beloved) Mac OS. Gnu-Linux (OK, let’s just call it Linux from now on for the sake of brevity. If Richard Stallman wants to take me to task on that, he’s free to leave a comment) systems are meant to be hacked, tweaked, altered and customized based on the users needs. They encourage exploration of the functioning of the OS and allow users to easily — well, relatively easily if you don’t have root access; it takes a bit more work but it can be done for your own account– add applications to the computer. They encourage creation of your own solutions, or at least research, to problems like “how do I backup files onto an external drive?” Aren’t exploration, creation and research of genuine problems some of the qualities we want students to have while they are in school and for the rest of their lives? Sure they are, and we need to give them permission and freedom for productive play in order to develop those traits. We also need to help them learn from their failures, which is where that backup script can come in handy.  A locked down netbook prevents any kind of tweaking or tinkering, which is where the really valuable learning happens.

I’m hoping to demonstrate the Ubuntu driven netbook at school division’s technology committee at our next meeting. I think that the case to be made for having Ubuntu installed on the computers is a strong one and I hope that it might be part of our eventual division wide 1:1 netbook initiative. I could also point out to other staff and students that it is possible to make a USB drive that can be used to boot into Ubuntu Linux instead of the operating system installed on the hard drive. All the data and changes while running Ubuntu are stored on the USB drive, not the hard drive. The OS, applications and data on the hard drive remain untouched. Finding out how to do this might provide an excellent problem for research and tinkering.