[vox-outreach] LUGOD is signed up for Child Development Conferencein April; volunteers needed!

[Jess]

> We are looking for volunteers to help set-up and break down, staff the booth,
> create and/or photocopy handout materials, and possibly also burn CDROMs.

> Please let us know if you're interested in helping, and in what capacity.
> (If you'd like to help with the booth, please mention what time slot(s) you're
> available for.)

I can be there all day, though life will be much easier if I can skip
most of the setup. I'm happy to help create materials, and can burn
CDROMs, though I can't provide the disks.

> Focusing on the child development conference, I'm at a complete loss as to
> what to expect. Educational alternatives ... public vs private vs home
> schooling? Psychology? Learning disabilities / ADHD / dyslexia etc?

As far as I can tell, the conference is oriented towards early
childhood education, so it probably makes sense to focus on software
useful for preschool and early elementary school, which is a little
unfortunate, because I feel like this is an area where Linux is a bit
lacking (except TuxPaint, of course!). Of course, I'm not terribly
impressed with many of the Windows offerings either :) Having
information for older kids would be good, since there are going to be
parents or people dealing with multi-age groups, but I expect young
children will be the main focus.

Most of the attendees are probably not going to be highly technical.
In fact, technical information is probably going to lose most of them.

Having a computer set up with accounts for people of varying ages
(preschool, elementary, middle/high school, and teacher/parent
oriented accounts, with appropriate restrictions and accessibility
options) would probably be interesting.

Accessibility options for people with disabilities would be a good one.

Windows compatibility demonstration would be a good thing, as the
ability to run specific software could be a dealbreaker (I have not
personally had much luck getting preschool software running under
WINE, and VMware doesn't seem an ideal answer in this context. Is
there a better option, or anyone more experienced with WINE who would
be willing to set things up? I can provide some preschool games).

The ability to stretch limited tech funds by using older hardware and
legally avoiding licensing fees is something to focus on.

> When talking to parents of youngish children who want their kids to get on-
> line but are frustrated by malware, pitch the relative safety of an open-
> source browser running on something besides Windows.

To extend that... the usefulness of having separate, limited accounts
that can't mess with settings, other peoples' files, etc.

Is there going to be some form of internet access available?

I can bring my EEE, and probably a laptop with Edubuntu (unless there
is a better child-friendly option).

Jessica