Earlier this year I planned out how I would attempt to implement 21st century literacy in my classroom. I wrote it as a final requirement for graduate credit through the K12 Online Conference. It also requires an evaluation of the plan. The year’s not over, but here it is. I actually intended to do this earlier, but my blog went down completely, then still had missing categories after I got it back up. The blog is back! What is School 2.0? lives again! Woohoo! 
I also had to delay because I didn’t get computers into my room until late November, 1/3 of the way through the school year. It is a little hard to integrate technology into the classroom, if you don’t have technology in the classroom. Yes, I know other teachers do it all the time. It’s called a computer lab. We did learn in the computer lab the online safety part of Digital Citizenship. We used Netsmatzkids and MrGruff.org. Both are great sites for teaching primary students about online safety and avoiding cyberbullying.
Now that we are up and running, we have a 2:1 student:computer ratio…kind of. I explained in a post last summer that the I would be getting thin client computers in my classrooms. The disadvantage of their inexpensive terminals is that they all share on processor and one internet connection. Flash web sites, videos, and any programs beyond Office, really bog them down. However, they work just fine for most Web 2.0 tools.
That brings you up to speed on where we are as of a couple weeks ago. I’ll tell you in the next post how our 21st Century Literacy Classroom has gone up to now.
Here is the beginnings of a graphic to help explain/represent the 4 cornerstones I plan to use for our 21st Century Literacy Classroom.
1. Digital Citizenship
2. Critical Reading
3. Authentic Writing
4. Global Collaboration
It needs clipart/images. Any suggestions?
I got it to work! … Kinda. I have always gotten stuck at the DHCP server not starting.
I started by I looking at the DCHP3/dhcpd.config file again for the millionth time. I noticed a note in the comments at the top that said:
# Attention: if /etc/ltsp/dchp.conf exists, that will be used as configuaration file instead of this file.
Then I recalled a tweet by emalyse that said
…doesn’t edubuntu use the dhcp.conf in /etc/ltsp and not dhcp3
So I checked. In Webmin’s DHCP server, there is a link called Module Config. I clicked. Beside DHCP server config file it said /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf. I changed the directory to /etc/ltsp/dhcpd.conf.
I clicked Start Server…and…
I got a new error. :-/
Failed to start dhcpd :
dhcpd self-test failed. Please fix the config file.The error was:/etc/ltsp/dhcpd.conf line 29: expecting key name.
key ;
^
Configuration file errors encountered -- exiting
It was progress.
I took out:
key ;
and…
It started! DHCP server is now working. After 2 years of trying to figure it out it is finally working!
…almost…
The thin clients do start booting to the server. The Ubuntu loading screen pops up on the client screen, and then it stops at:
BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-5ubuntu12) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter ‘help’ for a list of built-in commands.
(intiramfs)
When I press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to display the error it said:
[ 0.000000] ACPI: DMI BIOS year==0, assuming ACPI-capable machine
[ 23.698646] ACPI: Unable to load the System Description Tables
Loading, please wait…
IP-Config: eth0 hardware address 00:0d:88:2d:8e:87 mtu 1500 DHCP RARP
SIOCADDRT: No such process
IP-Config: failed to set default route on Eth0
IP-Config: Eth0 complete (from 192.168.1.0)
address: 192.168.1.19 broadcast: 192.168.0.255 netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway: 192.168.0.1 dns: 192.168.0.1 dns1: 0.0.0.0
domain : example.com
rootserver: 192.168.1.0 rootpath: /opt/ltsp/i386
filename : /ltsp/i386/nbi.img
Error: Connect: Network unreachable
Mount: Mounting /rofs on /root/rofs failed: Invalid argument
Mount: Mounting /root/dev on /dev failed: No such file or directory
Mount: Mounting /sys on /root/sys failed: No such file or directory
Mount: Mounting /proc on /root/proc failed: No such file or directory
Target filesystem doesn’t have /sbin/init
I have a new problem to puzzle over. Hopefully it will take less than 2 years to solve this one. I’m closer, but not there yet. All ideas welcome.
I’m stuck in the same place I was stuck before with Edubuntu thin clients.
I could get GDHCPD to work this time. I finally got Webmin to work through the browser. After installing it I typed in the address https://localhost:10000, and it worked! This allows me to configure the DHCP server without having to drop to the command line level or use a text editor to edit configuration files. Yipee! If I get an error, I go to System –> System logs –> File /var/log/syslog. The error message below came from the syslog.I tried adding the package Ubuntu LTSP management GUI. This is the LTSP GUI management tool to set up, modify and manage an
Ubuntu LTSP server Thin Client installation. It guides you through
the Thin Client chroot installation and enables you to adjust dhcp
settings on the server. It also allows you to tweak specific settings
for the Thin Clients. However, I can’t figure out how to get it to run. It looks like it is version 0.0.2. Maybe it’s just not ready.
I found advice for this problem on the Ubuntu forums at
Fail to start DHCP server - no subnet declaration - Ubuntu Forums
WARNING: This post is loaded with Geekspeak, so proceed at your own risk.
I can’t get the DHCP server to start up. I have 2 ethernet cards with eth0 going to the switch for the thin clients and eth1 to the internet gateway. Thank you to those who have offered advice. Below is some more specific information.
Here is what the syslog says.
No subnet declaration for eth0 (172.16.10.1).May 19 16:06:59 tag2513 dhcpd: ** Ignoring requests on eth0. If this is not what
May 19 16:06:59 tag2513 dhcpd: you want, please write a subnet declaration
May 19 16:06:59 tag2513 dhcpd: in your dhcpd.conf file for the network segment
May 19 16:06:59 tag2513 dhcpd: to which interface eth0 is attached.
So, the problem is that the DHCP server won’t start because it says I haven’t declared a subnet.I found a pretty good explanation for setting up thin client network subnet. Using webmin. I think I set it up according to the directions.
The DHCP.config file says
default-lease-time 600;
max-lease-time 7200;
# Ubuntu Server
host TAG2513 {
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option host-name “tag2513″;
fixed-address 172.16.10.1;
}
# Ubuntu DNS zone
zone Ubuntu.edu. {
primary 172.16.10.10;
key ;
}
# LTSP subnet
subnet 172.16.10.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
range 172.16.10.2 172.16.10.20;
pool {
range 172.16.10.2 172.16.10.20;
}
}
The ipaddr command gives the following output
2: eth0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast qlen 1000
link/ether 00:48:54:65:bf:ca brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 172.16.10.1/24 brd 172.16.10.255 scope global eth0
/etc/default/dhcp3-server says
INTERFACES=eth0
It looks to me like it should work. Why doesn’t it?
I talked to our Tech Director after doing talking to some people. (see previous blog post) He suggested we put a server and a couple clients in the back of my room right now and see whether they will work. If they work, then I can show my principal that they work and how I would use them.
I have the newly released Edubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) installed on a server in my room. I used the Ubuntu-alt download cd and installed the LTSP option (press F4 on the install menu). It installed nicely, but I had trouble getting a connection to the internet gateway. Our network manager figured out the gateway was on ETH1, fixed it, and then it worked fine. I could not get the Edubuntu 8.04 cd to read, so I just installed it via Synaptic Package Manager. It took a while, but installed just fine….So far so good.
I was just about to this point at home. It’s installed on the server and hooked up to the thin clients through an 8 port switch. The clients will preboot with a PXE enabled network card (very cool!). This is better than my home set-up because I don’t have to boot from floppy. It still gives pretty much the same message at home.
Boot from (N)etwork or (D)isk
Searching for server (DHCP)
<sleep>
Boot from (N)etwork or (D)isk
It’s still not connecting.
Marshal, the network manager asked whether the DHCP was running. <:-{ I told him didn’t know since I hadn’t done anything but install the Linux OS.
I installed Webmin from Synatic. Webmin is a DHCP server control panel that is accessible through the web browser on http://localhost:10000. However, we couldn’t access it.
Marshal deduced that the plug on the end of the cable was the culprit. He didn’t have the tool with him to fix it, so we’re stuck until Monday.
I’ll let you know if we get it to work.
All that work learning about 
Edubuntu Linux thin clients may pay off. I talked to our district’s IT department this week. I asked whether I could experiment with an Edubuntu thin client mini-lab in my classroom. The Tech Director said they had tried an LTSP thin client network in the Junior High a few years ago and pulled the plug after one year. They also use 
SUSE linux, too.They now use MS Windows thin clients. He sent me to the Junior High computer lab teacher and the Network Administrator.
The computer lab teacher said that they tried running all the windows program she had used before on Linux. Any time they tried to scale it up to more than a few machines it would lock up. The windows applications in a Linux environment did not play nicely together on thin clients. I think user resistance (especially teachers) to open source software in teaching is a very real barrier, as evidenced here.
The network admin said that the Linux distros were very resource hungry. They were running 90 thin clients on two servers and he was spending 2 hours a day getting them up and running. He didn’t put much stock in claims that people were running thin client labs from simple desktops. He said the servers need multicore processors with lots of RAM (8 MB). I had asked for a 3GHz 3MB RAM desktop from the computer lab, and he said it would probably run the 14 or so computers I wanted to use in my classroom. We may use two 8-port switches to connect the old computers.
He also said that hooking the thin clients up through the network was an issue, but since the clients in my room would be behind the server, it would be much easier.
He mentioned the lack of adequate support since he was spending 2 hours a day at the Junior High working on the thin client system. I am glad to say that 
will give professional support if the forums are not enough.
I sounds like a lot of the problems they had was from teacher resistance to giving up MS Windows applications. People issues have to be considered seriously when change occurs…and change will occur whether we want it to or not. The tech issues seem solvable, but the issue of scalability worries me about future implications of a pilot.
Next I need to go back to our Tech Director and see whether he will give his final approval. Then I have to get the go-ahead from my principal. If I can clear those two last hurdles, I will have computers for my student next year in my classroom. Yippee!
Ever the practical voice, my wife asked me, “Why do you need computers in your room?” I find it hard to give a concise answer. What would be your answer to that question?
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