LocalFOSS

3 members of MIT's Imara Project recently took a trip to the pacific island nation of Fiji. They weren't going for the white sand beaches or crystal clear waters. Instead they were on a mission.

Thanks to a donation from the Google Open Source Programme Office the Imara members were carrying ten laptops for the rural school district of Taveuni.

Jonathan Proulx explains why they went with laptops rather than desktop systems. "We chose laptops for the project, both for shipping concerns (shipping PCs to developing nations tends to be prohibitively expensive) and because electrical power isn't available at all the school locations. We used Lenovo Thinkpad R52s due to their large screens, low cost, and Linux-friendly components."

Jonathan goes on to say that Free and Open Source Software was central to the project. Noting both the cost and the extensibility advantages of FOSS, Jonathan expressed hopes that once the user base had become more experienced with the new systems, work could commence on various projects, including adding Fijian language support.

Given the laptops were being donated to a school district, one of the core requirements of the project was a wealth of educational software. As such the team selected the Edubuntu linux distribution.

"Edubuntu provides virtually all the packages required for a good K-12 classroom environment, with minimal configuration. The only program we added outside Edubuntu was GeoGebra, a dynamic interactive mathematics application for exploring geometry, algebra, and calculus."

As well as the laptops and software, the team ran two day long training sessions to familiarise the staff of the schools with the new laptops.

The Imara team is already planning more activities. "Follow-up activities are also in the planning stages, including a 20-seat Edubuntu installation at one of the larger schools, and further developing local expertise by sponsoring a Fijian teacher's travel to spend time at CSAIL with members of Project Imara."