On page 11 of the latest issue of Full Circle Magazine there is an article about my involvement at the TIE Conference in Colorado this year. I would like to take a moment to add a couple comments and one clarification.

The event included a presentation to about 50 teachers and school administrators by myself and Bryan Gartner and a Canonical booth in the exhibition hall. This never would have happened but for the help of several others, and I believe they deserve some credit. CoLoCo team leader David Overcash helped with many of the logistics of organizing the event, gave me the opportunity to share the idea with the team, and helped with setting up the thin-client demonstration. He was also the only person from all the LUGs I contacted to respond. Neal McBurnett, Leon Jaimes and Bryan provided a lot of support for setting up the thin-client demonstration and working at the Canonical booth to promote Ubuntu and answer questions. Leon also helped us overcome the fear of the conference organizers who did not know what a thin-client was or how it would cause no damage to their setup. The event never would have happened if it wasn’t for the dedication of all of them. The wider CoLoCo team also helped through advocacy and sharing ideas. Thanks to all.

I would also like to make a small clarification. On page 14 the following passage could be misinterpreted depending on how one reads it:

They laughed and told me about one man who had a laptop (owned by his district) who was actually trying to install Edubuntu right there! They told me that he literally spent an hour or two trying to hack his BIOS (which was password protected)! Jim remarked that this was a reflection of the sad state of enthusiasm for technology in our education system; however he also noted that it was a good sign, because it shows that people really do want a change.

What I felt was sad was that a district would send a teacher to a technology conference with a crippled computer and not realize that their teachers might discover new things that they would like to try.

Thanks Full Circle for the write up. Nice work on this and every issue.