Printing et al.

[Greg Smith (gregmsmi)]

Hi All,

All good suggestions on options for printing, or not. I tend to think
schools will want to print.

However, what I think is not as important as what real XO deployments
think. We need to ask a real school using the XO. If its Birmingham then
we need to ask them if they need printing, how important is it to them,
what printers they have, do they have a school server, do they have
print services now etc.

Then we should ask some more schools. What's worked for you in the past
or what works in Birmingham, AL may not work in Uruguay or Haiti or
Nepal.

Options I have heard so far include:
- No printer, just use the XO and a web page
- Printer drivers installed on the XO
- Print from an XO server
- Sneaker net with USB drives

School systems may have more ideas. Maybe print over the network to a
central location and snail mail the hard copy back. That's not very
economical but my point is we should let the users come up with some
suggestions. Maybe the right answer is a $100 printer per teacher (OPPT?
:-) ...

I'll try to ask some of the Uruguay deployment people with whom I've
exchanged occasional e-mails. I'm not sure how we gather more XO school
system input, but it definitely seems warranted for this challenge.

Thanks,

Greg S

************
> Which teachers or schools have been asking for printing support? If we

> can add some documentation on that to the Wiki it will help a lot.

for some schools (like Birmingham, Alabama) they won't ask for printing
support becous ethey won't imagine a computer system being setup that
doesn't include it.

> It makes sense that schools would want printing and CUPS is a robust 
> tool in my experience.

CUPS may be robust, but it may al ba sledgehammer being used to swat a
fly (see my other e-mail on the subject for more of my thoughts on the
matter)

> Real world user cases will help determine how much effort is needed on

> the configuration/moderation fronts. They can also help validate if 
> copying files to a USB drive is a viable alternative.

it would be better to force kids to use the journal and drag documents
to the server (or to the printer) and have them copied to the server and
then use something on the server to print the document than it would be
to force sneakernet to be used for printing

David Lang

> My guess is schools want a printer if they can afford one. Let us know

> what feedback shows it's a priority for existing XO deployments and 
> let's find out what printers they have and how they want to use them.

***********

Message: 2
Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2008 23:34:16 -0800 (PST)
From: Ed Montgomery <edm at rocketmail.com>
Subject: Re: Printing et al.
To: devel at lists.laptop.org
Message-ID: <644664.26579.qm at web36911.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Having been a computer teacher for several years, I set up a network
printer for those teachers who requested it, (but it was a CONSTANT
hassle, from paper jam problems, to misconfiguration, toner cartridges,
etc.  I got around the problem by handing
off the problems to   windows techs, which left me to
the paradise of just running a linux lab ;-)).

In the meantime, I went paperless...:-)
My students were required to place all of their work on websites/web
pages.  Then it was always available, never lost, shown to other
students, parents, teachers, etc. at any time! ;-)  (And optionally,
could be placed on the worldwide web, as opposed to just a school
network/server, if one really wanted to 'display' work, etc.) ;-)

A much better solution, I found. :-)
Heartily recommended, as opposed to the archaic method of printing out
reams of paper, multiplied by millions of students/teachers/parents, at
considerable cost to the environment, etc.