So once we agree we want some kind of computer lab, the question is, what kind? They already come in many flavors, one of my favorite being the virtual hosts approach, where all software and lessons for the day come preloaded such that you experience a properly equipped distro right out of the starting gate, MySQL, SQLite, povray, VPython, some x3d browser, everything you need. No time waisted with RPMs or apt-gets or any of that. Of course from the teacher's perspective, it can't be that labor intensive to manually reconfigure each workstation nightly, which is why the virtual hosts model provides check box menu driven type interfaces, not saying I've seen but a few, schools tend to roll their own sometimes. So as Mr. Urner, I say "tomorrow I want Python 3.x", then that's what'll be there, perhaps turning off install options for every 3rd party package with no compatible version yet (smart menu!). Having been doing some work in the private sector around multiple pyprocessing clients talking to a host via Pyro, I'm thinking my ideal classroom lets students practice teamwork across workstations, even if these are virtual, i.e. the actual classroom hardware is more terminal than desktop computer, the racks being elsewhere. It's not like every day we need interprocess communication across hosts, but some days we might, and this classroom makes it easy for the teacher to set that up ahead of time (e.g. by getting pyprocessing installed -- not Standard Library, emulates Threading but with process dynamics under the hood). I realize we're not there yet, except in some of these executive training centers, i.e. the "students" I'm talking about are business professionals with six figure incomes, hoping to stay in the game during the next tech cycle, where there's lots of hiring but precious few with the skills. That's why I think ramping up more in high school makes a lot of sense, wouldn't mind shoving a lot of that "old Europe" approach to mathematics to one side to make room, but that's just in our more radical / surreal encampments, not saying to try this at home. Maybe a Quaker school here and there might be into making a go of it. However, if we play our cards right, this kind of TuxLab type executive training lab could become more part and parcel of the ordinary pre-college experience, as well as college, where wired dorms are already the norm and computer labs abound. Vendors are already gearing up for this market, as mentioned earlier on edu-sig, with products that'll temporarily limit access or even disable the keyboard at the teacher's discretion, not saying every course need confer such godlike powers (including powers to snoop, lurk). If it's a Quaker school, likely students will share sysop responsibilities so there's a clear view against abuses of power all round, whereas (on the other hand) in some classes, e.g. martial arts, students willingly consent to temporary restrictions i.e. having keyboard go dead, flickering terminals -- could be a valuable simulation and/or learning experience, given likely field conditions this crew is training to handle, maybe erratic power supplies, frequent brown outs. Anyway, if you've been tracking my blogs you see my focus is more the Portland coffee shop scene these days, not so much classrooms, where I just use whatever PSU has to offer. These storefronts already host artists, sculptures, photographers, double as art galleries in other words, which these days might as well include a few LCDs, i.e. flatscreens, framed TVs. Nam June Paik and friends, Hell's Kitchen and so on, have already paved the way for TV screen as art vista, so it takes very little work to get these exhibited, with public buy in that these aesthetics are OK. LA has many examples, with Portland playing catch up (Costello's on East Broadway a good example of what I'm talking about, but also Back Space downtown). Screens host "screen savers" done using Python in some capacity, maybe just playing off a DVD at this point (or streaming) no live CPU in this picture. http://www.paikstudios.com/ http://www.costellostravelcaffe.com/photos/#id=interior&num=1 http://www.backspace.bz/index.php Kirby