Are we planning for a classroom with PCs for students?

Education
#1

I heard yesterday that we may have a classroom with PCs for students in the expansion. The more I thought about it the more I thought it would be a wonderful idea. @NickWebb and I are running a very popular series of Arduino related classes. My next three classes are full up through September 27.

The biggest problem we have is getting all students configured with an application, a driver and multiple libraries. We suggest preparation to be done before class but it often does not happen.

Having eight PCs that we could configure before class would be great. We limit class size to eight because we furnish all parts except a PC and eight is about all we can handle during the lab session.

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#2

We are planning to have a room. Having computers is the bigger issue.

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#3

Don’t we already? I mean the common area s full of computers and laptops for anyone to use

#4

I think folks are hoping for PCs with already installed programs more like the digital computer

#5

This is a joint project by the Classroom and Infrastructure committees.

The concept is to outfit a classroom with computers containing pre-installed software so that an instructor can teach a class without having to require the students bring their own laptops with the software already installed. When the room is not being used for a class, members can use the computers to work on projects.

The three computers in the Common room along the wall shared with Purple is a start on this concept. The current plan is to move these three machines to the designated classroom, probably the one currently occupied by 3D Fab, and add up to three more. If funds are available to subdivide the present Creative Arts studio, we will use the northern of the halves so that we have more room.

We can certainly include the Arduino IDE in the installed software bundle.

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#6

That sounds great! Eight students and six preconfigured computers! I’ll bet we can start classes on time now.

Edit - following info added

If my comment seemed like a knock on Only six computers it was not intended that way. I meant that I could notify students that the first six people to shoe up got to use preconfigured PCs and the others would have to configure their own. I will be thankful for any that we can provide.

When eight students show up for a class it is challenging to get everyone going quickly in lab time. I’ve considered limiting the class size to six. This might be a good time.

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#7

The 3D Fab room is small and we do not know whether we can fit more than six computers comfortably in there. Not only that, funds are limited and we may not be able to afford to buy more than three new computers for that room in the near future. Heck, we may not even be able to get three or two more.

We chose that room for now because we are not sure there are funds to divide the current Create Arts studio into two classrooms.

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#8

That’s great with me. The first students to show up get whatever is available.

Could we put out a call for donated PCs? I have one or two monitors.

If the cost of Windows OS is a problem, lets use Linux. Some classes will require Windows but we can buy that when we can afford it.

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#9

That’s up to Infrastructure. I was discussing this with @StanSimmons. Not surprisingly, it’s a nightmare for him if each machine we get is different. What he really needs is for some nice corporation to donate about a half dozen identical machines or else maintenance/support is very difficult.

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#10

Hear! Hear!
People so rarely think ongoing support through, and having different machines can really REAAAAALY complicate things…
Not that I have any opposition to any of this, but I wanted to back Stan’s assertion on this point. Donated equipment CAN be awesome, but often ends up not being “worth it”… (in my experience, not at DMS).

PS No reason we can’t use LInux, either way, eh?

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#11

We might be able to dual boot but they are wanting to teach Adobe Software classes and other Windows based softwares, so we will need Windows installed.

#12

wine :blankspace:

#13

I’ve used it before for some things but ended up going with a VM. GPU pass through has come a ways but I’m not certain if it requires a separate dedicated GPU for the VM.

It does look like most of the Adobe products may work except After Effects and maybe Premiere.

But Solidworks doesn’t

https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=318

Plus, it is really nice to have support you can call.

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