lancem631 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 06, 2018 8:17 pm
If not Google Management Console (G-Suite) then something else?
PiNet is an excellent and well-tested way to centrally manage a classroom of Raspberry Pi computers running Raspbian.
Although popular in school settings, ChromeOS is not very useful for building robots, weather forecasting stations, and even much programming or computer science. The use of walled-garden operating systems which are designed for web browsing, word processing and basic secretarial tasks in primary and secondary schools is exactly what led to the skills shortage among incoming students at universities that the Raspberry Pi and the
new computing curriculum was designed to remedy. Even if you are following a different set of standards, it makes no sense to repeat the same mistakes.
Having said this, the standard operating system for the Pi is Raspbian. Like ChromeOS it is based on a Linux kernel, however, unlike ChromeOS it is designed teach students how to read and write computer programs. It also has the
Mathematica program built in, which would cost thousands of dollars otherwise. While Raspbian includes a word processor and a web browser, from my point of view, it is very important for students to view a computer as a general-purpose programmable device that can be used to automate things and not as fancy typewriter or communications device that merely enables people to perform manual labor electronically.
Curriculum redesign is very difficult to get right. It requires insight from people teaching in the classrooms, guidance from industry and foresight from researchers at the university. Too often, however, such redesign is attempted by politicians and education experts. The result is all the advantages of a disruption with none of the disadvantages of doing anything better.
Since Raspbian includes a word processor and a web browser in addition to the tools needed to make it possible for students to learn programming and introductory computer science, once the Pi lab is in place, it should be possible to gradually add computer science lessons to the curriculum.