The most important online community I belong to for educational purposes is ubuntuforums.org, a forum dedicated to helping people use the Ubuntu Linux operating system. I joined the forum in June of 2008 when I decided to try Linux on a computer that had become so slow and bloated that I needed to replace it. I had many specific questions as I began to use Linux, and I found most of the answers I needed in the forum archives. With about 50,000 active members and over a million total members, most questions I had were answered in simple searches; I did not have to participate much to learn from the forums. As my involvement with Linux has deepened, I have begun to participate more fully.
The clearest value to me in having access to this online community is the knowledge that I am not alone in solving technical problems. I teach students to install Linux on donated computers, and we have revived our school's technology infrastructure using these donated computers. This project has only been possible because of the quick access to an incredible depth of technical expertise available on the forums. Without easy access to a large body of technical expertise I would never have taken on such a technically challenging project. Teaching students how to use the forums has meant that some students have gone beyond what they learn in my classes to use Linux on their own, and have improved their overall ability to solve technology-related problems.
A simple example of a problem I needed help solving involved making networked folders visible on the desktop. Our students save their work in their own "student storage" folder, which is stored on the school district's server. By reading the forum archives, I figured out how to connect to the district's server from the Linux computers, but I could not figure out how to make the folders stay visible as icons on each desktop. The thread I started about this particular problem is a perfect example of how quickly many problems can be solved when you have access to thousands of experts. In a very short time, much less than a day, I had the simple answer: access the networked folder by typing the path into an address bar as I had done, and then bookmark the resulting folder.
My contributions to the forum right now are limited. I know how to do many simple things, but I don't know how to do many things in depth. My contributions are limited to sharing my experiences in threads that have no conclusive answers, and in asking clarifying questions of people who post vague questions, in hopes it helps someone more knowledgeable be able to answer the original question. I plan to post more about school-based refurbishing projects and the use of Linux in schools, areas in which I am beginning to have some expertise.
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