Company donates $5.4M in software to LPS
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BY MARGARET REIST / Lincoln Journal Star
Design Data, a local computer software company, has donated $5.4 million in software to Lincoln Public Schools to help educate future structural designers and engineers.
The 168 software licenses, which retail for $30,000 per workstation, will be used in the industrial technology labs of the city’s six high schools.
Jon Heithold, a computer-aided design teacher at East High, piloted the software last year, said Carol Andringa, LPS career and technical education curriculum specialist.
The district designed curriculum with the help of Design Data, and all six high schools started using the software this fall.
The software serves steel fabricators, detailers, structural engineers and erectors, displaying 2-D and 3-D images, specs and characters of the steel frame.
The software allows students to learn about another part of design, Andringa said. Other computer-aided design programs used by the district are more focused on residential architecture.
The Design Data software deals more with structural steel design — the beams and support structures — so students can work on commercial buildings.
Having such software helps prepare students for the real world, Andringa said.
“It first of all connects to business and industry standards, which is where we like to get our students,” she said.
Ginger Dager, Design Data’s education coordinator, said in a news release that the company donates to 36 other schools across the country.
“Kids and education have always been a focus of community giving since the beginning of Design Data,” she said. “We are thrilled that students will benefit from this donation.”
Design Data also had its employees show teachers how to use the software. During the pilot project, professionals were brought into the classroom to talk with students, Andringa said.
“So it’s much more than a piece of software,” she said.
Reach Margaret Reist at 473-7226 or mreist@journalstar.com.
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Open Source Software has proven itself in Military applications around the world. FOSS is here to stay and educators should be using it to teach our children of the future.
Thirty-thousand dollars per workstation is a lot of money, money likely that could have been better spent elsewhere. I'm not against spending money in the schools, but I am against spending money on proprietary systems, when FOSS is available, and much less costly, often times for just the cost of a computer system, not software licenses, which gouge the consumer needlessly.
FOSS has brought the world many projects, but probably the best known project is OLPC, One Laptop Per Child, that delivers low cost laptops to school children in lesser developed countries. Projects like this are what schools need, to ensure that children have learning tools, not some high-priced gizmo that they might only get to touch for a few hours during an entire school year.
Want to do something useful, support OLPC, make a difference in our world! "
Fullerton Flash wrote on November 19, 2008 7:27 am:
Sparky wrote on November 19, 2008 8:18 am:
awesome wrote on November 19, 2008 8:46 am:
CS wrote on November 19, 2008 7:00 pm:
Lincoln Taxpayer wrote on November 19, 2008 9:50 pm:
What part of "donate" don't you understand? Hello Dave?
Thank you Design Data. I had no idea this company even existed in Lincoln. I work with CAD systems everyday and sure wish I could have been exposed to it in high school. "