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The Linux distillery Educating Tux: case studies of Linux deployments in high schools around the world
The Linux distillery Educating Tux: case studies of Linux deployments in high schools around the world | Educating Tux: case studies of Linux deployments in high schools around the world |
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| by David M Williams | |
| Thursday, 06 March 2008 | |
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Page 3 of 3 Orwell were concerned for teaching quality and evaluated OpenOffice, The GIMP and other applications, finding them to meet and exceed the standards they imposed. They also felt doubly impressed that these packages could be used at home by students without any concerns of licensing violations or burdening families with software costs.Two clustered application servers drive the terminal server environment, allowing students to log in from any workstation at all and yet be at their exact same customised and individualised desktop. This thin client approach also ensured deployment time was absolutely minimal; in fact, Orwell record the whole installation as working within a week. Had they not switched to Linux, they say, they would have had to cut back their hardware and application software spending. Instead, software licensing is now no longer a factor whatsoever. Duplicating the experience of the previous schools, students have willingly flocked to the new platform without any difficulty. Funding is being allocated to other needy programs without the computing environment suffering. And, so far, student attempts to break the network have not been successful. Orwell believe that had they continued the Windows route they would have required additional technicians to cope with the maintenance burden they had. Under Linux their technician has been greatly freed up and in fact the school estimates a single technician could easily administer between three and five similarly set up schools by himself or herself. Heading over to Asia, the awful issue of money again raises its head. In the Philippines many schools cannot afford computer facilities. After the 1997 Asian financial crisis business and government began looking into open source software for the potential value it offered. At the same time, the government launched a program aiming to provide one PC for each public high school. This ultimately began in 2000 but by 2005 it was discovered many computers were not being used because nobody knew how! Ultimately, one innovative vendor – whilst preparing tender documents to supply for 1,000 schools – proposed Fedora Linux. By this time, the funding now allowed for a server and ten desktops per school. However, the reviewers were perplexed as to why someone would give away software for free. An arduous bureaucratic process followed but finally the company was awarded the contract and delivered 10,000 computers by December 2007. In fact, they supplied an additional 3,000 computers on top too – given to a further 300 schools – because they had saved so much money by using free software. This project is still underway and the success is yet to be measured but by all means the financial savings have been dramatic and Linux has directly contributed to making computers accessible to school students in that nation. So, all around the world Linux is helping our educational establishments. The message about cost savings is consistent without exception. Indeed, the stories have pleasing conformity that school pupils are unfazed by non-Windows environments and in every case have embraced the platform delivered. To their credit, each school also emphasised that quality was essential in the teaching tools used. Fortunately, their standards were met by the range of FOSS software available. However, having knowledgeable staff appears to be a contributing factor to the success or otherwise of an implementation. Those schools which are still progressing strongly were the ones where strong advocates came from inside the faculty.
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  written by Peter T., March 06, 2008
A couple of years ago, I was the President of a small, volunteer group in regional NSW that received computer parts, built computers and donated them to families in need and volunteer groups. We even donated one group of computers to a small, independent school. Naturally, we installed Linux on those computers.
As much as we could build those computers, and they worked very well, we had no-one to train recipients in their use. We did our best, but found-out that most recipients were removing Linux and having Windows installed. The group has now moved to installing MS Windows. I love Linux, but if you do not have the resources to train people in its use, then what's the point . . . written by Mark, March 06, 2008
I have installed and configured various flavors of Linux on many occasions for family and friends and would have to say that modern desktop focused distributions require little to no training once setup and configured properly.
I'm sorry to disagree but I can't buy the training argument anymore as in 2008 it holds no water, no one whom I have installed Linux for seems to have any trouble at all, in fact in most cases it has solved more problems for them than it ever creates. written by Fat Client, March 07, 2008
Most users, and especially almost all adult users, think computer=windows and will reject any requirement to learn even a slightly new environment, or the same environment using new labels on the familiar buttons and menus.
That's why getting linux into schools is both very important, and also hard to achieve, since it will usually be the teachers who have painfully struggled to master one or two windows applications (eg Word or PhotoShop) and refuse to learn a different application set. Kids are much more ready to take up something new written by _Max_, March 08, 2008
Articles like this are okay, but they miss the whole point!!!
I have been working on getting my school district to switch to GNU/Linux for a while. It is probably just because I am from a larger school district, but cost is the last thing on the administrators' minds. Windows is sold to schools for dirt cheap. In my school district, the main reasons GNU/Linux isn't used (yet) are: A) Staff don't want to switch to anything new. I like Fat Client's quote about how they think "computer=windows". This is the same reason why most teachers encourage "emailing assignments home" instead of using a service like Google Docs or Zoho, even though these services have been introduced to the teachers. B) GNU/Linux isn't trusted completely. If it's free, how can it be any good? C) Windows is still the standard in the business world. How can we prepare our learners for the "real world" if they use GNU/Linux? (Statistics about jobs that require GNU/Linux experience didn't do anything) D) Despite all of these case studies about saving money by moving to GNU/Linux, it is still really expensive to change operating systems in a environment of this magnitude. I really think there are more important things about GNU/Linux than it's cost. Why don't they adopt it for flexibility, speed, or the availability of applications? written by Robert Pogson, March 10, 2008
Cost is very important for GNU/Linux in schools but flexibility and ease of management are right next to cost in importance. My school does not have in-house IT support except the computer teacher who has a day job, teaching. I can sit at my desk and install software, manage accounts, maintain the web server, everywhere on the system. I do not need to worry about updates, re-re-reboots and keeping track of licences. Any school that considers GNU/Linux and that other OS should consider whether they want to cut costs or double the number of seats with the same money. It's a no-brainer. Do the maths. Thin clients are the least expensive option and the easiest to maintain, especially if they are fanless.
written by JJS, March 10, 2008
Having been a parent on the front lines of computer technology in schools, I think your last paragraph should have been the headline. The best technological solutions will not stand a chance when faced with resistance from administration and staff. It is therefore important that FOSS evangelism continue at a constant pace.
As is evident from the article, students are very adaptable, it is teachers and parents that need to be convinced. In some ways, this is good because broader arguments based on cost, security, and other long-term advantages can be used. I would add that the educational value of source code that can be examined is another important point. With that in mind, I encourage LUGs to gear up more installfests, but try to get permission to hold them at schools, preferably during the week when students and teachers are there. Later . . . Jim written by Storyteller, March 10, 2008
Hello All,
Here is an link to an open source project in the Kamloops school district. http://www.sd73.bc.ca/district-operations.php/page/linux-in-education/ written by Dave Lane, March 10, 2008
Open source is being rolled out in NZ public schools with great success as well! Many hundreds of schools have, at the hearts of their networks, a Linux server provided by Smartcom: http://www.smartcom.co.nz/
Hagley College in Christchurch is shifting its infrastructure to open source, and already makes extensive use of Linux in its school of computing. See http://computing.hagley.school.nz/about ... Also, the astute reader will also recognise that both the computing college and main school site (http://www.hagley.school.nz) are built on Drupal, an open source web application framework. Dave written by sgtrock, March 10, 2008
How on earth can you do a story on Linux in use in high schools and miss the biggest stories? Where's Extremadura's decision several years ago to deploy FOSS to all schools and government desktops? (see http://www.osnews.com/story/12611 for a summary.) Where's Indiana's program to create a one for one desktop to student ratio using FOSS? (see http://www.doe.in.gov/inaccess/)
That's where the _real_ success stories are. written by Terry, March 10, 2008
I believe the problem to getting Open Source across, is resistance to change. Like as mentioned in other articles. Get Open Source in Schools and the students will pass
it on as they get older. I'm 65 and use Linux, and enjoy learning and using it. I am using it to write this comment. Business is also locked in to MS , but some digital copiers use Linux as the operating system , actually a very big Corporation uses Linux in their Copiers, and printers. So it is making inroads into the business world. written by AC, March 10, 2008
Unfortunately this article deals with old (sic) information.
If the author wants to present something temporaly relevant, then he needs to do a bit more research then just using Google to find his talking points. written by bp, March 11, 2008
I deployed edubuntu in a small school over a year ago. The article is right that the greatest resistance is the staff and teachers most of whom have no idea or knowledge of computers or software only that it isn't Microsoft. The kids have problem with whatever is put on the computers.
written by Rufus Polson, March 11, 2008
further to sgtrock's comment, we shouldn't forget the Indian province of Kerala, pop. 31 million, whose entire educational infrastructure (indeed, entire government computing infrastructure) is moving to Linux.
written by c. roast, March 11, 2008
...Not only that point above about currency, but another about grammar.
A school "were"??? The Kid can't even write. Also, when did "Christian" and "Baptist" "schools" become relevant ? written by kwojo, March 11, 2008
I've been using Linux for 4 years now. I am 17 years old. When I was 13, someone told me about Linux. I immediately started googling around trying to figure out what this free software was exactly.
Since then, I've removed Windows off any computer I own, and used various distros of Linux. I am pretty handy with computers, but I don't even remember those little "problems" and "tweeks" that I'd regularly have to deal with in Windows. Linux is the best thing choice I've ever made. I'm trying to encourage Linux adoption in my school @ least for the Internet lab - a room where students go to type up some papers and browse the net for a while - the hardware's getting dated and slowing down. However our Sys Admin doesn't want to hear of it.... (stubborn and old!) written by Dany J, March 11, 2008
re: Fat's comment "..think computer=windows" That's true - however here is the catch. If they think "computer=windows", they dont make the distinction between computer and windows, ie all computers are the same. So if you carefully craft a Linux to look and behave like windows for their *most used applications*, put it in front of them, tell them its just an upgrade (if they ask), **don't** mention its Linux, good chance they will not think its something *not Windows*. By the time they notice, they will have liked it so much that chances are that it wont make any difference anyway.
written by Marilyn Hagle, March 11, 2008
This is my tenth year using Linux in the classroom. This year I took a new job and get to teach high school computer animation, desktop publishing, webmastering, and multimedia.
I use Ubuntu Studio on the desktop and the Musix live CD for multimedia class. The software packages we use are the Gimp, Blender 3D, Cinelerra, Rosegarden, Audacity, Hydrogen, Scribus, Drupal, Kate, GEdit, OpenOffice, AbiWord, LyX, K3B, Grip, Ardour, Firefox, Balsa, Terminal, Solfege, KColorChooser, KSnapshot . . . hmmmm . . . I think that is it. What a wonderful thing! The kids can put them on their computers at home at no cost. I am in Texas. written by Dhashen Naicker, March 11, 2008
We have implemented Edubuntu PC's for community access in our country(South Africa).Previous implementations involved MS environments where it was easy to infect the pc's with virri because of public access and no easy means of updating virus software.User's are happily using the pc's for general and educational use for over a year now.Recently we got introduced to a distribution prepackaged with more educational goodies and material - http://www.meraka.org.za/digitalDoorway.htm. I'm personally impressed with what's being offered and believe children and general users would benefit far more from using this platform than a stock stand PC bought off the shelves. Now its just a matter of marketing and introducing people to this phenomenon....
written by Middle School Tech Teacher, March 14, 2008
Our middle school has used thin-client technology, and Linux (Red Hat, then Fedora) since 2003. While there are MANY good things about it, I have been frustrated at times.
Sound issues, especially with software that we must run using the Windows Terminal software, have constantly plagued us. We have daily trouble with authentication of users, especially at the beginning of class, when 30 kids are all logging in. Audacity may run well on stand-alone machines running Linux, but we have been unable to use it to create podcasts over the network. So far I have been unable to do video editing and movie creation using Open source solutions on the network. We have also been using the latest versions of Open Office and Star Office. While the word processing and spreadsheet apps are fine, the presentation package is nowhere near as good as PowerPoint. While I can save my Open Office/Star Office files in a format Microsoft or Apple can read, there are frequently issues with lost formatting. There are some document files I can only work on at school, because I lose formatting when I save it as .doc or .ppt files. This is especially true of presentations. I encourage my students to work in Google Docs, so they have no compatibility issues between school and home, but they are NOT full-featured programs and have serious limitations. I think the future is in Open Source software, and I look forward to more people getting “on the Open Source bandwagon”. I think that as the community grows, the software will improve, but sometimes I am really frustrated. My school is saving a lot of money, but my job as a Computer Applications teacher is harder because of it. Tell us what you think! better to paste your comment - this page will refresh every 15 minutes
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This I fear is likely to remain the case for the foreseeable future,but
hopefully someone somewhere in the government and educational sector is reading your article David, maybe one day the penny will drop.