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erk. that would be http://schoolforge.org.uk/index.php/Main_Page actually

"I teach IT is a high school in England and"

I believe you, I really do ..

"some of the spreadsheet functions that the kids need to use in projects (like webquery) make it crash"

I hadn't realized webquery was deemed mandatory by the UK department of education. How the heck did I manage in IT all these years without webquery. But wait according to this you can also perform webquery in Open Office. 'I was able to make this Webquery example work on my computer with very little effort'.

"A-level and GCSE projects require the use of Macros, and teh database software does not have these"

I just opened Open Office Base and it says:

'Macros created with OpenOffice.org Basic based on the old programming interface will no longer be supported by the current version .. For more information on OpenOffice.org Basic, select "OpenOffice.org Basic" in the list box'

"that means they'll be confused come September when new programs are thrown at them; we're going to have to take some time out to familiarise the kids (and staff) with some of the features and quirks"

You're kidding right, kids have to be familiarised with the software. If it's anthing like my old college, it'll be the kids who will be showing the staff.

"hundreds of teaching resources that we need to redevelop in our own time"

insert training FUD here ..

"The savings would take a good while to manifest themselves after the initial confusion/retraining/whatever"

Insert increased costs FUD here ..

UN body promotes open source in education

Open Source in Schools

Linux Case Study : Orwell High School

was: Re:A rock and a hard place

All applications that our kids use will only work on Windows. Office is the "standard" that they all get taught (yes, I've put OpenOffice on - without teachers wanting to use it, Office is the only thing used). The educational applications that they use every day will only run on Windows (and some maybe on OSX, but we're not rich enough to afford Macs, I'm afraid.)

You could visit http://schoolforge.org.uk/, the community "Working together to unleash the power of open tools in education".

Do a Google on "Cutter" and "Orwell school" - they've been smart because for some apps you need Windows - all the rest is done via Terminal Servers (note to OpenOffice: why is your memory footprint so much larger than StarOffice?).

The Ubuntu lot have a link into the SchoolTool efforts of Mark Shuttleworth, and anyone who's followed the FLOSS in Government trails will know about the fantastic work that has taken place in the Extramadura region in Spain. Link to all the presentations.

There is far, far more happening out there than the UK Government seems to know - I wonder when they finally try and spend some money efficiently and emulate what the Spanish did. Could be a new concept: actual *efficient* use of tax money...

The are organizing a conference in Bolton next week: on Thursday 14th & Friday 15th July 2005.

The are organizing a conference in Bolton next week: on Thursday 14th & Friday 15th July 2005.

Sadly, it got pulled. The last I heard of the project was this (quoted from a private email, but it's relevant and I'm sure he won't mind):

It was working fantastically well. Loads of donated clients running as LTSP terminals, squid, samba, and apache servers handling internet connectivity, logins, home directories, login authentication, profiles and policies (superbly hand crafted for lockdown and high performance), intranet, issue tracking for tech support, cups printer servers in every room with a web interface to allow the teachers to control what the kids can print... 100% uptime etc etc. In short, the best setup I've ever seen in any school - and I've been in loads in my 20 years as an educational software developer. Then the headmaster, against the advice of all the IT teachers, technicians, myself and sundry LEA advisers, decided that the school would do the Thomas Telford GNVQ in IT - essentially an MS office training course. So the whole lot was ripped out (Julian Old is now using the salvaged the client machines as a beowulf cluster up at Leeds Met) and replaced with hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of windows servers, licences and MS office software. You will not be surprised to learn that all the technical staff in the school resigned (to move to more enlightened schools), I withdrew my support, and that the new system is so flaky it is next to useless. The promised increase in exam grades (the kids, according to the Telford brochure, are virtually guaranteed to get at least a 4 C grade GCSE equivalent from the course) has actually resulted in a massive reduction in performance from the kids.

Sadly, it got pulled. The last I heard of the project was this (quoted from a private email, but it's relevant and I'm sure he won't mind):

It was working fantastically well. Loads of donated clients running as LTSP terminals, squid, samba, and apache servers handling internet connectivity, logins, home directories, login authentication, profiles and policies (superbly hand crafted for lockdown and high performance), intranet, issue tracking for tech support, cups printer servers in every room with a web interface to allow the teachers to control what the kids can print... 100% uptime etc etc. In short, the best setup I've ever seen in any school - and I've been in loads in my 20 years as an educational software developer. Then the headmaster, against the advice of all the IT teachers, technicians, myself and sundry LEA advisers, decided that the school would do the Thomas Telford GNVQ in IT - essentially an MS office training course. So the whole lot was ripped out (Julian Old is now using the salvaged the client machines as a beowulf cluster up at Leeds Met) and replaced with hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of windows servers, licences and MS office software. You will not be surprised to learn that all the technical staff in the school resigned (to move to more enlightened schools), I withdrew my support, and that the new system is so flaky it is next to useless. The promised increase in exam grades (the kids, according to the Telford brochure, are virtually guaranteed to get at least a 4 C grade GCSE equivalent from the course) has actually resulted in a massive reduction in performance from the kids.