Australian State May Give Students Linux Laptops

Whiteox writes "The Australian Prime Minister's plan to equip high schools with 'one laptop per child' may go open source. Kevin Rudd's $56 million digital revolution will include 'laptops [that will] run on an open source operating system with a suite of open source applications like those packaged under Edubuntu. This would include Open Office for productivity software, Gimp for picture editing and the Firefox internet browser.' So far this has been considered for New South Wales and I think other states may follow."

Comments

The real reason behind this...

[MavEtJu]

NSW secondary school students could be issued with $56 million worth of Linux-based laptops as part of Kevin Rudd's digital education revolution.

The real reason behind this is that the federal government would supply the *hardware*, but that the schools would have to pay for the *software licenses* and the *support*. At least the price for software licenses would be greatly reduced now.

(Despite being a FreeBSD user,) I consider this is a good step forward: Give the children wooden blocks to play with, and they will build bridges with them.

Re:The real reason behind this...

[gregbot9000]

Give the children technology that they, and their teachers don't understand and the laptops will end up gathering dust.

My M&P got there comp when I was like 7 and no one knew how to use it. I figured out every aspect of windows 95 in about a year and a half, and it only took two dozen reinstalls of the OS. The problem isn't the teachers not showing the kids how to use them but worrying that the kids will breack them and looking them up.

This actually happened at my high school. My school spent a ton of money to buy laptops for students to use and checkout, and ended up locking them away in a back room and lent one out about 3 times a year until they were so outdated they weren't worth even selling on e-bay. I agree with you mostly, but Schools are failing because of bad management, giving kids laptops they don't need won't help, and throwing money at the problem will only make that get worse.

Re:The real reason behind this...

[mjwx]

I consider this is a good step forward: Give the children wooden blocks to play with, and they will build bridges with them.

I agree, unfortunately the Nanny Staters and NIMBYs took the wooden blocks away because they were afraid that the children would hurt each other with them.

We need to get schools back to what they were meant to do, teach kids how to think. I was fortunate enough to finish school before it became more of a babysitting exercise rather than an educational institution (completed Year 12 in 2000). Now days there is more emphasis on children just turning up as opposed to actually learning and benefiting from classes. The problem stems from the bureaucratic mismanagement (much of this is due to excessive "interest group" (churches, PTA and the like) interference) that both measures teachers performances by pointless metrics (Student attendance for one, if a kid turns up to class it doesn't mean they have learned anything), making pointless rules for political correctness/expediency (They got rid of the "F" grade when I was in year 9 because they were afraid it would demoralise students) and placing ridiculous restrictions on teachers (Group A says you cant teach B, or teaching method C must be used) as well as this the Principals are not permitted to tell students or parents that a kid is going to fail or should get a blue collar job, the school must carry them no matter how stupid or lazy they are.

I don't blame teachers, they tend to get a bum rap over this (I also agree that their class sizes are too large, this is the main reason they strike) I met one of my high school English teacher recently (turned out to be a friend of my house mate), he still cares about his students but his job isn't made easier by stupid rules and pointless interference by groups with no idea what they are on about. Many teachers are becoming disaffected and leaving the profession because of this.

FOSS (Linux) is more difficult to use than Windows or Mac and that's exactly what we need, the dumb kids will learn just enough to survive and the smart students (even the average student, Linux isn't that hard to use) will excel and benefit from learning how an operating system works as opposed to memorising where to click to do exercise 3. At this point in time if a high schooler cant pick up and use Ubuntu they aren't destined for a job involving technology anyway. As for primary school it's a great place to start with FOSS, licensing aspects aside, if we teach children to be inquisitive about technology and help them develop the ability to fix their own problems they will get a huge advantage early on. I started playing with computers when I was 6, playing around with DOS when I was 10 but now days Windows is far too easy and just not a challenge for someone who is 10-12, the only answers they can learn from Windows is "reboot", "re-install" or "wait for patch" which isn't learning, it is at best drudgery.

As a Linux-Savvy Education Student...

[Biogenesis]

...This is going to make me even more employable :).

The biggest opposition to Rudd's "computers in schools" plan has been that he's funding the hardware/software but no the support or training. No doubt this will give more weight to their argument.

Re:As a Linux-Savvy Education Student...

[Nefarious Wheel]

The biggest opposition to Rudd's "computers in schools" plan has been that he's funding the hardware/software but no the support or training. No doubt this will give more weight to their argument.

This Australian is not opposed to that. I would love to see Linux laptops in Victorian schools, and I would love to see the kids and teachers in those schools learn and develop their own methods for support and training -- it would be a hugely educational and involving experience, and would help break down the idea that true innovation in computing only comes from above, from the commercial package houses.

I'm willing to volunteer 3rd level support for such myself, but only if they spend some time scurrying about themselves and learning what they can do. Access to a help desk won't really help them learn the basic skills necessary to operate in a society that increasingly depends on densely-packed transistors written on melted sand. Learning the rote behaviour of running common commercial packages may help them in basic knowledge management, but doesn't grant the curious among them visibility under the bonnet.

Example: How would you set up a Wiki under Windows -- build a Sharepoint server and call it a knowledge base (Urk!) or have them set up a Mediawiki LAMP stack? Which one would they learn more from? Which one could they do with the smallest infrastructure spend? (Yes, I know about virtual appliances, it was just an example.)

You've got to give kids clocks to take apart.

Re:Times are different now.

[MichaelSmith]

My nephew is a grade one student at a primary school in Victoria. The school uses macs so he has his heart set on a macbook for christmas. His mother definitely can't afford an expensive laptop and I can't see what a 7 year old will get out of a mac. I have been trying to steering them towards an eeepc. You can pick one up for $300 aud now, about one fifth the price of the mac.

Gives, huh?

[clarkkent09]

It's easy to give something that isn't yours. Now wouldn't it be better if students buy their own laptops and choose which particular model or OS they like. I am not opposed to schools requiring students to have a laptop, in the same way they are required to have certain books, and perhaps offering assistance to those who can't afford it. But giving each child, even those who already have it, and those who are not interested in it and will simply sell it on ebay, a government approved computer seems like an idea that sounds good as a soundbite but terrible waste of taxpayer money in practice.

I wonder if Rudd read my email...

[NoobixCube]

During his campaign to be elected, he announced this plan, but never really elaborated on it. I took it with a barge-load of salt, as you should anything a politician said, but I still sent him (or rather his office) an email asking him if he was considering open source, and gave rough figures per student of the licensing associated with giving every student a copy of Windows, MS Office, Photoshop; for music students, something like Reason. My figures were retail price ones, as I said in the email, since I'm not aware of the bulk licensing prices companies offer for education, but even a 90% discount doesn't beat free. If he'd spent just $100 on software licensing on each student, it would quickly become a ridiculously large figure to throw around. The Labor government is a little wary of overspending, I would think, since the previous Labor Prime Minister, Paul Keating, plunged the country into recession. In his words "a recession we had to have".

Anyway, I doubt he read my email, or any of the other emails Australian open source fans could have sent. It's pretty much common sense, and if he has a brain, he's probably asked his IT department (not his IT minister :P).

Re:Times are different now.

[Nefarious Wheel]

It was the most effective long term marketing move Apple ever could have made, and I doubt they even realized it at the time.

Heck yes we knew it, that was the whole and entire point.

Disclaimer:I wasn't in the Apple educational group at the time, but our early MIS development group shared the same (tiny) building with them on Bandley Drive, and there was a little bit of crosstalk.

This won't happen

[GFree678]

Why? Because Microsoft will step in and provide a "really good deal" in exchange for the Government dropping Linux and using MS software instead.

My theory is that the Government probably would prefer Windows and relevant MS software on these laptops, however they first start by suggesting they MAY put Linux and OSS, in the hopes that Microsoft gives them a deal. Of course, if what MS offers isn't good enough, Linux is the fallback alternative, but I'm still sure that Linux is not the first choice, but rather a fail-safe and bargaining chip. I say this as an Aussie too.

I bet I know why...

[thetoadwarrior]

Purely because:

A. It's cheaper
B. They think nothing runs on Linux thus they can easily stop kids from playing games, chatting etc.

It's nice they're using linux but if my assumptions are correct then that sort of mentality doesn't help in the long run.

Good for them!

[gillbates]

You know, this is slightly OT, but I think it applies to the bigger picture. My Mom has been hyping prevention.com lately as a nice way to learn about health-related stuff. I just received an email from her today regarding what happened...

In short, prevention.com got hacked somehow, and she got a "nasty rogue-spyware". She spent quite a bit of time cleaning it up. She even warned me not to go there in her email. I wrote a nice reply, stating in effect, thanks for the warning, but we've switched to Linux.

Now I can just imagine how this would play out in a school running a bunch of Windows machines. One teacher hears from another than prevention.com is a good place for health information; teacher recommends it in class, and next thing you know the whole school is owned.

So who is going to clean up the mess? Will it be:

• The already overworked teachers who have only the most tenuous grasp of technology?
• The volunteer, part time administrator who has to work another job to put food on the table?
• The kids themselves? Even assuming there's a few bright bulbs in the lot, is it really fair to take time away from their education to deal with a situation like this?

Windows: who is going to clean up the mess?

Re:In the middle of an economic crisis

[Xiroth]

The collective delusion of Australians that we're a first world country is the problem here.

OK, now that's an interesting position. Could you back it up, please? By most traditional measures (GDP per capita, GNI per capita, etc.), Australia is one of the most well-off in the world. By which measure do you assert that it's not a first world country?

Re:Times are different now.

[nawcom]

You could always go both ways and install OS X on the ASUS Eee. Ignore the random blog posts on the net; they're outdated - Eee is well supported as of now. Everything is pretty much taken care of driver-wise. And of course this assumes you purchased a licensed copy of Leopard.

Re:Times are different now.

[cheater512]

They will not only learn how to use the open source apps, they will also then get on a Windows computer and realize how much it crashes and does quirky things.

One problem with Windows users is they dont consciously realize when something has gone wrong.
They just think 'Oh its crashed' and re-open the app.
They think its just how computers are.

Your email a tiny part of the call for open source

[Anonymous Coward]

> I still sent him (or rather his office) an email asking him if he was considering open source

You weren't alone.

http://www.fsdaily.com/Government/An_Open_Letter_to_the_New_Australian_Prime_Minister_Kevin_Rudd/related_links

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/79966,community-to-gillard-consider-open-source.aspx

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/73376,open-source-the-biggest-potential-game-changer-for-government-senator-lundy.aspx

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/76453,cebit-08-senator-lundy-lobbies-for-open-source-change.aspx

There were many calls from the Australian wider community for Rudd to consider open source.

Now, with the new (and relatively inexpensive) "netbooks" coming on to the market, many of them with Linux pre-installed, this seems more and more like the sensible way for the government to go.

The government could even be very smart here, and source the "Linux netbooks for education" from an Australian supplier:

http://www.pioneercomputers.com.au/products/products.asp?c1=3&c2=12

All of the Pioneer DreamBook Light computers can be purchased with Ubuntu pre-installed as an option. No Windows tax with Australian taxpayers money being paid un-necessarily to an American company. Local product, from a local company.

Re:Don't worry

[deniable]

They already do. I've done support for W.A. schools that were having problems with their internal Exchange server. They were shocked when we discussed the 'real' price for Exchange. They paid less than $1000 for it including CALs and hardware. MS has some serious sweetheart deals for schools and I bet if it came down to providing even cheaper Windows and Office for schools they will do it.

Re:In the middle of an economic crisis

[QuantumG]

Ok, other than ignoring your lack of reading comprehension.. let's discuss your disgusting consumer point of view of credit.

You don't use debt to buy toys.

If I'm a business man and I want to build an office building, it's not because I'd really like some neat place to hang out. It's because I expect to be able to rent the office space and recover my investment. Now, should I save up all my pennies for the next 60 years, buy the office building with cash and then wait 15 years to recover my investment and then die? Or should I go and get some money from people who already have it? The building gets built, the renters can move in and the economy keeps moving forward at a sane pace.

Things I didn't mention: every now and then someone will convince an investor to build a property that makes no sense and the renters will not show up, they'll go broke, the property will be auctioned and the investor will lose part or all of their investment. There's risk involved, yes. But what's the alternative? The people who want to rent the property get together and build it? What if they guessed wrong about their future needs for an office building? There's still risk, it's just someone else who is carrying it now.

Re:Times are different now.

[Carlinya]

False.

Been using XP for quite some time (since 2002 actually) on various machines, and it DOES crash, regardless of what I have running. It crashed on a daily basis when I got my new machine (Faster ram, better harddisk space, cooling etc) after I left it running for a few hours, until I figured out it was because of overheating. Moved the CPU and it crashes once every two with random programs running. These errors are random and I cannot find out why they crash.

Ubuntu, on the other hand, crashed three times for me in the beginning (a known issue which was quickly fixed) and has been stable ever since.

Good for you that XP hasn't crashed, but I don't think your experiences are indicative of the whole.

(To the mods: I'm sorry I couldn't resist posting this reply).