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Open Source In Public K-12 Schools?
MissMachine writes "I'm a computer science major who has been recently getting involved in local grassroots politics in my county and state. I've been discussing the idea with some of my state legislatures of submitting a couple of resolutions, opening up to the idea of switching to open source software in our state's K-12 schools. I'm looking for more information/literature about this topic, open source solutions in public K-12 education, pros and cons, studies that prove or disprove many of the assumptions of open source and linux in public schools. Any help in this field?"
This looks helpful...
I know you're scared, but with that attitude, you'll never get her back to your mom's basement.
"You don't state a reason why you think it is a good idea to switch"
..'
'View a cost comparison chart (pdf) that shows how open source solutions can leverage your costs'
'The use of open technologies in education is now commonplace throughout the world with one notable exception, the United States. School and district technology leaders need to become aware of how these other educational systems are leveraging the use of open technologies to improve student learning, engage parent and community interest in education, provide home access to technologies used in school and use their financial resources in the most effective way possible. Consider these possible benefits
* Cost: License Fees and TCO -
* Data integrity/interoperability -
* Independence and Flexibility -
* Stability and Reliability -
* Broader Access to Information -
* Community Support -
* Engage Students in Collaboration -
in the UK there is Schoolsforge-uk a grassroots non-profit collective of interested parties who are trying to push this kind of stuff to the same age group courses schoolsforge.org.uk
Admittedly, I don't know many K-12 IT folks who are open-minded about FOSS & Linux. There is a guy a few towns away from me Chris Dawson who writes a blog on ZDnet that addresses his concerns and experiences. Here is a blog that talks about the subject. Browse around some of his back editions, you'll find more info.
I don't know of any such research and studies specifically, but I'd suggest that asking educators and their IT folk about what problems they are trying to solve before offering a solution. Are they trying to run specific Windows-only software? Does that software have a Linux equivalent (browser/office apps)? Can it be run under WINE with no problems? Look at their infrastructure to see if a thin client/LTSP solution for classroom PCs might save them electricity and upgrade costs over the long run.
Do a pilot program in a couple schools, and use them as the basis for further proposals to legislators and other school districts.
I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
They are currently working on a similar process to get a unified platform created with Linux to lower the costs in schools. I know they have been working on it the last 2 years but do not know the status of the project currently.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" -- Albert Einstein
http://www.classroom20.com/profile/AlexInman
I sell a closed source educational software product and I've seen the insides of a lot of schools. I know that any teacher or school IT coordinator is going to hate to see their known infrastructure replaced at the whim of the state legislature by something they had no say in.
You need to be talking to the people in the schools first, not the people making the laws. Odds are you can find some problems that Open Source software can help with and a few IT coordinators who are on board with it. Then evangalize your local success, highlighting money saved and better student performance, and you'll start opening up a lot more people's minds to open source software.
But top-down through the politicians is not the way to go (case in point).
If you really want to change the landscape, though, find a way to actually fund open source educational software development. It's a shame that we don't have something like a PBS for educational software. I'd much rather write software that everyone can have for free.
GollyGee Blocks -- 3D creativity software for kids.
For a second, I thought I submitted this question. You sound a lot like me!
I fancy myself knowledgeable, so I'll share.
The spread of open source software must come as a means to an end, not simply as an edict from the state legislature or DoEd. Remember that legislators move slow and what they write is law. The DoEd moves even slower. Campaign locally--get some success stories at one or two districts, then work on the DoEd and beyond. If you really want to, get yourself elected or appointed to the school board and work from within. However, watch conflicts of interest, as those are a political downfall.
Saving money on licenses for software should be a primary talking point for any advocacy of open source software, not just in education.
It is probably best to work in phases. In the first phase, do top-down, easy replacements: Firefox, OpenOffice. In the second phase, identify other education domain-specific software which needs to be replaced and try to find replacements. In the third phase, try a small lab with Linux and all non-replaced software running with Wine.
There will be software which simply doesn't work on Linux. A part of the planning is figuring out how to handle those cases. Photoshop cannot be replaced with GIMP, no matter how much anyone would have you believe this. GIMP suffices for many, many things, but Photoshop has a stranglehold which GIMP cannot ever break (if you don't know why, you've never worked in a printing or graphic design place).
Do not push Linux as a part of the first phase. It's too much of a change at once and could put a bad taste in administrators', teachers', students', and parents' mouth.
A smart move may be to convince some intrepid students to be the first to switch at home, thus proving that the students are capable of using open source software for educational tasks. Do the same with a few teachers.
Interoperability is key. If student would need to work on something at school then take it home, the student must have access to the same software in both places.
A point to hit for the state legislatures is the local developer factor. Buying Microsoft software benefits Redmond, Washington. Paying for open source software may benefit local developers, especially if there is a provider of Linux support nearby.
In summary, the my heaviest point is this: means to an end, not a solution looking for a problem.
Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
I'm not comprehending why you were modded funny. Having just tried Linux myself, I didn't find it easy to use, simply because I didn't know how to use the CLI.
But even if you don't use Linux, you can still use open source choices like OpenOffice, VLC Media Player, Audacity, and so on in order to reduce K-12 School costs. Just abandoning MS Office for OpenOffice will save ~$70,000 for a 1000-computer school district. You can embrace OSS while still sticking with the familiar windows or macintosh environment.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
They've taken technology from other projects (ie Linux Terminal Server Project) and built a great package. It's being used in schools world-wide. Here's the link:
http://k12ltsp.org/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page
"I once preached peaceful coexistence with Windows. You may laugh at my expense - I deserve it." Be's Jean-Louis Gass
Hi there, I am currently employed by a k-12 school as an admin/all around support guy, and I have successfully introduced a linux lab this year...and they love it!
:P ) and the constant uptime, and the superintendent LOVES it for monetary reasons.
I'm not sure the amount of time that you or the people who would be doing the deployment are willing to invest in the project, but I created a very simple distro, with the intention of using cloud computing tactics on it. The students are using google docs/gmail/gcal and the spreadsheet and presentation tools google also offers. The kids love the lab because its fast and easy, the teachers love it because of how easy it is to share (that's all google however
This lab was actually created with old crud machines, ones that would have been thrown away. The fact that it's now a fully functional place for teachers to bring students is really opening everyone's eyes. With the majority of k-12 kids just using the computer to type and get on the net, there really aren't compatibility issues (other labs are obviously still windows for speciality software).
I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you have some old machines lying around, try scratching an itch. Tell staff that you can pull a new lab out of thin air, and they won't have to fight to sign out the few available ones to have kids go in an type papers. You get the idea, it sounds corny, but its worked for me.
Anyhow, this lab has been a huge success, and I already have the go ahead for another, and very possibly single workstations for teachers rooms as well, I only hope that others can manage to do the same.
Eternalelegy
This is key. There's more to FOSS than Linux. Tools like OpenOffice, GIMP, Inkscape, Moodle, and Drupal can offer huge savings to schools without forcing users onto a whole new desktop environment.
Oregon is doing quite a bit with open source solutions for K-12. The Oregon Virtual School District - http://orvsd.org/ - serves more than 200 public schools around the state. It's primarily Drupal and Moodle on servers funded by the state Dept. of Education.
If user accounts are set up properly, there is no need to lock the system down. (the default account on the computers you used was probably admin...just guessing. Otherwise, they wouldn't have had to cripple it. That's how it was for me too. Of course, Win98 was the de-facto OS back in my day, and that POS had only one real user account) Linux would be ideal for such a case because students could be limited to low-privilege accounts where they wouldn't be able to tamper with anything.
"It is a denial of justice not to stretch out a helping hand to the fallen; that is the common right of humanity."
taking 2 courses a summer (very conservative plan) at a local community college, they can get a MA or MS in 5 years.
Doesn't a Master degree require 5000 and 6000 level classes? What community college teaches those?
Falcon
Should there be a Law?