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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?"
One thing you really need to make sure, is that the teachers know that OSS is better. Far too often I have seen people who look at Linux and think that the school could not afford MS products or Macs, not that Linux is better than MS products. Also, make sure that you aren't losing money by going to OSS. For example, if your school just bought brand new Vista machines and Office 2007 licenses for all of them, you might be out of luck. On the other hand if your school uses P4 or slower CPUs and XP or earlier, Linux might just be the thing it needs.
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You have a bit of a chicken and egg problem when it comes to open source in K-12. The argument (and it's a good one) for using Windows in schools is so kids will be familiar with it, which is critical in the workplace since 99% of workplaces uses Windows extensively. At the same time, workplaces aren't going to switch to Linux because 99% of their potential employees know only Windows.
Of course, in theory more workplaces would eventually start to move to Open Source if more students came out of school knowing how to work in that sort of environment, but most schools don't want to take that gamble. If the schools did switch everyone to Linux, for example, but the vast majority of the workplace is still on Windows, you now have a bunch of people entering the workforce that are ill-equipped to work with the technology therein, and your school takes the hit for not properly preparing them. Likewise, if you're a business, you have a disincentive to switch to Linux because then you'd have to spend millions training people who grew up using Windows how to use it. That isn't even taking into account the old problem that all the software companies develop for Windows first and, usually, only.
Saving money is an argument that usually works very well in the cash-starved education system, but when it runs up against the need to make kids into well-qualified workers, things get messy.
Hi,
I was involved in one such project in Finland over ten years ago. At this time Linux was just starting to take off but was robust enough to be used even then. We had one server (NFS, bootp, email, web etc.) with over 100 PC hooked up to it (we also built the basic local area network there with students; 50 ohm coax at that time ;-). Students could connect the machine using dialup (and our outside internet connection was 64kb/s!). Most computers in individual class rooms were running windows but we had two student classrooms that ran both windows and linux (about 50 PCs). I also created a simple linux based boot floppy (bootp was used to ID machine specific configuration) that could restore workstations from the server. Another floppy could be used to generate a model computer image to the server.
Few observations:
1) Before this, it was impossible to let students work in the computer classrooms without someone sitting behind them. Otherwise the windows systems just got killed on few minutes. After this new setup, we were able to let students use the classrooms at any time. If they killed windows, we could restore it in 10 minutes with the linux based boot floppy. The linux side, which many students started using, would run for months without problems. Also network printing worked very smoothly (compared to what they had previously).
2) There were problems getting teachers (except the ones teaching computers) to use linux. At that time linux desktop was not ready for casual users. The current linux distros are much much better. While I was happy with LaTeX, it was obvious that most people could not use it. There was some version of wordperfect available (through SYSV emulation) but it was buggy.
3) Linux was a great environment to get students to learn basic concepts in programming. For example, I had couple of 7th graders who became quite good programmers in a very short time.
4) All this pretty much ended when the school district got a "common information technology strategy". They required windows based solutions etc. These people were complete morons. Supposedly trained computer experts but they could hardly reinstall windows if asked. I think the most difficult problem is to find people who actually know something about computers. Somehow one should make sure that computer illiterate people don't make all the important decisions.
"For me the Pro's and Con's are about even. I use Linux as my main OS, but I don't think that it is ready for 100% mainstream use yet"
...
In a school environment, what isn't Linux yet ready for.
"Unfortunately in education there are alot of specialty software programs that are needed by the teacher"
Apart from this 'specialty software', what other educational software could provide similar functionality that isn't yet available under Linux.
"I also don't like the idea of teaching kids how to use an OS that isn't used in the workplace"
You're kidding, once a kid learns how to use one desktop GUI, s/he's learned them all.
"Schools are for preparing kids for life and work"
As far as I could see, schools prepare kids for passing exams
With all the shortcomings in Open Source's ability to open Microsoft Office's documents, I wish you luck.
In my experience, school officials are so biased against anything not Microsoft that convincing them is almost impossible. I wish you luck man.
This KDE developer has something that would interest you.
I am from rural southern america and there are plenty of competant linux admins around here. just none with certifications :(
ktouch is way better than any touch type tutor my school had :)
gcompris keeps kids sucked in learning better than my kindergarden teacher did...
kbruch helped me through 5th grade :)
and kalgebra through high school...
opensource is vital to my learning, it can help others im sure...
http://www.k12openminds.org/ and http://community.k12opensource.com/ Open Source in schools is a great cost saver, but you need to support it and not just throw it over the wall. Look at K12LTSP/K12Linux or virtualized desktops. There is a good chance that e-rate funding will cover 90% of the install costs. Watch out for Education ISV's, you are taking food out of their mouths. Don't forget Moodle.
I think that really depends on the school district. When I went to school in NY state (between NYC and Albany) security was pretty lax in most of the computer labs. The only issue we had was with one of the crazier school board members trying to ban internet access from the schools because of the possibility for viewing improper stuff (he actually argued that a 1950's education was good enough to put people on the moon, to which we asked if he was suggesting we go back to using slide-rules). The irony was that a teacher was already required to be present at all times and all the computers faced the center of the room. The idea that a student was going to be viewing porn sites without being noticed was absurd.
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For 2 years out of undergrad, I taught high school. You know, giving back. My undergrad was in business, so I was a "Business Education Teacher," and, in my class, every student had a PC. To leverage this resource, I ran Moodle. I hand graded one test my entire two years.
However, the other "Business Education Teachers" taught people how to be secretaries. Students should achieve 40 WPM, and put it on their resumes. Students should know the ins-and-outs of Word and Excel, and skim over Access, since it is nothing more than a spreadsheet. 50% of the teachers had a 10-year tenure, and they yearned for the click-clack of typewriters.
To their defense, teachers have little time and encouragement for continued education. A standard day for a teacher is: 8 hours of instruction and classroom management, and 1 hour of "planning" (when you just wanted to relax). On the Friday after teaching my first week, I picked up a six pack and flowers for my wife, who had previously taught for 3 years. I then told her "I understand." I'm not a teacher now, and non-teachers do not know the continuous physical and mental effort it requires. You have to be "on" for 8 strait hours: standing, talking, controlling, watching, patrolling, inspecting, walking, cleaning, hollering, and protecting yourself legally, all at the same time.
Lastly, school management is composed of individuals who were teachers. They don't know what a cost-benefit analysis is, or a business process efficiency application, or an ERP. States shoved new requirements on school management every year, and school management response is reactionary. Administrators and teachers have initiatives come and go before, and they will again.
To introduce OSS to a classroom, you have to lead a classroom. To introduce OSS to a school, you have to lead a school. Similar to the other 100 new requirements for school administrators, a requirement of "OSS Implementation" will be lost in the shuffle. When next year comes, they will forget the OSS requirement, and handle the next 100 things.
Chris Winslett
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I can't believe I read through so many posts and found so little actual information. So here's one.
Schoolforge/
once more into the breach
I've been a MS user all my life, and after first loading up Ubuntu, I could figure out where Firefox, the office applications and the games are within 30 seconds. From a very basic user interaction standpoint, it's just like Windows, but with a few rearranged icons.
Much of this depends on what you want to do.
If you want to run the Big 4 (word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, internet browsing) then FOSS solutions are idea. In my last school however:
* Staff used a client server commercial package called RenWeb for record keeping, lesson plans, and parent communication. Client was winsooze only .NET application with a raft of custom DLLs
* As the photography instructor I used and taught photoshop. I'm sorry but the Gimp just doesn't cut it.
* As an outdoor program coordinator I used Mapmaker Pro and Oziexplorer to build maps and to move data to/from my GPS. I've found no equivalent of Mapmaker that is OSS.
* As part of support we had a number of MS access quick and dirty database apps, each with a bunch of entry forms, and reports. I've spent days searching for an equivalent package that allows rapid database application prototyping. (I looked at kexi, knoda, rekall, bond, glom, pfm, and PgAdmin)
This doesn't mean that FOSS is not usable, but in most systems it will need to be a parallel system to paid software.
IF I were in charge of a school district I would look at doing it this way:
1. I would deploy student machines as being some form of terminal only. Students with laptops could use windows rdesktop, or VNC.
2. I would buy high end boxes stuffed with memory and run a bunch of instances of virtualbox or equivalent vmware, or remote X. Using immutable images in virtualbox makes for systems that are hard for the kids to corrupt.
3. Users on startup could select if they needed a windows session or a linux session or a mixed session. Tweak the system so that equivalent applications on linux ran faster.
4. Servers would run FOSS. Working around Active Domain isn't that difficult, especially if the vast majority of your windows installations are virtual.
5. In a few cases you need individual high powered machines. (Running photoshop in virtualbox is less than satisfactory)
I would make the transition as follows:
A. Using whatever machines I could get, I would start setting up ancillary servers. DHCP, YP, SMTP, POP, IMAP, NFS, SMB. This gives my admins experience in working with open source operating systems, but in a way that is easy to back out of. E.g. Initial Samba services can be for doing backups.
B. When this works, and admins are comfortable with it, I'd bring in 1 high power box per site, and set it up as a VB server. Initially it would serve only windows, and it would serve to visiting laptops. This is sold as a security measure to protect your network from laptops with unknown software.
C. Once this works, I'd convert one lab at each site to thin client setup. Their existing hard drives would be untouched while learning how the system works. Eventually this is sold as a cost cutting measure, as it permits running the lab machines for more years. After the admins are happy with the results, rip out the disks. This makes the lab both quieter and cooler.
D. Introduce VBox with saved state to staff. Being able to shut down in their classroom, and reopen at home and have the same machine state for their record keeping, lesson plans and so on will be a win. Or they can leave the machine at work, and have a client session from home.
E. With the money saved from not having to upgrade all the labs, I'd make a few high end machine sets for applications that are demanding such as Photoshop, and Final Cut Pro.
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I write about FOSS in schools frequently. See:
http://trombonechamp.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/10-reasons-why-free-software-and-gnulinux-should-be-used-in-schools/