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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...
You don't state a reason why you think it is a good idea to switch.
Which is why, instead of asking for "How to..." she asked for some studies on the subject, presumably so that she might determine whether it is a good idea to switch or not.
It would certainly be _free_, but would it be better?
She didn't even mention that she advocated the switch yet, just that it had been discussed and she needs more information.
Ease up, troll.
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.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
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 -
IMHO, the biggest problems with any computer deployment in our K-12 classrooms are always support and training. If a school district adopts Linux and open source then who is going to be the admin in charge of updates, patches, server, network, and desktop maintenance, etc? Competent Linux admins are harder to find than people with at least basic knowledge of Mac and Windows and are likely to cost more too. So unless someone within the district, who will not be any worse off for saying no, wants to step up and take on the task of learning to be a Linux admin who is going to manage the whole affair? Also, how many teachers know how to use Linux or are willing to invest the time required to learn? After all, they cannot teach their students that which they themselves do not know. These are not insubstantial difficulties.
Lets face it, Linux users are probably the most intelligent people around. I mean, anyone can learn to be a plumber or electrician, or learn law and become a lawyer, or pick up biology and become a doctor, but having no social skills is something that has to come from inside, and cannot be learnt. Trying to teach OSS ideals to the average student would be a waste of time, they just aren't bright enough to get it. Indeed, as others have said before me, its not that Linux isn't ready for the desktop, people just aren't ready for Linux, and quite frankly the vast majority of the human race never will be; they simply aren't as clever as the average Linux user.
But I'm happy about being a Linux user, happy about being in the 1% of the population intelligent enough to think for themselves and not follow the hurd. The clever people will find Linux, forget the rest, they don't matter.
Make sure you understand that you have a very, very, very wide range of users. I deal with non-tech graduate students all the time(the same age as the youngest teachers in the field) and they are not tech savvy. They can myspace and youtube, and maybe superpoke someone on facebook, but that's it. Don't expect the youngest teachers to be the most techy. You'll find good, older teachers near retirement that can give you a run for your money.
Be aware that most k-12 schools have almost no budget. They can get money for hardware/software purchases, but a *good* tech to handle some of the idiosyncrasies of F/OSS is out of their budgets. A 50 computer lab on a 4 year rotation(many schools would kill for computers that new) only costs around $15,000 a year. They'll come with an os installed and maybe a cheap educational copy of office. To hire someone, say 40k-50k a year + benefits, to put a different os on the desktops is a huge expense.
My suggestion would be to start small. Make the decision making process open and transparent. Ask schools to have a cost/benefit analysis of the software purchases. You'll see your biggest savings in server apps, not desktops.
See if you can get schools to have a traveling tech, consolidate servers, etc. This can be difficult. A lot depends on what state you are in. A midwestern state, with lots of small schools with low enrollments(30-50 in a graduating class) may be better served by server consolidation. On the other hand, if you are in a big city where the graduating class is bigger than the entire k-12 school I graduated from, you'll have a bigger budget and a better chance of getting an onsite tech.
Show them security. Student records are highly confidential. Show them how spending less on the server software can increase their security.
It really comes down to knowing your audience and what they want and expect.
You have an entrenched base of Mac and Windows-teaching teachers in the K-12 system (and *nothing* says "entrenched" like a US Public School System teacher). Who's going to convince the union that they should switch their curriculum to an Open OS and Open Apps? You? Stallman? And since the majority of parents (and teachers) view K-12 computer class as akin to Home Economics or Auto Shop (i.e., teaching the kids something "practical, real-life, that they can use") where will that sudden groundswell of support for open software come from? The children, who are anxious to play all those linux-based games? Oh, wait...
This is one change that, if it comes at all, will not arise up out of the schools, but downward from business. When the moms and dads get linux-friendly at work, and can see the value of their children learning the apps in "computer shop," you may see some change.
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.
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.
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.
In my limited exposure to K-12 systems I have noted that in every district I've seen, there has been a software package in use for grade/attendance tracking, etc. that requires either Windows or Mac. Aside from the non-trivial issues of training, we really need an open-source alternative to the proprietary systems for this that are out there now. Of course, I'm no expert and there very well may be an open source project. If so, I'd be interested because the cost savings to my local school district would be huge I suspect.
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
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
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.
This pops up on slashdot every couple of months. Let me outline the reasons this is difficult from the perspective of one school. It sounds like you're trying to push forward an unfunded mandate. You're going to get a lot of pushback once people realize what you're trying to do.
- Apps. Educational software is often poorly written, and is written for mac and windows, not linux. One of the k-12 schools I work with has 350 applications, perhaps 330 which would have to be replaced under your plan. The K-5 students don't use openoffice, they use Reader Rabbit, there is no OSS substitute, and forget about making it work under wine. 6-12 use some generic office type apps, but also educational software. Keep in mind that entire curriculum and courses are sometimes tied to an app. You're not just replacing an app, you're asking teachers to re-write their curriculum. We're not just talking about typing software, we need software that keeps track of students performance and can run reports showing progress, comparing classes, etc...
- Hardware. IT budgets in schools are often small. You can get E-Rate money for some servers and network gear, but printers, digital cams, etc... are often old. Will your hardware work with Linux? What about the hardware your teachers use without your knowledge. Can you afford to replace it? If you replace old printers, you'll end up throwing away all your stock of ink, plus the ink you didn't know the teachers were hoarding. Some hardware is directly tied to an app for a class, you'll have to throw it away, you run into the same curriculum issues as with the software.
- Support. You'll need to support it. This means replacing or training your existing (unionized) staff. My experience is that schools typically employee underqualified staff. Clicking on things is rough, editing text files is really rough. If the staff can't handle the new tasks, can you replace them? This is a union and politics problem, and not an easy one.
- Training. You need to retrain teachers and staff. You'll again run into union issues, teachers are only required to do x hours of professional development per year, they simply won't take training classes, no matter how easy you make it. Keep in mind that teachers are continually asked to do more work with the same or less time/money, and you'll be asking them to relearn to do things. You might not be making any friends here.
Here how this does work, it'll take a few years...
First, do your TCO studies, show how there are no licensing issues. Licensing is a huge headache, solving that issue will win you friends it makes rolling out apps faster. Make sure the administration is onboard and working toward your goal. Doing all this is pointless if the superintendent comes back from a conference and decrees that everyone should have application X, which only works under Windows.
Modify your technology plan to require that any purchased software is web based and standards compliant. I've worked with "web based" apps that only work on IE, or require special plugins and etc... You'll end up losing a lot of functionality.
Take existing apps for which there are no good web based substitutes and see if they work with wine.
Roll out both of the above to one or two labs. Run them that way for at least a month. Make sure that your lab has an assigned lab aide, someone who takes ownership of the lab and is physically present when classes are using it. Keep on top of things, people probably won't report problems. When there are problems, solve them quickly.
When I was in high school, all of the computers were extremely locked down (couldn't do anything except internet + word processing). It sucked. I'm not sure that schools would be willing to adopt a platform unless they'd be able to lock it down similarly (for reasons they'd cite as security, cost, whatever). Presenting up front the ways that you can control the user experience might be a good way to sell open source.
(to be really honest, my initial reaction was: no! open source software can't be locked down! school's will never use that! ... then I thought about it, and realized that someone had probably designed a way to do it )
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
Am I the only one who finds it ludicrous to describe the US version of the Imperial system as 'English measurements' when it uses different sized quantities (e.g. smaller pints) to the Imperial system as used in England?
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
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?
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
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.
Third Career: Tree Farmer Second Career: Computer Geek First Career: Teacher, Outdoor Instructor, Photographer.
You'd be surprised to know how much open source is used in schools. Granted most of it isn't at the desktop, but there are a large number of schools using things like Audacity, IPCop, Nagios, Zimbra, Moodle, Drupal, etc on Linux. So ask the question why are these apps used in schools, and it usually is because they are best of breed software in it's category. So if you want to get more free/open source software into schools, then make killer applications that give them a reason to be there.