MESSAGE
| DATE | 2008-03-09 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] GNU High School
|
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/16984/1141/
the world Educating Tux: case studies of Linux deployments in high
schools around the world PDF E-mail User Rating: / 13 PoorBest
by David M Williams Thursday, 06 March 2008 Page 1 of 3 ! Linux has a
lot to offer cash-strapped education departments. It’s free, for one
thing. It is naturally secure with distinctly non-privileged accounts
and it is easily centrally administered. However, the experiences by
schools that have gone this route are a mixed bag. Let us investigate
some and see what lessons there are.
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StatCounter - Free Web Tracker and Counter Previously on ITWire my
colleague Sam Varghese presented the remarkable tale of Strathcona Baptist
Girls Grammar School. This school successfully implemented a large-scale
Linux deployment across 350 workstations. The ability to spend on hardware
was bolstered by a reduction in software and maintenance expenses as a
direct consequence of switching to Linux (specifically Red Hat Linux,
then Fedora.) The school reported a distinct decrease in administration
work, a large reduction in downtime and no virus problems. You would
think it was a resounding win.
Yet, six years later the school reverted back to Microsoft Windows. The
reason for the change back was not technical nor was it financial. Instead
the school’s staff pressed for Windows due to their own familiarity
with it. Tragically, the same people who claimed unfamiliarity with Linux
were similarly lost in the new Windows world of Vista and Office 2007.
This story struck a chord with Sam’s readers, some of whom expressed
their disappointment that Strathcona had to return to their Windows roots
with associated higher expenses despite the simultaneously reality of
schools suffering from funding difficulties.
Strathcona is not unique in its experience as a school that has sought
alternate operating systems and computing environments to tackle costs
(and, dare we say, student mischief.) Happily, their subsequent experience
of encountering pressure to revert is not as common. Here are some,
and lessons that other schools – or indeed businesses – can learn.
One extremely positive experience came from the Lorien Novalis School
in Glenhaven, Sydney. This school has 350 students and 38 staff covering
kindergarten through to year 12. Interestingly, the decision to migrate
was proposed by senior students rather than a decision formulated by
faculty. The previous generation of Apple Macintoshes were due for
replacement and the suggestion came to give Mandrake Linux a try.
There did not appear to be any initial strong impetus behind change
beyond exploration but four years later the school weren’t looking back
and in particular were embracing the open source ideological mantra of
software freedom. To their way of thinking, open source software had a
great deal in common with school education, both being about cooperation
and sharing knowledge.
One very helpful factor in the school’s Linux experience has been
lower hardware requirements, with two well used servers being the
primary workhorses until finally in 2004 a new HP Proliant server was
sourced. This said, the school were prepared to spend money to purchase
Mandrake support and manuals and to reward and encourage the work of
open source organisations.
One other matter which clearly influenced the success of the project
was surprisingly in stark contrast to the conventional wisdom of tightly
locking the standard desktop environment down. At Lorien Novalis students
were encouraged to tinker.
Here, the students felt an ownership over their Linux lab and had a
freedom to tinker, undoubtedly aiding adoption and acceptance. Although
some legacy Windows and Macintosh computers remained, due to custom
software needs, the school is working to migrate these to Linux and free
and open source equivalents also.
Please read on to page two for more.
--
http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff
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