Bringing Open Source To The Classroom

narzy writes "I have written a limited research paper outlining the challenges of bringing Open Source software in to the educational environment. I also look briefly at the differing development views and security principals of the closed and open source communities, how we can overcome some of the challenges of implementation as well as what it would take to create a vibrant learning environment using an open source architecture."

Linux *should* be in the classroom

[dshaw858]

I'm volunteering at a small company that takes donations of computers, formats them, and gives them to underpriviledged children in San Diego (where I live). When I suggested putting linux on them, I was told that they'd never use that outside of what we gave them, and that students don't care about linux. I think that that's actually pretty bad, and untrue. For example, a computer with KDE or Gnome or XFCE is no harder to use than Windows XP, and is more stable. I think that once people finally realize that linux isn't just some geek project, but can actually be used efficiently, then it will start to be used in the classroom.

And then students' computers might not crash as much...

- dshaw

Top need is for reliability

[joelparker]

I spent some years studying this and time at Sun advising some K12 schools about software NS hardware.

What we found-- repeatedly-- is that open source was most often advocated and maintained by one or two teachers with personal interests, e.g. a physics or math teacher. These people were not full-time techies, which led to issues.

Thus the top need is for reliability, something they can install and never worry about again. Anything that involved patching and upgrading was problematic, as was any software that used dynamic linking or shared libraries.

Software and hardware that enables thin clients worked very well, first because of centralizing the administration and deployment, and second because the users were less likely to corrupt the local PC. Again, reliability is key.

Cheers, Joel

Re:Top need is for reliability

[Corrado]

I am currently doing some computer volunteering at my children's school and I am trying to lead the charge with OSS. Money and support is tight, so OSS sits pretty well with everyone in charge.

My first project was putting in a firewall. They were running pretty much wide open before I got there. I slapped IPCop [ipcop.org] on a spare box they had laying around and changed the whole nature of their network (for the better :). They are now running DHCP (no more hardcoded IPs), Squid, and have a content filter (requi

my school

[luckyleprecon666666]

My school uses Novell and teaches a networking/operating systems class that includes Red Hat, Free bsd, and Several Novell distros I think it great to learn about it in school not to mention it being fun...

Teaching to Code

[Canordis]

Teaching simple coding skills, using a simple scripted language like Python or Lisp, is way better in an Open Source environment. Not only most Open Unixes like Linux and BSD already come with most common compilers and interpreters, but it also encourages the time honored tradition of opening stuff up and looking at it's innards, then learning about how it works (Looking at the source code for common software, or even looking at ELisp code). A few comments about the subject are at http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/preface.htm [ibiblio.org] ---

The biggest problem is lack of educational program

[Mike McCune]

I am currently teaching high school students to build computers for schools. We are currently using Linux because we can't afford to put a legal copy of Windows on every PC.

Most of the computers are going to grade schools. The biggest problem is a lack of good educational software for grade school kids.

Most schools have educational software that they use. Most of it is very old. I've even seen some DOS programs still in use. Most won't work with Windows XP or Linux, so the schools are stuck with Windows 98 or earlier.

There is a bunch of educational software listed on sites such as seul.org but most of it is beta quality at best. We've found a few good programs such as debian-junior and gcompris but few others.

Are there any other good educational programs out there?

Re:The biggest problem is lack of educational prog

[miyako]

New Breed Software [newbreedsoftware.com] makes a lot of good open source edutainment applications. I know TuxPaint is part of Debian Jr. Not sure about the others like Tux Math, but you might want to check it out.

Re:The biggest problem is lack of educational prog

[nijk]

Check out this screenshot of the New Breed Software game "Defendguin".
http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/defendguin/screens hots/game.gif [newbreedsoftware.com]
The enemies are little floating heads of Bill Gates. Do we really need to brainwash our children like this? Now, I'm all for Microsoft-bashing but we need not be so silly.

Re:The biggest problem is lack of educational prog

[Corrado]

Have you tried any of the OSS DOS emulators on the 'net? Some of the first Google hits are DOSBox [sourceforge.net] (looks really good and focused on gaming), DOSEMU [dosemu.org] (hmmm...is it still updated?) and the big boy FreeDOS [freedos.org] (very active community).

I haven't tried any of these personally in quite a while so YMMV.

Linus Torvald??

[XsynackX]

Linux. Linux is an operating system, it is an implementation of the Unix kernel originally written from scratch with no proprietary code by Linus Torvald (Howe). I believe the source of this information, "Howe," is confusing the singular form of Linux's creator with his more common plural form, Linus Torvalds :-p

Windows isn't more usable than Linux

[mscnln]

Office XP doesn't have any more of an intuative interface than OpenOffice.Org. The problem is that from 1st grade, schools train students in Windows and Office. If schools started teaching Linux instead of Windows, there would be absolutely no problem. By teaching how to use Windows, schools are in effect hurting the students by locking them into paying hundreds of dollars for software, in place of which, FLOSS would allow them to be just as productive.

Got opensource here

[Pika_girl15]

My highschool recently converted webbrowser in one of the IT rooms to FireFox, and I have convinced them to get a Squid proxy server (although it is my job to set it up). If my school has gone this far, maybe i can convince them to OpenOffice and eventually full-blown Linux? Linux in classrooms isn't as far away as it might have first seemed.