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Software Education Linux

How Schools Can Get Free Software 170

Posted by Zonk from the free-as-in-both dept.
RicJD writes "The BBC is reporting on a school in England which has found a way to save money through Open Source Software. It goes on to explain the idea behind OSS, and briefly how they've incorporated it into the school system. Could this be the way to show the UK government that savings can be had through OSS?" Likely an adoption spurred by the education report we reported on earlier this year.
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How Schools Can Get Free Software More

How Schools Can Get Free Software

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  • How Schools Can Get Cheap Software: (Score:5, Insightful)

    by AEton ( 654737 ) on Thursday July 07, 2005 @04:14PM (#13007256)
    Make a credible threat to switch to free software.
    (Submit your school's "migration plan" to the BBC. Just in case Microsoft doesn't read that, Slashdot the story!)

    • Re:How Schools Can Get Cheap Software: (Score:5, Funny)

      by Alex P Keaton in da ( 882660 ) on Thursday July 07, 2005 @04:20PM (#13007315) Homepage
      There is a very, very real danger in students using free software- they may develop a crazy idea that information should be accesible to everyone, and reasonably priced and GASP even free!!!
      Next thing you know these crazy kids will be downloading free copies of Boy George hits, drinking excessive amounts of YooHoo, and having parties where more than 10 people watch a movie on DVD without paying royalties!!!!
      This needs to be stopped now! Ship windows! Ship windows!!!!!!! Why isn't Geldoff taking up this cause!
      • ...slashdot's +1, Funny maps disturbingly well to RIAAs +1, Insightful? I'm sure what their real market model is to have others pay them through their teens and student life (parents, university) and have them come out on the other side thinking "well, now I have to start paying for it myself". They don't want to lose customers in their youth, never to regain them. Make them feel that someone has been, or should have been paying all the time, even if they have not.

        Kjella

      • Re:How Schools Can Get Cheap Software: (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Also dont teach them science, they may get the crazy idea to develop some sort of new biologic weapon!

        Dont teach them english, they might learn bad words.
        Dont teach them how to write, they might write a microsoft's patented word.

        Mr. Alex P. Keaton, dont let a computer raise your kids, teach them moral values, be a good father to them and they will be allright. And you & your family will be having a great time using open source and spending the money you've saved on whatever you and your family desire
      • "and having parties where more than 10 people watch a movie on DVD without paying royalties!!!!"

        Actually, I have a question about that. Is there a limit to the number of people that is considered to be a private viewing? Seriously, if I had a party and had 20 of my friends over to watch a movie, would I *technically* have to pay royalties? Or does the public/private debate end when I start charging to see it? (though does that include BYOB)
      • There is a very, very real danger in students using free software- they may develop a crazy idea that information should be accesible to everyone, and reasonably priced and GASP even free!!!

        Yeah; if we're not careful, they might also discover that there are these subversive places called "libraries", where you can read entire books for free. They've been operating in the open for years, despite all the efforts of the publishing industry to shut them down.

        Wouldn't want those kids getting any radical idea
      • There is a greater danger in students using free software than them getting the crazy idea of that information should be accesible to everyone ... some of them might even get involved in development. Imagine all these fresh minds that M$ cannot even hire because of age limitations on employment...

        Younger minds can have novell ideas. FOSS needs them. School kids getting involved can bring new ideas. Perhaps even non-geek participation in designing GUIs.

        I like to call it "the coolness factor" in OSS. If kid
      • No more than ten people can watch a DVD at the same time? Holy Cow, I need to cancel my son's parties. He has 15 to 25 people over every other weekend.

        InnerWeb

      • Next thing you know these crazy kids will be downloading free copies of Boy George hits & advocating gay marriage, drinking excessive amounts of YooHoo & protesting milk contaminated by antibiotics and growth hormones, having parties where more than 10 people watch a movie on DVD without paying royalties... at Communist party meetings!!!!

        -

  • Schoolforge-UK (Score:5, Informative)

    by alanw ( 1822 ) * <alan@wylie.me.uk> on Thursday July 07, 2005 @04:15PM (#13007264) Homepage
    Schoolforge-UK [schoolforge.org.uk] is an organisation that is working together to implement open content resources using Free, Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) in UK education

    The are organizing a conference [schoolforge.org.uk] in Bolton next week: on Thursday 14th & Friday 15th July 2005.

    • As the dentists would say, never forget to FLOSS.

    • Re:Schoolforge-UK (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Why though? I have just finished my last year in the UK school system and I've read slashdot since about Yr9.

      As such, I've watched the rest of my class 'learn'. Most work is done in Access, Excel and Word and a little bit of Outlook.

      I can say hand on heart as a Linux user most of what they would of learnt in the *nix land would of not been applicable to the Windows world. Access especially - the tools on Linux don't match up at all from what I've seen.

      Even more importantly they would really, really strug
      • I could be alone here, but having been a sysadmin for a small college using all Macs, I can't imagine what a nightmare it would be to support as many Windows computers as you probably have in your school. I'd have nightmares just thinking about it. I think a lot more knowledgable people would be much more interested in running a school that operates in a Linux environment. Overall, it's just easier to keep the machines all up and running.

        As for the tools being different in the Windows world and the Linux w

      • As such, I've watched the rest of my class 'learn'. Most work is done in Access, Excel and Word and a little bit of Outlook.

        A school should a place where students are taught to understand the concepts behind things, not a place where they are trained to push buttons.

        Not only that, they get it _FREE_. Microsoft gives them a free site license like most schools will get.

        He gives the kids free samples,
        Because he knows full well
        That today's young innocent faces
        Will be tomorrow's clientel

  • I for one, agree (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Grep*coke* ( 897789 ) on Thursday July 07, 2005 @04:15PM (#13007268)
    This sounds like the best idea an education system, whether it be the UK or the US, has ever had. All schools could save hundreds of dollars by using Linux instead of Windows, and it would give kids a better background. Also, it might encourage the development of more OSS by the students.

    • Re:I for one, agree (Score:1, Insightful)

      by fr0dicus ( 641320 )
      A better background? I'd say a fairlt irrelevant grounding for the average kid not destined for a career in IT.

      • Re:I for one, agree (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Approaching.sanity ( 889047 ) on Thursday July 07, 2005 @04:43PM (#13007554) Homepage
        That is one of the more horrible things I think you could have said.

        IT is pervasive in modern society. It not only runs our work lives as a tool, it is also recreation and education. The more exposure you have to more kinds of software the better equiped you are to deal with more situations.

        If we use your arguement then we should not require all students to take science courses as they will not all be using the knowlege of what a mol is in their every day lives.
        • But it is likely they will encounter Windows in their everyday experiences. If they only know how to use *NIX with X windows manager / desktop environment, will they be able to competently work with a Start menu? Sure, the differences aren't necessarily too prononced, but any hesitation or lack of experience may be considered by a future employer, especially if there is another candidate who grew up with Windows.

          • Re:I for one, agree (Score:3, Funny)

            by Anonymous Coward
            Yeah, I can't tell you the horrible problems I had when I joined the work force, coming from my background of mostly Sinclair Spectrum and Amigas. I took me literally seconds to get to grips with Windows! That sort of hesitation nearly killed my career.
            • I work with people who are hesitant to click the My Computer icon because it's been moved from it's top-left corner. I had to explain to someone how to type capital letters.

              You apparently have more skill the (sadly) dozen of people I help at my University. Well done.

          • [. . .] will they be able to competently work with a Start menu?

            That reminds me, I need to get back to my first-draft manuscript of "The Start Button for Real Dummies".

            Yea, I think that most X users can handle a Start menu. A more likely complication of learning Linux and then switching to Windows are screams of frustration at the bone-headed limitations inherent in the Windows environment. (Like the fact that you have to essentially run as root to do anything.)

          • Great, so maybe we'll actually start training generations of people who realize that there is more than one operating system out there. I think this is probably one of the biggest things that's kept Microsoft on top. At least in my area, most people my age and under know windows because that's all we had at the school.

            Besides that, with all the copying that KDE and Gnome have done of Windows, the differences really should not be that hard to overcome. Computers are a needed skill now just like reading and
          • But it is likely they will encounter Windows in their everyday experiences. If they only know how to use *NIX with X windows manager / desktop environment, will they be able to competently work with a Start menu? Sure, the differences aren't necessarily too prononced, but any hesitation or lack of experience may be considered by a future employer

            Who can avoid learning how to "competently work with the Start Menu" in this world of pervasive Windows? My six year old daughter can just by watching me. What yo

        • I meant Linux, not computing. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

    • Re:I for one, agree (Score:3, Insightful)

      by garcia ( 6573 ) *
      All schools could save hundreds of dollars by using Linux instead of Windows, and it would give kids a better background.

      A better background in what? Using OSS software instead of Microsoft software? In the real world (yes, there are some exceptions) people use Microsoft Office. HR drones and automated readers reviewing your resumes aren't going to understand that Open Office is like Microsoft Office. They want to see Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Access on your resume, not their OSS

      • Re:I for one, agree (Score:5, Insightful)

        by jbolden ( 176878 ) on Thursday July 07, 2005 @04:48PM (#13007601) Homepage
        "HR drones" don't come from mars they come from the very school systems we are talking about. They believe that their job should involve pattern matching instead of understanding because non honors courses in school emphasize regurgitation instead of understanding (often the honors courses do as well).

        Correcting the use of Microsoft software and switching over to a Unix frame of mind could potential aid in fixing the larger problem.

      • Re:I for one, agree (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Aldric ( 642394 )
        "A better background in what? Using OSS software instead of Microsoft software? In the real world (yes, there are some exceptions) people use Microsoft Office. HR drones and automated readers reviewing your resumes aren't going to understand that Open Office is like Microsoft Office. They want to see Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Access on your resume, not their OSS counterparts."

        If schools all use free software (as they should, I don't see why my taxes should go to Microsoft) then the HR

      • A better background in what? In the real world people use Microsoft Office. HR drones and automated readers (...) want to see Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Access on your resume, not their OSS counterparts.

        Just my experience:
        a) I don't have a single class that specifies it as using Microsoft tools.
        b) If you have the office skills, check off for MS Office. You'll adapt quickly.
        c) Even if the above were not true, only the last school matters. If I had used OpenOffice from 7-16yo, then MS Of
      • Linux can be slightly less locked down than windows, Im not sure if schools do it - but things like User Mode Linux can allow students to do whatever they want in a self-contained, secure environment.

      • Re:I for one, agree (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Why? Because a machine that's running OSS will somehow be any less locked down by the admins than a similar Windows workstation? Give me a break.

        Why? Because with F/OSS the students will be able to afford the same software that's being used in school. How many elementary students can afford SQLServer? Or Visual Studio? Or even Microsoft Office, to use your example.

      • It doesn't have to be any less locked down. However, students can compile stuff in their own directories.

      • Re:I for one, agree (Score:5, Insightful)

        by legirons ( 809082 ) on Thursday July 07, 2005 @05:11PM (#13007861)
        "In the real world people use Microsoft Office."

        Actually in the real world (when I was at school), people use WordPerfect for MS-DOS, and smaller companies were starting to use Lotus Ami Pro.

        How would it have helped if I'd learned those applications?

        We even had a fairly-major CS test at school, where one of the questions was 'what keystroke is used to right-format a line in Ami Pro'. How is information like that going to help me now, typing into a Slashdot textbox using FireFox (neither of which could even have been imagined when I was learning IT/CS)

        How would teaching people Word help now? The next generation of business technology seems to be influenced by what CS graduates are using at home today, and recently that's been Linux, Free Software on Windows2000, and we're starting to see some Mac OS. If you wanted to teach in school "for business", then you would start by thinking what people will find useful in 5-10 years when they get their first jobs.

        And even if you're "living in the present", why would you standardise on something that requires the parents to pay hundreds of pounds extra to do computer-related homework, when you could select an almost-identical program that you can distribute for free?

      • They want to see Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Access on your resume, not their OSS counterparts.

        My brother just graduated from high school on a partial scholarship, and he barely knows where the Excel icon is.

        Truth is, high school isn't the place for kids to develop intermediate or advanced skills in office productivity software; their needs rarely extend beyond the basics, such as how to indent a paragraph or use the sum() function.

        For those purposes, OSS solutions are fine. Anyth

      • In the real world (yes, there are some exceptions) people use Microsoft Office.

        Do you reall believe this tired "real world" argument? Does a high school diploma plus MS office on a resume land a good job? Will it in 10-15 years when grade school students enter the workforce?
        In the real world most users of office don't use any more than the functionality that is available for free in OpenOffice.

        There is no point in teaching grade school students all the nuances of the latest Microsoft offering. Unless of

      • Well done, an astoundingly shortsighted comment there.

        Any measure of thought reveals that F/OSS enriches education far more than that of their proprietary counterparts: god forbid should there ever be a time that a student does become inquisitive as to how the machine called a 'personal computer' actually works, they can browse source, read manpages and learn how they might adapt the system to their (shock) individual needs. Kids are innately inquisitive - give them a chance and they will never cease to d

      • With regard to the popularity of certain software, you're positing a circular argument. You're talking about the status quo as if it has always existed and should ever be thus. Nobody need challenge the proprietor's popularity because they have arrived. I see things differently; the more we use free software the more popular we help make it. When we don't cave in to pressure to give a proprietor more control. But we should not do this for mere popularity. We should do this to build a better community.


      • It's always funny to see idiots say that because Microsoft is a monopoly and most people are taught to use Windows software, that therefore it will never be any different and it's completely useless to try to teach anyone anything else but Microsoft.

        Tell that to the IBM System/34 programmers from back in the 1970's.

        Fucking moron.

        If the educational system was worth a shit in the first place - which it is NOT - people wouldn't be taught ANY particular system. They would be taught the PRINCIPLES of systems
    • While I don't know that I can comment on your claim that using [alternative 1] is a "better background" than [alternative 2] (such a qualitative statement requires what you mean by 'better'), I often wonder about the long-term economics of software gratis.

      The question boils down to how the producers of "free" software make a living. If they have a low enough cost of living to spend their free time writing software to give away, then this is great. This is actually whay I think is happening, because folks w

      • Re:I for one, agree (Score:3, Informative)

        by ILikeRed ( 141848 )
        I know lots of people who are paid to develop free software, but only two who develop proprietary software. The proprietary developers hate their company, their work, and are looking for someplace more open. I think it's already been proven that most developers write software for in-house projects, not shrink wrapped goods.
    • I think the main obsticle is people resistant to change and afraid of things they aren't framilliar with. I approached the technology director at my old high school about using linux instead of buying lots of windows licenses when a truckload of older computers were donated from a business. The response: "I don't know about that linux stuff, it sounds radical." She walked away and I decided not to try further to convince someone who thinks linux is a tool of the anarchists.

  • How Schools Can Get Free Software (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 07, 2005 @04:15PM (#13007270)
    Bit-Torrent?

    Oooooh you mean the other kind of free.

  • um, rtfa? (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It's about how the school uses OSS on servers and Windows on desktops:

    "What appears on screen - the so-called desktop - for ordinary users is the familiar, paid-for Microsoft Windows.

    The software used by staff and students includes the content management system Moodle, which is open source, and Microsoft's Word, Excel and Powerpoint."

    The administrator claims over 30,000 pounds yearly are saved by using OSS servers. That seems a tad high for a single high school.
    • The previous section, on being able to use old hardware, makes it sound like they're also doing Linux client machines in some classrooms. They probably have some classes where the computer use is exclusively a web browser that doesn't have to be IE, and others with Windows desktops. Including hardware costs, 30k pounds is plausible for a year in which they would have needed new hardware.
      • I work for the school and yes we do save that much money becuase we buy less kit, thin clients running on £30 machines (linux + citrix) and get more out of the servers we do have, and get more productive use out of our staff

        - Actually I am Tim Fletcher as mentioned in the article

    • Re:um, rtfa? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by mikeb ( 6025 )
      If you look at http://cutterproject.co.uk/Casestudies/orwell_cost _benefit.php [cutterproject.co.uk]
      it shows exactly how a single high school saves 40,000 pounds a year (approximately), or $70,000. It's not rocket science; the biggest saving is in staff costs by not needing more technician support.

      Interestingly, licence fees are only a moderate part of it.

  • My school uses Linux too! (Score:4, Informative)

    by rivenage ( 785798 ) on Thursday July 07, 2005 @04:25PM (#13007373)
    I've just left (about a week ago) my school after 7 years. Last year a new business studies block was built with two Linux suites in it. They both have about 30 thin clients in each, which run off of one server. They are using Suse (9.1 IIRC) after Fedora Core 2 kept struggling. All of the teachers were complaining that they didn't know how to use Linux, but of course now they've found it's just fine, because with KDE they can use it just the same way as windows. By using thin clients the school has saved a lot of money on hardware as well as software. The Linux machines are also a lot more stable than the Windows network, and everything is much more up to date (the windows network is still 98 with IE 5.0!). If anyone is interested its the Deepings School near Peterborough in the UK.
    • Well of course a recent release of Linux will always blow away a Windows 98 machine in terms of reliability. If you compared it against Windows XP (remember Windows 98 is over 7 years old!) you would see that XP is just as stable, and is a lot more easier to set up and maintain than Linux. Remember in the long run it is the administrative costs that will outweigh the hardware/software costs. And for that, Windows has a much lower administrative cost.

      • Re:My school uses Linux too! (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Lifewish ( 724999 ) on Thursday July 07, 2005 @07:02PM (#13009040) Homepage Journal
        Remember in the long run it is the administrative costs that will outweigh the hardware/software costs. And for that, Windows has a much lower administrative cost.

        Actually, the BBC article specifically states that the school IT administrators now have enough time on their hands that they can help out in local primary schools as well (if I'm reading the article correctly). It's hard to see how that tallies with the higher administrative cost you mention.
      • WindowsXP has a much lower administrative cost than Windows 98. I think everyone will agree with that. As for WindowsXP vs Linux it's got more to do with the setup and use than anything else.

        If you lock both workstations down and have software deployment they are both about the same.

        If you've got unlocked workstations that people can do anything with then I'd agree that Linux would cost more (It's less restrictive and gives the user more power).

        The thing is these are Thin clients which has always been be
      • ``And for that, Windows has a much lower administrative cost.''

        I don't know where you get that from. With Linux, not only updates, but also upgrades can be free (just choose the right distro). Also, in my experience, Linux machines require a lot less maintenance. No virus definitions to update, no bazillion different places to get updates for every application, just a single command can do the trick, and you can run that from a cron job.

        You can even have all the software on the server with Linux (clients
      • Windows does NOT have a lower administrative cost if you're looking to hire COMPETENT administrators (i.e. not reboot monkeys - people who will diagnose problems and actually make the whole network run smoother). On a large network, Windows is every bit as complex and as hard as Linux, GUI tools notwithstanding.

        Case in point: our org has made a huge shift from a (very out of date) Novell network to AD and all of MS's other good stuff. The new network performs much worse than the old one, is much more expen
  • Hmm, Microsoft IT Academy comes to my mind.

  • Money saved, but only to be wasted elsewhere (Score:4, Insightful)

    by mc6809e ( 214243 ) on Thursday July 07, 2005 @04:28PM (#13007403)
    No one ever got elected by saving money. This saved money will only be spent elsewhere.

    That said, the best reason for using open source has nothing to do with saving money.

    It's the opportunity to get a look inside at how the machine works.

    Anyone that's taken apart a toaster or washing machine timer, etc, understands how valuable a thing it is to be able to see how it works.

    That's why open source belongs in schools.

  • How to Obtain Free Oxygen...Story at eleven Seriously, isn't this obvious by now? Obtaining free software by using free software (as in beer and speech) is not unknown. Nowadays any school system administrator or teacher marginally computer illiterate is at least partial aware of opensource software like Firefox being free as in beer (they don't understand what free as in speech means, and won't listen when I try to explain.)
    • s/illiterate/literate, typographical error. My condolences for the confusion.
    • Nowadays any school system administrator or teacher marginally computer illiterate is at least partial aware of opensource software like Firefox being free as in beer (they don't understand what free as in speech means, and won't listen when I try to explain.

      But that's most likely because they don't need it. For most people, open source means that they get it for free, they couldn't care less about having access to the source code. Even most admins I know do not really know or care about programming anywa
    • I agree, this story is definitely not news, but tech writers must have something to write about, and Slashdot almost went a day without a Linux cheerleading story, so drivel like this makes it on the front page.

  • The switch isn't that bad (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Nf1nk ( 443791 ) <nf1nk@NOSpAM.yahoo.com> on Thursday July 07, 2005 @04:30PM (#13007414) Homepage
    This is the third time I have tried to switch to linux, The first two times went badly and I gave up
    (if you care Redhat in 2001, and Suse in 2003).
    I have tried Ubuntu and the installation went smooth, the applications work easy, and haven't even seen the comand line once.
    Everything works, that wasn't true before, The installation was easier than the last windows install I did, and for a school enviroment being somewhat incompatable with most games (and Viruses) seems like a huge plus.
    I think It's ready and everything works just the way I am used to, (except that the status bar is at the top wierd how much that bugs me).
    The kids shouldn't have any problems doing what they are supposed to with the computers.
    • Heard of Cedega?
      It's a windows emulator for linux, based off of WINE, Cedega has been specialy adapted for gaming, up to date to work with even with Half-Life 2
      I being a High School student have heard of it and promise you that Linux in NO WAY would be the limiting factor on games.

    • Edubuntu (Score:2, Insightful)

      by mberry ( 898226 )
      We [stiveshaslemere.com]'ve been using Linux on our server(s) for five years now, and it's been an entirely positive experience. It just works - perhaps a couple of days of down time since September 2000, and they were over the weekend when we upgraded the OS.

      We've also been able to do far more in-house than we'd have been able to with MS stuff, I have a strong sense of ownership, and of kinda understanding how everything fits together. This last year we've been exploring web-based technology, such as the incredibly brilliant

  • Saving money should be the second most important incentive. Free software brings social good as we all know. However once students can learn programming and actually study the code of large programs we will see better education around computer science, specifically programming. Freedom in sofware promotes intellectual growth, clearly.
  • and they've had this for a while (from at least 2000).
    All the computers there are old business ones that are now running Red Hat (they even got a little plaque from RH to put up in the lobby) with Citrix connected to Windows NT Terminal Server on top of that.

    I used to help out the head IT guy (Tim) at lunch (my nerdishness was secure even back then) by installing RH over the network for the new computers, fixing the mouse if it ever stopped working (by reinstalling the drivers usually) or just copying down
  • I hope they know about this...

    K12LTSP.org

    B-)
  • Schools in the UK are currently being offered the chance to bid on a £15000 software handout from Microsoft. Our school applied but lost and the suspicion is that it's because our school doesn't hold ICT "centre of excellence" status.

    From what I can make out, MS are targetting ICT specialist schools because they are the ones who would most likely benefit from the open source code and free development tools that OSS provides. Obviously, the temptation at such schools would be to develop code that woul
    • "From what I can make out, MS are targetting ICT specialist schools"

      Ooops, should have read:

      From what I can make out, the suspicion is MS are.... etc....

      Although any anecdotal evidence would help show if this suspicion is correct.
  • Steal it like everyone else. If the administrators have any problems, just as the students, who are likely, by the age of ten, already experienced pirates.
  • Anyone have ideas to add to this online OSS list: Free Software vs Commercial Software [farleyfamily.net] -Matt

  • NOrway (Score:1)

    by fa2k ( 881632 )
    We didn't use Linux, but the school standardized on OpenOffice. Sure, my fellow students bitched about it all the time, people just thought the school was cheap, and that was probably the case. I thought it was cool. Here (in norwegian) free!=free, and we use the "as in freedom" word for the software, still people don't get the whole ideology thing that foss is about.
  • I don't know about other schools in the US, but my daughter's school, doesn't appear to have much appreciation for OSS. I don't want to name names, but it's a public school in North San Diego County.
    Anyway, they sent out a newsletter which said something to the effect of "Summer is here and your kids need to learn how to type." It went it to how the future is here, blah, blah, blah...Interweb...computers and kids. It said that we should buy our kids one of those great typing tutor programs. And it h
  • Couldn't they get free software just by downloading it?

    Convincing management to let you download/install it is another ball game entirely, but they can get it just by downloading it.
  • With the Internet being a rich resource of information about maths, geography etc (but not always a very accurate one) how long before text books are replaced with print outs from websites?

    Computers have been shown to actaully reduce the performance of children. I guess there's nothing to compete with the teacher and child relationship. A computer after all can't adapt to the needs or explain something in an alternate way.

  • It's not even news anymore ;-) (Score:3, Informative)

    by cheros ( 223479 ) on Friday July 08, 2005 @03:58AM (#13011778)
    Do a Google on "Cutter" and "Orwell school" [schoolforge.org.uk] - they've been smart because for some apps you need Windows - all the rest is done via Terminal Servers (note to OpenOffice: why is your memory footprint so much larger than StarOffice?).

    The Ubuntu [ubuntu.org] lot have a link into the SchoolTool efforts [schooltool.org] of Mark Shuttleworth [markshuttleworth.com], and anyone who's followed the FLOSS in Government [flosspols.org] trails will know about the fantastic work that has taken place in the Extramadura region in Spain. Link to all the presentations. [flosspols.org]

    There is far, far more happening out there than the UK Government seems to know - I wonder when they finally try and spend some money efficiently and emulate what the Spanish did. Could be a new concept: actual *efficient* use of tax money...
  • Management System, oka LMS (Learning management system).

    It does get pretty confusing. A CMS is usually a content management system outside of education. But withing .edu CMS now often means "common management system", which is generally an ERP hacked into something that could be sold to .edu (e.g. PS, not to be confused with a POS...well, ok, maybe 'not' is too generous).

    So now CMSs (course MS), are often called LMSs (learning MS), though this is a bit confusing as LMSs were supposed to deliver learning c

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