[ubuntu-uk] Open Source Challenges Vista at U.K. Education Show

[London School of Puppetry]

I have seen whiteboard in a number of schools recently all working
brilliantly.  Caroline

On 17/01/07, Toby Smithe <toby.smithe at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi. I'm curious: do you have whiteboards and do they work?
>
> On Wed, 2007-01-17 at 09:42 +0000, Alistair Crust wrote:
> > Hi, I would have to strongly disagree with your outlook here.
> > I talk from experience as a systems admin at Skegness Grammar school in
> > Lincolnshire. We have run LTSP with several different distros for 3
> years
> > (Settling on Debian, then Ubuntu) on 100+ thin clients with Ubuntu fat
> > clients in most of the department offices and all services
> web-filtering,
> > email, intranet etc using Linux. Legacy apps are available using win2k3
> > Terminal services. All curriculum teaching is done using Linux. We are
> now a
> > Maths and Computing Specialist school.
> >
> > Although I must admit any advances into education by OSS and GNU/Linux
> in
> > general will be, and have been, hard at first the more it is used the
> more
> > Managers, Teachers, Software vendors.. even school governors wanting to
> make
> > the most of their budget will see the benefits.
> >
> > To clarify I recently read in a blog post by Mark Shuttleworth
> > (http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/76) that for hardware
> > manufacturers it seems to be about critical mass... once 5-10% of people
> are
> > asking for Linux support only then will they care about providing that
> > support. IMHO this also is the case for software vendors.
> >
> > Without that critical mass in education, shouting to manufacturers
> > (hardware/software) then it will be a struggle for advancement but not
> > impossible. Once we have this critical mass, software vendors and
> hardware
> > vendors alike will care about why they are loosing out on a viable and
> > important revenue stream. With BECTA et al reiterating the need for OSS
> this
> > will help to grow the seeds of change..for the better.
> >
> > I would love to see some way that government could provide funding to
> OSS
> > projects to continue there sterling work. Funding that would ordinarily
> go
> > to proprietary systems that bear a great risk for vendor lock-in. Look
> at
> > the funding for the Compulsory.. sorry Optional KS3 ICT Online...sorry
> > On-screen Test....sorry Assessment. (This just shows the U turn the
> > government has done when they found out things were not going as
> smoothly as
> > they thought, and they had spend a shed load of tax payers cash and it
> > wasn't going to do what they wanted it to do). This cash could have gone
> to
> > funding something useful... even getting someone like Canonicle to build
> an
> > On-line distro neutral Test... something that works!
> >
> > To close, I know I haven't been the most active member of the list as I
> have
> > limited spare time. I did however feel compelled to add my two peneth
> here.
> > I'll get of my soap box now.
> >
> > Keep up the great work with OSS promotion.. as I said critical mass, the
> > more we chip away at this the better it becomes. To coin a phrase "Every
> > Little Helps!"(tm)
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Alistair Crust
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Colin_The_Technician" <binarysignal at gmail.com>
> > To: "British Ubuntu Talk" <ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com>
> > Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 11:21 PM
> > Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] Open Source Challenges Vista at U.K. Education
> Show
> >
> >
> > >I was at the BETT Show and saw the Open Forum Europe stand and the
> > > Edubuntu CD's.  Also the Internet cafe there was powered by Linux.  So
> > > while it's good to see them at BETT I personally never think Linux we
> > > make any advances into education.  And I say that as a school Network
> > > Manager.
> > >
> > > I say that because of the 190 poor written and designed educational
> > > applications we have on our network NONE of them have Linux versions.
> > > That is with one exception....the new Yr9 ICT SAT software has a Linux
> > > version and I noticed that just yesterday.
> > >
> > > I do promote OSS and Linux within education.  I have converted one
> > > teacher and two students to Ubuntu.  And given OpenOffice to many
> > > students who do not have MS Office on their home PCs.
> > >
> > > I believe OpenOffice, The GIMP and other OSS applications could do
> > > well in schools, but I believe the desktop OS will always be Windows.
> > > Mainly because myself and my colleagues (MS Admins) are ten a penny
> :-)
> > >
> > > --
> > > ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com
> > > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk
> > > https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > No virus found in this incoming message.
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> > > Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.16.12/630 - Release Date:
> > > 15/01/2007 20:28
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> --
> Help me get to Venezuela!
> http://tibsplace.co.uk/venezuela
>
>
> --
> ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk
> https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
>



-- 

---
London School of Puppetry
www.londonschoolofpuppetry.com
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