[ubuntu-uk] Open Source Challenges Vista at U.K. Education Show
Toby Smithe
toby.smithe at gmail.com
Wed Jan 17 19:20:26 GMT 2007
On Wed, 2007-01-17 at 18:35 +0000, London School of Puppetry wrote:
> I have seen whiteboard in a number of schools recently all working
> brilliantly. Caroline
Using free software? Ubuntu, in particular?
> 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/
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
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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
--
Help me get to Venezuela!
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