[ubuntu-uk] Persuading a school to switch

[Matt Jones]

Rob Beard wrote:
> The final thing I can think of is Moodle (which is included with 
> Karoshi) which is a complete Virtual Learning Environment.  It's free 
> and runs on Ubuntu and most other flavours of Linux.  I've had a bit of 
> a play with it but not being an expert I'm not sure how well it would 
> fit a schools needs, but as far as I know it is used in schools in this 
> country and around the world.  I've built a test Moodle server for a 
> friend's wife who is being put in charge of IT at a primary school and 
> she seems to think it would do the job.
>
> If you need any more help, feel free to drop me an e-mail either on the 
> Ubuntu list or off list.
>
> Good luck.
>
> Rob
>
>   
Moodle is used quite extensively in various schools, and espescially 
colleges for their VLE's. For example, Hereford sixth form (A fine 
establishment) uses it. The usefulness depends on the content, Some 
subjects are really good, all information is put on there, which is very 
useful. Some subjects have very little documents on it, which can be 
annoying.

The college is pretty much an all MS system, xp on the desktop, with MS 
file servers, and an exchange email system for student email.  Moodle is 
the only piece of open source.

The college uses a network based register system, I think it may be  a 
custom system.

I think if you contact your local LUG, an organised group can have more 
of an effect than an individual. I think this ties into the discussion 
about replacing XP, Most schools are running P4 class machines, nothing 
very fancy, but good solid systems for Linux, but not good enough to run 
vista comfortably. The cost of replacing 200+machines is not cheap even 
dealing in large quantities.

Mj