Open Source Schools' Miles Berry offers a radical response to the ICT funding cuts

[putt1ck]

@TheLibrarian:

 

In some cases impossible, AFAIK you can't get drivers for Promethean IWB's for Ubuntu - at least they aren't listed as a download on the Promethean site (cursory glance).

That's just one thing right now that kills going to Ubuntu on teacher laptops / desktops.

 

Sure, many people made a bad choice there. SMART and the US clone both have drivers, SMART's entire suite is available cross-platform. But I guarantee you, one call from a local authority, let alone a well-briefed ministerial aide and a driver will turn up really, really fast.

 

How many of the online testing facilities that require a program will also provide that program for Ubuntu? - Yes I am aware of Wine, but I don't know how easy that would be to use from a pupil point of view or even if the emulation would work for the online testing programs.

 

It would take a simple regulatory change and some programming on behalf of the providers before they were universal, but sure not a immediate fix. This is a long term thing, not a tomorrow thing.

 

There's not a great deal of point thinking "Open Source" that far into the future if exam boards, hardware manufacturers and content creation publishers don't take up support of Linux.

 

Well, one step at at time, but the exam boards are easy as they are regulated. Let's deal with first...

 

That is very public spirited of you and very commendable.

 

Why thank you, I try

[jamesb]

Well, I work for a business that employs 400 people. We use OpenOffice. We also increasingly use GIMP/Scribus/Inkscape. And FreeMind/GanttProject/Digikam/K3B/...

 

School != Business.

 

So is Google Apps and it's better. And older. Why didn't you ever start using that? Come to think of it, we were doing all that stuff for schools for free and more sustainably the best part of 10 years ago.

 

Ah, so google apps is automatically better. I see. Isn't part of the point to evaluate different options? There are plenty of objections to cloud-sourcing as it is, and I would think that the choice was made after careful consideration, yet you simply ignore it because in your opinion 'google apps is better'.

 

As for older - when did that automatically mean better?

 

Excellent, they already use open source tools. Although Drupal and Joomla will provide more functionality than WordPress, and I'm second-guessing Miles here, but I'd imagine Drupal was suggested for its integration with all manner of lovely (free) add-ons.

 

It's nice to know that you are the ultimate authority on open source tools, and can tell people what the best is without even knowing the situation and reasoning that led them to make their choice. Your crystal ball must be functioning well.

 

Sure, but when they can't run your big resource hog over-featured apps any more, I'm guessing you aren't considering your future strategy?

 

What resource hog over-featured apps?

 

Well, (a) that's an issue or not anyway for anything the child brings into school. In the case of the "use your own if you have it" policy I'd cut a deal with someone like Endsleigh to offer cheap laptop (feature phone, tablet) insurance and advise parents to take it up. Digital security is easy if you design your network sensibly.

 

There are other issues involved here which you seem to be ignoring. What happens if the school bully takes their laptop? If the kid sets up a wireless network with another kid, and so a virus spreads, who's responsible for cleaning it up? If something illegal is brought in, who gets to deal with it? What about when the local thief finds out that sixty laptops are left in the PE changing rooms each lesson? What about Bobby having the shiniest, best laptop on the market and Fred having an antique freebie?

 

Most importantly - what about them not password protecting anything so that there's no security on the systems which they are then bringing in to school, so anyone who gets them gets everything, including the kid's facebook and e-mail accounts? Then you're telling them to bring these systems into school, which is not a secure place, and without applying any security policy across them?

 

100% relevant to a national curriculum about to be kicked into touch? We use to create resources and share them with other schools; pay once benefit everywhere. NWGfL style. This new-old collaboration thing again.

 

Good idea, no argument from me, but I'm not a teacher using the resources so wouldn't be my place to judge what's suitable and unsuitable anyway.

 

Hmm. Possibly you should talk to some people over here in the other sectors, where training budgets are now measured in single digits or less. Your development, in my team and everywhere else sensible, ain't about CPD, a formal backwards step in learning, but about pd; where I or your line manager see you as ready to take on a task supported by those more experienced in carrying out such that you learn in a way that is useful and applied.

 

Wonderful - so why exactly should I stay with your company where I'm getting no training other than informal, and being given more tasks with no obvious advancement path? What about when there's a new task to be taken on and no one has relevant skills, you hire a new person in order to train up the rest?

 

Not to blow my own vuvuzella, but I'm pretty good. Little Jonny's parents might be IT consultants specialising in web development. Setting up an Apache box with Drupal and Joomla might be something they do every day (and in which case won't take then more than 30 minutes).

 

And it might also be something they don't want to spend their evenings and weekends doing. Maybe they'd prefer to play a board game with little Johnny instead?

[penfold]

Not to blow my own vuvuzella, but I'm pretty good. Little Jonny's parents might be IT consultants specialising in web development. Setting up an Apache box with Drupal and Joomla might be something they do every day (and in which case won't take then more than 30 minutes).

 

Erm, there is only one thing with that. You might think your good, but how do we know? How do we know that LIttle Jonny's parents are any good? Just because they are IT consultants doesn't mean they are good at their job. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and there is a difference between someone who is first line support and someone who is running a large network. However, both people could say they work in IT support for a large company. There still needs to be someone checking skills before anyone is let loose on a network.

 

You've also made a couple of assumptions such as the OS software is better than the existing infrastructure people already have. You cant make that case without knowing the current setup schools have already. This is the KEY point to the argument, OS solutions need to be evaluated in comparison to the existing setup. Comparisons need to be made for the short and long term goals and all the costs need to be accounted for. There isn't a one solution fits all, and taking into account non technical problems such as staff interest needs to be accounted for.

 

Edit: Don't take this personally, I just dont think you can take someones word that they are good at their job without assessing their skills. Certainly if schools dont already have someone in position it is difficult to judge?

Edited July 20, 2010 by penfold

[linuxgirlie]

OK here are my views on this and I do work in a school and I am a Network Manager....before we get into all the you don't know what it's like cause your a teacher/work in the private sector malarkey:

 

 

1. Don't buy any software.

We do this here already, it works very well. For those saying what about when they work in businesses, there is nothing to worry about. We have had students come back from work experience who have had to input data via a console all day or others who say that using the OSS gave them a head start over others when going for jobs/university. I'm not saying that this is with all jobs, but sometimes, it helps a lot more than people let on.

 

It also means when our yr6's and yr7's arrive we give them all the software for free on a disk in their school information pack.

 

We have Linux on the clients and servers, and apart from our web-based software all of the client software is OSS.

 

 

2. Make use of web-based applications.

All our software has to be web-based if it isn't OSS. This has helped us a lot not just because it is very very easy to roll out onto a server or into moodle meaning that all computers, running Windows/Mac/Linux around the school can view and use it. No running around after individual computers, and low maintenance.

 

We also have our own webserver here running, Elgg, Moodle, eGroupware, Squirrelmail, Joomla, Drupal, Home Access, and probably others I have forgotten.

 

3. Don't bother replacing your computers.

Most of ours are not that old, but we can afford to replace computers because we build our own from components and run them on Linux so no OS licenses, it also allows us to put in 22" TFTs and Nvidia Graphics cards by default, so that the lads can go anywhere in the school and use programs such as blender.

 

4. Allow the pupils to use their own devices.

I don't know why people have such a problem with this one. We allow all students to use whatever device on the network. They connect via our wireless or they can use a spare port on the wall. We have had mobiles, laptops, netbooks, psp, ipods you name it, and I have never had a problem with viruses, network being hacked or anything else in the past 6 years.

 

 

5. Take control of your Internet connection.

 

This is something we are looking into, at the moment we are still with KCN for our ISP, but we don't use their websense service, and provide our own squid/dansguardian proxy to stop access to websites.

 

6. Don't buy, or subscribe, to any digital resources.

This one I don't agree with 100% We get the staff to buy web-based resources so that they can be used throughout the school. The use of Moodle is on the up, but it does take alot of time for people to write their own resources.

 

7. Don't pay for CPD.

To my knowledge 99% of our CPD is done in house, we also have alot of old students or parents or friends who come in and do talks for free so this is n/a to us.

 

8. Empower your people

 

I see this happen here a lot. We have moved on from when it was Windows based having to run around all the time, we now have to do that very little, with just myself and my technician(part-time) supporting 400+ devices. We have found using OSS has allowed us to re-code, or provide solutions for staff that wouldn't of been possible within budget. We have also found alot of the students will recode, find bugs and generally help out as they can look into the software and fix it.

 

9. Use volunteer support.

Again this is a big one for us here. We use student support alot. They code for us, bug fix, tell us about any security holes, and also tell us what the students dislike about the system so we can make changes. They also help build computers and do general day-to-day tech support. We have had several students go though ICT degrees and tell us that helping out gave them the edge in the classes.

 

10. Share your expertise and creativity.

 

Very very important!

 

-----

 

Jo

Edited July 20, 2010 by linuxgirlie

[putt1ck]

@jamesb

Particularly if you consider the costs of getting technical staff appropriately skilled up - which will be required. Except that one of the points suggests money is no longer wasted on such things. I guess replacing staff needs to be factored in, instead. Or extra pay and self-development time to skill themselves up, as well as bringing in others to cover time that staff are away. Will it? If your technical staff are skilled up to use open source, and properly configure it, do you not think there's a potential for them to be looking for a better paid position which will appreciate their skills more? And that the demand for people skilled in open-source will increase, meaning that the pay for such positions will have to increase to attract them?

 

There are that many technical staff in schools who are not trying the emerging technologies? And they call themselves geeks? The term should be better protected...

 

On the jobs front: a quick survey gets me no suggestion that equally skilled closed source/open source techs are getting paid different amounts, so either people are leaving and the pay rates are going up, or they're not. Schools tend to take the less experienced and then those driven by money/career tend to move on once they have up-skilled; some stay. Me I moved because of money/career/chance to live in the country (damn Man Utd footballers made living in the country in commuting distance of South Manchester too damn expensive...). Some stay. Some have chosen to take their experience into schools as a form of payback or as part of a winding down to retirement plan.

 

I can see some very direct savings from open-source, but there are also added costs involved.

 

Only in the transition, and with collaboration (word of the day!) those can be minimised.

 

Great. So are you available for the working day of schools? Or are the staff at the school expected to sacrifice their time outside of work for this collaboration?

 

What? You mean I should give my time up to help but those I'm aiming to help can't be expected to give up some of their time? I could probably schedule some day time for schools that were particularly local (North Oxfordshire, around Oxford) and would be willing commit days of my holiday to a group of schools who wanted to pursue this seriously.

 

No disagreement here, but suggesting that this applies to all schools strikes me as being somewhat naive. A very good team, with a very good set of staff in the school, and the right number of volunteers with knowledge of the individual school as well as many other factors would be required.

 

Sure, for the pioneers in a given area; the rest in that area could reproduce far more easily by drawing on the experienced pool from the pioneer. That damned collaboration word again

[Mr.Ben]

2. Make use of web-based applications.

 

Quite simply the 'Cloud' and web apps will not work for any school outside of a major city unless we host/cache them internally - which costs money by the way.

 

In this school they have just been upgraded to a 6Mb/s line and 150 clients/300 users. I'll have that for 5 years at least i imagine before it is replaced. At least there isn't the contention of 5 schools sharing 2Mb that we had before!

Edited July 20, 2010 by Mr.Ben

[Guest TheLibrarian]

IME, it's horses for courses; open source will fit in perfectly in places, others it won't and others still could operate a mixture of open and closed source.

 

I'm left wondering who's sock pupper @Putt1ck; is.

 

@Putt1ck; I am not going to waste time arguing for or against and how to etc. because until the support is there from Central Government downwards my personal opinion is that open source won't be taken seriously in the majority of schools.

 

That said, I do have a question or two for you, what is the open source equivalent of Group Policy?

 

Do you have any suggestion as to how we get Game developers to support Linux too? I'd love to free my machine at home from Microsoft.

[Butters]

@TheLibrarian

 

Spot on about GPO's.

 

@Putt1ck

 

I'd be interested to know which company you represent as it seems you are here with a company hat on.

[linuxgirlie]

That said, I do have a question or two for you, what is the open source equivalent of Group Policy?

 

Do you have any suggestion as to how we get Game developers to support Linux too? I'd love to free my machine at home from Microsoft.

 

To "lock-down" my Ubuntu clients I use gconf. It's a set of scripts that tell the computer what access to give each person. You can either have this as a per computer bases or a per user basis, it has a frontend so you don't have to do it all by hand.

 

I use Linux as my main system at home and have done for 10 years, I also play alot of games....what ones are you talking about? I tend to use cedega/wine though....not native. Though the recent news is that Steam is releasing it engine for Linux so that their games will run natively. : [Phoronix] It's Official: Valve Releasing Steam, Source Engine For Linux!

Edited July 20, 2010 by linuxgirlie

[putt1ck]

Erm, there is only one thing with that. You might think your good, but how do we know? How do we know that LIttle Jonny's parents are any good? Just because they are IT consultants doesn't mean they are good at their job. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and there is a difference between someone who is first line support and someone who is running a large network. However, both people could say they work in IT support for a large company. There still needs to be someone checking skills before anyone is let loose on a network.

 

How do you know any IT person is any good? Same process. In my case Google will provide the answer.

 

You've also made a couple of assumptions such as the OS software is better than the existing infrastructure people already have. You cant make that case without knowing the current setup schools have already. This is the KEY point to the argument, OS solutions need to be evaluated in comparison to the existing setup. Comparisons need to be made for the short and long term goals and all the costs need to be accounted for.

 

I'm comfortable that open source is better for schools; although it is not the same as the mainstream UK schools solution and some rethinking from first principles might be needed. It is better because it can do the job, is more sustainable and cheaper. In absolute terms it will be better after a little collaboration (damned word keeps coming up...).

 

There isn't a one solution fits all, and taking into account non technical problems such as staff interest needs to be accounted for.

 

Edit: Don't take this personally, I just dont think you can take someones word that they are good at their job without assessing their skills. Certainly if schools dont already have someone in position it is difficult to judge?

 

If I took things personally I'd stay off the Internet

 

Sure you can't just take someone's word for it, schools assess all volunteers to some degree. In particular it is difficult to assess someone when you don't have someone with equivalent skills to assess them; this is a common problem in IT recruitment, particularly when recruiting specialists (web developers, network engineers, security people, etc.). There is a degree to which you have to look them in the eye and decide to trust they know what they are talking about.

[Butters]

To "lock-down" my Ubuntu clients I use gconf. It's a set of scripts that tell the computer what access to give each person. You can either have this as a per computer bases or a per user basis, it has a frontend so you don't have to do it all by hand.

 

I use Linux as my main system at home and have done for 10 years, I also play alot of games....what ones are you talking about? I tend to use cedega/wine though....not native. Though the recent news is that Steam is releasing it engine for Linux so that their games will run natively. : [Phoronix] It's Official: Valve Releasing Steam, Source Engine For Linux!

 

I'd be quite confident that you have far more linux knowledge/know how when compared to your average Network Admin. Doesn't help when nearly all courses out there are based on Microsoft products but it means that the 'average' NM wouldn't have the skills to go completely open source.

[putt1ck]

@TheLibrarian @Butters:

 

Which company I represent? Think of me as the taxpayer. As Google will tell you pretty quick, I used to work in schools in Manchester, I've worked for a solutions provider and now I'm a CIO. But here touting for business, not in the least; I'm fairly sure that you ain't buying what our company sells. Although if you are in the market for an archaeological investigation, some historic environment consultancy or are struggling with a geospatial challenge (particularly in the web arena) I can say that we are undoubtedly among the best in that business and can provide you with the telephone number of your local office

[linuxgirlie]

I'd be quite confident that you have far more linux knowledge/know how when compared to your average Network Admin. Doesn't help when nearly all courses out there are based on Microsoft products but it means that the 'average' NM wouldn't have the skills to go completely open source.

 

Thank you. But it is all self taught. I have never done any CPD or courses to learn Linux at all. It all came from the Internet, Books, Magazines and just messing about on test computers/virtual machines.

[putt1ck]

2. Make use of web-based applications.

 

Quite simply the 'Cloud' and web apps will not work for any school outside of a major city unless we host/cache them internally - which costs money by the way.

 

In this school they have just been upgraded to a 6Mb/s line and 150 clients/300 users. I'll have that for 5 years at least i imagine before it is replaced. At least there isn't the contention of 5 schools sharing 2Mb that we had before!

 

6Mb/s for 150 clients is more than enough for web apps of even the more complex variety - I'd be wary of pushing big files down such a line as matter of course, but for web apps that shouldn't be a problem. If it seems tight I'd look into the network/WAN and maybe check whatever you're using for filtering.

[Butters]

Thank you. But it is all self taught. I have never done any CPD or courses to learn Linux at all. It all came from the Internet, Books, Magazines and just messing about on test computers/virtual machines.

 

I'm capable at linux using the above methods but it often alienates a lot of the Microsoft trained guys - that's why championing Open Source is problematic due to the upskilling requirements needed.

[somabc]

I'm capable at linux using the above methods but it often alienates a lot of the Microsoft trained guys - that's why championing Open Source is problematic due to the upskilling requirements needed.

 

I wouldn't say Linux requires 'upskilling' it's just a different set of skills to the Microsoft norm.

[Butters]

I wouldn't say Linux requires 'upskilling' it's just a different set of skills to the Microsoft norm.

 

Splitting hairs.

[Guest TheLibrarian]

To "lock-down" my Ubuntu clients I use gconf. It's a set of scripts that tell the computer what access to give each person. You can either have this as a per computer bases or a per user basis, it has a frontend so you don't have to do it all by hand.

 

I use Linux as my main system at home and have done for 10 years, I also play alot of games....what ones are you talking about? I tend to use cedega/wine though....not native. Though the recent news is that Steam is releasing it engine for Linux so that their games will run natively. : [Phoronix] It's Official: Valve Releasing Steam, Source Engine For Linux!

Do you think there's any posibility of you writing an article or two about how and what you use to keep your school open source / linux?

I for one would find it very interesting.

 

Games? Recently WoW, which I know does run under Wine, usually though the more graphically intensive fps games that tend to require DirectX.

[jamesb]

There are that many technical staff in schools who are not trying the emerging technologies? And they call themselves geeks? The term should be better protected...

 

Which emerging technologies exactly? There are plenty out there. Should they be expected to constantly update their technical knowledge of all of these disparate areas? When do they do this R&D if they're working? Are they expected to give up their time outside work? Many do, but condemning anyone who doesn't strikes me as somewhat judgmental.

 

What? You mean I should give my time up to help but those I'm aiming to help can't be expected to give up some of their time? I could probably schedule some day time for schools that were particularly local (North Oxfordshire, around Oxford) and would be willing commit days of my holiday to a group of schools who wanted to pursue this seriously.

 

No, I mean that your collaboration solution relies entirely on the goodwill of both the employees (who are employees, and should not be expected to give up their free time without reward as it is not part of the job - many do, yes, but that does not mean that they should, or are obliged to do so) and of the volunteers. If someone gets fed up, or finds a more interesting prospect, or decides to stop for any of a host of reasons out of the volunteers you could have major problems.

 

Sure, for the pioneers in a given area; the rest in that area could reproduce far more easily by drawing on the experienced pool from the pioneer. That damned collaboration word again

 

Collaboration does seem to be a big thing, and I agree that it's good. I don't necessarily agree that it is the one and only solution however, unless you're in an ideal world where personal politics, holding back knowledge, and all of the other group dynamics enter into things.

 

Basically while I agree with your ideals, and somewhat with your principles, I don't think you're allowing a safety margin.

[jamesb]

I wouldn't say Linux requires 'upskilling' it's just a different set of skills to the Microsoft norm.

 

I always understood upskilling to mean learning new skills. So for a non-Linux user learning Linux would be upskilling. For a non-Windows user learning Windows would be upskilling.

 

Maybe my definition is wrong.

[joe90bass]

Do you think there's any posibility of you writing an article or two about how and what you use to keep your school open source / linux?

I for one would find it very interesting.

 

 

I second that to!

[DMcCoy]

Sigh

 

Aren't there any open source advocates out there who think you can use it to replace or augment parts of an existing system?

 

Why is it always Windows OR Linux OR Mac? Never a compromise, or a gradual shift between options.

 

FOSS people do know that MS/Apple licensing isn't actually very expensive for Education don't they?

[somabc]

I always understood upskilling to mean learning new skills. So for a non-Linux user learning Linux would be upskilling. For a non-Windows user learning Windows would be upskilling.

 

Maybe my definition is wrong.

 

OK I take it back it can be called upskilling. I would broadly the agree with the ability of a school such as dhicks to provide a good education using open source software however have to disagree strongly on the no CPD part. If you have no CPD then you surely will need to provide a higher salary to compensate or you will never attract and retain people with the skills necessary.

 

http://dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/000000/80000/6000/200/86285/86285.strip.gif

Edited July 20, 2010 by somabc

[dhicks]

There is a link to a case study where I believe dhicks works here?.

 

Yes, although I'm only here for six more weeks or so - see job opening: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/educational-jobs/59838-network-manager-alton-convent-school.html

 

I am also assuming from the article that you had people with an experience of OS at the initial stage

 

Vaugly, although that wasn't really relevant - you just go and search Google or whatever and figure out what you need to do, same as you would with any problem.

 

and IT literate teachers who contribute to the development of the use of IT in the school?

 

The IT skills of the teachers here are about teacher-average.

 

I also believe that given this scenario many of us would have been able to do something similar, but in my experience most of the problems aren't technical.

 

Absolutly - and Miles, being the head, could get accross to the staff what they were supposed to be doing with the machines. As I've already pointed out, I think the Which Operating System argument is now getting largly irrelevent - Open Source doesn't neccesarily imply Linux (and Linux doesn't neccesarily imply Open Source), far better to concentrate on getting workstations that run a web browser nicly.

 

--

David Hicks

[mberry]

Yes, although I'm only here for six more weeks or so - see job opening: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/educational-jobs/59838-network-manager-alton-convent-school.html David Hicks

 

Hey, congratulations, David!

 

What an interesting discussion.

 

Far, far too many points for me to respond to, agree with or rebut each individually.

 

Point 8, of the original list, is, of course the crucial one: "Empower your people". The state we're in is due, in no small part, to a culture of deprofessionalisation which has reduced teaching to the delivery of prepared and approved schemes of work and many gifted technologists such as yourselves to rarely more than tech support, at least where you've not be replaced by centralised managed services. The argument here is, at its core, about empowerment and the big-society vision of folks actually having the right/responsibility to do things for themselves. The philosophy that underpins open source and the principles of liberal, small government are closely linked - see

(assuming you're not relying on a school internet connection).

Will this require us to do things that we didn't have to when all this was done for us? Yes. Sorry.

But it will be so much more fun, and you, and the teachers you work with, will get the chance to do so much cool, innovative stuff.

Please don't assume it's any harder either. Learning new skills, or teaching yourself these things, is kinda what schools are for.

 

If I were secretary of state, would I make every school in the country go open source? No. That's no more about empowering your people than making them pay for managed services that they don't want, cost too much and may not be fit for purpose (well, OK, it's a bit more about empowerment than that, but you get my point).

Would I want them to be able to make an informed choice from all the alternatives on a level playing field. Yes.

Would I expect schools to justify the money they spend on software and services when free alternatives are available? Yes I rather think I would. I suspect the current incumbent might too.

 

In truth, my original article could perhaps have coped with a few more 'consider's and 'compare's, as really this is about schools thinking these things through for themselves and making informed rational choices. That said, merely 'considering' or 'comparing' won't, in itself, save money.

 

OK. A few further points.

 

1. There is no money.

2. Even if there was, the DfE don't appear to care much about ICT.

3. There'll be much less done centrally in future - schools may have (semi) protected funding, but that's not true for central or local government

4a. The new academies and free schools are essentially independent schools, publicly funded.

4b. The schools that remain funded through the LA are likely to have more freedom and autonomy too.

5. Read Ofsted's report on The Importance of ICT, paying particular attention to all the bits that talk about value for money, alternative applications and operating systems and open source. Failing that, read my (biased) summary.

Edited July 20, 2010 by mberry