Lesson 2

Getting F/OSS Into Schools

The lesson addresses these topics:

  • Impacts on Schools and Families
  • Roadblocks
  • Alternatives to Proprietary Applications

Advanced Organizer

During the lesson, look for answers to the following questions:

NOTE: consider copying and pasting these questions into your notes to reference while you read and review content
  1. What were the drivers behind the successful F/OSS implementation at Albany Senior High?
  2. Is it feasible for schools to implement large-scale F/OSS adoption in the United States?
  3. How does a school’s support for F/OSS (or lack thereof) impact families?
  4. If F/OSS can save schools significant money, why aren’t more educators aware of this?
  5. What are the real or perceived impediments to schools adopting F/OSS?
  6. How are school decision makers distanced from software licensing costs?
  7. How and where can technical managers upgrade their skills to include F/OSS solutions?
  8. What new F/OSS titles sound interesting to you, given your current or intended role in education?

Synchronous Meeting

Google Hangout (Required)

Google Hangout

Please join the Hangout 10 minutes early (5:50PM) to re-test your microphone and headset. During class; we will be discussing some of the material from the past week, and have a chance to interact with a guest presenter (Mark Osborne). Be prepared to ask questions and to participate in answering those posed.

I have created a Google+ event associated with a Hangout on Air (HOA) for this guest presentation. The presentation is public, streamed via Youtube, where a recording will be stored. Class members will get an invitation to the Google+ Event, in which the Youtube stream will be viewable. Note that Youtube viewers have a separate chat window from those in the actual Hangout, and Youtube viewers will experience an audio/video lag from our live session (up to two minutes, from my testing). The HOA allows us to invite others from outside the class to view (and to ask questions in the Youtube chat window).

The “on Air” aspect of this meeting is different than our first class meeting. I will be inviting a selected group to participate in the live Hangout, note that if you’re one of these participants you will be recorded. There is a maximum of 10 (8 students, instructor, and guest presenter). Because a “Hangout on Air” cannot be scheduled prior to the time of the event, live participants will get an invitation shortly before presentation time (ie, when the HOA is launched). Please join the Hangout asap, or 10 minutes early to re-test your microphone and headset.

 Our Guest Presenter:

mark-osborne-profile-sq-sm

Mark is a Senior Consultant for CORE Education who works in the areas of Modern Learning Environments, Leadership and eLearning. His personal mission is to turn all schools into awesomeness incubators. He was instrumental in founding Albany High School on a completely open-source technical plan.

Walk-through

To be able to fully participate in next week’s synchronous meeting you will need to complete all of the readings in this week’s walk-through.

1. Read Why Aren’t Schools Adopting Open Source? (HTML)

A parent’s reflection on his daughter’s hurdles to using OpenOffice for school assignments, this article raises several questions about school support for F/OSS. Last week, we read in Benefits of Open-Source Software in Education that family finances can be impacted dramatically, and this is one parent’s reflection on the issue. Note his additional concerns over divergent versions of software in school computers and learning materials. This is a very real issue, that I hear repeatedly from Hawaii classroom teachers. Using F/OSS to freely update school software seems an obvious solution.

2. Read Getting Open Source Software into Schools – Strategies and Challenges (PDF) pp. 1-4

This article explores five sources of resistance to F/OSS adoption:  Awareness, Politics of Payment, the Dynamics of Change, Software as an Ethical Consideration, and Technical Personnel Skills. As you read, think about your own role in schools and how your input or silence affects these.

3. Review thoroughly: OSS Options for Education (HTML)

This site presents a very current set of suggested F/OSS alternatives to proprietary software in the education sector. It is an “ongoing collaboration between OSS Watch, the UK education community, and open source software communities”.  It is conveniently organized by category of software, including: E-Learning, Assessment, Classroom Tools, Library Systems, Mobile Solutions, Enterprise Architecture, Management Information Systems, and Subject-specific tools (music, film/media production, theatre/drama, art/photography, design, computing, psychology, geography, engineering, and religious studies).

This site is one large web page with tables. If there are specific proprietary titles you are curious about replacing, use the “find” function in your browser to locate the title on this page. The authors provide comments and links to examples of real-world use cases. Note also that the related document Open Source Options provides a similar resource for a wider range of governmental use.  Additionally, the UK’s Open Source Procurement Toolkit is a response to the formal acknowledgement that F/OSS is underutilized in UK government and represents a significant potential TCO reduction.

4.  Peruse Free Software for Schools (PDF) pp. 10-75

This catalog of F/OSS for schools is concise, and organized by categories.  Last modified in 2008, it is getting dated – for instance, LibreOffice was forked from OpenOffice.org in 2010 and thus is not mentioned.  However, the catalog is easy to browse and provides screenshots of each application.  It also includes notation as to which operating systems it will function with.

Assignment

Blog Entry #4 – F/OSS Search

  1. Review one or more categories of software in OSS Options for Education, Free Software for Schools and/or the Wikipedia F/OSS list, identifying 2-4 title you have an interest in exploring.
  2. Delineate and describe the 2-4 F/OSS titles you identified. In your narrative, answer these questions:
    • Why does this software interest you?
    • Are there proprietary software competitors?
    • Where and how is the software in use by educational institutions?

Additional Material

  1. Wikipedia’s List of Free and Open-source software (Wikipedia)
  2. The KDE Education project (HTML)
  3. OSS Watch: Open Source Options – broader scope than just educational use (PDF)
  4. The Open Source Procurement Toolkit (PDF)

Back To Top