Hi
The ICT subcommittee of the ACCS (association of community and comprehensive schools) is open to receiving a short (20 mins?) presentation on
What is free software? What can it do for schools/teachers/students? What support is there for schools/teachers/students now? What support should there be for schools/teachers/students in the future?
in the period 2.45 to 4pm on Tuesday April 20th in the ACCS Office, 10H Centrepoint Business Park, Oak Drive, Dublin 12.
This would be a *key* organisation to help promote fs in schools. What would also clearly be needed is the beginning of a discussion around forming some kind of consortium to provide support.
Anybody interested? Please contact me this morning (Monday) if poss.
John Evans
0861712212
Hey all, I'm in Spain so I can't do this. But I have a bit of experience with regard to primary schools. My thoughts here are specifically to do with Free Software technology, and not just why the philosophy is good for schools, so consider these as specific cases in which FS is good for Irish primary schools. * Price is not a factor (until later) as MS have a new licencing scheme for "refurbished" PC's * Compatibility is a factor: Given an average room (In my experience) in a school, it contains machines of different generations (Pentium I all the way to Pentium 4). GNU/Linux and FreeBSD are the only operating systems that will run on all the machines. Win98 will to a certain extent. * Upgrading. This is where the difference with Win98 is. You are guaranteed to have a modern operating system on all your machines for the foreseeable future. * Quality: Free Software is produced and supported by the FOSS community and companies such as I.B.M. and Sun Microsystems. OpenOffice is used in industry and accepted as a quality product. MS even state that it has the features of Office 98 (which they think is a bad thing :) * Control: Spamassassin can be modified to scan email such that it picks up on swear words used by students. I only ever use email internally in a school due to SPAM. Furthermore, Squid can be modified to give (what I call) a virtual internet. Pages that the students are allowed to see (previously "downloaded" by staff [cached really]) are the only pages available on the "internet". This offers more control than content filtering. * Price is a factor when you start talking about email and webservers etc... Even with educational discounts, proprietary solutions are costly. * Language support: Tá GNU/Linux le fáil as Gaeilge. GNU/Linux is available in Irish (My Irish is rusty though). * Ease of integration: Free Software can be integrated into a current school environment (assuming running Windows) via OpenOffice. If a separate server (as opposed to the Windows domain/file server, if there is one) can easily be set up to provide email only. Thunderbird is a good Free Software email client for Windows. * Homogenity: Students in schools I have set up get their own desktop every time they log in on any machine. No crappy icons on the desktop installed by other users. Thus they are provided with a consistent environment over which _they alone_ are masters. Because the environment is consistent they tend to pick up the principles of computing a lot easier.
I wish to elaborate on the previous point. Assume there exists a room with 2 machines and a student (called Tux) is allowed access to both. If the machines run Windows (the main GNU/Linux competitor in schools) Tux can log into both and write and save files. There are two scenarios here 1) all files are saved to Desktop/My Documents folder etc... 2) all files are saved to a Network drive In case (1) _all_ files (Tuxs, Aidans, Bernadettes, Ciarans...etc) are saved to the same place. When Tux moves to the other computer, or returns to the same computer He/she can be confused by the absence or presence of his/her or other files.
In case (2) one has to explain the complicated operation of the client-server model to 7 year olds, before they can use computers. I've tried it, and it didn't work :)
I feel it is very important for students to control their own environment. With Free Software products we can give them control of their own environment (with little admin overhead) but control the larger environment ourselves. I have found this to be very empowering for students.
If anyone wants further explanation on _any_ point, just ask.
PS: I can give all this in a written presentation before Thursday. Geography alone makes it impossible for me to give an oral presentation.
Thanks Aiden.
I wrote the last e-mail offline, so didn't see your reply.
Good luck,
Malx.
I've just spoken to John on the phone. Although it isn't certain whether the meeting will happen, I have offered to give a short presentation.
The topics will be:
What is free software? What can it do for schools/teachers/students? What support is there for schools/teachers/students now? What support should there be for schools/teachers/students in the future?
I can certainly talk in general terms about the benefits of Free Software. However, I'm less able to give useful information about the other points (this is really Aiden Delaney's pet project). Can anyone out there give me some useful suggestions? Note that these issues apply both to the office needs of schools as well as the software used by their pupils.
Thanks,
Malcolm.
Malcolm Tyrrell wrote:
I have offered to give a short presentation... ... Can anyone out there give me some useful suggestions? Note that these issues apply both to the office needs of schools as well as the software used by their pupils.
The FLOSS threads here may be of some help: http://lists.becta.org.uk/pipermail/centres/2004-January/thread.html
-- Adam
Hey all, I've written a first draft of an article that I was going to put with another article on "What is Free Software". In the "What is Free Software" I was simply going to state the four freedoms, mention RMS and the origins of the GNU project. Here's the other article I've written, comments are welcome. The ~\cite{sphe} it the LaTeX way of writing a citation, in this case to the SPHE curriculum for primary schools. As you can read, I've concentrated on the practical side of things.
[IFSO logo] ``Promoting and defending Free Software in Ireland''
Free Software: Enabling technology, empowering students by Aidan Delaney
When we speak of Free Software we speak of freedom or liberty not cost. We speak of a community of people dedicated to helping each other use and understand computers. This community currently develops the software on which the Apple Macintosh is based, the software that runs the internet and software to eliminate the digital divide. Our community is founded on the principle of sharing. The same principle can be described as ``learning and understanding how to work and play together in a group, taking turns''~\cite{sphe}.
The practical side of our sharing is the development of software systems that are easy to use and are free of cost. One such system is the popular GNU/Linux system. Below are several of the practacal benifits associated with GNU/Linux: \begin{list}[] \item[Compatibility:] GNU/Linux will run on old and new computers. This allows all computers in a computer room to run the same software. Running the same software allows all students to concentrate on the ICT curriculum instead of being distracted by the differences between their computer and their neighbours. \item[Quality:] GNU/Linux offers quality software, proven in industry and supported by companies such as Sun Microsystems and I.B.M. \item[Upgrading:] Our community provides schools with a stable technological future. All software updates are available to every school ensuring that no school is without modern technology. \item[Language support:] T'a GNU/Linux l'e f'ail as Gaeilge agus as Bearla. GNU/Linux is available in Irish and in English. \item[Ease of integration:] Free Software can be easily integrated alongside current software. Free Software office suites such as OpenOffice or web browsers such as Firefox can be used on your current systems. \item[Special needs support:] Free Software does not discriminate. We provide technology that meets U.S. legislative requirements (and proposed E.U. requirements) for students with special needs. \item[Control:] ICT teachers can monitor their students ``on-line'' behaviour without interfering with the students learning environment. A pre-viewed, censored ``internet'' can be provided within the classroom. \item[Homogeneity:] Students are provided with a consistent environment over which they alone are masters. Because the environment is consistent they tend to pick up the principles of computing without confusion. \item[ICT curriculum:] A project is currently ongoing (finishing in July 2004) to provide a set of teacher and student guides for the ECDL on GNU/Linux. \end{list}
Free Software empowers students to learn, it encourages the principles of sharing and communication. The Irish Free Software Organisation encourages the ACCS to adopt Free Software as a method of empowering all students of all schools to gain the most from their ICT education.
What is Free Software [Side Panel] FS is blah blah
Screen shot of OpenOffice on Gnome 2.6.
Hi.
Ciaran requested that he do the presentation instead of me, so any off-list comments should be sent to him.
Malcohol.
Ciaran requested that he do the presentation instead of me, so any
I'm just back now. I think it went well. I had a 15-20 minute slot but I think I talked to them for ~35 minutes, so they weren't pushing me out the door.
Their primary interest was cost but they also liked that they could be using 100% legal/licenesed software, and I think they liked the idea of having access to a more complete array of software.
They were mainly looking for software to teach secondary school subjects such as history and geography. I had no suggestions there. Anyone?
I didn't mention that GNU/Linux comes in Irish, it was on my page but a question cut me off as I was getting to it. At some point I lost track of where I was (on the script) and I rambled about free software being pure capitalism and proprietary software being like the communist command-economies which rely on central control. This wasn't on my script, but as I said, I got stuck and rambled. It got a laugh though. (I've omitted it from the transcript below since I can't remember when I said it.) I forgot to mention WINE, it was on my script but I missed it.
Here's the bones of my spiel, plus an attempted transcript from memory of the Q&A at the end:
----------8<--------------
When we say free we mean free as in freedom not cost. Free speech, free market - but often zero cost too. Particularly cheap longterm due to lack of lock-in and the free market creating real competition. No complicated licensing schemes.
Anyone is free so make copies. You can install the software on as many departments as you like, give it to teachers and students, buy once install everywhere. Install as much software as you like, no school teaches Photoshop since the fees would be prohibitive for an introductory course, but our image manipulation program is free so you can install it if you want [I couldn't say the word "Gimp"]. So you use as much as you like, and kids learn a wider variety of software. Install your choice of versions, no incompatibility, everyone upgrades to the state of the art together. No software is held back due to requirements that it work on a 1998 or 1995 version of an OS.
There are three ways to use free software, you can jump completely to GNU/Linux, you can use the cross-platform free software such as Mozilla and OpenOffice, or you can GPL any custom software you buy. The ECDL can be done through free software.
Built on the Unix model, secure from the ground up, no worrys about viruses or kids installing screensavers with trojan horses etc. Secure from threats inside and outside.
In the 60's all software was free software, since it's just a set of instructions to make a machine work, the companies gave the instructions with the hardware. In the 70's companies started to realise that if the hardware came with no instructions people would have no choice but to buy them, so they kept the instructions secret and used copyright to prevent people from sharing the software or from looking at what the software is really doing. In the 80's, Richard Stallman began the free software movement to replace the proprietary software with software which people could again copy, modify, and publish modified versions.
[the previous person displayed some software which included internet filtering] There are two ways to teach ethics, one is by blocking kids from seeing websites with bad language, but also with free software you can teach ethics by example. If a student is interested in any of the software used in the school, they can have a copy for themselves.
It's legal. Free software is developed by the user communities, so it's never crippled to encourage you to use more, but also the licensing is simple so that developers can develop and users can use without any confusing licensing issues. You can never be raided or audited to see how much software is on your computers, and when a new version comes out you don't have to tell anyone or register or pay anyone, you just upgrade, if or when you want.
Q&A [the questions were not asked in this order, there may have been others]
"Where do I get a copy?" => From a bookshop, computer shop, or the Internet. But once you get one copy, you can install it on 100 or 1000 machines, or make 20 copies so that others can install it.
"Is GNU/Linux a type of Linux?" => :)
"Would the look&feel be intuitive to a Windows user?" => It's quite intuitive, desktop is the current focus and a lot of companies are working on it. The goal of free software is to give freedom to as many computer users as possible, so most desktop software is designed to be similar to the Windows interface - without the need for backwards compatibility.
"I heard that OpenOffice's Access equivalent isn't up to standard?" => I haven't seen OpenOffice's Database thing, so I don't know what it's like but I do know that it's capable of performing the ECDL requirements.
"Who funds free software?" => Sun bought StarOffice and paid developers, IBM fund kernel and compiler hackers, all the distributions fund bits and it all accumulates. [I should have said "Everyone but Microsoft"]
"Does it need very modern hardware?" => No, there's no chip manufacturers pushing for the software to have bigger requirements, and only features that people want are added so it's not bloated.
"Does it run on old hardware?" => I think it runs on 386's