[Lancaster] Linux in (local) Education?

[Dave Smith]

Hi all

Just really a quick line on the above-mentioned topic.

Recently been catching up on my LinuxFormat (LXF74) that had been
waiting on the doorstep for a while and was reading the article on Linux
and Open Source in education when I got to wondering as to if anybody
knows of any schools in our area that have made the switch to Linux? And
if not, have many of them been given the opportunity to try it and see /
weigh out the benefits and disadvantages of such a distribution?

I ask primarily out of curiosity. Obviously I'd heard of Edubuntu, which
was covered in the article and looks to have some quite interesting
planss, but the other options mentioned (Skolelinux is the other Distro
mentioned, along with KDE Edutainment, Moodle, and Karoshi for useful
bits and pieces) I hadn't really heard of before but sound like pretty
useful items. Anybody have any experience with any of the above?

Obviously, I'm not a teacher, nor am I in the education system in any
direct way, but is it not possible for the LUG to reach out to local
schools and inform them of the possibilities that lie in Open Source,
and, if interest is there, maybe put together a short talk /
presentation in one of the LUG Meetings and give people the chance to
see that Linux isn't nearly as complicated as they may think it is with
a small hands-on session?
Considering the amount of money even small rural schools must be
spending on proprietary software this could be just the sort of thing
they're looking for. After all, how many people are really aware that
there is an alternative to using Windows?
The relatively recent arrival and firming up of the Open Document format
should, hopefully maken this progression / transition more feasible, not
to mention the ability to give kids a LiveCD or installable version of
what they're using at school without fees.

What are people's views on that? Has it been tried before locally
without success? Does it appeal to anyone or is it not considered the
LUG's place?

Like I said earlier, I've heard things like Edubuntu before, but not
actually tried it out. So any real user feedback would be interesting.

All the best

Dave Smith