[Wylug-discuss] PDA's in schools

[Glenn Glidden]

As an IT Manager in a Leeds FE College can I add my agreement to what Rob
has said here, frighteningly similar at our place!

It's difficult enough to get people to look at software from a task based
point of view (are we teaching Word or wordprocessing?) as opposed to a
supplier point of view, as most people don't understand the difference.
People want easy products and don't on the whole understand the
technical/ethical/licencing points of view.  Microsoft will win out and will
do for a while yet, based on their marketing budget alone.  Which is a
shame, because I'd love to not have to say to people that, "yes you have
Windows but now you need an Office package, and no, it's not on by default
because if you want Microsoft Office you have to pay for it" and rather say,
"here's your free Liux CD, it should have everything you need, if not,
someone will have produced a FOSS version of it".

I've been looking at more Linux use in my College, using Moddle for the VLE,
and things like Snort and Ethereal for security and network tools, but
that's not really Linux as the base OS.  Again I've not seen anything/anyone
pushing Linux for education, and have struggled a little bit finding good
resources to justify a case for making the switch.  As an example, I want to
go fully Linux on my home PC, but I'm still using XP because there's still a
number of "ah, but what about this software" questions to answer.  Until
even I can answer those questions (20 years in IT), how can I convince
anyone else?

Until the advocacy side picks up (I note the WYLUG advicacy mailing list is
a bit quiet), and information is really basic so that senior management
teams can understand it, you're not going to get much movement on that side.
Trying from the technical veiwpoint or the 'it's not Micro$oft' or 'it's not
MicroS**t' (rhymes with 'hit') doesn't work in an education context, in my
view.

I really would like to hear from other educational users (school/College)
about their experiences and how they have managed to take Linux forward,
even if it's mainly based on FOSS applications as opposed to Linux per-se.
I'm particularly interested in education managers as the interest in
Lunix/FOSS is normally based on education being poorly resourced in general.

Thanks.

Glenn Glidden.

-----Original Message-----
From: wylug-discuss-bounces at wylug.org.uk
[mailto:wylug-discuss-bounces at wylug.org.uk] On Behalf Of Rob Hall
Sent: 11 January 2007 00:40
To: wylug-discuss at wylug.org.uk
Subject: Re: [Wylug-discuss] PDA's in schools

On Wednesday 10 January 2007 20:32, Richard Wade wrote:
> If we consider that the schools in question are probably running 
> Microsoft operating systems and applications already, then why would 
> they purchase Linux-based PDAs?

Absolutely. Even though I am a Linux advocate we are mainly Microsoft based
in our school for a very good reason - no support from major players in
enterprise Linux solutions.

> about this, but I'd guess that it's generally down to status quo in 
> the LEAs (i.e. we'll run the same stuff that our neighbouring schools 
> do), what is deemed 'safe' (e.g. 'noone ever got sacked for buying
> $bigAcceptableCorporate')

Hmm. We are certainly not adverse to the Open Source route but again it
comes down to support and training. Our VLE is Moodle based but it couldn't
be simpler to maintain but sheesh, ask a hardened MCSE to even try and
understand the layout of a Unix based filesystem and they poo themselves and
run away chanting, "Volume Licensing, Restart Machine, BSOD" 

We do use Linux in the workshops and I am slowly educating people about the
usability of Linux but it is hard, hard work when even the educators will
not be educated. 

> in ISPs/telcos/devcos). I'm not aware of the type of commercial 
> support and professional services package offered by RedHat or Novell 
> to education institutions,

None that I am aware of otherwise I may have been able to swing more Linux
based servers in school - I'd be interested to know if I am wrong.

> Microsoft. It'd also be interesting to see a total cost of ownership 
> model over, let's say, 5-8 years, which includes 
> hardware/network/storage/professional services/support requirements.

Given that our Senior Management Team don't even flinch over the
resubscription to our M$ volume licensing and that it seems to offer pretty
good value for money in terms of support, material, training and usability,
enterprise Linux has got a long, long way to come in the UK education
market. 

Technically, there is no reason at all why it shouldn't be more widespread
but Linux enthusiasts are few and far between in a school/college/FE
environment. 
I suppose that I was lucky and I have been exposed to Unix and Linux since
university in the early 90s and I have enjoyed using it ever since. Get more
support and training at a reasonable cost/cost benefit level and you might
find more people in education listening and implementing Linux but until
then, M$ have done a good job (shudder) at infiltrating this market.

Rob Hall

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