[Wylug-discuss] PDA's in schools

[Rob Hall]

On Monday 15 January 2007 18:16, Glenn Glidden wrote:
> 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!

One day I'd like to move my skills to Leeds !!!

> 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

Precisely. I was encouraged however that Star Office and Open Office have now 
been approved as suites for the ECDL. Whilst this is a small step, it is one 
in the right direction. Now if I can only get the tutors to peddle it! Maybe 
I should become a tutor myself.

> People want easy products and don't on the whole understand the

Except that Office is a vastly complicated product - more so than Oo or Star 
Office. Maybe we need to be more proactive and do INSET ourselves on 
wordprocessing and spreadsheets as opposed to Using Word and Using Excel.

> say, "here's your free Liux CD, it should have everything you need, if not,
> someone will have produced a FOSS version of it".

However, I think that Linux is still not quite ready for the home. The lack of 
things like shockwave, simple itunes/napster use etc. is still putting people 
off.

> 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. 

OK maybe not but lets face it, Active Directory is mighty powerful and S2k3 
does give Linux a run for its money. I am looking at making Linux based NAS 
devices from our old servers and we are getting there. I don't think it 
really matters that Linux isn't the base OS if what you have is doing what 
you need it to do within the budgets and constraints you have. I'm not that 
much of a Linux snob to say that there aren't good things to be said about 
Microsoft products (especially since Server 2003) and I don't honestly feel 
that for our situation a 100% Linux solution is the right one. I'd like to 
see more Linux in place and it will get there. 

> 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

Possibly not suitable for your situation but have you seen the karoshi 
project? These people work hard to promote their wares!

> 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"

Me too. Admittedly, it is only my recording studio that I need Windows for now 
(Linux still sucks a big one for recording!) but everything else is Linux 
based here on my PC.

> questions to answer.  Until even I can answer those questions (20 years in
> IT), how can I convince anyone else?

But I drive a Diesel Citroen Saxo to work 'cos it is cheap / eco friendly and 
I use a big fat 4x4 for my smallholding work. Horses for Courses. Use 
whatever tool is right for the job. Maybe its not worth evangelising but 
promoting its use in the right place?

> 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

A pipe dream! Many senior school managers have trouble with the video recorder 
(but are fabulous with de-fusing maniac kids and parents!) let alone trying 
to decipher the minutiae of OSS!

> 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.

Now hit them with REAL figures for TCO on a Linux based system / mixed MS + 
Linux system and you might gain some interest. Don't just hit them with 
the "it's free so therefore costs nothing" as that is simply not true. Hit 
them with real, qualified training costs and benefits of using this behind 
the scenes and you might raise an eyebrow or two. Can you comply with BECTA 
guidelines using an OSS solution? Can you deliver the content the students 
need when they need it? What about security? What about remote access? etc. 
etc. etc. Answer the questions they give a shit about without being techie 
about it and you'll win. They don't really care HOW you do it as long as it 
is done and it works properly.

> 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.

Possibly another LUG to be formed? How about the EduLUG?

Rob Hall