[clug] Linux in education

[steve jenkin]

Paul Wayper wrote on 5/10/07 11:14 PM:
> It is an incredible waste.  It's also an incredible situation to have
> schoolchildren educated to use specific software in classrooms funded by
> taxpayers. <snip>
>
> I think the best advantage that FOSS offers for education is that
> everyone can
> use the same software without any cost at all. <snip>
>
> I feel that it's important to work on this on every level available. 
> <snip>
> And we need to continue to use FOSS wherever we can,
> and help the children (and adults) around us to learn about it.
>
> Have fun,
>
> Paul
>
Paul,

Good analysis, good call to action.  Love all your contributions over
the years.

Here are two questions. If our collective minds come up with great
answers to these, we have a way forward.

BTW: The Public and Private School systems don't run by the same rules.
          The answers & approaches are very likely to be different...

1. What's the overwhelming reason to use F/OSS?
    - Not "MS is Evil"
    - nor the ideological inverse, "Free is Good, Everything else is Bad"
    - tangible, demonstrable benefits that address felt needs...
       - e.g. quality, control, flexibility, guaranteed support,
portability, availability, ...

2. What are the "Killer Apps" or Needs for *classroom teachers*?
    - Hint: We know it is not money!
    - Teachers are the ultimate gatekeepers here.
       - It comes down to What Gets Used - every day...
       - Do computers help or hinder the education process??
          [A: Not helpful *yet*]

On Money:
    For (public) teachers and Schools, "computer stuff" is a Free Good.
Costs them nothing.
    Because the Education Dept. supplies it all... And MS can afford to
negotiate site licenses.
    Conversion costs - including User & IT staff training - dominate the
equation.

On Teachers:
    Dedicated teachers are already overloaded... Others don't care :-)
    Learning computers inside & out is expensive in *time*.
    This is a strong disincentive to learn anything new that doesn't Add
Real Value.
   
On Computer Aided Instruction:
    Computers in the Classroom are nice but not essential.
    I'm not aware of *any* computer based teaching that beats
non-electronic completely.
    => caveat: I'm not expert in the field, but have asked teachers what
would work for them.
    Maybe e-mail, wiki's and Google are non-replaceable...

On Administrative Tools
    Teachers spend huge gobs of time reading, marking & doing admin tasks.
    For those used to good Helpdesk/Task tracking systems, very wasteful.
    And finding good answers to questions - Not on IT supports' KPI's!
    Even something as easy and essential as staffing - covering absences...

I'm sure there are some other dimensions to this... Would love to hear
your ideas.

Hope this is useful...

regards
stevej
   



-- 
Steve Jenkin, Info Tech, Systems and Design Specialist.
0412 786 915 (+61 412 786 915)
PO Box 48, Kippax ACT 2615, AUSTRALIA

sjenkin at canb.auug.org.au http://members.tip.net.au/~sjenkin