Educating Tux: case studies of Linux deployments in high schools around the world
Linux has a lot to offer cash-strapped education departments. It’s free, for one thing. It is naturally secure with distinctly non-privileged accounts and it is easily centrally administered. However, the experiences by schools that have gone this route are a mixed bag. Let us investigate some and see what lessons there are.
Previously on ITWire my colleague Sam Varghese presented
the remarkable tale of Strathcona Baptist Girls Grammar School. This
school successfully implemented a large-scale Linux deployment across
350 workstations. The ability to spend on hardware was bolstered by a
reduction in software and maintenance expenses as a direct consequence
of switching to Linux (specifically Red Hat Linux, then Fedora.) The
school reported a distinct decrease in administration work, a large
reduction in downtime and no virus problems. You would think it was a
resounding win.
Yet, six years later the school reverted back to Microsoft Windows. The
reason for the change back was not technical nor was it financial.
Instead the school’s staff pressed for Windows due to their own
familiarity with it. Tragically, the same people who claimed
unfamiliarity with Linux were similarly lost in the new Windows world
of Vista and Office 2007.
This story struck a chord with Sam’s readers, some of whom expressed
their disappointment that Strathcona had to return to their Windows
roots with associated higher expenses despite the simultaneously
reality of schools suffering from funding difficulties.
Strathcona is not unique in its experience as a school that has sought
alternate operating systems and computing environments to tackle costs
(and, dare we say, student mischief.) Happily, their subsequent
experience of encountering pressure to revert is not as common. Here
are some, and lessons that other schools – or indeed businesses – can
learn.
One extremely positive experience came from the Lorien Novalis School in Glenhaven, Sydney.
This school has 350 students and 38 staff covering kindergarten through
to year 12. Interestingly, the decision to migrate was proposed by
senior students rather than a decision formulated by faculty. The
previous generation of Apple Macintoshes were due for replacement and
the suggestion came to give Mandrake Linux a try.
There did not appear to be any initial strong impetus behind change
beyond exploration but four years later the school weren’t looking back
and in particular were embracing the open source ideological mantra of
software freedom. To their way of thinking, open source software had a
great deal in common with school education, both being about
cooperation and sharing knowledge.
One very helpful factor in the school’s Linux experience has been lower
hardware requirements, with two well used servers being the primary
workhorses until finally in 2004 a new HP Proliant server was sourced.
This said, the school were prepared to spend money to purchase Mandrake
support and manuals and to reward and encourage the work of open source
organisations.
One other matter which clearly influenced the success of the project
was surprisingly in stark contrast to the conventional wisdom of
tightly locking the standard desktop environment down. At Lorien
Novalis students were encouraged to tinker.
Here, the students felt an ownership over their Linux lab and had a
freedom to tinker, undoubtedly aiding adoption and acceptance. Although
some legacy Windows and Macintosh computers remained, due to custom
software needs, the school is working to migrate these to Linux and
free and open source equivalents also.
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