Re: Linux for Learning

[Randy Edwards <redwards@golgotha.net>]

> sites/resources that teachers/administrators could go to in order to find out
> how to use free software in their schools.  Anyone have any suggestions?

   Hi Lindsey,

   For some background, I'm presently (until June 30) a technology coordinator
for a school district here in northern New Hampshire and have a decade of
computer consulting experience before that.  I've taught in both private and
public school settings (computer science and history/social science) and am
presently leaving my current position to teach computer science at the college
level.  I'm also a registered developer for the Debian GNU/Linux operating
system (mailto:redwards@debian.org) and have been involved with the free
software movement since the mid-1980s and have been using Linux since about
1993.

   I see Linux and free software as having many advantages to public school
systems.  Say what you want, *many* -- and in my experience, I'd say *most* --
public schools are pirating software to one extent or another.  This piracy
ranges from out and out "buy one copy and install it everywhere" to the more
"gentle" kinds of piracy of using shareware programs way past their trial
periods or having one or two more copies of AutoCAD Light installed compared
to what you're supposed to.

   This software piracy is due to two primary factors: a measure of ignorance
(either ignoring the laws or the old educational standby of "it's for
education so it's alright") and a lack of money.

   With it being revealed during the Microsoft anti-trust trial that
Microsoft's goal is to implement annual license fees by 2001 for its products,
even with the steep educational discounts we enjoy the money picture is going
to get worse.  Operating system licenses often influence the type of licensing
for the applications that work on them.  If Microsoft adopts this annual
license model, you can bet other companies will too.

   Contrasted to the commercial, "black box" closed source code software,
Linux's open source code free software is a bright ray of light.  Linux's
license also influences the applications which run on it -- despite a huge
increase in commercial software for Linux, most Linux software is free
software.

   This presents schools with many benefits.  First, if schools adopt Linux as
their primary platform and try to standardize on free software and/or sane
site-license software, they can finally get a handle on piracy.  At the same
time, they can all but eliminate the need to track licenses -- a huge headache
for technology support people (and a significant indirect cost).  If this
change is combined with education about licenses and copyrights it can do a
lot to stall the piracy of commercial software.

   This use of free software not only benefits operating systems like Linux,
but the use of free software also benefits Windows-based (and other)
platforms.  For example, how many copies of WinZIP are being pirated by
schools across the country?  I'd hate to guess how many thousands.  Why pirate
WinZIP when there are programs like EN-ZIP which are functionally equivalent
and fully free to use?!  Why pirate Microsoft FrontPage when Netscape Composer
will suffice for most users and is free to use?  By properly using free
software, technology coordinators can lessen their legal liability and also
give their users the software they need -- all at no cost.

   Truly free software comes with the source code.  This is a boon of
unimaginable proportions for any school which teaches programming in their
high school courses.  Using Linux, for example, student programmers can see,
recompile, toy with, and modify first-rate source code for a modern operating
system -- an issue which many college students do not have the opportunity to
do in their studies.  Also, Linux provides a vast variety of programming
language environments -- most of them fully free.

   The fact that Linux has some rough edges is considered by users to be a
liability; but to students learning about computers those rough edges are
opportunities waiting to be exploited by good teachers and curious students. 
The fact that Linux's "hood" is not "welded shut" is a vast learning
opportunity.

   We've standardized on the StarOffice office suite in my school district. 
While we teach MS Office97 in computer applications classes, library computers
and computers in teachers' classrooms (and anywhere else besides our computer
labs) all have StarOffice installed on them (thanks to StarOffice's dirt-cheap
<$300 site license!).  This gives users trained on MS Office the opportunity
to use something different -- it forces them to adapt, to see the similarities
and differences of programs designed to do the same task.  While a secretary
might object to using various programs (with good reason since that person has
work to do), this should be our objective when teaching high school students:
we should not be teaching them to only operate one program or operating
system, we should be teaching them broad concepts and how to operate across
many different platforms/software packages because we all know that the
computer industry is anything but static -- MS Office won't be the most
popular office program forever!

   Linux as a desktop operating system gives this same idea of flexibility and
contrast -- all with an operating system that is far more stable than Windows
and requires less hardware resources.  In short, using free operating systems
can give users another contrasting view of "what a computer is".  This should
be an eye-opening experience in an educational institution.  Using free
software allows schools to offer this contrast and to not have to worry about
stretching their budget to the breaking point.

   In my view, cash-strapped public schools simply have it backwards: they
should be standardizing on free software for the vast majority of their
computer functions and seek to use expensive commercial software only in
applications where it is demanded or in applications where the schools need to
train specifically on that commercial software.

   I know this note is probably more general (and rant-filled:-) than you
wanted, but I did want to get across the broader picture that most schools
seem to be missing.  Feel free to fire away with any specific questions if you
feel the need.

-- 
"If the current stylistic distinctions between open-source and commercial
software persist,  an open-software  revolution could lead to yet another
divide between haves and have-nots: those with the skills and connections 
to make  use of free  software,  and those  who must pay high  prices for
increasingly dated commercial offerings."          -- Scientific American