Re: [seul-edu] SEUL/edu Linux in education report #19 for May 8

[Dan Kolb <dankolb@ox.compsoc.net>]

Doug Loss wrote:
> 
> David Bain wrote:
> 
> > Hi I am a Jamaican who will be proposing a linux solutions for Jamaican
> > schools.
> > I need tips on how I can go about proposing such a solution.
> >
> > Any ideas or resources (links, case studies etc., slideshow presentations)
> > would be greatly appreciated.

The ILOVEYOU worm. What more can be said for not using a Windows
solution?

You don't state what specifically you want to use Linux for in the
school, so I'll try and cover as many bases as I can think of at this
moment. The points are going to be in the order I think them up in, so
feel free to move them around as required by your arguments :)

In schools, you're undoubtably needing multiple users. Linux quite
happily fits there, being designed from the ground up as a multi-user,
multi-tasking OS.

It costs nothing (maybe a couple of dollars for a CD) and you can
install it on as many computers as you want. Likewise with Sun's
Staroffice. That'll save you probably around $500/machine in MS
licensing fees (you might get bulk discounts though, so lets say
$300/machine). With 20 machines (a small network), it'll save you around
$6000-$10,000 - enough to buy another 8-10 computers, or a *very, very*
nice server. And if you were going to be using Windows NT as a server,
then the license for that itself would be around $6000-$10,000.

If you get a huge fancy server, you can use really old machines as
basically an X server, so you won't necessarily have to upgrade the X
servers.

It's got almost every programming language you can think of available,
except fancy GUI ones like Visual Basic. Borland should, however, be
working on porting Delphi to Linux.

The source code to almost all the programs is available, if you want to
teach advanced programming, and show how something is done.

"There's no support for it" is a familiar argument. Maybe there's less
'official' support, but it's normally better, and faster than the
paid-for ones. Try your local LUG, www.linuxcare.com, comp.os.linux.*
newsgroups, www.nowonder.com, etc.

"We should be teaching what people will be using in the office." Another
fallacy. Almost every office uses Win95/98 now. Win95 didn't exist even
5 years ago. The length of most university courses is 3 or 4 years. So,
unless you were in the last year(s) of school in 95/96  or didn't go to
University, chances are you'll be using a different system to the one
you were taught in school.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Please discuss, argue, flame,
whatever, about what I've said above. And now for a 'rant', which might
be applicable to computer education in schools generally:

In the 80s, there were a large number of 'bedroom' programmers coding
games to sell/give away for their C64s, BBCs, Apples, etc.. At schools
(at least where I went) they taught programming, and that's what a lot
of people had to do to get anything interesting out of their computers
(I had to program from when I got my very first computer, as it didn't
come with much great software). Now, it seems, schools don't teach
programming any more, it's only how to use MS Word and MS Excel (and
perhaps Access). At home, people don't program any more, they'd rather
have a game of Unreal Tournament, or similar.

I don't know how other people feel, but I think it's a great shame that
potential programming talent is being wasted by not being nurtured
(people I was talking to about this a couple of months ago agree with
me). If things go on as they are, I'm going to bet that there will be a
shortage of skilled programmers around. Hopefully with Free and Open
Source software, people will start being 'bedroom programmers' again,
and schools should also start teaching programming again. Any
agreements/disagreements here?

Seems to be a reasonably long post here :)

Dan
-- 
dankolb@ox.compsoc.net  Oxford University Computer Society Secretary

--I reserve the right to be completely wrong about any comments or 
  opinions expressed; don't trust everything you read above--