Chris, your points are very interesting, and I wonder if you've been in touch with the team who are behind Open Labs: Learning? http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/openlearning/
a On Mon, Feb 9, 2009 at 4:12 PM, Christopher Woods <chris...@infinitus.co.uk>wrote: > > Seen this in my mailbox a few times today, sure you will all > > find this interesting... > > > > "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Make the > > primary operating system used in state schools free and open source" > > > > http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/nonMSschools/ > > > I find this idea appealing but fundamentally flawed. Let me explain why > this > concept is a non-starter for all but a few schools. > > > I went through this country's education system and am currently in my final > year at University, so it wasn't such a long time ago ;) It so happens that > my Dad was the deputy head at the school I went to and he was also the only > person who managed the school's entire IT infrastructure for a very long > time. Yes, the school did eventually become a Technology College (thanks in > part due to his hard work over the time he was there), and with that > Technology College status they got a lot more money - they eventually got > one, then two, then several members of dedicated IT staff - but for the > most > part it was him steering the boat as such. He did the lion's share of the > administrative IT work as well, installing and maintaining SIMS, all the > staff machines, equipment, etc. The bloke working in the Reprographics > department managed the offset litho printer (yes, they had one!) and the > photocopiers I think, but that was about it. > > > So, during the best part of 14 years he was there for, my Dad oversaw and > managed installations of, in order, an Acorn network with matching Econet > system (remember the DINs and T-bars? :D), a gradual move from Acorn to 95 > machines, then to 98 with more and more intricate networking > infrastructure. > He had little money and worked with what he had available to him within > budgetary constraints him local and national suppliers. This meant that, by > the time the school got proper wedges of funding for IT, the school already > had a firmly established userbase of Windows 9x machines, gradually making > the move to 2000 then to XP as time went on. > > > Site licenses for educational software are costly, and I would put money on > the fact that just about all educational software is still written solely > for the Windows OS. Chicken and the egg scenario here, but if you want > definitive figures just go to BETT and do some empirical research to find > out. (I bet I'm right). Also, historical investment in infrastructure > cannot > be ignored, and quite often you have scenarios where you build up > relationships with suppliers and distributors and so can secure good deals > for all sorts of things. When you have limited manpower and man hours to > maintain a network used all day every day by hundreds of students and staff > alike, you can't afford to have 'exotic particles' introduced into even a > closed loop system. Plus, there are so many other outside influences and > requirements (right down to the cacheing systems many schools used back > when > ISDN was the only reality for connectivity, before the Grids for Learning > were properly established) that you could not expect to have a system being > migrated over to some bizarre and funky FOSS alternative OS. > > > Aside from the fact that the suite of *de facto* software the students > would > use day in and day would need to be the same, in some cases the bloody > curriculum demanded that particular software be used, so your hands were > tied. Other times, it was a cost/benefit analysis. Sure, FOSS alternatives > to "CAD/CAM" were available, I'm sure, but did they work as well as > CAD/CAM, > play nice with all the hardware the graphics and control tech departments > had, AND fully support all the old work and files students had created? You > can't just rip and replace in an educational scenario. > > > > Given that many schools' IT infrastructure development was so organic and > self-funded throughout the 90s, they are now in the situation where it is > almost completely impractical to start from scratch with a FOSS OS and FOSS > software, making sure that interdependencies aren't broken, networking > works > as well (or as expected) as prior to the switch, and students - and staff > alike - aren't 'de-familiarised' with the setup. With any major transition > such as an OS move, there's a lot of retraining needed for staff and > students. When you run to such a tight timeline as most schools do, there > just aren't enough hours in the day to accomplish this. > > The cost in terms of 1) setting it all up 2) testing it 3) supporting it 4) > fixing stuff that doesn't work like it should 5) dealing with problems > related to the transition can just become extortionate, and I would also > wager that most school IT departments have their hands full enough just > keeping existing infrastructure going. The only schools that could possibly > get away with FOSS from the outset are the entirely new builds, because > there's no legacy there in terms of hardware and software requirements. > > > > Having said all of this, I am fully supportive of FOSS - and so is my Dad. > He's currently the IT advisor for education for the county council where he > now lives, and has been in the role since he left his deputy head's job. He > takes a great interest in the benefits that FOSS and hardware solutions can > bring to the education sector, and he definitely considers them on equal > footing along with proprietary solutions... As long as the levels of > support, reliability and cross-compatibility are there and at a level > appropriate to the solution being provided. He's overseen some really > massive projects in the past few years (including the Virtual Learning > Environment setup for pupils county-wide, which involves a stupendous > investment in both centralised infrastructure and software) and he's been > forced to not always choose FOSS and hardware because on analysis and > critical comparison, it doesn't provide the best cost benefit. > > I believe the sad fact is that much FOSS isn't as well or reliably > supported > where it matters because there just isn't as much money in it. Again, > chicken and the egg. How as a FOSS company are you going to maintain a > well-staffed callout team and helpdesk if the software you are providing is > essentially free? You can't justify far higher support contract charges for > that reason alone, and schools will either bring the required talent > in-house or source it locally - and bingo, just like that, your company is > out of business. > > > > Transforming a Windows school to an Ubuntu school is nigh on impossible to > achieve unless you provide a year's warning, gradually phase out use of all > Windows-only software over the course of the year, implement the massive > overhaul and platform transition during the holidays and then spend the > next > six months to a year supporting users when stuff goes wrong. Most schools > simply cannot afford to provision those kinds of resources, so they stay > put > with what they have, and that's why FOSS will never make significant > inroads > into those establishments. It would take something like Governmental > intervention to impose FOSS and OSes on schools as a mandatory element of > their funding in order for them to make the change, but it would be so > disruptive that it would probably be ignored or sidelined by many schools. > > > > I am not trying to scaremonger or FUD here, it is just my view as someone > who has gone through the system and grown up alongside the maturation of a > typical educational IT setup, and who also had the advantage of talking to > the person who helped to implement a lot of it (and still talks to the > person who now helps implement policy and infrastructure for an entire > county's worth of education!) Although perhaps flawed or coloured, I feel > it's a pragmatic, realistic view. > > > > Thoughts / opinions? Love to hear them. Maybe I'm a poor deluded misguided > fool who needs showing the error of my ways? > > - > Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please > visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. > Unofficial list archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ > -- Ant Miller tel: 07709 265961 email: ant.mil...@gmail.com
