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>From Wired News, available online at:
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,34807,00.html
Open Source Opens Education
by Katie Dean
3:00 a.m. 13.Mar.2000 PST
Linux sparked an open-source movement that revolutionized the software
realm. Now schools are eyeing the operating system for its
cost-effectiveness.
"[We want to] encourage and support the use of Linux in
schools," said Paul Nelson, the technology coordinator and computer
science instructor for the Riverdale School District in Portland,
Oregon, which has 25 of its 150 workstations running Linux.
Learn more in Making the Grade
News from the Linux front
For the past three years, Nelson has led the Linux in Schools Project.
Once a month, the group holds a clinic in which teachers and students
can learn how to use and install Linux.
Because Linux is an OS that makes its source code available free of
charge to anyone who complies with the software license, it is
considered very economically viable for schools, proponents say.
One of the earliest examples of open source in education was Scholar
Net, a program in Mexico for elementary and middle school students.
The program used Linux because they could not afford the hefty
software licensing fees associated with traditional applications.
Riverdale's Nelson estimates that his district, with two schools and
450 students, saves up to $5,000 a year in licensing fees by using
Linux software. In addition, the schools get free technical support
from the Linux community online.
Nelson said a new high school will open in the district next year and
the majority of the computers will be Linux workstations.
"For every Linux machine I see installed, I know that they're saving a
few thousand dollars that can be spent on other educational needs,"
said Mark Lachniet, information systems director for Holt Public
Schools in Michigan, another district that uses Linux.
To date, most schools use Linux on the backend, supporting their Web,
email, proxy, and file servers, and for firewalls. Because Linux is so
robust, it never crashes, Nelson said.
Now some schools are experimenting with using the OS as the client on
individual workstations. It presents plenty of exciting opportunities
for the classroom.
At Yorktown High School in Arlington, Virginia, the computer science
lab sports "a hodge-podge lab of all kinds of different hardware,"
said Jeff Elkner, the computer science teacher. "Linux is able to run
on all of them."
All of the tools needed to teach computer science are on these
machines, and they are free, he said.
"It's early now, but I predict that open-source software will be the
standard in the school systems in the next few years," Elkner said.
Computer science teachers believe that open source encourages
creativity and innovation among their students. Students can modify
and improve on current software and they learn to be "empowered
programmers," Elkner said. One of Elkner's students is working for a
Linux startup called Helixcode.
And students are as excited about it as the teachers.
"The open-source code allows computer science teachers to get their
students in the guts of the machines," said Andrew Feinberg, a junior
at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland. Feinberg runs a
site called High School Linux Users Group, which aims to support and
encourage Linux in education.
Nevertheless, even open-source proponents agree that Linux must be
more user-friendly in order to be widely used.
According to Elkner, it needs a graphical user interface for the
desktop and more end-user applications. Gnome and KDE are available as
graphical interfaces for the OS, but some Linux watchers are calling
for a standard Linux GUI to sit atop the command line-driven
operating system.
Training teachers also will take time.
"There would have to be a lot more training [for widespread
adoption] and right now that doesn't exist," Elkner said. "There
has to be more of a demand before that training will come into being."
And some are concerned that students may feel inclined to abuse the
power of Linux.
"I see it as a very viable and interesting alternative but I think
school districts need to be cautious in implementing it," said Matt
McCarty, the technology coordinator for Clarkston Community Schools in
Michigan.
"A student could do some real damage if they were allowed access to
the core network -- the mission critical applications," he said,
adding that some mischief-makers may try to hack into student records.
But Linux devotees contend that open source is consistent with the
goals of education.
"Education should be promoting the free exchange of ideas and sharing
ideas," said David Mandel, a Linux and open-source activist who works
with local user groups in the Pacific Northwest. "It's a case of
demonstrating the value of peer review and the academic process of
building things."
Related Wired Links:
No More Pencils, No More Books?
9.Mar.2000
Alternative Net Protects Pirates
8.Mar.2000
Seeking Solutions for Tech in Ed
6.Mar.2000
A Laptop in Every Schoolbag
4.Mar.2000
The World According to Linux
1.Feb.2000
Copyright 1994-99 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved.
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