Becta – Schools Open Source Project
The Schools Open Source Project is a Becta funded initiative to help schools with awareness, adoption, deployment, use and ongoing development of their use of Open Source Software. A number of schools are already realising the benefits of OSS within their ICT strategy. This project will work to share their experiences along with good OSS practice from other sectors with the wider community of educational practitioners, including teachers, decision makers and IT specialists.
From September 2008, we will provide an authoritative, informative and impartial website that will raise awareness of how OSS can be used to enhance teaching and school infrastructures. The project will then develop and support a community of practice that engages those who are currently using OSS and welcomes and supports new members.
Our aim is to create an educationally focused project driven by the needs of the community – responding to their questions, providing tailored advice and guidance, and giving them the means to become confident users of OSS. In the early stages, the project will develop resources with the support of existing champions of OSS, encouraging them to share their experiences with those members at the start of the OSS learning journey.
The project will work to complement existing OSS community initiatives within schools and elsewhere. We will provide a directory of OSS products and OSS service providers, along with community case studies of successful practice, focusing on the achievable benefits to teaching, learning and school ICT infrastructure.
To be kept informed about the project, please email us at: register@opensourceschools.org.uk
A call for membership of the Project Advisory Committee
The Schools Open Source Project is looking for practising senior teachers to serve on the project’s advisory committee. The committee will meet 3 or 4 times each year, receive reports from the project team and provide advice and guidance to ensure the service meets the objectives of the project and its customers. This will involve:
• Reviewing work to date
• Providing recommendations for future development
If you are a serving senior teacher (for example, a head teacher, or member of your school’s senior management team) and would be interested in working on the committee, please send us brief background information to:
advisory@opensourceschools.org.uk
Thank you!

Privacy: Your personal information will only be used for the stated purpose. We will not share, sell, or rent this information without your advance permission. We will contact you again when the project launches in September to ask if you wish to register for updates.