Miles has been involved in the Edubuntu project for over two years, including contributing to the original specification. Until 2007, the Prep School was using a ten station Windows XP network. As the senior school was replacing some of its hardware, it was decided to use these 18 old machines as Edubuntu thin clients in the Prep School, powered by a high specification server via a dedicated switch.

Pupils in the Prep School have 30 minutes of timetabled ICT each week and also use the computers for other subjects, notably science, maths and humanities, as well as for their Moodle based homework and to access the school's secure social networking site developed using Elgg.

Edubuntu provides a wide range of educational software packages as standard, and additional software from the Ubuntu repositories can be installed across the entire network very quickly from a single workstation. The school makes use of many packages, including

Gcompris - an educational suite of puzzles and logic, which is good for developing mouse skills and is used by the school's younger pupils

Geogebra - dynamic maths software, which allows interactive diagrams to be accessed from within Moodle as java applets

K touch - a typing tutor, providing detailed statistics and customisable lessons

Kturtle - to teach basic programming in Logo

Stellarium - an open source planetarium which was installed on all the computers in around 10 minutes and which is very popular in science lessons and during the school's science week. As with many of these packages, it can also be downloaded at home and pupils can enter the co-ordinates of where they live to create a custom view of the sky

GIMP - high quality image editing software, also used by the Prep School photography club

Inkscape - vector graphics software, used for exploring tessellations in the maths curriculum

Scribus - desktop publishing application

Synfig - pupils create simple 2D animations, such as a hungry caterpillar

Firefox - internet browser

OpenOffice.org - Office suite

Gnumeric - spreadsheet, providing more configurable graphs than Open Office

Freemind - mind mapping software, used for note-taking and brainstorming

GNUdenemo - music notation program which pupils use to create short pieces of music that they can then listen to, with a variety of musical instruments being available 

The  school also allows pupils to play a number of educational games installed across the network, including Tetravex. Thanks to the thin client system, scores are shared across the network automatically, so this game is very popular with pupils.

The initial decision to try the Asus EeePC came from the head of science in 2007-2008. We bought one to see what they were like. The science department has introduced a forensic science course with a significant amount of course work that needs to be created in class time.

The teacher wanted to be able to create and save coursework in class without the students having to travel to an IT room.

The Asus EeePC

This machine is described here. www.asus.com.

We decided to be fairly conservative and set the following parameters.

1. The internet settings should restart at the beginning of each session, so re-starting the machine threw away any custom settings that a previous user may have set.

2. We would not mount the student's home folder as a (smb) share. This is because accessing a home folder as a smb share (rather than over the network via some kind of http based service) is very demanding of the wireless network – much more so than just web browsing. A smb link which allows a double click access to a file will generate a great deal more traffic than merely downloading the file.

3. We would limit the applications runnable by the student.

4. We would block command line access to stop us having to remove the applications that we did not want students to access.

5. We would have the home page as the VLE and students would use a VLE assignment to store files. Teachers would set up the assignment they wanted students to use and set dates, file sizes, numbers of files etc. Groups are automatically set by password on our VLE and class concurrent uploads are fast because the server is in-house.

6. We would stick to the standard xandros apt repositories that the machines use from new.

7. We would generate a USB stick-based image for fixing any machines that became corrupt.

Classroom experience

Access to computers became a problem for us in science particularly after we started the new applied science course. Computing rooms were difficult to book and we needed a lot of capacity. Sometimes five groups wanted access to computing facilities at the same time. So on the principle that ‘If the mountain won’t come to Mohammed…. ‘ we purchased 24 Asus EeePCs to create the possibility of two ‘computer rooms’ within the science faculty.

Initially I was anxious about this because there are always problems with laptops even when you are using your own and so the prospect of a different pupils constantly using different laptops seemed fraught with difficulty. However the experience we have had so far has surpassed expectation. They work and they work quickly. The boot-up times are short and classes have been writing coursework onto the machines within less than 10 minutes of arriving at the lesson.

The pupils like them. They are not irritated, as the staff are, by the small size of the screen and the keyboard. They seem to consider them cute. I have been impressed by how quickly they have adapted to the software. Using computers with children has often been an exercise in how to solve computing hardware and software problems whereas the simplicity and robustness of these machines seems to result in lessons where they are just an effective tool to do a task. Using the internet has similarly been unexpectedly simple. A class of 18 students can all access the internet. The access to the router is rapid and allows the pupils to remain interested and focused.

Use of the machines across the faculty is, because of their small size and weight, straightforward. Although we are on three floors, we have no problem in transporting them to be used in any lab.

There are some difficulties in their use. The battery does not retain its charge for as long as we would like and so we invariably use them with the power supply. This is suitable for us because our labs have many sockets. I suspect that there might be problems in a different environment. It is also possible that if we could organise a mechanism for charging that was easily applied between lessons then this problem would disappear.

In addition saving files has not been straightforward. The idea was that we saved to the learning platform. This requires saving to a space on the computer first. This can cause problems because the environment is not the same as Windows and lower ability pupils are not familiar enough with it to make it an instinctive process. Student who are familiar with the platform can save work very quickly and the work is accessible to their teacher.

The laptops are still novel and this is part of their appeal. With time the novelty will wear off and we will find out whether the small keyboard and screen will be unattractive to students, but at the present time I am optimistic that their use will be very beneficial to the faculty.

Background

Lord Dearing’s Languages Review recommended the use of technology to provide access to learning and to support both flexibility and greater learner autonomy. It also highlighted the potential of web-based resources to offer pupils access to language learning support materials in their own time and without the pressure of peer observation.

Given that our school offers our pupils access to dedicated ICT rooms at breaks and both before and after school, coupled with the fact that the vast majority of our pupils has a computer with internet connection at home, the Modern Foreign Languages department decided to trial using Wordpress to provide our Spanish students with online access to grammar explanations, interactive exercises, games, podcasts and listening and reading resources which could be readily accessed both at school and from home.

It is important to point out that Nottingham High School does not yet have a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and, therefore, we have had to look to alternative solutions to deliver the sort of functionality that a VLE would otherwise be expected to provide.

Implementation Strategy

When we first considered using a CMS, we looked for a means to offer our students online access to the digital resources of the Spanish department, which consisted mainly of Hot Potatoes exercises, flash games, pdf worksheets, mp3 sound files and videos.

We opted to use Wordpress because of the intuitive nature of its interface, making adding new resources easy and therefore more likely, and because it offered great functionality in terms of adding resources with sound and video, including podcasts.

By concentrating more on the content management features of Wordpress and less on its blogging capabilities, we created a website which focused on content organised according to topics and key stages (GCSE and A Level) as well as on easy and intuitive navigation.

The idea was that our website would be a gateway, not only to our own resources, but also to selected external web-based resources, providing our Spanish students with an attractive one-stop-shop for all their learning needs.

Teachers, students and parents

As well as providing educational content to our students, we also sought to bridge the home-school divide, not only in terms of access to language materials, but also in terms of showcasing our pupils’ work to a wider world audience, not least their own friends, parents and family.

We therefore decided to make the most of Wordpress’s blogging functionality by adding a blog to the main site which would serve the dual purpose of communicating current information to students and showcasing their work to their friends and family.

Curriculum applications

Wordpress and other Open Source content management systems have the potential to be used across the curriculum, not only in languages but also wherever a platform is required to deliver educational content online.

Background

In 2001, the school had an ageing Novell and Windows 98 curriculum network. This was clearly in need of an upgrade. The analysis of the options showed that installing a Microsoft Windows 2000 server and the associated office suite would have cost around £100,000 including the hardware upgrade to cope with the new Windows software. The decision to be made was how to move to a reliable and secure network without too much expenditure or change for the staff and students.

The school already had a small GNU/Linux network in its boarding house which proved popular and very stable. The decision was made initially to investigate, and eventually to install a free software system across the site.

All the school's 180 curriculum computers now run GNU/Linux. These run as thin clients using the Linux Terminal Server Project, which uses low power clients with most of the processing being done on fewer, more powerful, servers.

Strategy for whole school implementation

The school ICT Co-ordinator, Garry Saddington, produced a costing for a school Linux solution which came in at a 70% saving compared to the equivalent proprietary solutions. This discussion document was distributed to the Senior Management. He was given approval to test Linux in one classroom and designed a Linux Terminal Server Project solution. This had two servers, running SuSE and 34 thin clients. Including the chairs, the total cost was £6,000.

Garry then spread Linux to the other two ICT suites, at which point they needed a dedicated Linux network manager. Alistair Crust was appointed and took over the day to day running of the network, and has been responsible for serving the technology needs of the school community for the last three years. Since being appointed to manage the network, Alistair has overseen a migration to Ubuntu. Alistair said “I had heard of this new up-and-coming download called Ubuntu and tried it out at home first. I loved it immediately. Ubuntu is straight to the point. There are no features that shouldn't be there or are implemented just because they can be.”

The current configuration is:

• 4 servers for the 180 thin client desktops, running Ubuntu;
• extra servers are used for e-mail, electronic marking, MIS (ScholarPack), pupil database server, content management system, firewall, internet content filtering, proxy and DNS;
• all the school's management information requirements are undertaken by the web based MIS, ScholarPack, developed and written by Garry – this software is due to be released as free software later in 2008;
• a single Windows server providing applications through the open source remote desktop protocol rdesktop for a few areas to deliver software wanted by some staff.

“It grew through the need to teach ICT using something reliable,” remarks Garry; “I feel we have better curriculum facilities than any school running Windows – and with far more reliability. As part of our computing specialism we are doing a full network Linux install in one primary school and we are trialling ScholarPack in another.”

Curriculum applications

The school uses a wide range of free and open source applications – in fact all of the curriculum requirements are met through free software, including:

• OpenOffice.org offers the main office suite;
• Gimp and Inkscape for graphics work;
• Kdissert for mind mapping;
• Kjots for note taking and planning;
• Planner for Gantt charting;
• Knoda and Rekall for database front ends;
• Zope for A level project work;
• Plone for content management;
• Synfig for animation;

After pinning down the school's functional requirements through discussions with representative stakeholders, Miles explored the capabilities of a number of content management systems, using the demonstration versions available through http://www.opensourcecms.com/ before settling on Drupal as a stable project that matched the school's requirements most closely.

The school set up its own webserver using a redundant desktop PC, running Apache2, MySQL and PHP5 under Ubuntu Linux. Installing Drupal was easy, simply a case of downloading the package from Drupal's site. Database configuration was relatively straightforward.

Within a couple of days, the school had copied across the content from its old, static website to create a foundation of static pages inside Drupal, with a classification scheme that used both subjects and year-groups to provide miniature 'sites within a site'. The next few weeks involved moving content from other school documents, such as termly newsletters, parents' handbooks and the school calendar over to Drupal. After that, new stories and events are simply added into the database by one of the team of staff with editing privileges, including class teachers, the office manager and the senior school librarian. After exploring the extensive range of themes available for Drupal, Miles settled on 'GoldenGray', with a few modifications, to give a simple, clear-cut design in the school's colours.

Miles installed a number of additional modules to provide a closer match to the school's functional requirements and to use the capabilities of Drupal. These included:

• event : to provide an online calendar of school events, including an ical feed for parents' PDAs
• node_import: to facilitate quick import of events and other items from other systems at the school
• invisimail: to limit spam to published e-mail addresses
• taxonomy menu: to allow users to browse all content relevant to subject areas or phases of the school
• gallery: to provide full integration with gallery2

Gallery2 is a separate set of php scripts with its own MySQL database running on the same webserver. The school uploads digital photographs at full resolution to the webserver, with medium and small resolution copies created automatically. The photos are then organised into albums, with the facility for registered users to download the full size photo for printing at home.

The site now provides a rich range of content about the school. Most obviously, there is a blog style front page, filled with news stories about events throughout the school, updated almost daily by the content team. Additional pages provide a range of static or semi-static factual information for parents, including curriculum guides and school policies, an online copy of the school's prospectus, a 'scrap-book' of examples of pupils’ work, mostly drawn from the English curriculum, much of the school's digital photo collection, and an up-to-date online calendar of forthcoming events. The website averages between 150 and 200 'hits' per day, with visitors viewing an average of four pages per visit.

We are currently using Moodle in four departments, and as predicted by the other schools using Learning Platforms, it is now the learners that are helping to drive forward the use of the system. I am also glad to report that we now have a series of Moodle champions that are encouraging others members of staff to take the plunge with our Learning Platform. Most staff are finding that after a thirty minute training session, then they are ready to start moodling.

The first teachers that started using Moodle are now starting to move beyond the initial phase of adding resources, and are now looking to build activities. One of our next goals is to start building revision and homework activities that are fun to use, some will even be games. We are also looking to build a bank of questions that can be used for more formative assessments in KS3 and KS4. (Anybody wanting to help share in this activity, then please let me know.)

Perins school has already done an excellent write-up up on how they have implemented Moodle within their curriculum and I can certainly second a lot of what they have said in their case study, so I will keep the focus of our case study on how we integrated Moodle into our our existing ICT infrastructure.

Background

Treasa, who has a technical background and couldn't believe the school didn't have a computer, was able to provide a range of computer components, which were brought into school. Pupils from years 4, 5 and 6 took part in workshops led by Treasa about the main components of a computer. The result of these workshops was a recycled computer on which Edubuntu was installed. Having built themselves a computer, Treasa then researched software that it would be useful to add to the bundled applications in Edubuntu.

The school recently received a grant to fund the purchase of one computer per classroom. However, the funding only covers the hardware and, with the exception of Windows as the operating system, the software used is open source or freeware. Applications include :

• OpenOffice.org for the staff
• Seterra – geography resource – freeware
• Timez attack – maths multiplication
• Timeline – history
• Phonics – BBC games
• FreeReading – open source early literacy
• Tux suite – painting software
• World geography tutor

Teachers

Teachers were initially reluctant to try operating systems and software that they were not familiar with. A compromise was reached to install Windows as the operating system for the new grant-funded computers, but all of the software installed on these Windows machines is open source or freeware.

In fact our Primary pupils' first encounter with "big school" is with Moodle and Open Office software, via an INGOTS qualification they start on day visits to us and then continue back at their own schools. They obtain logins to our Moodle on a “taster” day in Year 5, where they use Open Office Draw to design a house as the first part of their Bronze INGOT. From then on, they feel a part of our community as they can engage with their new teachers and older classmates via the VLE. Additionally, a special forum is set up for Year 6 to communicate with Year 7 in the term prior to starting high school. The younger children can express their concerns which are assuaged by the infinitely more experienced (!) Year 7s.

Thus Moodle helps our students- even before they join us - in at least two aspects of SEAL: Managing Feelings and Empathy. Others? Below I will take one at a time those five strands and look at how Moodle assists:

Motivation: a motivated, engaged student will perform better (So in fact, will their teacher!) We no longer have a school website as we use the front page(open access) of our Moodle to celebrate events. We use html blocks with images linking to slideshows of the latest pupil achievements and update this several times a week. The non-standard Book Module serves both an archive and also a resource for showcasing examples of student excellence. Not for us the blank login page directing the class straight to their courses: we WANT them to linger awhile, see what their classmates in years above and below have been doing -the sense of community has blossomed since we began to use Moodle in this way.

Empathy: in addition to (yet another book) with our Thought for the Day alerting students to plights of the disadvantaged of the world, we use the Lesson module, particularly in Humanities subjects, to create online role plays or Decision Making exercises - students step into the shoes of a young person in difficult circumstances and are asked to make choices based on certain scenarios. In a less complex way, a simple link to a website (such as Oxfam) offering an online role play also serves to get them thinking beyond their own limited environment and experiences.

Managing Feelings: Moodle advertises the group Spectrum (Rainbows) for students suffering loss. Those who feel unhappy in school have a private area on the VLE where they can speak in confidence to their Learning Manager (Head of Year) We use the journal for this althought there are other ways to do it. This is ideal for those who might not want to stand in the corridor in full view of potential bullies

Self Awareness: The non-standard questionnaire module comes into its own here, giving students opportunities to reflect on their progress and targets both in general (we have a twice yearly Review Day where they meet with their form teacher and set targets on a questionnaire) and specific: subject teachers use the questionnaire to get students thinking about how they learn best or how well they operate in groups for example.

Social Skills: Forums have been possibly our biggest 'hit' socially on Moodle. From those who are happy to have their say in the real world as well as in cyberspace to those who might not speak up in class but are more comfortable typing a response in the privacy of their own home or the peace of the library/LRC, forums are a hive of discussion and dispute. Cross -year collaboration occurs when year 8s give advice to Year 7s in a forum on how best to make your castle for the History project. (Perhaps the mums and dads pay close attention to this too...??) Students collaborate on year pages, organising get togethers, sharing silly photos, voting on their favourite TV soap -and self moderating with a heart-warming degree of reliablility in ones so young.
SEAL and Moodle are bound together like Open Source and Community; that's why it works.

Current use

As the academic ICT in the school is now entirely open source or free software, the school is using a comprehensive range of software for a variety of purposes. The most significant applications and uses are outlined below.

Network

The school has 3 Linux based servers plus all the desktop PCs running Gentoo Linux – which is built from the source code. To make things easier, one base desktop system is created and the image copied to the other desktop PCs.

There is limited use of Windows XP in the Primary Department for a few proprietary software packages and to cater for this each new PC is purchased with an OEM licence. Rather than run Windows XP natively it is run virtually under Linux. The Secondary Department runs only Linux desktops though there is the option to run Windows software via the WINE emulator or to run Windows virtually.

Web applications

ELGG (the open source social networking application) is used to provide a safe environment for social networking in the school. It runs in a walled garden set up to be accessible only by school members. This allows e-safety issues to be taught in a controlled environment and provides useful practice for when children access social networking outside school so they will know what to look out for.

MediaWiki

The school website is built using the open source Media Wiki application. The school required a straightforward way of creating its web pages and, at the time, there were few open source packages that met the requirements. The package nVu was looked at but the ease with which page content could be added meant that Media Wiki was chosen. At the same time the web domains mounttamar.org.uk and mtsoc.co.uk were purchased.

Moodle

In 2005 Universities around the country were beginning to use Moodle as their course manager. The school was shown an early version of the software and Alan Berry 'played' around with it. There was then a meeting in Torbay of South West Colleges and Universities to look at Moodle. Steve Kemsley attended the meeting and delegates at the meeting were both surprised and impressed that a school was experimenting with Moodle; we were encouraged to continue with the work.

Asus EeePC

The school has a set of six Asus EeePCs with a Linux-based operating system running open source applications which are proving very popular with students, who prefer using them to the standard desktops – perceiving them as being the latest technology and “cool”.

New and upgraded software

Alan Berry has a very positive view about trying out new open source software and lists the immediate availability as a key benefit. As soon as a new upgrade for existing open source software is available, it can be downloaded and installed straight away, and pupils can benefit from the improvements and new facilities. There is no need to secure the budget for an upgrade and order the software.

This also means that the school can try out software at no cost. In many instances, software is installed even if there is not a specific demand or need for it; but it gives staff and students the option to use it if they wish.

Background

We wanted a modern way to communicate with the local community on the thoughts, ideas and work of our pupils. We initially applied for a community radio licence but were unsuccessful. We then decided that podcasting was the way forward, as it allowed us to pre-record pupils and edit the sound clips together to produce a radio show. Our aim was to produce two or three podcasts in the autumn term and then increase frequency in the spring term.

The ICT coordinator, Chris Bayne, purchased the hardware and software required and liaised with the Year 5/6 teacher as to what the podcasts should contain, and we then consulted the pupils and staff as to what we could include in future podcasts. Initially the head, the deputy (ICT coordinator) and the Year 5/6 teacher were involved in the project; towards the third podcast recording this then expanded to include the Year 4 teacher.

We involved children from all the year groups in the podcasts, covering the school’s age range from Reception to Year 6. The children wrote their scripts and recorded the material for the podcast both in school and at home. We recorded the whole school singing as well as individual children for short interviews. Finally, the podcasts were edited and put together by Chris Bayne at home.

The main support came locally from INEOS ChlorVinyls which provided the initial funding that helped us to purchase the relevant equipment.

Equipment needed

We have bought and used these items. Since the initial outlay we have not needed to buy anything more.

• Minidisc recorder (£250)
• Microphone – there are many different types, but worth getting a decent one (£50)
• Audacity sound editing software – free OSS
• epodcast Producer – needed if you want to series link the podcasts (£150)
• Jingles –a pack of 6 through eBay, professional sound and cheap (£28)

Transferability

Podcasting is transferable to virtually any establishment and does not need a particularly high level of computer expertise. The software allows you to load all your sound clips onto the main screen and then drag them around until they flow in one smooth show. The recorder makes the podcast completely portable so it can be taken around school or out on a visit and is really straightforward to use.

An important aspect is the need to commit some dedicated time to recordings – our children have really been enthused by the project and write reams and reams at home for the scripts. We haven’t had to do any chasing or arm twisting! Adults haven’t been involved in the recording of our podcasts; it’s all done by the children.

The school has a Linux based webserver running Apache, MySQL and PHP, used to host its main website and Moodle Virtual Learning Environment. Elgg was installed by downloading the package of PHP scripts to the school's webserver and creating an empty MySQL database. Elgg's install scripts ran perfectly. User accounts were created manually inside Elgg.

The Year 6 autumn term's ICT lessons, which have a clear e-safety focus alongside the technical Web 2.0 skills being delivered, begin with the completion of 'personal profiles' that form each user's personal home page within Elgg. Pupils include a list of likes, dislikes and skills which are tags within Elgg's system, enabling them to explore connections with other pupils in the year group, adding them as 'friends' within their network.

Many of the term's lessons are spent writing blog posts relevant in response to particular themes, providing opportunities for reflection on learning both inside and outside school, accounts of school events some of which are then posted to the school's public website, reviews of books or video games and so on. The pupils also learn to comment on one another's posts, with a style of 'say something positive and then ask a question' being encouraged. Pupils explore a number of Elgg's other features, such as uploading an avatar from the Creative Commons licensed collection at www.stortroopers.com, recording a podcast and uploading it to Elgg, including a digital photograph in a post and storing work in their e-portfolio within Elgg.

Their Elgg accounts continue to be available to pupils after the unit of work is complete, both in school and from home, and some pupils continue to use these to blog about a number of activities.