The Open Source Schools community, a project supported by Becta, is hosting a seminar on Innovation in Education for local authorities. This follows on from our very successful, well attended 'unconference' in July for teachers and technical staff. The seminar will take place at Bletchley Park, the birthplace of electronic computing, near Milton Keynes on Thursday 15th October. Places are free for those working in a local authority or national educational organisation.
The seminar is about open source as a catalyst for innovation in education, rather than simply for financial savings, important as these are. The presentations will showcase how open source software and principles can empower LAs to go beyond existing provision. They will cover:
- Broadening the scope of what children and teachers do with ICT beyond office or media skills training, as Ofsted's recent report indicated
- Providing for greater flexibility, in line with the Government's open source action plan
- Scaling open source deployment to local or regional level in a sustainable way
- Allowing young people to benefit from the changing technological and social landscape in a safe, controlled way
- Addressing emerging protocols for collaboration and social interaction
- Facilitating co-operation between users and developers to improve and adapt technological solutions
- Making the best possible use of limited resources, given present restrictions on public sector funding.
OpenOffice
Hi,
We've recently reviewed our position statement on Office applications, and part of this is to give schools the option of using OpenOffice in the Curriculum rather than Microsoft Office. We're now in the process of creating an msi to deploy OO via GPO. This potentially could end up in 400+ schools, so I'm keen to learn if other people have deployed OO via an msi, and if so:
BSF Discussion at the Unconference
In light of the interesting threads on BSF and Open Source below, and managing the perceived risk of open source in the forum, readers may be interested in the following recording of the discussion at last summer's Unconference on BSF, chaired by Brian Lockwood.
The video is available in other formats from http://blip.tv/file/2538612.
Dale Jones on Barriers and Enablers to Open Source in the classroom
More from the Bletchley Park LA Seminar: this time Dale Jones, School Improvement Consultant for Shropshire County Council (and former teacher, and the genius behind ethink.org.uk WordPress MU Hosting...) on some of the barriers and enablers to open source in the classroom.
Video c/o Leon Cych at Learn 4 Life; other formats available at http://blip.tv/file/2796107
Dr Stephen Lucey's Closing Keynote at Bletchley
Becta's Executive Director of Strategic Technologies, Dr Stephen Lucey wraps up the day at Bletchley Park with a presentation outlining Becta's vision for open source as a part of schools' ICT portfolio. His presentation brings together the government's Open Source Action Plan and Becta's plans for integrated managed service provision for ICT in schools, in which Dr Lucey hopes open source will play a key part. Open Source Schools members are invited to contribute to Becta's consultation on the future delivery of ICT services.
Original video and other formats at http://blip.tv/file/2746643
Lunchtime at Bletchley
A couple of 'vox-pops' captured by Leon Cych (Learn 4 Life) at the Bletchley Park LA Seminar last Thursday: first Mark Taylor of Sirius IT linking the political landscape and NWLG's exciting initiative to support open source adoption across their 17 authorities and elsewhere.
Second, Gary Clawson, CEO of NWLG on content sharing through the NDRB
LA event at Bletchley ... left me thinking
First, thanks for organising the LA day at Bletchley Park. As LA strategic lead for ICT, I guess I am one of the target groups the day was aimed at, I wondered if you'd mind me dropping a couple of thoughts into the community?
In order to increase adoption, should OS be 'marketed' to three different stakeholders in different ways?
Programme
We have been delighted by the response to the Seminar, with over 70 delegates registered so far. We have arranged for increased capacity at Bletchley Park, and so a few places are still available if you would like to join us on Thursday 15th October for what promises to be a really interesting day, exploring how open source can act as a catalyst for innovation in schools, local authorities, regional broadband consortia and national projects. See below for registration details.
The programme is as follows:
| 9:30-10:00 | Registration and coffee | |
| 10:00-10:20 | Opening keynote | Miles Berry, Roehampton University |
| 10:20-10:50 | Innovation, adoption and scale | Mark Taylor, Sirius Corporation |
| 10:50-11:05 | BSF - the national picture | Nasir Khawaja, Partnership for Schools |
| 11:05-11:30 | BSF - the Bradford experience | Mark Chambers, Education Bradford |
| 11:30-11:50 | Coffee | |
| 11:50-12:20 | National Digital Resource Bank | Fiona Iglesias & Gary Clawson, NWLG |
| 12:20-12:40 | Open Video | Leon Cych, Learn 4 Life |
| 12:40-13:00 | Becta Home Access Programme | Steve Goodman, Becta |
| 13:00-13:45 | Lunch | |
| 13:45-14:15 | Why is it always so bottom up for tech support? | Tony Sheppard, Northamptonshire County Council |
| 14:15-14:35 | Barriers and enablers | Dale Jones, Shropshire County Council |
| 14:35-14:55 | Sustainability and scalability with Moodle | Alison Wilson, CLEO |
| 14:55-15:10 | Tea | |
| 15:10-15:40 | Buckinghamshire's Moodle Experience | Ian Usher, Buckinghamshire County Council |
| 15:40-16:00 | Closing keynote | Dr Stephen Lucey, Becta |
| 16:00-17:00 | Optional tour of Bletchley Park |
Please be aware that Leon Cych of Learn 4 Life will be streaming and recording a number of sessions; let us know if you do not wish to be included in this coverage.
Wifi should be available at Bletchley, and there will be refreshments at various points during the day. We'll use #osschools as our hash tag on Twitter.
Directions to Bletchley Park are available here. Please note that you should give your destination as Sherwood Drive, Bletchley if you're using a sat-nav - the post code will take you to the wrong location, as befits an institution formerly shrouded in secrecy! Bletchley railway station is on the Euston to Birmingham line, and is located very close to the park entrance.
10:00-10:20 Opening Keynote, Miles Berry, Roehampton University
Miles is senior lecturer in ICT at Roehampton University. He teaches initial teacher training courses as part of the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, as well as tutoring students on school placements and masters students. His principal research focus is the role of online communities in the professional formation and development of teachers. Other professional interests include knowledge management in education, use of open source software and principles in schools, provision for the gifted and talented and independent learning. He is the community manager of Open Source Schools.
10:20-10:50 Innovation, Adoption and Scale, Mark Taylor, Sirius Corporation
Open Source is driving innovation in education, innovation in delivery, in adoption and usage, in addressing energy conservation, and in all areas. This talk will address all this at all scales and will give examples of practical real-world adoption from the classroom up to country-wide and answering the question of just how far Open Source systems can scale.
10:50-11:05 BSF - the national picture, Nasir Khawaja, Partnership for Schools
Nasir will discuss how ICT fits into the BSF programme, including examples of open source deployment as part of BSF managed services.
Nasir Khawaja
Nasir's career as a teacher involved teaching in both secondary and primary school sectors including an ICT advisory role with a Local Authority. His career in the private sector has taken in stints at ICT supplier and services organisations encompassing roles in consultancy, marketing and sales. He joined Partnerships for Schools in 2009 and works with Local Authorities in London and the South-East of England.
11:05-11:30 BSF - the Bradford Experience, Mark Chambers, Education Bradford
Integrating Open Source Software with a BSF Managed Service - an illustration of how this was achieved in practice in one Local Authority.
The contribution will describe how, in response to a need identified in collaboration with schools, a LEP ICT Managed Service Provider was able to explore, recommend and implement an Open Source Network Management tool that gave teachers management access to their teacher toolkit laptops. The organisaton of governance and consultation which led to this successful implementation will be shared and the increased utility to teachers that enables more confident use of the technology in the classroom will be highlighted.
11:50-12:20, NDRB, Gary Clawson and Fiona Iglesias, NWLG
The National Digital Resource Bank is set to become the largest project in UK Education. Using a licence free product developed in Spain. ndrb will provide Local Authorities with the largest collection of open content available that is compatible with all commonly used Learning Platforms. Described by the Schools Minister as a "landmark project", ndrb will change how schools discover and use digital resources supporting innovation and personalisation at the same time as greatly reducing the need to purchase commercial resources. During the ndrb session North West Learning Grid will also be outlining their plans to build upon the success of ndrb and assist Local Authorities nationally to implement large scale Open Source solutions.
12:20-12:40 Open Video, Leon Cych, Learn 4 Life
I will be talking about Open Source Video in particular the new HTML 5 standard and how open source video codecs are important for the future. I will be talking about Kaltura's collaboration with Wikimedia and the Open Source Video Alliance
12:40-13:00 Becta Home Access Programme, Steve Goodman, Becta
The session will provide delegates with information on the Home Access programme, including feedback from the pilot, National Rollout, approved suppliers and information on devices and approved software provided as part of the Home Access packages.
13:45-14:15 Why is it always so bottom up for tech support? Tony Sheppard, Northamptonshire County Council
You can talk to many schools who feel they are bucking the trend by making use of Open Source and free software. They will talk about cost savings and ethics, about flexibility and the large support base of the community ... but occasionally you have to stop, take a step back and think about how and why these applications managed to sneak into our schools in the first place. Let us take a trip to the dark, dank corridor where students fear to tread and teachers only do so when armed with chocolate hob nobs. We are off to see the Techies and the latest marvel they are trying out.
14:15-14:35, Barriers and Enablers, Dale Jones, Shropshire County Council
I'll talk on how and why I used OS in the classroom, barriers and enablers and what this might imply for an LA trying to promote the use of OS, etc.
14:35 - 14:55, Sustainability and Scalabilility with Moodle, Alison Wilson, CLEO
I will be presenting on how we as an RBC have worked in conjunction with our 2 Local Authorities to scale an open source implementation of Moodle in a sustainable way. We currently host over 800 Moodles and our high level of support and training offered to schools, and the ability to customise Moodle are key reasons why the implementation has been so successful.
15:10-15:40, Four years of Moodle in Buckinghamshire, Ian Usher, Buckinghamshire County Council
This session will give both an overview of some technical details of Buckinghamshire's implementation of Moodle and examples of how the open nature of the software has fostered collaboration between individuals, schools & local authorities.
15:40-16:00 Closing Keynote, Dr Stephen Lucey, Becta
Stephen Lucey joined Becta in May 2000 and now holds the post of Executive Director for Strategic Technologies. Dr Lucey graduated in Life Sciences from Imperial College, University of London, in 1979 and was awarded a PhD in 1984 for his research work on Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics. Dr Lucey has specialised in the application of Information Technology and Information Systems to real world problems.
Registration
To attend the conference, you need to create an account on this site, making sure you tick the Local Authority Seminar 09 box on the registration form when you do. If you've already registered, simply join the Local Authority Seminar 09 group.
Places are free for those working in local authorities or national educational organizations or agencies and for those presenting. In the event of registered delegates not attending, and not cancelling their place at least a week before the event, we reserve the right to charge £55 to cover our costs.