A complete open source set-up for this special school's academic network, allowing the school and its students to try out new and innovative software without having to pay licence fees.
Mount Tamar School is in Plymouth, Devon and is a community special school serving all four key stages with pupils from 5 – 16 year olds who have social, emotional and behavioural problems. There are 80 pupils on roll, a teaching staff of 15, and 10 support staff.
The school is located in three buildings, one of which is off-site, but all are linked by fibre optic cabling installed in 2000.
IT support comes from a network manager, Steve Kemsley, for one day a week, with Alan Berry as the ICT co-ordinator.
The original decision to consider using open source was driven by the cost of upgrading an existing network. In 2003, the school was identified with 'serious weaknesses' after its Ofsted Inspection, with IT provision identified as being weak. At that time the school had a 20 station network running Windows 95 which was not meeting the needs of the school.
Quotes were obtained to update the network and for a proprietary network these were in the region of £8,000, which for a small school was considered too expensive. One of the requirements identified was that the school should be able to continue to run the proprietary software it already owned, if required, and any new proprietary software purchased. The ICT Co-ordinator, Alan Berry, spoke about open source to Steve Kemsley who was beginning to develop a some software for the school, and saw a demonstration of an open source desktop in action. Over the course of summer 2003, the proprietary network software and the desktop machine software were replaced by Suse Linux with Steve Kemsley and Alan Berry installing the software across the 20 station network. For those departments which still required proprietary software to run, the computers were made to 'dual boot'.
In 2006 a decision was made to move from Suse to Gentoo Linux. During the summer the whole system was taken down and the updated software installed. The school now has a network of 40 computers (a minimum of two per class) with the academic side totally open source, although the administration service is still using Windows in order to run the MIS.
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.
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.
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.
The initial benefit was financial – the cost saving identified above. Cost savings are ongoing and, for a given budget, four computers using open source can be obtained as opposed to two and a half with similar proprietary software.
Benefits also include advantages to students derived from using a wide range of software – they are not scared of using something different. They can choose their own desktop – KDE or Gnome – and this choice would not be available with a proprietary set up. The result of this is that students are better able to adapt to change – including regular updates to software. Students are given a wide variety of tools and it is up to them to choose the right ones – this gives them a wider range of IT experience and they become informed users.
Although the school does not currently use e-assessment, it was part of a pilot study for Key Skills. The awarding body provided a demonstration of its e-assessment system and was concerned that the students would be scared of the interface, but because of the wide variety of software in use at the school and the ability to adapt to change, students were not worried about trying another different interface and were quick to adapt to it.
Open source gives the school and its students the ability to have new ways of looking at ICT and software – they can look at things from all directions.
Convincing the senior management team to use open source software for academic use was not difficult as the cost of a proprietary system was so high. The school senior management team has fully supported the use of Open Source software.
Some staff use laptops with Windows installed but they use OpenOffice, observing that it is “just like Word”. All internet browsing is done using Firefox.
Training is an issue with both staff and students – though students tend to accept new and innovative applications in their stride. With staff the school has put on INSET training sessions which have focused on particular pieces of software or aspects of the software.
Challenges to using open source (in other schools) can often begin with the network manager, who can be too focused on proprietary software, as many are certificated in proprietary software use, and can be not always responsive to what the teaching staff want or willing to consider alternatives to the existing system.
There is also the feeling that some people disregard free software as 'no good' simply because it is free, and will only use proprietary software because they perceive that the fact you have to pay for a licence is a mark of good software.
The ethos of how IT is procured and used needs to be changed – with the network manager working to ensure that the school gets the IT system that meets the needs of the teachers (and students), not the comfort zone of the network manager.
As Mount Tamar is already a strong user of open source, future plans are largely focused on ensuring that software is kept as up to date – with upgrades and new versions of software installed as soon as possible. If there is a new release it will be an improvement on the previous version and students should have the opportunity to benefit from these improvements at the earliest point.
There is also an intention to increase the use of web cams and to introduce graphics tablets that can be integrated with the Linux network.
Alan Berry feels the school is at the leading edge of open source software use in education; and may sometimes go too far, but it is important for him to explore the new opportunities offered by software.
Advice to others
Alan is of the opinion that people often have incorrect perceptions and concerns about open source, but may well already be using it without realising it – for example using Firefox as a web browser.
There will always be some technical issues. Alan maintains one machine as a test machine. Sometimes software is installed and problems occur, but it is simple to restore the test machine.
The ICT co-ordinator and network manager have set up the network and now generally figure out themselves what needs to be done. As advanced users of open source, they make some use of support forums on project sites, but often find that their use of software is ahead of many others' and the topics haven't been discussed yet.
One of the technical issues is the one of so called 'industry standards'. Fortunately most open source software excels at this by allowing files to be saved not only in its own format but other proprietary formats. The person using the software just has to be aware of this and remember to save it accordingly!
Additional information
In 2003 when Mount Tamar started using open source, it wase one of a very small number doing so. This number is increasing slowly; not all schools are prepared to do it yet, but many more are prepared to consider it.
Issues with proprietary software
The school is unsure where it would stand if it were using proprietary software with regard to home access. When proprietary software is used within a school there is then the question of what are students supposed to do about homework? Is the school forcing parents to purchase expensive software licences or to acquire illegal versions of the software in order to enable their children to do their homework? Open source means this issue is completely side-stepped as parents can download the software or the school can make it available on CD or memory stick for unlimited distribution.
Notes on software used
Academic Operating System: Linux – initially OpenSuse but now Gentoo
Desktops: KDE and Gnome – pupils begin by using KDE but are able to choose which desktop they use on a day to day basis
Service Software:
- Moodle – Learning Platform called MTSOCRhythm Box,
- Media Wiki – The school web pages
- Openmeetings – Google meetings software
- ELGG – Social Networking called MTSocNet
- eGroupware – Time management and email software
Mini laptops: Asus – linux based – class set purchased for use by groups
Desktop software:
- OpenOffice – wordprocessor, spreadsheet, database, vector drawing and presentation software
- Mozilla Firefox – web browser
- Mozilla Thunderbird – email client
- LiVES – video editing
- Blender – image and video editing
- Inkscape – vector drawing software
- Xara – Linux version is open source, Windows version is commercial
- Audacity – audio manipulation software
- Rosegarden – sound sequencer
- Rhythm Box – sound sequencer
- Freemind – mind mapping
- Scribus – desktop publishing software
- Scratch – 2D control software
- Alice – 3D control software
Other free, but not open source application include:
- Picassa – image manipulating software
- Google Earth – View the planet from above – internet access needed
- Skype – audio and video communications
In addition the usual desktop applications are all available, often with more than one piece of software meeting the requirements – choices can then be made by the user.
Mount Tamar has also supported the development of the 'Traffic Lights' behaviour management software by the network manager (Steve Kemsley)
Hi,
Very useful and informative article on use of Open Source software in education. I have some questions;
1. Why not use Edubuntu instead of Gentoo.
2. Is there support for the Interactive Whiteboards?
3. You talk about using dual-boot to allow Windows XP, but then you talk about running XP virtually under Linux. Whic solution have you found to be better?
Thanks
SC