Hi All,
To help inform the future direction of the website and to ensure that the website is relevant to you as the user, it is neccesary to understand why people visit the website. Namely, what are the motivations of the Open Source Schools community.
Could you please advise as to what things in particular have caused you to visit/join/participate in the community. E.g seeking advice regards a particular subject area, general enquires as to what open source is, promotion of open source, looking for a particular piece of software etc.
This kind of question usually results in a limited response rate. However can I please encourage you to participate as it is your voice and your contribution that will help develop and maintain this community.
Many thanks.
For me, my involvement with open-source began when I realized that my students needed to use a much wider range of software than they were going to find on a bog standard box from any well known high street supplier of computers. I didn't want them or their parents to have to fork out any more money, I know what its like when my kids come home with a letter from school and I end up being 20 to 50 quid lighter. Open source was therefore the zero cost option, but more than that, as I got more involved, I realized how much better it was to give them tools that they could modify to their own spec rather than use what someone thinks is best, even if that person is me and I do know what's best (ahem).
A friends response when he asked me what I was up to was "if its a good idea for your school, then its a good idea for every school" It was then that I realized that there was so much more that schools could be doing with open source and that it made a much better basis for a good education system andalso how much money could be saved in the UK from the education budget alone.
As such I have dedicated myself to be a right royal pain in the neck about open-source and do all I can to try and persuade people who need persuading that this is the right thing to do.
I am concerned about Open Source on a moral level
Who is giving back to the developers who create Open Source? There are more takers than givers. I feel a bit like a leech when I download. Yes I could contribute to helping a translation of a manual but ask me to code a toolbar and I would have to say no. I doubt, in my humble opinion, whether the majority of teachers give anything back.
There is no need to be concerned about Open Source on a moral level.
Many open source developers (myself included) make a living by working on projects powered by open source software. Contributions take many forms, from answering support questions in forums to translating to writing documentation to writing code to donating money to the project itself.
Whether an individual teacher gives back or not is irrelevant. Would it be great if every teacher contributed back? Sure. Is that a realistic goal? Not at all.
As an open source developer, I am incredibly happy when my work goes to support people who have *no idea* they are working on an open source platform, or that their learning is supported by an open source tool.
Contribute when you can, where it makes the most sense, and use that as a model for how other people can get involved, if they so choose. But the code is made available so people can use it. You never need to feel any pangs of guilt about that.
Cheers,
Bill
--
FunnyMonkey -- Tools for Teachers
http://funnymonkey.com
Don't be concerned! The thing is, software does not fall in to the normal economic analysis. It costs the developers zero when you download and use. You are not hurting anyone by doing that. Maybe only a small percentage contribute back. That doesn't matter, we just want it to be a small percentage of a bigger number.
The other point to make is that you could create a toolbar it is within your capability! The proprietary software vendors seem to have succeeded to some extent in creating a myth that software development is something done in ivory towers by mysterious wizards. Not the case. There is a lot of work being done in the open source community on making programming accessible to children again (like it used to be on the C64, Spectrum, BBC B etc) and on lowering the barriers to contribtuion for people just like yourself.
I'd also echo the sentiments of the first two replies and add this:
The scarce resource here is (mostly) time and attention, not money. The best opportunities for Open Source developers to "Get something back" often happen when someone says "Lets involve some OS devs in a project to..." instead of "Lets buy more licenses to..". In order for that situation to happen, OS needs penetration. The very act of choosing to use an (Any) OS solution is in fact about the biggest gift you can give to the whole OS community. It's changing attitudes about the way we deploy ICT and the values that underpin the software we use.
So, to answer you're question: You're the one giving back, just by standing up and being counted as an OS User. If you feel sufficiently motivated to give feedback when you find bugs, help with advocacy, documentation, testing and ultimately coding, then thats even better. Just remember that nothing is quite as good an advert for OS as when someone with NO vested interests in the OS process itself stands up and says "I chose this OS solution over that proprietary one because this one was best for me".
Best,
Ian.
I would also agree with the last three posts. You are indeed 'Giving' just by supporting the cause.
In my 10 years of speaking with teachers, businesses and the public the main stumbling block i have come across is the support issue. It has been said many times to me in the past- "Who can I sue when it goes wrong?" Whilst this statement is a little extreme it demonstrates a feeling of being on your own once you have committed to this OS path. This could not be further from the truth actually, there are many companies who offer fantastic OS support throughout the UK and worldwide.
Many people have the misconception that because they are purchasing a piece of software which comes in a shiny folder with bright sparkly letters that they have bought into a guaranteed product support system - this is not always the case. I would go as far as to suggest that you would have MORE support going down the OS route than the proprietary route.
It is very difficult to persuade people of the benefits of OS, one of my main challenges is the IT Director / Manager of educational institutes. They are often MS trained and certified and are often unknowingly making decisions that are not always in the best interest of the school/institute. Maybe that iopens a can of worms, but in my experience that is reality.
Account Manager
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To respond specifically to the "Who can I sue when it goes wrong?" question I normally ask whether it is more important to know "who to blame" or "how to fix it". This is quite a fundamental difference in the support model and understanding it is the key to engaging with the community and working collaboratively with others to fix your issue. If a person's initial reaction to a problem is to look for somone to blame then perhaps they are not a good fit for Open Source.
I agree Alan, the term "who can i sue" is used very broadly indeed. In reality, people want to feel supported in their IT choices and I have often come across this particular subject as the only real 'problem' in the customers eyes.
Account Manager
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Anyone have a list of the successful cases of suing Microsoft or any other large software supplier when the software crashed, allowed viruses to infect a machine, had glaring security holes or was generally less than fit for purpose?
The Emperor has no clothes ;-) It's all marketing propaganda. As educators we should be ensurig learners are much less susceptible to it than the current generation.
Precisely!
Yes, the 'who can I sue?' doctrine is a familiar one and competely lacking in plausibility. It is unlikely that anyone has successfully sued Microsoft or Novel, Sun or Capita for faults in operating systems or software.
One formulation of the problem suggests that it is difficult for a managed service provider to contract on the basis of open source, because with open source it is less clear what is being specified in the contract. Frankly, I cannot see why it is not possible to contract on the basis of supporting a version or strain of linux, Apache etc. or a version of open office, just as if contracting to support a Microsoft Windows OS, or a version of Microsoft Office. Perhaps it is more difficult to get customers to pay for a service which the customers perceive to be free.
I for one do not come to the site to look for advice on licensing and fueling the FUD debate relating to OSS and non OSS software routes ;)
I was hoping that there would been more of a technical style wiki and support environment to share good practise not just at a case study level, but on a hands on technical level. Even to go as far as offering turn key virtual applications/servers for samba, squid, moodle etc. This type of information would be very useful for people that support and run ICT systems in schools.
My wife is a KS2 teacher should she come and look on this site for ideas to help teach lessons using OSS or is Vital http://www.vital.ac.uk/ the way to go?
If the site is acting as a portal for OSS in general would it be helpful to divide content by audience ie Teachers, Support Staff, Leadership ?
I would like to turn question back over to Bash. Several case studies have been placed on this site has anyone from Becta reviewed the case studies? What did Becta hope the site would achieve? Does Becta even support OSS?
I don't think you will get much focus on specific lessons and key stages from sites like this unless people with a specific interest start something. Snag is where to start? One of the things we are trying to do with the INGOT community site is to provide free learning resources that can support learning drawing on examples from open source and free digital content. I'm applying for more EU grants to support this and if more people take up the INGOTs we can put more into open resource development. It all takes time and money to do so we can only go so fast. We have some on-line games that would be suitable for use in KS2 at http://theingots.org/community/LinkPuzzles. It's a work in progress though.
I agree with monkeyx, case studies are well and good, but where is the hard experience? At BETT i was approached by someone working for this site at the OSS Cafe - 'post case studies' they said... and i thought, no - once I have something solid and useful, then I will post the documented ins and outs of how to get it working, of how, practically, we use Audacity, of how practically we integrate thin clients using the LTSP. That is worth my time and effort, and other people will want that sort of info to help lead them in the right direction.
If OSSchools could set up an area for technicall details to be shared, as opposed to a community support forum/case study central - then we as technical staff could begin to populate that with our experiences.
The eg above RE LTSP I've just started planning at one of my schools. I'd happily put all the documentation here to address this need after the summer (if it's finished by then!). That way the site becomes a useful tool.
I've just finished developing a Drupal based website, so all the documentation will go in there, including links to edu/esafety specific info needed, exact modules used, practical experiences of the setup and extracting (like blood from a rock) content from the school etc
And IanL, why not put examples of lesson plans? I wouldn't have a problem and neither would most teachers, they love the idea of sharing their experiences with others.
There are some example resources and learning/teaching scenarios at http://theingots.org/community/ITQ_course_home
We use Foss examples where possible eg http://theingots.org/community/Editingimages
The thing is we have to do what is sustainable and that means the first priority is to support and develop the INGOT qualifications because they pay for the entire operation. Any FOSS development we can do will come from that resource and since all schools need qualifications its better to support them with resources than just write lesson plans and hope someone might use them. I'm the only one in the company that can do support stuff for lesson planning but I'm also the only one who can write EU bids, get us accredited for functional skills, deal with the regulators, design new qualifications etc. I'm off to Nairobi to start a project in about 5 hours and I'll be writing an EU bid to support an official certification for OpenOffice.org on the plane. So until we get to the point where the income stream is great enough to pay other people to produce free content across a wider range of subjects it will be slow going. It's certainly possible but we need volume take up. Ironically it could be the Africans that end up providing the income stream to benefit the UK! They will be doing it on 80p per month per learner for their entire IT provision and their certification but they aim, backed by their national government, to do it for 1 million learners. That gives the sort of economy of scale we need. Then 1 million people share the cost of producing the free resources to underpin the courses and even economically challenged nations can afford this. Maybe it is because they are economically challenged they are more likely to be where it happens.