I have a school in the NW looking for a new network manager. Previous was a new graduate with a specific interest in FOSS who is now moving on having gained a few years experience. Anyone interested send me an e-mail (ian dot lynch at theingots dot org – or if you know anyone who might be.
Thanks
I have fired the starting gun on an exercise to create an information pack for schools on open source software. It will have sections on what open source is, a workbook of strategic questions to ask before embarking on a migration, implementation hints and tips a set of case studies (from this site) a directory (again from this site) and questionaire / feedback contacts and so on.
Came accross a new tool in my RSS feed this morning that may be be of interest to people involved in delivery higher education.
http://www.opencastproject.org/matterhorn_capture
A full list of features are listed here
http://www.opencastproject.org/matterhorn_features
Matterhorn allows lecturers to capture, brand and release their lecturers into social networks for appraisal and feedback.
Have fun.
Tim
I am a governor at a lower school, and I also work in IT, so I am aware of the savings that can be made by using open source software.
I have suggested several times that the school could save money by using the free OpenOffice package instead of purchasing licenses for Microsoft Office 2003, but the schools view is that children would eventually have to learn MS Office anyway when they leave school, so there is little point in making them use an alternative package.
To be fair, I don’t think they are spending much on the MS Office licenses – the cost of the hardware is far more significant. However, I would still be interested in how other schools justify OpenSource when there is resistance like this.
[dev-educ] OOo4Kids1.0 is out !
http://download.ooo4kids.org/
OOo4Kids is a lighter version of OOo (neither Java, nor Base, nor Basic) designed for children, and used by devs to experiment new features and issues troubleshootings.
This new version brings many interesting features
http://wiki.ooo4kids.org/index.php/Changelogs
I am in the
process of documenting some of the OSS software that we use in our school. As part of the process I am creating some generic VMs that could be used as Turnkey servers. The turnkey solutions will be based on on ubuntu server. These VMs would run in openVZ, KVM and virtualBox. There would also be supporting wikis for the solutions.
The turnkey solutions I will be working on are as follows.
Can anyone share their experience of using Mahara in Secondary schools?
As network Manager for a large secondary school in Gloucestershire we are currently hosting our own Moodle / VLE which has proved very popular. Our Moodle Site is also fully integrated with the school MIS system, with all classes / timetables being automatically populated with staff and students.
Access to the tools that provide the means to an educational end are often overlooked. The link http://bit.ly/OSapps will provide around 500 software applications that could enable students and teachers to think and act outside the box, unrestricted by the usual cost paradigms.
A. Hodson – Instructional Technology Analyst
El Paso ISD – TX
-=o=-
As there was a request recently about FOSS and DTP, it occurred to me that many people might not know that some software has some particularly useful but maybe not immediately apparent features. This post is intended to stimulate others to post hints and tips about their favourite apps. (if learners contribute they can use it as evidence for their ITQ qualifications)