Open Source Schools is here to share information about open source software in schools. Our aim is to help you decide whether open source software might offer benefits for learning, teaching, engaging pupils and parents, managing information and resources, or school administration.

The website provides information and articles about open source software, advice on getting started, case studies of its adoption in schools, a directory for exploring what is available, and a glossary. All registered members are welcome to create content for the site.

We are building a community of people who have experience of open source software in schools, and those who are just getting started. There are a number of forums for you to share ideas and experiences and contribute to the debate about the use of open source software in schools.

LeonCych's picture

Technology Strategy Board Driving Innovation Competition

Submitted by LeonCych on Wed, 27/10/2010 – 3:48pm

I have just attended the Knowledge Transfer Network’s Briefing Day for their new innovation competiiton – Technology-Inspired COllaborative Research and Development.

This has six strands the relevant one being Information and Communications Technology (or software as one person put it…

lord_alan's picture

1 Month of Using Ubuntu in Education

By lord_alan – Posted on October 19th, 2010

I just wanted to help promote an interesting experiment that is happening during the month of November.

Ubuntu November is a little project run by a couple of schools from Hampshire, UK. For a long time we have been wondering how successfully an Ubuntu installation could replace our existing Windows/Mac setups in school, and decided it was about time to try.

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mberry's picture

Open Source Computing

Submitted by mberry on Thu, 14/10/2010 – 8:55pm

What follows are notes from a brief presentation to the Computing at School working group meeting in Cambridge this morning.

 It has often seemed to me, and thus I’m sure others, that open source tools and methods provide a diverse and fertile ecosystem in which the craft of programming might be mastered and computer science studied. My own discipline is education rather than computing, but I hope some of the following aspects might illustrate the opportunities which open source offers for those concerned to encourage computing at school. 

tbateson's picture

Open Office becomes Libre Office

By tbateson – Posted on September 30th, 2010

Given all the recent uncertainty about Open Office since the Oracle take over.

A new organisation to known as The Document Foundation  http://www.documentfoundation.org/ has been started by some of the leading lights from the Open Office community and Open office has been forked to become Libre Office. 

A number of leading distros makers such as Canonical, Novell and Google have already sponsored the project.

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Strategic planning for migration to open source

By Tom Brough – Posted on September 25th, 2010

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.

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Open Services: Sustainable ICT for UK Schools

Submitted by Admin on Fri, 17/09/2010 – 10:26am

Today sees the publication a report from NWLG CEO Gary Clawson on the savings that would follow from a move to open source, open services and open content in schools and across local authorities. Gary argues that a switch to open source and open content would offer 25% savings on IT spend with relative ease, with a further 30-35% if LAs looked seriously at re-modelling how ICT is implemented and supported. Across a local authority with some 20 secondaries and 120 primaries, this would amount to over £1.4M pa.

Oh yes, and you get more flexible, sustainable IT and systems which support generic transferable skills in the classroom.

esyrett's picture

How to justify OpenOffice?

By esyrett – Posted on September 1st, 2010

 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.

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Public consultations

By Admin – Posted on August 31st, 2010

There are a couple of public consultation exercises happening at the moment to which community members may wish to respond.

DfEThe DfE is inviting views on the future of capital funding for schools, now that many BSF projects have been put on hold for the foreseeable future. There aren’t, surprise, surprise, many questions here about IT’s place in big educational procurement, but members may still wish to register their views. Be warned that the online response form is not a shining example of web form design, so the attached Word file (I know…) may be of more use if you would like to share your views. I’m happy to collate a collective Open Source Schools response if there’s sufficient interest. The closing date is quite soon for this, on Friday 17th September.

With a fair flurry of publicity back at the beginning of August, the Royal Society launched its 18 month study of computing in schools, its importance and its implications for the economic and scientific wellbeing of the UK. The press release speaks of a belief that the ‘design and delivery of ICT and computer science curricula in schools is so poor that students’ understanding and enjoyment of the subjects is severely limited’, which I suspect may strike a chord with many here, who’ve struggled against the Office training culture now prevalent in many schemes of work and specifications.

The study is chaired by Prof Steve Furber FRS, who was one of the original BBC Micro team :-). He said:

"We are now watching the enthusiasm of the next generation waste away through poorly conceived courses and syllabuses. If we cannot address the problem of how to educate our young people in inspirational and appropriate ways, we risk a future workforce that is totally unskilled and unsuited to tomorrow’s job market.”

… but I’m sure he’ll approach the evidence with an open mind.

The call for evidence is now open, until 5th November, see the other attachment. I think it would be worth putting together an Open Source Schools response to this, so I’ve created a wiki style page so that community members can collaborate there if they wish. Just click the edit tab once you’ve logged in.

The Guardian on switching to ODF

Submitted by Admin on Fri, 27/08/2010 – 11:08am

A good piece from the Guardian’s Charles Arthur yesterday, reporting teacher and Windsor & Maidenhead councillor Liam Maxwell’s analysis, of how much councils could save by switching to Open Document Format, as used in OpenOffice.org: some £200M if all councils did this for all their staff. There was some background to this, about the problems encountered by Windsor and Maidenhead, on Computer Weekly’s site on Wedensday.

The key stumbling block for councils, as for schools, appears to be compatibility with others systems, most notably those supplied by Capita. Liam calls for the Cabinet Office to strengthen its present position on open source and open standards by mandating ODF as a standards across the public sector, were this to happen I don’t doubt that we’d see Capita quickly make SIMS and their other products compatible with OpenOffice.org, making it far easier for schools and councils to choose their office suite from all those available, rather than forcing them to pay for MS Office, bundled with ‘features’ which many will rarely if ever use. Charles seems to think that such a requirement is far more likely with Francis Maude at the Cabinet Office than it had ever been under the previous administration, even in Tom Watson’s day.

Open Source Schools Steering Group

By Admin – Posted on July 21st, 2010

After the election and looking to the post-Becta future, Open Source Schools has been making new plans to ensure that the community is able to respond to the changing educational landscape where the benefits offered by open source are becoming ever more important.

A number of core community members were invited to a meeting on 29 June 2010 to develop an action plan for the future, and this group will continue to meet virtually or in real space on a regular, monthly basis. The group initially consists of:

  • Tim Bateson, Network Manager, Houghton Kepier Sports College
  • Alan Bell, CTO, Open Forum Europe
  • Miles Berry, Senior Lecturer in ICT Education, Roehampton University
  • Gary Clawson, CEO, NWGfL
  • Leon Cych, CEO, Learn 4 Life
  • Paul Haigh, Assistant Head, Notre Dame High School
  • Brian Lockwood, Head of IT, Egglescliffe School
  • Anne Matthews, Director, AlphaPlus Consultancy Ltd
  • David Willmot, Head of D&T, St Thomas More Language College 

This informal steering group agreed to work together on a voluntary basis and a number of tasks are already in hand.  Over the summer work on the website will be undertaken to develop the navigation to provide tailored content for specific audiences, initially senior leadership and network managers.

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