Lesson number one: get rid of Microsoft

[spinynorman]

The Observer has an interesting opinion piece on the state of IT in British schools.

 

Most British schools are hooked on networks that consist of hundreds of PCs running various flavours of the Windows operating system and Microsoft Office software. Now it is perfectly possible to run an effective Windows-based network, just as it is possible to dig your garden using a teaspoon - provided you employ a hundred gardeners to do the work.

[SoulSe]

[willisoften]

Well good for the schools that can make it work. I've

 

There are other problems related to IT in British schools though not least of which is the lack of any sort of IT department in quite a few smaller schools. My nephew goes to a school with 200 pupils and IT is taught by what seems to be a slightly confused Maths teacher.

 

Theres a belief in UK Education that anyone can teach IT and maintain a network. IT technicians with expertise who are employed by schools are often paid less than teachers with little IT experience or qualification who are teaching it.

 

While MS software may be the cause of many problems and Open source the solution to some of those - there are other problems in IT in UK schools.

 

And

 

General adoption of open-source would perhaps free up the resources to pay for someone qualified to manage and maintain a school network. Though I can't really see that being the case - you need a substanial amount of time and money to make the change. Even long-term savings may not benough to pay someone £20.000 + a year. Not to mention finding a teacher bright enough / motivated enough to learn some new tricks. Theres also the problem of being tied into contracts with MS service providers and justifying the ditching of software you may have already licensed.

 

MS Office is still a business standard. You don't have to like it, it's just true. Thats all the leverage a company needs to sell a school an MS solution.

 

I'm not sure this is really a valid argument but then these companies aren't selling to particularly tech savvy people. AND why sell a system that needs minimum maintenance?

 

Unfortunately many schools would need to be in a stronger position to adopt open source.

 

Coming to the end of service contracts. Proper IT teacher. In a strong position financially. Availability of a supplier who will provide a local solution - and crucially the supplier has to be the cheapest bidder.

 

So as for "Orwell High School in Suffolk" they've done a hell of a job on many levels.

[iphitus]

It seems easy and logical, but like has been said by willisoften, there are still plenty of pitfalls and unseen gotchas.

 

 

Firstly, it would require re-training of many staff -- no matter how easy you make it, some people just have no clue. You wouldnt believe the problems that so many students at my school have with their laptops. You would have to have someone dealing with all the user's reaction to the new system, many would not take it kindly. It's human nature to dislike change.

To be able to complete this, the support staff would all need to be retrained, thus throwing MCSEs and god knows what else out the window.

 

Furthurmore, there's the time and effort involved in getting Linux, installing and configuring all the computers.

 

However that's just the operational problems, there are plenty of technical problems standing in the way too such as the wealth of proprietary and windows only software in use. The design department are dependent on Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash and Indesign. No matter what you tell me, none of the linux alternatives, inkscape, scribus or gimp match up to the Adobe products.

Throughout the school, various other pieces of software are used, paint shop pro in some multimedia classes, pinnacle studio for video used in media and multimedia tech classes, as well as drivers for specific devices throughout the school such as cameras, printers and other things. MS's Visio and Visual Basic, both of which I use in Information Systems classes dont have any clear alternatives on linux that are anywhere as easy to use or powerful.

Even if you can overcome that, there's bugs within the school's portal website which is used heavily. bugs that can and do cause rendering problems within firefox. Ironically the portal is made by Novell...

 

Any system analyst would decide that it would not be feasible to move my school to Linux. The cost, both in training, software, and staff would be huge, the amount of potential problems with new users using the new system countless and the time it would take would probably end up being prohibitive of the whole task.

 

Im sure the situation is similar in many schools, and while they might not be as fortunate to have as great a range of subjects as i have available which need the extra stuff, many things still apply.

 

I wouldnt stand in the way of a move to linux, it would be nice to see, even though it isnt really practical. It would be more practical to have a limited move towards open sourced software replacing Office with OpenOffice and such but I think thats about as far as the school could realistically go.

 

iphitus

Edited May 16, 2005 by iphitus