Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-edu (303 mails)

[ian <ian.lynch2@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 2003-12-11 at 10:35, Alan Harris wrote:
> Flossie Conference is a great idea but :-
> 
> 1. I'd love to come but it's difficult to make a day trip to London 
> from Llanelli / Carmarthen and get there before 11.00 a.m., especially 
> if you don't have you own transport.
> 
> 2. Most of the people you want to influence are in school management 
> and, in my experience, either not in the least bit interested in OSS or 
> downright hostile. Most also have an extremely limited understanding of 
> ICT - either limited to M$ or to whatever the LEA demonstrates to them.

No, I have the Chairman of BECTA coming some people from the DfES and at
least one elected politician. Think bigger. We need to influence
politicians not SMTs in schools. SMTs will in general follow the
political flow. Look at how suddenly all schools are applying for
specialist status simply because of one Government announcement. There
is a symbolism in the FLOSSIE logo ;-)

> 3. Schools are going to require a mixture of operating systems and 
> hardware - pushing OSS alone is not going to work BUT OSS in 
> conjunction with different os's will be a convincing argument eg: X11 / 
> OpenOffice.org on Apple, Linux / Openoffice.org on Intel and Windows / 
> OpenOffice.org on Intel - demonstrates the cross platform operation of 
> OSS systems and, the fact that files are freely transferable from one 
> os version to another. However, you will have to acknowledge that there 
> are areas where Windows is going to be required - particulary in the 
> area of Design & Technology for instance.

This is exactly what the speakers *will* be showing. Wakefield City High
have an integrated Windows and Linux thin client network. St Monica's
Languages project is using Audacity on Windows and Linux. I don't really
understand why people are making the assumption that every non-FLOSS
application will somehow be banned from the room. We are promoting FLOSS
so that will be the emphasis - practical ways to use it. That includes
integration and side by side use - as with East Hull CLC for example.

> 4. You really need to host two / three of these events, one in each of 
> the three major regions (England, Scotland & Wales) - Ireland may be 
> more difficult. If you could host them in schools so much the better. I 
> could probably swing such a venue right here with a little effort.

I would be more than happy for others to organise regional events. Let's
get one national one viable first and have some impact.

> 5. Push very hard the 'inclusive' aspect of OSS - you don't need the 
> latest versions of software to do your work. OSS is not exclusive, it 
> does not require a great deal of expenditure on the part of the parent 
> BUT  NO / OR VERY FEW  parents are going to use software that the 
> school doesn't (I'm one exception to this rule - as of January my 
> children will be working purely on Mac OS/X and Linux at home). In fact 
> our Head as already pointed out to me that she's getting tired of 
> justifying to parents our continued use of Lotus Smartsuite rather than 
> MS Office.

I have built FLOSS projects into many specialist schools bids on the
grounds of inclusion. I have lobbied parliament on it through my MP,
Have a look at the OpenOffice.org schools web page at
http://marketing.openoffice.org/education/schools and look at what it
says on equality of opportunity. David Hargreaves main areas of interest
relate to social inclusion and I think that this will be the main theme
of his opening address, though I still need to check this with him. I
take on board the need to say more on the website and the flyer about
aspects to be discussed but there is a limit as to what will fit on a
flyer and the text around the speakers gives a pretty good idea of what
they will be talking about. There will also be practical hands on
opportunities too. Similar to the last conference. 

> What you will probably end up with is a conference of technicians / 
> system admins etc who already understand the issues and know the 
> superiority of OSS solutions but can't get management / teaching staff 
> to show any interest at all. 

I only hope we do have plenty such people because Professor Hargreaves
and the DfES representatives will be there to listen to them. I also
hope that we can be civilised towards the influencers and make a good
impression. In the end, if we think its important enough we can make
some personal sacrifices to try and change things. We might not succeed,
but we definitely won't if we don't try.

-- 
ian <ian.lynch2@xxxxxxxxxxxx>