OpenOffice.org was installed on our system last August in response to a need for software at home for students doing the Applied ICT exam (Edexcel) and for other students doing GCSE who in this very poor sem- / inskilled rural area are only just able to buy a box and not the software (very common). Tesco.net supply the Internet connection We give the students a CD with OOorg on it to install as the download would be impossible for many of them - second-hand machines - 533 processors or less - old modems, etc. So to follow your list below: a) Maidenhill School, Kings Road, Stonehouse, Glos. GL10 2HA b) Difficult to say but at leat 3 staff are trying it and around 40 students are known to have used it this school year. (Based on known installs at home and use at lunchtime or after-school. c) Partial - still use MS Office because most teachers have neither the time or the inclination at present to migrate and all their work sheets are tied into MS Office. d) Yes e) We had difficulty installing OOorg on the network and recieved help from a company in Cambridge. The network is centred on a Unix server which deals with Internet and e- mail and firewalls the system (Apache, Squid, MySQL, PHP, etc.) There are 4 application servers (Win2000) running Citrix XP and a range of Windows software including OOorg, 1 Win2000 fileserver (RAID 5), one Win2000 printserver, one library system server (IIS) running specialist library software which makes the library database accessible over the Intranet as a set of web pages for searching, one Unix backup server, one Unix sound / music / video fileserver / store (Performing Arts school status). The clients: 80 Linux / RISCOS Thin clients running the Citrix ICA Client, 30+ full PCs many with Win XP as the underlying OS to allow local software (dongles, serial ports, Flash, etc.) which have to see drive C: to operate, 5 old PCs running a cut down version of Unix with the ICA client to behave like Thin Clients, 21 staff laptops of varying ages and makes, 3 of which run OOorg as well, 1 E-Mac (MacOSX) used for video- editing but running a very poorly written version of the ICA client to allow the Windows desktop to run (sorry, Apple...nice machine but software...), 1 dual boot windows / SuSE Linux machine for evaluation using OOorg. - prints through the Windows printserver or directly over IP after considerable heartache and time - not yet friendly enough SuSE... The network has a Gigabit backbone and the rest steps down as required - some 10Mb machines still running happily. Some wireless in the difficult areas - staff room and offices, school hall / dining room area - planned extensions. Intranet runs from the Unix server; modified version accessible over the Intranet along with the filing system and the school web-mail. School web site hosted with a local company ik.org for political reasons but with links back to our Unix server. PhpBB Forum just being set up, along with online calendar system. Any further info. e-mail me - no phone calls please. Screenshots, photos available to bona-fide folk. George Harris
Open Office has also been installed on ours Windows network for comparison.
Please let the OpenOffice.org project know of your findings. If anyone is using OpenOffice.org in schools, we want to know
a) The Name of the School b) How many people use OpenOffice.org c) Whether there is partial or complete migration to OpenOffice.org d) If the school is happy to be cited as an example withthe information listed on the web site. e) Any other information you want to suppy with regard to OpenOffice.org in your school environment.
Please E-mail by replying to this or to ianlynch@openoffice.org
Also join the Educ project by subscribing to the OpenOffice.org Educ list. Its low traffic. Send E-mail to educ-subscribe@marketing.openoffice.org
Regards,
-- If this e-mail contains anything that the recipient takes exception to, please contact: The Headteacher, Maidenhill School GL10 2HA UK (+44) (0) 1453 822469