Seems odd - anyone who believes Linux is more stress than MS products has only considered the very short term. As a MS trained IT professional, Linux has been a revelation - available to work out of the box or customised to your needs.
On the staffing side, I'll get blunter: knowing how to use MS at home, or even in a business context does not qualify or even prepare you for implementing MS solutions in a school environment. Believing that it does is the biggest source of problems for moving IT forwards in schools. Schools collectively need to accept that an ICT environment with 300+ PCs and 1200 users need to be supported by professionals and that those professionals will need to be paid 2 or 3 times what is currently offered. At these more realistic salaries, recruiting replacements will not be so difficult. Teachers (current company excepted) are not the right people to make IT decisions as they do not have the depth of knowledge required. IT management is not a part-time occupation, and your IT manager needs to be involved in school strategy for the best, most cost-effective and education-effective IT strategies. And don't get me wrong, this isn't personal; I'm one of the lucky ones :-)
For compatibility problems elimination, see StarOffice 6. Not just because of its MS file read/write ability, but because you can supply copies to the pupils and staff!
Regards
Chris
-----Original Message-----
From: Colin McQueen
To: suse-linux-uk-schools@suse.com
Sent: 7/14/02 9:18 PM
Subject: Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] SendMail Relays
In message <20020710164100.EJNR19225.mta07-svc.ntlworld.com@there>
Ian Lynch <ian.lynch2@ntlworld.com> wrote:
> On Tuesday 09 July 2002 21:36, you wrote:
>
> > This really needs to be done. Schools have got
> > to see the benefits. I'm about to spend £10 000 on mickeysoft
licences.
>
> Why? You can get round this largely with what we are doing. In East
Hull CLC
> we installed 120 wireless thin clients and saved about 30k in software
==20
> licensing and more in hardware and management time. The kids using it
don't
> seem at all bothered. Also we can manage their servers for them
remotely so
> its very inexpensive to get very expert support. My view is that if
you have
> say lots of Windows 95 machines and they run your curriculum software
why
> change? Very few apps are going to only run on XP so if it ain't broke
why
> fix it? If you use thin client to run your office, graphics, web etc
software
> from servers you then just upgrade your servers every few years and
the whole
> network is upgraded and the software for all that aspect is free and
will
> remain so. We can make your local Windows proof against hacking and
viruses
> at no extra cost. In the longer term as more develops you will be able
to
> dump local windows altogether because everything will go web based.
>
> > no choice I'm afraid.
>
> There's always a choice ;-) Well depends obviously on people above
you. We
> tend to deal with some innovative people who want to be at the cutting
edge
> and tend to be prepared to take what others see as a risk. But then
the only
> risk in business is to take no risk.
I don't want to take risks with the limited amount of time we have for
ICT in schools. To start running another system (we are just removing
the last 3 RISC OS suites) instead of consolidating the system most
people have will cause a drop in teaching efficiency for a while at
least. It would lots of planning time to try and avoid this. I have
too many inexperienced and insecure staff teaching the odd ICT lesson.
if they have to cope with something too different to what they use at
home they get too stressed.
Now I have heard all the arguemts about compatability but on the ground
there are still too many problems. We have a need for a pupil to be
able to work at home or at any station in school and be able to transfer
files about with as few problems as possible. I have worked for 15
years trying to get pupils and staff to understand the ways around filer
transfers between different applications and platforms. Its is not
something the majority of people have time for. you only end up
annouing them because you don't give them the answer they need for a
quick fix. "I don't want to understand - I just want it to work!"
We have a thin client system. We have been at the forefront. We have
struggled to cope, and to relieve the stress on Network Manager,
technicains, staff and some pupils, we need consistency. Windows got
its foot in because Linux wasn't ready for the desktop in schools. I'd
love it to have been different.
The most used application after Word in school is Powerpoint, simply
because its easy and fun. I realise that the future is the web and
MickeySoft's web output is awful for anything but MickeySoft infested
clients. But what seems to be at the forefront of the NC in ICT is what
the pupils do not what they understand. PowerPoint get's them doing and
actually I have been amazed at the innovative work some of them have
done. Can I tell the pupils that they can use this Linux box to do the
same sort of stuff, so easily AND that it will work at home sp they can
continue there?
>
> > But it should be about the last until we need to
> > upgrade, We're reaching saturation with 1:5 computer to pupil ratio.
>
> With thin clients the upgrades are much cheaper so if you use a
mixture you
> can demote older machines to thin client and save enough to buy more
thick
> clients without killing the environment.
We may well have done this but the governors came up with £90 000 grand.
Coping with NT thin clients and W98 desktops making sure the policies
for all the Office products match up on both platforms and work in the
same way isn't exactly easy, for schools.
>
> On my model saturation isn't reached until 1:1 - its affordable and
long term
> sustainable and we can plan the space management needed.
>
I'd love to see the planning for space AND electrical power sockets,
that doesn't invade some of our class rooms with noise and heat. Then
you will also have to persuade our ISP to give us a bigger chunk of IP
addreses for their Intranet. We've been given 508 and half of those are
on the admin side of the router.
> > Good luck. All I can do really is to remind the head and the bods
at
> > Hampshire that open source is out there. I'm afraid I can't change
our
> > school to it in any form for at least 3 years now.
>
> Well get a toe in the water because it doesn't have to be all one
thing or
> another and if you do change in 3 years, experience will make it a lot
==20
> easier.
We've got experience but that may disappear. What happens when I or
the Network Manager move on? And at the end of the day I just don't
have enough time. My family need me and I'd rather spend more time on
planning my lessons when it comes to work. I used to relish the
technical stuff ... :(
> We have a lot of interest, more than enough to keep us busy so its
> best if everyone doesn't all decide to try and change at once from my
point
> of view. Its going to take years but I think that change is
inevitable.
Change is but few can predict what will happen ;-)
--
Colin McQueen : Using an Acorn StrongARM Risc PC
Web Domain : http://www.mcqueen.uk.net/
BSc Zoology + Oceanography : PGCE : MSc in CBL/T
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