floss in schools

8/12/2019 Floss in Schools

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[FIRST DRAFT: SEPT 15, 2007]

TAKING THE VALUES OF SHARING TO THE CLASSROOMThe case for Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FOSS) in schools

By Frederick Noronha

As schools increasingly seek to harness the benefits ofdeploying software in the classroom, and educating theirstudents in the potential of this tool, the question thatincreasingly arises is: what role can Free/Libre and OpenSource Software (FLOSS) play in this new world.

WHY FOSS, OPEN CONTENT----------------------------------------------------------

Richard M. Stallman, the founding-father of the Free SoftwareMovement, argues that schools should exclusively use freesoftware. He writes: "There are general reasons why allcomputer users should insist on free software. It gives usersthe freedom to control their own computers -- withproprietary software, the computer does what the softwareowner wants it to do, not what the software user wants it todo. Free software also gives users the freedom to cooperate

with each other, to lead an upright life. These reasons applyto schools as they do to everyone."

But he argues that there are "special reasons" for schoolsparticularly to look at FLOSS. Some reasons he gives are (1)free software can save the schools money in a context whereschools -- even in the affluent world -- are short of money(2) school should teach students ways of life that willbenefit society as a whole and promote "free software just asthey promote recycling" (3) free software permits students tolearn how software works, thus helping build good futurecoders (4) proprietary software rejects their thirst forknowledge by keeping knowledge secret and "learningforbidden" (5) the most fundamental mission of schools is toteach people to be good citizens and good neighbors -- tocooperate with others who need their help (6) teaching thestudents to use free software, and to participate in the freesoftware community, is a hands-on civics lesson. (SeeUpdated: $Date: 2007/08/14 11:41:26 $http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/schools.html)

Other arguments have also come up. For instance the view thatFLOSS is "stable, secure, feature rich, and easy to learn. Itis also free." [http://badcomputer.org/writing/plea.bot

accessed on Aug 21, 2007] Or that proprietorial software"products are expensive, and require sacrifices in our schoolbudgets to deploy." [http://badcomputer.org/writing/plea.bot


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accessed on Aug 21, 2007]

Most of these applications are protected by the Gnu PublicLicense (or similar licenses), a license that protects theusers right to use the source, alter the program, and copyand/or redistribute the program at will. That implies that

possession of one copy of the software allows one to copy itand install it on any number of computers, or even share it with students or staff, without any need for concern over

additional licenses.

Free Software gives you access to the tools *you* need. Intheir abundance. For instance, the Debian 'distro' (ordistribution, i.e. a set of FOSS programs) comes with over16000 [CHECK THIS FIGURE] different software packages.

In a cybercafe that is part of a prominent Indian chain, itis commonplace to find it difficult to find tools that allow even simple operations like cropping a photo, or resizing it.This comes about due to "anti-piracy" regulations and "virus"fears.

FOSS is seen, by the FSF, to be "technically or pedagogicallysuperior to proprietary alternatives" apart from being ableto promote the values of "freedom and cooperation".

Edubuntu is doing a very impressive job of collating

educational software and putting them all in one place. Soare other Free Software projects like Debian-Edu. Above all,this can be replicated and shared in a very unrestrictedmanner. Just copy it and pass it on.

Why should open source software be used in schools?http://edge-op.org/grouch/schools.html argues that it "isindeed a strange world when educators need to be convincedthat sharing information, as opposed to concealinginformation, is a good thing."

It points out that the advances in all of the arts andsciences, indeed the sum total of human knowledge, is theresult of the open sharing of ideas, theories, studies andresearch. "Yet throughout many school systems, the software inuse on computers is closed and locked, making educatorspartners in the censorship of the foundational information ofthis new age...."

Besides large licence cost savings (60%, according to somefigures) other benefits "stem directly from the model ofcommunities operating around a software 'commons' that iscentral to Open Source."

In addition, Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FOSS) also


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has other advantages for students:

* Wide choice and easy availability of tools.* No blocks due to price-barriers or permission-barriers.* Students encouraged to study software at a deeper level.* Adequate availability of affordable software encourages

creativity.

Most Free Software and Open Source software packages can befreely downloaded over the internet, or are often availablefor purchase, at a reasonable price, on a CD. Seehttp://linuxdvdsale.tripod.com Some of these are also madeavailable with FOSS magazines published including in conrieslike India.

As argued via an article on school-library.net: "One of thethings that I, personally, enjoy most about the OSS communityis the spirit of sharing and community based support. It ismy belief that this community exemplifies the spirit ofunity-in-diversity that we try so hard to inculcate in ourcharges." http://baldwinets.tripod.com/linux.html

Comments the website ofset.org: "Because the liberty and theequality of access to the IT are important in our society,OFSET is actively promoting and developing free software forschools."

OFSET, or the Organisation for Free Software in Education andTeaching, is an organization whose goal is to promote thedevelopment of Free Software for the educational system andteaching. By law rooted in France, it is actually amulti-cultural entity with founding members all over the

world, run with the Net as its main medium of communicationamongst its administration council. [Seehttp://www.ofset.org/about accessed on Aug 21, 2007]

FOSS is also seen to have a potential to reduce the "digitaldivide through (its) low-cost and freedom to pass on."

Ethical values, it is argued, are also "ingrained throughsharing and mutual support, not secrets and self-protection."See http://elgg.net/stevelee/weblog/139997.html

In UK, the benefits of deploying FOSS in schools was seen tolead to "substantial cost savings with no recurring licensefees, smaller carbon footprint, increased flexibility, accessto high-quality free applications at little or no cost, andan opportunity to play an active role in worldwide softwaredevelopment communities". It has also been pointed out thatsoftware upgrades are tied closely to hardware power. Bectahas reported that 96% of school computers are not powerfulenough to run the top Windows Vista release and 55% cannotrun any version of Vista. http://www.openschoolsalliance.org/


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There are other benefits too. If a student messes up theirdesktop beyond repair, run the script to reset it to thedefault, of one user or the entire batch. Then, tools likesquidGuard perform very well and make it easy to protectchildren from harmful content on the net.

http://networking.earthweb.com/netos/article/0,,12083_1143791,00.html

Rather than seeing benefits in terms of cost-savings alone,these are also viewed in terms of "capabilities gained"."[GNU]Linux can do a lot with only a little hardware," it hasbeen argued. Old hardware goes into creating GNU/Linuxservers. The cost of security declines. There is a lowervirus vulnerability. Upgrade or recurring licensing costs aredone away with (the usuable lifetime of a commercial softwareproduct is rarely longer than four years).http://staff.harrisonburg.k12.va.us/~rlineweaver/

While implementing FOSS in schools, the Koreans said theirinitiatives were meant to "help the country develop more ofits own software" and because of "security issues andbudgetary concerns." Another reason was to build up localsupport. "Korea brings homegrown open source to schools".news.com.com.http://news.com.com/Korea+brings+homegrown+open+source+to+schools/2100-7344_3-5755892.html

Ultimately, we know that free software is a culture, andtherefore should obviously be closer to cultural institutionslike schools and colleges. Without tapping that, we'll bemissing the boat. We would like to get linked up with anybody

who wants to use free software for e-governance ande-education, and of course, our priority is schools and themedia. -- G Nagarjuna, Free Software Foundation of India. In"The What, Why and When of Free Software in India", LinuxJournal, 2005-11-18.

SPECIFIC TOOLS----------------------------------------------------------

There are a growing number of tools that are suitable fordeployment in school-based education. Most of these come from the global pool of Free/Libre and Open Source Software(FOSS). There is still a need for developers in India tobuild tools specifically meant for local students, and to'localise' (including translate into local languages) thetools from across the globe. Very little work seems visible


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on this front, and it could be taken as a priority area forfocus in the near-future. Below are some links to projectssuitable for use in school education.

There are some groups that maintain statistics of schoolsthat use free software in several regions of the world:

India and South Asia, perhaps, needs better initiatives tokeep track of those adopting FOSS for schools in this part ofth eworld. France has had a group called the Libre SoftwareSchool day, Working on this. In Germany, the listing of who'susing FOSS in schools has been mainained by AndreasRittershofer. Italy has it maintained by the group The LibreSoftware School Day.

OFSET, the France-headquartered group, has tools which couldbe used in a wide range of contexts. Some were specificallyfor the world of education -- like Dr. Geo and GCompris.Others, although nonspecific to education, are integratedinto this field -- such as Yacas, Gstar, TkGate, Open Office,among others.

SUITABLE SOFTWARE: A Spanish volunteer from Catelonia, working for the Goa Schools Computers Project (later under

the aegis of the Knowledge Initiatives Trust), put togetheran interesting collection of software suitable for use inschools iin Goa, India. It is available at

http://wikiwikiweb.de/FlossInSchools Sergio Toldeo puttogether this list and he can be contacted via jejoindia atyahoo.es

Among the programs listed are:

* BKchem, the chemical drawing program written in Python.Platform-independent http://www.zirael.org/bkchem/

* Chemtool, a GTK+-based 2D chemical structure editor forX11. It draws organic molecules easily and store them as a X

bitmap file. Allows one to export drawings in XFig format forfurther annotation, or as Postscript files (using xfig'scompanion program transfig). The distribution includes a setof sample molecular structure drawings.http://ruby.chemie.uni-freiburg.de/~martin/chemtool/

* E-Cell System is an object-oriented software suite formodelling, simulation, and analysis of large scale complexsystems such as biological cells. It allows many components,driven by multiple algorithms with different timescales, tocoexist. The core library is written in C++ with a Pythonbinding, and frontend software uses Python.http://ecell.sf.net/


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* 'GenChemLab' is an OpenGL-based application intended tosimulate several common general chemistry laboratoryexercises. It is meant to be used to help students preparefor actual lab experience. Supported experiments includetitration, calorimetry, freezing point depression, vapourpressure, electrochemistry, and spectrophotometry

http://genchemlab.sourceforge.net/

* Earth3D visualizes the earth in realtime in a 3D view. Youcan rotate and zoom the view until countries, cities and evensingle houses become visible (in areas where the necessarymap resolution is available), and fly around. You can alsoembed external data like current earthquake positions orcloud data. Additional data layers can be added to the view,e.g. country flags and names. http://www.earth3d.org

* Xrmap interactively displays portions of the Earth, usingthe huge CIA world vector map. It is based on an earlierconsole utility 'rmap' by Reza Naima(http://www.reza.net/rmap/). It shows political boundaries,major and minor rivers, glaciers, lakes, canals, etc. The mapis accurate to a very large zoom factor (possibly exceeding100). Spherical, rectangular, Mercator and Miller projectionsare implemented, and all features can be set interactivelyfrom the GUI. http://frmas.free.fr/li_1.htm

* Calcoo is a scientific calculator designed to provide

maximum usability. Its features bitmapped button labels anddisplay digits to improve readability, no double-functionbuttons, undo/redo buttons, copy/paste interaction with the Xclipboard, both RPN and algebraic modes, two memory registers

with displays, displays for Y, Z, and T registers, and tickmarks to separate thousands. http://calcoo.sourceforge.net/

* Dr. Genius Refers to Geometric Exploration and NumericIntuitive User System. It is a merge of two projects: Dr. Geoand the Genius calculator. The Genius Calculator is amultiple precision calculator with an interpreted language,

GEL, plus a large mathematical library written in GEL. Dr.Geo is a vector drawing software with mathematicalconstraints- we call this "interactive geometry."http://drgenius.seul.org/

* Lets user draw geometric figures based on mathematicalproperties and move part of that figure with respect to itsproperties. Dr. Geo is an educational package designed toexplore geometry interactively (as opposed to seeing figuresdrawn on a sheet of paper). The interface is simple butefficient for younger users, can handle different languages,and can be used by either geometry or computer scienceteachers. http://ofset.sourceforge.net/drgeo/


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* The player has 16 cards with numbers. An operation isdisplayed on a small screen at the right of the board. Youhave to click on the right answer on the board. The card withthe answer disappears. Kalcul supports addition, subtraction,multiplication, and division. There are 3 levels: easy,medium and hard.

http://website.lineone.net/~a-m.mahfouf/kalcul.html

* Spotter lets students check their answers to math andscience questions. It tells whether the answer is correct,and can also help diagnose an incorrect answer; theinstructor can also add hints. Spotter isn't limited tonumerical problems. For instance, if the problem is to solvethe equation x-b-7a=0 for x, the student can type in eitherb+7a or 7a+b as the answer, and the program will know it'scorrect. Spotter is set up as an interactive web page thatyou can access through any computer that has an internetconnection and a web browser.http://www.lightandmatter.com/spotter/spotter.html

* Tux Math Scrabble is a math version of the popular boardgame. It is highly entertaining as well as great educationalvalue. The game challenges young people to construct compoundequations and consider multiple abstract possibilities. Thereare three skill-levels for practice from basic addition andsubtraction through to multiplication and division.http://www.asymptopia.org/

* WIMS (WWW Interactive Mathematics Server) is a CGI Webapplication that hosts interactive mathematical activitiessuch as exercises, computational math, and graphing tools. Itfeatures automatic score processing with strong anti-cheatingmechanisms, virtual classes allowing teachers toguide/control student works, online exercise creation,animated graphics, a message board allowing inlinemathematical formulas, and more. It can also be used foreducation within other disciplines. http://wims.unice.fr/

* GCompris is a complete educational suite for children from 2 to 10. It includes more than 40 activities. It isboard-based and currently includes several boards. It offersactivities dedicated to little kids like learning the mouseand keybord. It teaches letters, numbers, words, basicalgebra training, reading time on an analog clock, vectordrawing, and much more.http://gcompris.sourceforge.net/about.html

* 'JILetters' assists young children with learning theWestern alphabet through visual and auditory means. It uses aphonic representation of each letter and cursive script topresent the letters of the alphabet. It lets childrenmemorise letters from visual cues. http://jiletters.sf.net


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* The Vocabumonkey project aims to produce a highlyaccessible collection of software focused on math andlanguage skills grounded in proven learning principles thatcater to real learning needs. http://www.vocabumonkey.org/

And also:

* bookcase is a KDE application for keeping track of yourcollection of books, bibliographies, music, movies, coins,stamps, trading cards, comic books, wines, or anycollectible. http://www.periapsis.org/bookcase/

* Cbt Combo is a free educational program for teachers who use Linux. CBT means Computer Based Training. Combo is

short for combination. CBT Combo is a combination authoringand playback program for courses of instruction. Author:[email protected] (David R. Land) Maintained-by:[email protected] (CBTCBT Support) Site:http://www.cbtcbt.com 538K cbtcombo-0.1.1.bin.tar.gz

* childsplay is a suite of educational games for youngchildren, like gcompris, but without the overkill of c/c++and the gnome environ. Also the use of the SDL librariesmakes smooth animation and the playing of sound very easy.Childsplay uses a plugin system for the games, so you might

want to check the Childsplay plugins page. (There are two

built-in games: memory and a typing game.) Childsplay and thegames are GNU-GPL licensed and are tested on GNU/Linux,FreeBSD and the Windows platforms. (98/ME/2K/XP)

* spotter is a program that lets students check their answersto math and science questions. It handles symbolic as well asnumerical answers. Its author says the idea for Spotter camefrom another free and open-source program, LON-CAPA.http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Education/Spotter-10024.shtml

Other suggestions: Raman P has also

suggested, via the [email protected] mailinglist, some other options: kedu project like kstars, kalzium,percentage --- very good kedu.org. stellarium is aplanetarium software.

Raman P has also suggested, via [email protected] mailing list, some otheroptions:

* kedu project like kstars, kalzium, percentage. KStars is aDesktop Planetarium for KDE. It provides an accurategraphical representation of the night sky, from any locationon Earth, at any date and time. The display includes 40,000stars, 13,000 deep-sky objects, eight planets, and the Sun


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and Moon. Kalzium is an application which shows informationabout the periodic system of the elements. KPercentage is asmall math application that will help pupils to improve theirskills in calculating percentages.

* stellarium - planetarium software.

* freeduc CD at offset.org several others like tuxpaint

* Anagrama - jumbled wordshttp://www.coralquest.com/anagramarama/

freeduc CD, noted above and available via offset.org, is alsobeing used and appreciated in India, along with othersoftware programs like tuxpaint. Anagrama is about jumbled

words http://www.coralquest.com/anagramarama/

SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION TOOLS, AND OTHER SOFTWARE----------------------------------------------------------

Open Admin for Schools: This schools administration program is FLOSS and is licened under the GNU General Public License.It is entirely web-based, and can run from a server or singlecomputer. According to its promoters, the software can trackor create (i) demographics to store student and familyinformation (2) attendance of students (3) a simplediscipline module to track student discipline events and

outcomes (4) a report card system, with per-subjectobjectives, integrated attendance reporting, etc (5) anonline gradebook to allow teachers to enter marks andassessments online from school or home (6) a transcriptsystem to print student transcripts (7) a fees system (along

with lunch program) to allow charging of student fees,printing of invoices, payments, invoices and export summarytransactions to external accounting programs (8) allow parents to view attendance, gradebook (where allowed), andreport card marks (9) an IEP (Special Needs) Site that isintegrated at the division level that allows special needs

teachers to tailor individual student programs that can beviewed from each school's teacher site (10) export/importmodules to allow students to easily transfer schools withindivisions without re-entry of demographic information (11) anonline daybook to allow teachers to plan and view theirlessons or days -- the last being still in rudimentary form.See http://richtech.ca/openadmin/

* OpenKiosk is an open-source multi-platform kiosk system.OpenKiosk is ideally suited for use in locations where acontrolled computing environment is paramount such as publicaccess systems, libraries, school computer laboratories.http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa/message/13846


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quality. The system has worked without a single crash orbreakdown over eighteen months of use by curious youngchildren," he reported back to the FOSS.in conference. Seehttps://foss.in/2006/cfp/speakers/talkdetailspub.php?talkid=183

INDIAN INITIATIVES

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KERALA: For an account of the IT@School Project in Kerala seehttp://swatantryam.blogspot.com/2007/08/story-of-free-software-in-kerala-india.html

It describes how Free Software became part of IT education inschools in the South Indian state. Blogger Sasi Kumar saysthe Department of Education, Government of Kerala, started aproject called IT@School for taking IT-enabled education tothe high schools in the state. It constituted a committeeheaded by Prof. U.R. Rao, former Chairman of the Indian SpaceResearch Organisation, to make recommendations on thedirection the project should take. The committee recommendedthe project aim to empower teachers and to use technology forimproving curriculum transaction in the classes. Mostteachers and students were found to possess few IT skills, soIT education at the high-school level was decided on,starting with the eighth standard in 2002, after conductingIT training for a large number of teachers.

Teacher-trainings were done with help from Intel Teach To theFuture Programme, using course material wholly based onMicrosoft programme. Similar was the textbook for IT preparedby Kerala's State Council for Educational Research andTraining (SCERT).

Writes Sasi: "The Free Software community in the state foundthis very offensive, since it ignored the existence of FreeSoftware and promoted the products of one company ignoringeven other proprietary software. The community responded by

talking to people, sending letters, writing in the media andso on. The Free Software User Group in Kochi prepared amemorandum and sent it to several people involved in thematter, including the Directors of the IT@School project andSCERT, the Director of Public Instruction, the PrincipalSecretary, Education Department, and the Secretary, ITDepartment."

Campaigners argued that IT@School was promoting the softwareof one company at the cost of software produced by everyoneelse. The government would have to pay a huge sum forlicensing software for schools, and even if given free, thiscould be a marketing ploy to create a pool of personsfamiliar with their software packages and thus forming an


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assured customer base -- either as users or as potentialskilled employeed -- the FOSS campaigners argued.

They also raised concerns about a 'vendor lock-in'. Theypointed out that "several software packages, both applicationsas well as operating systems, which conform to industry-wide

standards, adopted and maintained by independent vendors, and with less restrictive licences, are available."

The Kerala School Teachers Association backed the FreeSoftware enthsuiasts' demand. Some officials supported thistoo. Meanwhile, some schools, especially in northern Kerala,

where there were teachers who knew how to install and useGNU/Linux, installed it and started IT classes using it.

Kerala's campaigners faced of students studying the manydistros of GNU/Linux. Says Sasi: "Even preparing the textbookbecame dif?cult, since the screenshots, and sometimes eventhe procedures for using the software, could be different fordifferent distributions. To solve this problem, the FreeSoftware Foundation of India suggested developing a custom distribution for IT@School, and eventually created thedistribution with funding from the Kerala State IT Mission."

Another problem that the IT@School project faced was that ofproviding support to the schools where GNU/Linux was beingused. A number of agencies, including Free Software User

Groups, responded and about twenty of them were short listed.A final solution to the problem came when SPACE (an NGO inKerala, supporting FOSS) decided to offer support toIT@School, both in terms of updating the distribution used inschools and in providing support to the teacher community.The website of SPACE allows teachers to post questions there,to which experts respond, and also a page listing theFrequently Asked Questions and the answers to them. A Resource Centre has been established in Kochi for conductingteacher training with technical assistance from SPACE.

In 2005, the Government of Kerala announced that the schoolsin Kerala will completely switch to Free Software in stages.Supplements to the textbooks were created to enable studentsto study using GNU/Linux, which also introduced some softwarethat a child new to computers could use to learn the skillsneeded to use a mouse and a keyboard.

Sasi comments: "Tuxpaint, a simple painting software, which achild could use even if (s)he was unfamiliar with theintricacies of saving or retrieving a file, and Gcompris, aset of games that helped the child to learn how to use themouse and keyboard, became very popular with children. Thetextbooks for all the three classes in high school are now


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being revised to contain Free Software exclusively. Kerala ispoised to become the first state in the country to useexclusively Free Software in its schools. It is also poisedto become possible the first state to introduce IT enablededucation in high schools in a big way."

In September 2007, mainstream media reported the growth ofFOSS usage in schools in Kerala. (See "IT practical tests onopen platform" by Anand Parthasarathy in The Hindu.http://www.hindu.com/2007/09/07/stories/2007090755131600.htm accessed, Sept 14, 2007)

It noted that in "the largest such simultaneous deployment offree-and-open software in India, over 15 lakh (1.5 million)Kerala schoolchildren ... start taking their quarterlypractical tests in Information Technology on personalcomputers using a special [GNU] Linux version." The IT@Schoolproject of the State Education Department has developed anoperating system based on the Linux version Ubuntu. CalledIT@School GNU Linux Version 3.0, it was distributed to 2,832high schools -- over a thousand of them government schools,the rest aided and unaided ones, the Hindu reported. BetweenSeptember 7 and 22, 2007, children of Classes 8, 9 and 10

were scheduled to use some 30,000 PCs to do their quarterlypractical examinations in IT. In Class VIII, for example,the examination will test skills in the use of the mouse; theTux paint software for drawing; word processing and

spreadsheets. A trained cadre of over 70,000 teachers willhelp them, it was reported.

In North Kerala: See "Issues in IT education and FreeSoftware advantage"http://archives.seul.org/schoolforge/discuss/Apr-2003/msg00131.html

which highlights the advantages of FOSS in education -- interms of social advantages, building local development and

self-reliance, financial benefits, administrative advantages,and academic usefulness. It also highlights some 'actionpoints' needed to be undertaken to promote FOSS in schools.These include creating a OS-independent curricula, providingFree Software tools for IT education programmes, teachertraining in FOSS, promoting education based on freelyavailable standards (not on dependency on proprietorialplatforms), and local language support for FOSS.

This article also looks at some case studies of FOSS in a few schools in Kerala (population 32 million, area 38.863 sq km).

It points to the case study of the Government Girls HighSchools Challai, in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of


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Kerala, whose students mostly come from low-income families.Faced with low resources and old PCs, the teacher got helpfrom Free Software volunteers, and installed GNU/Linux there.

It was also pointed out that: "By switching over to GNU/Linuxthe school is getting the added advantage of running

application with local language support. This is due to aproject by Free Software Foundation of India to localise FreeSoftware to Malayalam. Local language support is particularlyimportant as the teaching medium for most of the schools inKerala use the Malayalam medium."

In the Kannur region of northern Kerala, a member ofParliament used his Member of Parliament's fund to set upcomputer labs, and this was expected to take FOSS to some tenschools in that area.

KANNUR: Sujeevan Pullanhiotan said that LTSP based GNU/Linuxsystem had successfully implemented in a number of governmentschools in Kanuur. These included schools at Chelora;Munderi; Valapatnam; Chala; Thottada; Technical HigherSecondary School, Thottada; Chittariparamba; Kuthuparamba;Vengad; Chavasseri; Pinarayi; Kottayam; Manathana; Maaloorand Edakkad (with the last three being 'in progress' at thetime this post was made). Seehttp://archives.seul.org/schoolforge/discuss/Feb-2003/msg00152.html

IN KARNATAKA: KK Subbu posted his experiences about deployingFOSS on a laptop in a rural school. Seehttp://enduringbits.blogspot.com/2006/12/notebook-computing-and-village-public.html

He wrote on his "enduringbits" blog in a post titled"Notebook computing and village public schools" (Dec 12,2006): "What if rural primary school teachers are givencomputers for teaching their students? Will the computersjust become another "status" toy to be used as passive

multimedia players playing canned content? Will the schoolsbecome just another video game arcade? Will it truly empowerthem to create or adapt content to their local needs?"

He pointed out a year earlier, he had been involved in anexperiment to equip public school teachers with FOSS tools sothat they could produce their own quaterly assessment papersfor primary grades one through seven. "This year, theexperiment was expanded to include four more teachers from village public schools in Kanakapura. The experiment was ahuge success and triggered a flood of requests from remotevillage public schools for inclusion in the program," hecommented.


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These schools took "hours of driving over rough roads" toaccess. During school hours, the teachers would be engagedfull time with students leaving very little time to work oncomputers. After many field visits, debates and discussions,his team designed a system around notebook computers and FOSS(free and open source software). "Each notebook computer

consumed less than 60W and could operate for more than anhour on battery. They were also small in size and weighedless than 3kgs. The teachers could easily carry theircomputer home during evenings and weekends to learn and workin their free time. They could also bring the computer toBangalore for service, support or training. FOSS gave us lotof flexibility in designing desktop sessions around tasksthat were important for the teachers," Subbu reported.

But there were problem areas too.

"We were also nervous about the downsides. Notebook computersare delicate machines, not designed to withstand the heat,humidity and dust in villages. Would they survive handling bychildren? How will the trackpad react to sweaty fingers inhot climate? The display, at 14", was too small to present tothe whole class. The teachers had no prior or very littleexposure to computers and absolutely no exposure to technicalenglish that passes for "online help". Without IT support andnetworking, how would they transfer files across notebookcomputers?" he reported.

Yet school teachers understood these risks as they hadalready used mobile phones. The small size of these computerscompared to desktop made it a lot easier to protect them from the elements. "The Acer reseller, who gave us an excellentdeal on Acer Aspire 3682 notebook model, threw in an opticalmouse and a 1GB flash drive, for free. That gave us afallback for trackpad and data transfer problems. We plan tosupplement the notebook computers with one 19" LCD Monitorper school. LCD Monitors are portable and consume very low power. The monitors will be used for demos, lectures and

presentations to a large classroom. Lack of prior computingexposure was turned into an advantage. We created loginsaround specific tasks and subjects. When the teachers logsinto a specific task/subject, only the programs relevant tothe task would appear on the menu (thanks to KDE's profilefacility)."

In December 2006, they delivered the first batch of fivenotebook computers to the teachers. "For the village schools,this was a defining moment. Long used to receiving out-datedhand-outs, they were now leading the technology edge. Men,

women, youth and children from the whole village turned outin large numbers to celebrate it like a festival!


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"While returning from Kanakapura, it struck me how trulyglobal we have become. Here is a Indian village using acomputer manufactured in Taiwan just a month ago, using an OSstarted by a Finn, using desktop software originated byGermans and a typesetting software designed by a teacher (ofDutch origin) augmented with Kannada types authored by a math

professor in Mysore! This message has registered deeply inchildren's mind. Every child in the village wants to become a"graduate" now. The teachers were very excited with theirfirst truly "personal computer". After using it for a few minutes came the famous first question: "How do I shut thiscomputer down?""

IN GOA: The project got started in 1998 to improveavailability of PC's for schools in the Goa state of India.It was estimated to cover less than 5% of schools in thearea. GNU/Linux was deployed in schools, to face thesituation of unaffordable proprietorial software, or the

widespread practice of software 'piracy' deployed to meetrequirements in most educational institutions.

Goa is a small state of 1.4 million inhabitants, andGNU/Linux was utilised on desktops for students for somemonths. The problems this project ran into includedteacher-resistance, and insufficient support services to backup the GNU/Linux deployment. On the positive side however,

this project caught the attention of local authorities and,apparently, even proprietorial software distributors. Thethen chief minister of Goa met up for a dinner with FreeSoftware Foundation leader Richard M Stallman (RMS) duringhis visit to Goa, and was reportedly considering the use ofFOSS on a scheme (Cyberage) meant to distribute almost-freecomputers to college students in Goa. Plans were somehow changed, and parent-resistance was cited as a reason foropting for proprietorial software, which was however sold tothe government at reduced rates. The lessons learnt from hereinclude the challenges of support for FOSS-in-schools

projects, and also the lobbying undertaken to influenceState-schemes on computerisation. Seehttp://www.goasudharop.org/gscp

Kannur district in Kerala is another region noticed bySchoolForge for its interest in FOSS solutions in schools.See http://s2s2net.netfirms.com/project.html

http://www.schoolforge.net/search/node/India

Bijra: A project undertaken by the Dgplug (Durgapur LUG).Bijra High School, Bijra, is situated at the vicinity ofDurgapur Steel Town Ship, and is "in a poor village Bijrainhabited by poor Muslims, SC/ST communities." Nearby


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slumdwellers in Mahuabagan, Hazra Para and William Carey sendtheir children to this school, started in 1974, upgraded tohigh school in 1999, and having a strength of 485. Parents ofmost children ar day labourers or housemaids. Their monthlyincome ranges from 1500-3000 and cannot afford computer fees.The school receives only Rs. 125 annually from all of its

students.

To encourage computer literacy among its students, the schoolarranged a single computer and got a donation of two more.The two new PCs were P4s with 256 MB RAM and a 40GB HDD,running Fedora Core 5 and Fedora Core 6. According toinformation posted online: "Students are learning fast withthe little resource available. As told by Kazi Nijamuddin,the Headmaster of the school, every class of around 40-50students are divided into two parts.One by one all studentsdo the practice in the computers."

This is the first school in the area to adopt FOSS. dgplug,the Durgapur LUG, provides support. Soumya Kanti Chakraborty,a final year CSE student from Dr. B. C. Roy EngineeringCollege (at the time information was collected) is in chargefor the support of this school (from the very beginning),currently Subhodip and Ajitesh are also helping him in thisproject. They have sought help by way of financialsponsorship, and content creation for the project. Emailkushaldas AT gmail DOT com. See

http://wiki.dgplug.org/index.php/BijraFor autistic children: In a workshop held in Bangalorerecently, the focus was furthering the understanding of how computers and digital technologies can help children withautism -- and other disabilities -- to learn and communicatebetter. Shared in the course of this programme were severalother software tools such as a 3-D and role-playsoftwaredeveloped by C-DAC, simple visual programming environmentssuch as Scratch (recently released by MIT Media Lab), simpleimage and audio manipulation using everyday Windows software,

and Edubuntu -- the free and open source GNU/Linux-basedoperating system designed specially for children that comespackaged with several child-friendly games and educationalsoftware.http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa/message/16049

http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/FOSS_in_Schools is a wiki-baseddocumentation page of FLOSS-in-schools initiatives in India.

INITIATIVES ACROSS THE GLOBE----------------------------------------------------------

Free Software Foundation lists (See Updated: $Date:2006/07/17 16:24:51 $ $Author: johnsu01 $


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http://www.gnu.org/education/education.html ) some "groupsand projects that are working with Free Software andEducation." It promotes awareness of this link [email protected] and lists:

* Free Learning Resources is about bringing the

principles of free software to educational materials and otherwise general knowledge. * Debian Jr., promotes the creation of a distribution of free software appropriate for kids. * DebianEdu, a related project, to create a distribution suitable for installation in school networks. It is now integrating Skolelinux, so may become the Free Software in Education group's preferred distribution. * Gleducar, a GNU at education Argentinian project. * OFSET, The Organization for Free Software in Education and Teaching, promotes the use of free software in education. Take a look at Freeduc-cd, a live-cd for education setup by Ofset.

POLITICS OF FOSS IN SCHOOLS----------------------------------------------------------

Projects undertaking the deployment of FOSS in schools havetheir own criteria over what they find acceptable and whatthey don't.

OFSET lays down two rules in its development process. Onlyfree sofware development tools can be used to develop furthersoftware. It says: "By doing so we ensure basically two kindsof freedom: everyone can freely access the development toolsto particpate in the development; and the developed softwareare not tied to any proprietary tools."

OTHER SPINOFFS FOR EDUCATION----------------------------------------------------------

FIDRICH Robert writing in to the APCForum

from Hungary (17 Aug 2007) see https://launchpad.net/flosscom highlighted the role of an 'Learning the Open Source Way'project. He said the project's objective is to develop atoolkit aimed at "students and educators who are interestedin the open source approach and what it can tell us aboutlearning." The toolkit is also aimed at assisting "others who

want to create or adapt their educational courses using theprinciples found in FLOSS communities. It is aimed atproviding information about learning in an open sourcemanner." This project was initiated as part of the EU-fundedFLOSSCom project and the "Virtual and On-campus SummerUniversity" has been carried out in collaboration with UbuntuEducation. The FLOSSCom project focuses on identifying thefactors that contribute to successful knowledge construction


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in informal learning communities, such as the FLOSScommunities, and intends to analyze the effectiveness ofFLOSS-like learning communities in a formal educationalsetting.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING----------------------------------------------------------

* Reclaiming ICT education: why free software is a necessityin schools? Tim Cowlishaw talks about education and freesoftware?and why IT education shouldn't be a how-to for usingthe Microsoft suite. Read more...http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/blogs/reclaiming_ICT_education

_why_free_software_is_a_necessity_in_schools

* ClassroomCoders: Building Analytical Capacity throughPeer-Taught: The goal of this project is to create acomprehensive curriculum for learners aged 8 to 18, whichdevelops their analytical skills through the use of softwareand software engineering tools.http://wiki.tsf.org.za/shuttleworthfoundationwiki/ClassroomCoders

* "Why give precedence to free software at school?", byJean Peyratout. URL?

* Mario Fux writes "TUX&GNU@school" for FSF

Europe's education project. It reviews a piece of freeeducation software in every issue.

* Why should open source software be used in schools?http://edge-op.org/grouch/schools.html

* An elaboration of the issues involved comes via the SchoolsAlliance website www.openschoolsalliance.org . A summary ofrecent news coverage is available on the Schoolforge-UKcommunity site,http://schoolforge.org.uk/index.php/Schoolforge-UK:EDM

* K12LTSP: Kid-proof Computers For Schoolshttp://networking.earthweb.com/netos/article/0,,12083_1143791,00.html

* CHECK CORRECT DESCRIPTIONGraduation Day for Linux:http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reports/4216/1/

Talks about using open source in schools and money savingsand more.http://archives.seul.org/schoolforge/discuss/May-2002/msg00189.html[A


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* Comics are being used to encourage school students andteachers to learn computing and FOSS. See an example here:

http://www.linux-magazine.com/issue/82/Hai_Ti_Comics_SchoolNet_Namibia.pdf

* Skolelinux is a distro meant for schools, coming out of

Norway in Scandinavia http://www.skolelinux.no

* FOSS Education (Wikibooks) http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/FOSS_Education

* Roadmap for next merging of LinEx and Debian-Edu: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/LinEx2DebianEdu-Roadmap

* TELECENTRES IN THE MADRASA: The school based telecenter project of RI SOL has launched internet-enabled telecenters in two Bangladeshi madrasas (Islamic religious schools), in Khulna and Dhaka. See Khulna Alia Madrasa Advocates for an Inclusive Information Society on World Information Society Day Link to the news story and photos of the celebration: http://www.connect-bangladesh.org/content/view/418/101/ Source: Nazrul Islam

* Richard D'Souza is based at St Paul's in Belgaum, with the mandate to extend the school's computer centre there. This educator is very pro-GNU/Linux....

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa/message/15830* Create a comprehesive set of education tools customised for Indian environment. This include localization, improving features, adding new features, developing new tools... The project is co ordinated by FOSS Community India (http://fci.wikia.com) http://sarovar.org/projects/foss-edu-in/

* "K12OS.org is all about open source news in education. You'll find news, links, resources and discussion here to

help promote the use of open source software in schools." http://k12os.org/

* The Family Guide to Digital Freedom will explain, in one place and in normal language, what everybody should know about software and other digital technologies, and above all the real reasons why they should care: in this modern world, our rights and quality of life heavily depend from how software is being used around us. The website associated to the book, http://digifreedom.net, is now open to visitors: besides sample chapters of the book it will also host related news, links to existing resources for new users of Free Software and a database of Digitally Free Schools. For further information, please read


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http://digifreedom.net/node/73

* Linux Spreads its Wings in India: Windows is still No. 1, but open-source software is moving into schools and government offices. http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa/message/14196

http://www.businessweek.com/print/globalbiz/content/sep2006/gb20060921_463452.htm

* In Goa, Basil Fernandes had a long and interesting discussion on teaching young kids programming, the possibility of encouraging schools to do the same, and whether schools could have Computer Clubs that work on a build-them-young approach. He is keen to get involved with such a programme.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa/message/14172

* Kerala logs Microsoft out of schools http://in.rediff.com/money/2006/sep/02microsoft.htm

* India State to Dump Windows for Linux http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa/message/14060

* Riza's desktop... it's not just about eye-candy http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa/message/14067

* Content Creation competition for school and college

teachers: OSSRC is organising a competition for school/college teachers in creating content. Details of the event can be found at http://www.ossrc.org.in/c3t.html

* When Free Software ideas spreads to education... see the first link http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa/message/13234

* Linux in Education: Two Years Later by Peter D. St. Onge http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa/message/12949

* Education... lessons from South Africa http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa/message/12821

* Gnu and tux go to primary school.... http://www.ofset.org/freeduc-ecole

* http://k12ltsp.org/classroom.html: A quick tour of a Linuxclassroom

* http://www.k12ltsp.org/ : A resource website that explainsthe benefits of using Linux in the classroom.

Kerala logs Microsoft outhttp://www.financialexpress.com/news/story/175487/


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help schools do the following on their internal networks: *Manage Linux user accounts in bulk * Set up PHP and MySQLenabled personal webspace * Encourage pupils to write theirown home pages * Help pupils learn the multi-user Linuxenvironment. http://www.lfsp.org

Live CD-ROM of free software for schools: OFSET has setupFreeduc, a tool to help to list, to evaluate and to packageonly free - non GPL exclusive - edu soft. We have build alive Freeduc system on CD-ROM which doesn't need anyinstallation to be used. From the user point of view thesystem use XFCE and the applications are available from various drawers.http://www.ofset.org/freeduc-cd/

The Linux for School project: Developing a custom distribution based on Debian for Norwegian, Danish andSwedish schools. http://www.skolelinux.org/

Eduforge: Eduforge is an open access environment designed forthe sharing of ideas, research outcomes, open content andopen source software for education.http://eduforge.org/

ITeachNet: ITeachnet.org is a community of those working orinterested international education.http://www.iteachnet.org/

floss in schools

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