VLEs

Swine Flu, Schools and Open Source Software

If the epidemiologists are right, which they most probably are, in the Northern Hemisphere this September onwards should see the now firmly established and officially pandemic virus known as Swine Flu re-emerge with potentially serious consequences.

Hopefully, its pathological effects will be mild but, one thing is for sure, in order to limit the progress of the virus, schools and colleges will have to close. If not, many parents will be reluctant to send their children to the schools which stay open where they could be exposing them to infection.

Home Education and Open Source Software

Home education is all the rage and for good reasons. The likes of the Daily Mail have convinced us that state-funded education has returned to all but a feral condition and the Independent school sector having priced itself out of reach is making staff redundant at every level and is to use the phrase of the month 'sweating out'* its ICT resources.

Meanwhile new energy-efficient computers are cheap, and software and information are freely available.

Managed Services in UK Schools

How not to really banjax school ICT

On a visit to a well run school ICT department this week I suddenly 'got' what the major issues are that are besetting school ICT. It's not that I didn't know that these were issues before, it's just that there is nothing like a real debate to bring it home to you.

These issues are, as one would expect, the result of the government's billion-pound dictats and involve two projects. First is the great Learning Platform debacle and second is the Managed Service scam. Both are compulsory, neither are popular...

Computing in Education and the Credit Crunch

The Credit Crunch and subsequent recession, is nothing to celebrate particularly if you are someone who faces unemployment as a result. I say this because I want to present aspects of the economic landscape positively without descending into "a bit of hardship will do us all good" rhetoric.

The area that I think will benefit from a new realistic attitude to consumption is computing, in particular computing in an educational context.

The current edu-ICT model is unsustainable. It simply costs too much and wastes too much. Don't take my word for this, BECTA the Government's educational technology quango has been saying so publicly for years.

Last VLE ever?

I hope this is the last time I write about blessed Virtual Learning Environments and Learning Platforms in UK education. I am so sick of them, but not so sick that I hold back from sharing the rant with you dear reader :)

It's been 8 years now, during which time VLEs have been massively promoted by Becta (the UK education quango) there are now loads of them, the best is the free software called Moodle but hardly anyone uses any VLE at all let alone the best one!

No doubt at this week's massive BETT show (British Education Tec.. something) I'll see another tranche of this year's highly resistible offerings.

Open Source Learning Platforms... what is the point?

Introduction

If you work in education you will know only too well what an LP is (and for our older readers, it's not made of vinyl). Otherwise you probably have no idea, ditto the near synonyms VLE and CMS.

They respectively stand for: Learning Platform,Virtual Learning Environment, and Course Management Software.

For our purposes I will use the collective acronym, LP.

But, before plunging into the debate it must be said that schools themselves know the abbreviations better than they do the products and, be aware, there is no single agreed 'take' on what exactly a LP is.

Linux can save UK schools billions: Part 2

It's true, free open source software can and will save schools a small fortune. But why schools in particular?

The first thing to get clear in your mind is that I am not talking about simply replacing expensive proprietary software with free open source equivalents. Sure this measure alone saves money and when you are talking about server software it can be a lot of money. However what distinguishes schools is a model of computing that has created an unsustainable money eating monster.

Free, open Source software will allow schools to move to a model that will not only save money but will allow more students access toICT. Below is how this can be achieved.

Known unknowns

Linux triumphs in UK schools as hell freezes over

This post comes hard on the heels of an important piece of news... at least one Open Source company has become part of the Becta's official list of suppliers to the education sector. The new procurement frame work under the aegis of the OGC relaunches the supply of ICT to education. The emphasis is clear: deliver value for money to UK schools.

It was not long ago that most commentators believed an Open Source company would join the likes of Capita, Serco and RM shortly after hell froze over. But times do change. In this case the driving force for change seems to be (we presume) the well-known cost-benefit values of Linux and other Open Source software.

NetBooks

ICT spending in UK schools is unsustainable but it could be cut by 90% with the help of Open Source software and the latest innovations in personal computing dubbed NetBooks.

Thin-Clients Revisited

The future is green, Open Source and Nintendo!

My principle interest has always been the use of Open Source thin-client solutions in an educational context. Its worth stating, again, what is really the blindingly obvious - thin-client work stations use one twentieth of the power of a typical PC (10-20 watts versus 200-400 watts), require no maintenance or technical per-machine support and Open Source software is free of licence costs.

Thin-client networks should be 'no-brainers' for schools trying to meet carbon targets, giving value for money and eking out scant human resources.