Classroom 2.0 on a budget

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Permalink Reply by nlowell on April 3, 2007 at 11:14am

I run Linux on my computers... office (school), home, and laptop.. so I'm biased.

Wordpress.com, blogger.com -- for educational use, jame farmer (hi james) has a GREAT service that he provides -- see http://edublogs.com. These are all as good as you can find and most of them are blocked from schools in the US. Canada may be more forgiving.

A VERY cost effective choice is to RENT a server from Bluehost or Dreamhost ... For less than US$100 a *year* you'd get all the space/throughput you're likely to need for a single school. 50gb storage. easy click installation. and control of your own destiny. [Disclaimer: I use these myself. I have no financial stake in this unless you happen to subscribe using one of my affiliate links]

As far as desktop units go... I do NOT understand why schools continue to pay the Microsoft and Apple Taxes.

A 1ghz 386 with 256megs of ram an a 10-12gb hard drive makes a perfectly good network client under linux. (I'm partial to Fedora Core, but there are educational bundles -- Edubuntu for example). That means you can buy desktop hardware for around $250 (sans monitor) but I suspect that you could get them used and re-furb them ...

The windows manager is an interesting religious choice between KDE and Gnome -- Personally I use iceWM because it's light -- uses almost no system resources under normal use -- and customizable and because it DOES NOT look like either microsoft or apple so nobody's ever confused when they look at the screen. I just doesn't LOOK right and that's usually enough to break the "click" habit

Software is always a concern:

OpenOffice replaces Microsoft Office (word processing, spreadsheet, presentation)
Firefox replaces IE (both free, but Firefox is more standards compliant)
The Gimp replaces Photoshop
Audacity for audio is available for any platform
Bluefish replaces Dreamweaver (or gods help you Frontpage)

USBs can be hot mounted. Many digital cameras as well. Some limits on USB device support, but even printing (which used to be a major headache) is easy now. Font support is straightforward and once you've got it for one, you've got it for all.

I'm not sure what else you need *really* -- ask and I can probably suggest a replacement.

Flash is the only thing you can't do easily on Linux and frankly, if THAT's a problem you need to rethink your curriculum.

99% of the viral infection loads are geared toward the microsoft platform so you don't need to keep renewing your subscriptions to Norton/McAffee.

The cost of this box is whatever you pay for hardware. No software cost involved at all. In Fedora Core, upgrades are via "yum" but other distros have similar tools. No cost for the upgrades either.

The question is, Are you trying to teach basics? or are you trying to teach Microsoft? The vendors want you to belive that the basics ARE Microsoft. (Or Apple .. pick your religion). That's like saying you have to have Fords for your driver's ed courses. Ford likes it, but it's not a real issue unless you're the Ford salesman (or the buyer who needs to justify the purchase).

JMO. YMMV.

NL

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Permalink Reply by James Dykstra on April 4, 2007 at 4:00pm

How much of a computer geek do you have to be to get something like this running? Is this doable by the inquisitive amateur (me) or do I need to actually be something of a computer tech to be able to convert old boxes over to Linux, be it Fedora, Edubuntu, or whatever. I'm NOT as knowledgeable as the rest of my staff thinks, I'm just very inquistive and trying to make the most of the resources we have.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on April 3, 2007 at 3:19pm

Well, this is an area I know something about! My company helps schools install Linux thin-client technology, which can be used to set up labs for about 1/5th the price of traditional computing. Very stable, no license fees, no virus/spyware, Firefox, OpenOffice, etc. Drawbacks: network-based, so online video not great. But if used to supplement other technology, a GREAT solution. (See www.TechnologyRescue.com)

We also produce a cd-based Firefox kiosk software for old computers. Much fun: www.LiveKiosk.com.

I do really like PuppyLinux.com, and that is worth looking at to get old hardware running as well. Feel free to correspond with me directly--this is something I have a passion for. I've set up www.k12opensource.com, a wiki on the use of free and open source software in schools, and there is a mailing list there to ask questions if any of this intrigues you.

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Permalink Reply by Shawn Moore on April 3, 2007 at 5:38pm

I have just begun to delve into this world of open source computing and I am very excited. After meeting with the all too typical "budget" issue, I began to look at how open source could eliminate not only the licensing fees to microsoft, but the various viral "protection" issues that have spawned a whole host of companies with their hands out to be paid. Something that I suspect, but can't confirm: does an open source OS eliminate (or severely inhibit) student misuse of computer resources (like games)? I'm curious on this point, because if it is the case, it is another positive benefit that I can bring up when advocating for open source.

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Permalink Reply by Sharon Betts on April 3, 2007 at 5:48pm

Now you are barking up my favorite tree. Dell has just started selling linux desktops and thin clients are growing in education - you can also save lots of funds by using open source applications (on any OS). There are many many references to programs you can use. I have a few on my wiki: http://www.sharonbetts.org/site/pmwiki.php
Last year, I got support for distributing laptops to all our teachers which we outfitted with "free software". We put the same on all student machines.
All the web 2.0 apps mentioned here are great and teachers mix and match - setting up a Moodle server is a nice way to get your staff and students involved. We also use MyePort - our server is at http://eport52.org
I truly believe that you can meet any curriculum outcomes today without licensing proprietary software. It is like being set free!

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Permalink Reply by James Dykstra on April 4, 2007 at 3:54pm

I'm really intrigued by the idea of thin clients. The father of one of my students works for Sun Microsystems where he works with them. He's described their advantages to me in some detail.

Where does the average school teacher go to learn more? I can't go to some place like Best Buy or Future Shop. They don't sell that kind of thing. Where do you start looking (and learning) if you're going to be the person to convert your school or district to a way cheaper type of technology?

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Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on April 4, 2007 at 7:19pm

You can go to my www.technologyrescue.com website which has lots of links for doing K12LTSP, the tried-and-true academic setting version of Linux thin-client. We've done installations in several states, and love the technology--and it's something you can do by yourself with some gumption.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on April 4, 2007 at 7:20pm

Worth noting: I'm currently talking with Mike Huffman in Indiana about running an Open Source in K-12 Education conference in the coming year.

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Permalink Reply by Sue R. on April 6, 2007 at 6:35pm

OK, I am in a K-8 private school (read no public funding) and I am not full-time--so all tech has to be accessible to our teachers. Add that we are so far in the middle of the countryside that we do not get cable, dsl, etc. We have satellite access only. Some of my students have no tv or internet access (and for some of them, that is a choice). One of my teachers has no computer at home. I am an "accidental techie." And part time.

What I have: connected with two colleges, each 30 minutes or more drive from us, one public (state college) one private (much freer to donate). Each of these colleges have a policy of turning over a fourth of their computers every year. That's faculty, library, office, etc. machines. Since their computers are state of the art, last year's ones that were removed from service were Pentium III with dvd/cd-rom writers, and 40 GB hard drives. Rather than pay to properly dispose of them, they gave them to us. The private college used a high-speed disk copier and copied the basic setup we had asked for, on all of the hard drives before sending us the machines. (These machines were configured for Windows 98, so that is what we got no charge). Our tech volunteers spent six hours installing hard drives and configuring systems for 50 machines. Got a projector (weighs 25 pounds, but it's bulb has been fine for more than a year--no cost to us yet) at the same time. And a laser printer, when the university decided to centralize printing processes and de=commissioned departmental printers.

The 13 units in our technology studio were the only ones bought new, direct from HP where we got a nice break and we had raised funds through a matching grant for the purchase. Classroom computers are the university donations, and given our basic configurations (many licenses were bought from "techsoup" which gives educational schools a break). We paid for "cybersitter" which is a one-time only fee of about $10 per station for a web filter, which teachers can turn off and we can configure to some extent--but with no renewal fees it worked for us! We also prefer Grisoft's AVG for antivirus, since it costs substantially less than others and is a two year license. It also is pretty self-reliant, updating on turn-on daily without hanging up the computer waiting for someone to press "ok"...

If you have read this far, you might guess that I am an "accidental techie" (former librarian, teaching information media) and our school does a lot with a small budget, no tech support besides me when I'm not in classes. We don't have a "server"--although we have switches that we got from a local university that allow us to serve 25 computers each.

But we have a lot of wonderful, inspirational stuff going on! We are not in a position to do linux, though, and I think that flash IS a good thing for us (scholastic's magic school bus games online, among others, use it). Not that I bring my kids there, but one primary teacher does-and I encourage her to get the kids into the tech studio whenever she can.

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