| 'Open Minds' want Linux and open source in American schools |
Sep. 21, 2007
Many other countries are turning to Linux and open-source for their school-house computer needs, and now there's a conference for those who want to bring it to schools in the U.S.
The K-12 Open Minds Conference is being held in Indianapolis on October 9 through 11. It's being advertised as the first national K-12 gathering for teachers, technicians and educational leaders to share and explore the benefits of open source in education. The kick-off reception is Tuesday, October 9, with the regular conference sessions on October 10 and 11.
According to Steve Hargadon, an educator who promotes open source and Web-based computing, "This is the must-attend event of the year relating to Free and Open Source Software in K-12 education. There are more tracks and topics that I already want to see than I will have time to attend. There are currently over 55 planned conference sessions, covering the use of Linux and open-source use in classroom, teaching, technical, and leadership aspects."
The site claims that schools around the United States and the world are discovering the benefits of open-source software. In Indiana alone, over 100,000 students use open source software every day. Not only does open source save money, it allows schools to extend the benefits of technology more broadly, affording a better education to students.
Indeed, outside the U.S. Linux and open-source has gained considerable popularity for use in schools. Macedonia is switching all its school computers to a thin-client Ubuntu-based system. Russia has announced plans to switch its academic PCs to Linux. And, Japan is currently experimenting with Linux in the classroom.
On top of that there, of course, is the rolling release of the One Laptop per Child's XO (aka the $100 laptop). Libya, Nigeria, Brazil, Argentina, and Thailand have all expressed interest in this inexpensive Linux-powered student laptop.
There are also several Linux distributions, such as Debian-based Skolelinux and Edubuntu, which our meant to be used on school desktops and Novell openSUSE's SLEducator, which is designed to deploy as a classroom network. Rather than just theory, the conference includes sessions on how well these educational Linux efforts are actually going.
The conference will cover everything from the basics—implementing Linux systems in the classroom and integrating Linux into an existing network—to more advanced topics such as how to lock down Linux desktops from young hackers and tow to use Scribus DTP (desktop publishing).
In addition, the conference will also include several sessions on Moodle. This program is an open-source CMS (course management system). With it, teachers can create Linux-hosted online courses.
How do you put these options into use in your school system is one of the topics that the conference will be tackling. The other primary objectives of the conference's sessions include:
Are you looking for ways to provide more technology with less money?
Could your teachers benefit from a virtual learning environment?
Do you want an inexpensive solution for all of your students to access their school work from home?
Would you like to save money in software licensing fees?
Have you thought about developing a transition program to open source software?
Are your school personnel looking for ways to "boost" learning?
If those are issues that matter to you, then there's still time to make plans to attend the conference. The individual registration fee is $100, or $89 each for groups of three or more. Would-be attendees can register on the conference Web site.
—Steven J. Vaughan Nichols
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