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Linux & Education - How To Get It For Your School
Posted by
Cliff
on Mon Mar 13, 2000 12:43 PM
from the slashdot-does-education dept.
from the slashdot-does-education dept.
r-jae asks: "I've noticed there's been a bit of discussion on the topic of Linux in Education on /. recently. As a high school student, how I could improve the situation at my school? Today in Software Development, my class were discussing software licensing. I was asked to name any license that I could think of. I mentioned the GPL, and my teacher looked at me as if I were green and had antennae. When I described it to her, she passed me off as if I were off my rocker. So my question is, how can I possibly change this situation? How can I convince the faculty to include a unit of Linux, or free software, in the course? "
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Linux & Education - How To Get It For Your School
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Re:football coaches teaching history (Score:3)
Advertising (Score:3)
Yes...you will be hard pressed to have a Macintosh or Linux server or workstation because "NT is what the kids are going to use in the Real World."
You will be defending yourself against idiots for monthes...no years...why?
Because MS has flooded teachers and administrators with advertising. "Where do you want to go today?" If you want something other than Windows...be ready to fight.
A few tips, but good luck (Score:3)
As someone who worked closely with a high school, its administration, and its tech staff I don't have a lot of promising advice. First and foremost, there's nothing you're going to be able to do on your own, directly.
That aside, get a teacher with you. Obviously, it's best to get one from the tech department of your school, and preferably someone who is actually teaching. The best would be a department head or someone with political clout in your school. Look for union people. Talk to them and get them interested.
If you want a course devoted to it, good luck but suggest they propose it. Most schools work in such a way that once a year (usually around this time) they take proposals from teachers for new courses and one gets selected for the year. If you want curriculum to include the GPL and free software, talk to the teachers who teach those classes, or the head of that department. COnvince them of your point of view first, then suggest the curriculum change.
All that being said, I'll reiterate that you don't have a good chance at getting anything done. Most schools technology programs are so pathetic in the first place. Many are merely token gestures to satisfy grant requirements and are taught by teachers who took a summer or night course and were told they were qualified to teach the course. Most of them aren't.
If you want, you could always try selling it to the schools IT department (if you have one). The arguments you use will change depending on the situation, but there are three key things to keep in mind.
First, support. Take some time and find out details (cost, response time, etc) for your school to get a support contract for Linux or whatever free OS you want to advocate. This is a HUGE issue for most school IT departments because typically they're run by people who used to be teachers but took some courses and got elected sys admin. For the most part they bank on support services.
Secondly, of course, cost. Schools love cheap. They're often so tightly funded that they spend large percentages of their budget on software and support. Then they get criticized because "look at all this money we give you, and where are the new computers?" Just a tidbit though, don't overly stress cost to administration if they look like they'll go for it. If administration think they can cut money from IT by doing something, they will and IT will be no better off.
And finally, of course, is stability, performance, etc. Be sure to mention it's ability to run on older hardware. A lot of schools, because of stupid regulations on state, federal and grant money, tend to have computers sitting collecting dust, or thrown in dumpsters. If they're NT/Netware shops stress stability and reliability. Particularly the "once you get it working, it doesn't break for no reason." (The netware admin at my school would love to hear this given the trouble he's been having with Netware 5.1 recently.) Also, compatability is a good touch to add in. Netware and NT both rely on proprietary technology and software for some of the things they do, particularly Netware.
Well, thats enough from me. Good luck. Feel free to email me with questions or whatever.
Regards,
Marcus
jghrfa@home.com
Re:Microsoft is a monopolist... (Score:3)
> It sucks for the admins, too, y'know. Most of >them don't want to be assholes, but it's sheer
> self defence.
You just need teeth. e.g., if you do any of those things, our netadmins *know* you did. And you're expelled from the school, fined (and/or your parents are fined), and you get a failing grade for the semester.
It can't just say that in the policy handbook for the school. It has to actually happen, even (especially) if you're the son of the principal or the captain of the football team.
Then you won't have two incidents of people stealing mouse balls or installing virii. You'd have one, the newspaper article about how they were expelled failed and fined prominently framed by the door to the lab, with the empty frame right next to it for the next moron who tries it.
If, as you say, a sysadmin must be a n@z! for self-defense, go all the way with it, or not at all. Otherwise you just create even more motivation for people to mess with you. (They know they'll get away with it.)
Push open standards, not necessarily Linux (Score:3)
Pick your battles. Many of the decisions made about computer equipment in a school district will be largely political. There will be a strong push to use ALOT of Microsoft technology simply because it appears to be a good business decision. Don't argue for particular items so much as general goals. Getting them to agree that a WinNT only network has less future than an open network would allow Linux machines to run along side MS boxes. This is much more worthwhile than convincing them that they need linux terminals with RedHat installed.
Make compromises. Everyone wants to see their input have affect, they don't want to see someone overpowering the group.
Back up opinions with other sources. Your crazy opinions aren't so crazy if they've been published elsewhere.
Good luck!
Oi (Score:3)
Re:Microsoft is a monopolist... (Score:3)
>all students are computer virus carrying know-
>nothings whose sole intent with respect to
>computers is to infect them with virii after
>using them to send death threats to government
>officials, find little kids to stalk, and look
>at hardcore porn.
Ever sysadminned in a educational environment? You're pretty much described the exact problems that anyone looking after computers in a school/university has to deal with.
You forgot setting up hardcore porn http/ftp servers, IRC hijacking, and stealing the fscking mouse balls.
If you're not a Nazi about your computer labs, then Very Bad Things tend to happen. As you say, it's a few people ruining it for everyone.
It sucks for the admins, too, y'know. Most of them don't want to be assholes, but it's sheer self defence.
Post her email address (Score:3)
Post her email address and let us all send her a brief message, complete with a copy of the GPL (or better yet, all common open licenses) and representative code.
When the school's mail server (or her personal account) collapses under thousands of messages containing tens of megabytes, the situation <b>will</b> change. But probably not to your advantage.
Unfortunately, the real question is the credentials of your teacher. Most teacher unions are extremely strong, and extremely exclusionary. (E.g., you have a master's degree and 20 years experience and you want to help out? Sorry, but the school system (and teacher's union) assert you are unqualified to teach the subject matter - but the 21-year-old who just got her education BS *is* qualified to teach the material. A few states are experimenting with "fast track" certification of domain experts, but they're the exception.)
Could the teacher have had strong CS exposure in college? It's possible, but the colleges of Education and Engineering tend to have very little overlap. Any C. Ed class using computers will focus on using them as teaching aids, not software development models. At most, the teacher might have had a year of "CS 101" -- and be considered an expert by her teaching peers.
Could the teacher have gotten her education credentials, worked in industry, then returned to the classroom? It's possible, but unlikely due to fiscal reality. An experienced coder will probably earn twice what most teacher makes. An experienced coder with technical leadership or management experience (who will actually be dealing with software licenses professionally) will make far more than most teachers. A few people will earn a nest egg then return to their first love, but software salaries aren't *that* high. (Stock options change that slightly, but it's still the exception.)
In other words, the teacher would probably be dismissed as a flake by any working software developer. This is why many of us have qualms about collegiate CS programs - and outright hostility towards secondary CS programs. If you're lucky, you'll learn the skills appropriate to a 70's era IBM 370 programmer - and you'll know it's a 30-year-old development model which is *not* followed today. More likely, you'll get a hodge-podge which makes no sense but makes it *far* harder for you to learn how software development is actually done.
Get someone to come in and speak to your class (Score:3)
There are probably many "established" professionals in your area who would be more than happy to come in and give a presentation on Open Source in general, or Linux in particular. Check for a local Linux users group [linuxjournal.com], or even a local branch of a related user group (like Perl Mongers [pm.org], for exaqple). Even if the presentation is just for the teachers, it would probably be well received. If you are in the Boston area, contact the FSF [fsf.org]. See the Linux User Group HOWTO [linuxdoc.org] for more info.
Cthulhu for President! [cthulhu.org]
Re:Advertising (Score:3)
Heh, that's exactly what my dad said when I told him I wanted to install Linux on our PC. I eventually got him to let me, but he was very steadfast in his belief that the linux skills I would gain by using Linux would have no use later on in life. Of course, to help solve this particular problem, you could should them all the Linux Jobs [linux.com] avaliable, plus the fact that Linux also gives valuable UNIX experiance which will also come in handy for a lot of jobs.
Showing the benefits of GPL (Score:3)
Namely, I would start with:
http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/philoso phy.html [fsf.org]
And then print out this article for your teacher as proof of the GPL, since {s/}he didn't believe you.
http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/free-sw.ht ml [fsf.org]
http://www.fsf.org/copyleft/gpl.html [fsf.org]
Come on people, lets build up a collection of papers we can use to show the un-educated _WHY_ GPL software is better.
Cheers
Linux in the schools (Score:4)
You need to educate them the same way they educate you. Get together statistics about the usage of Linux and Apache. Put together a packet of information describing what Linux and free software is. Get a copy of the GPL and the LGPL, and find a good, non-technical description of what they are and why they are good. If you have a Linux system, arrange to demonstrate what Linux is and what it can to. You might even have an extra credit project here. Try contacting RedHat, VA Linux, Suse, and others and see if they have any literature they can send you.
Good Luck!
From the people who made Pi=3.0 (Score:4)
I'm not sure that there is anything you can do. First, in my experience, schools have very old computers- circa 1988. I learned to program on TRS-80s. I was told that Pascal was an ideal scientific language, and COBOL the language of business. They'd heard of C and C++, but considered it 'too difficult' (after COBOL, no less!) This is current as of the early 90's.
The old saying that 'those who can't do, teach' isn't usually true, I find. CS in public schools is one area where it is. If you want to be rewarded for doing a good job, not be bullied around by your union, get paid decently, not be micromanaged ridiculously by the state, and feel like you are actually accomplishing something, try the private sector.
Are there solutions? Yes, but they're out of the scope of your question. Your immediate problem is giving your teachers some clue about what has been going on in CS in the last 10-20 years. Which is virtually everything.
One possibility is to try to get the high school equivalent of a special topics class. Or a co-op program-- which some High Schools support. If these options aren't available, start a club. Especially in the Open Source field, you'll find programmers LOVE to talk.
If you want to push programming on the linux platform as the solution for your school, you'll have a tough sell ahead of you. Obvious selling points:
Free, works with hardware already procured and destined for trash.
Includes sample code (the source) and developement tools for dozens of languages (don't try to explain the differences between bash, Perl, HTML and C-- they won't get it.
Out of the box internet ready.
Procure it for a linux club first. If you have a teacher who knows linux already, you are in a very small minority. Just a machine or two for the geeks in your school. Do not use the word 'hacking' ever. EVER! Sure, it isn't cracking or illegal, but it raises a red flag. Present it as something to make and serve web pages with. Teachers like that and can get it quickly. Good computer teachers will appreciate the chance to dust off their C skills while watching normally uninterested students ooohing and ahhhing over the web page stuff.
If possible, make it part of something that is already budgetted (like programming classes or a club). Don't let them 'study' the problem-- that means they are waiting for you to graduate. Don't let them try to hire someone just for this-- they'll be cut out of the budget over the summer. Instead, keep it cheap, minimize teachers' time committments and keep a low profile.
Re:I fear it is impossible at a high school level. (Score:4)
If you are blessed and have a CS teacher that does neither, you have a chance. Otherwise, you are pretty much out of luck. Dealing with arrogant teachers is nearly impossible.
Lets write this another way:
CS students are generally either conservative or foolish. The conservatives rever what they used at home, often something along the lines of [insert favorite distro/util]. They are inflexible, and refuse to hear anything that goes against their ideas.
The foolish are followers of some particular trend. Some follow Linux like zombies, others check up on every BSD trend they see. Anything that does not follow this trend is bad and wrong, because what they do is obviously the right way. If you are blessed and have a CS student that does neither, you have a chance. Otherwise, you are pretty much out of luck. Dealing with arrogant students is nearly impossible.
I'm a CS student in university, and I see this all the time. Nothing irritates me more than the people in the classes who believe they know more than the professors, and insist on pointing out every last error they make, just to show how smart they are. Either that, or they take every opportunity possible to plug program Foo or BarOS. Not only does it irritate the rest of the class, but the profs as well.
Make sure this isn't you, and you'll go a lot further with this. Linux in the class is good, but my way or the highway is bad.
Participate! (Score:5)
As for raising awareness of the GPL, you can do it with words and with actions. Simply mentioning it in class is great. It's unfortunate that your teacher dismissed it as crack-pottery. A better educator would have been interested, and asked follow up questions, IMHO.
If you've got a big project to do for the class, and I'd hope you would, you could do one of several things. You could make something useful, and GPL it. This is nice if you don't have real options for choosing your project. Another option would be to find an OS project that interests you, and spec a specific module. Present the specification to your teacher as a project proposal. Include some good ol' fashioned OS propeganda in there for good measure.
If your teacher looked at you like you're crazy, it begs the question: does she know anything about Linux? Linux gets so much press these days I have a hard time believeing that somebody who's teaching a SD class hasn't even *heard* of it. Working from this, I'd assume she's heard some Linux hype, but doesn't know what makes it free software, exactly.
Aside from integrating your classwork and open-source development, you could go the talking route. Give her some URLs, and explain to her why you believe in Free Software. Discuss the educational oppurtunities - you can see the source! You want to know how to organize a large project? Look at the Mozilla CVS tree, or GIMP, or any other large project.
Maybe buy/burn her a Linux/*BSD disc or something.
Has she heard of Perl? Python?
Forget Money Angle, Get References! (Score:5)
I would recommend you find some schools using Linux and see if they'll talk to your school. I'd be happy to. Show them our site or Beacon School and then have them email us.
I would suspect that the reason you don't learn about Linux in the classroom is because your teacher doesn't know about it. Offer to do a presentation on it for extra credit or no credit at all. If the teacher turns you down, then you've found your problem.
We've been running Linux for about 3 years now and I couldn't be happier. Our students and faculty benefit from the increased services and especially the uptime! Linux has lowered cost and headaches.
Also, the first three weeks of my programming class are devoted to Linux. All assignments are done on the Linux server.
You could also start a LUG and get interest that way.
Good Luck!
Microsoft is a monopolist... (Score:5)
This is (IMHO) either the result of few ruining it for many, or several chain-linked knee-jerk reactions to exaggerated local news broadcasts. Of course, it's probably both.
Some thoughts (Score:5)
You will have several things to consider when informing your high school powers that be about linux and the GPL.
1. Microsoft and Apple have a considerable budget that they set aside for the wooing of public education. Because of this many teachers may have been taught certain things about linux that are no longer true.
2. In your favor most colleges use some form of unix. Most teachers have attended one of these colleges. Therefore somewhere in the back of their experiences they might remember unix. You could try to explain that linux is just a form of unix.
3. Obtain a copy of a standard GPL. Include it with any other information you choose to provide. Getting a factory printed GPL from a boxed distribution would probably be more impressive than just printing one out on a laser printer.
4. Teachers do not like to appear foolish in front of students. Most distributions include a technical support line for a certain number of days or months. Make sure that the teachers know they have somewhere to turn when the installation goes south.
5. Beware of talking about how you can "get it free on the internet". Teachers and schools are very cautious about anything to do with downloads from the internet. If the teacher is knowledgable then this should not be an issue but if that were the case you would not have written your letter.
6. Make them aware that an office suite is availabe for linux. Star Office comes with many distributions and it makes the transition from other office suites much easier. It also makes it posible to teach wordprocessing and spreadsheet operation using a linux system.
7. Telling the teacher that it is better because it is free might not have any effect because Microsoft and Apple may already be providing the school with free software. Choose other points in Linux's favor.
That is all I have time for now.
Good luck!
Dave Zimmerman dzimmerm@columbus.rr.com