[cross - post from schoolforge. Traditional duplication apologies apply]
From: knuty@SKOLELINUX.NO Subject: [school-discuss] [IIEP] Report: Experiences with Centralised operated Skolelinux installations Date: April 13, 2006 12:46:32 PM EDT To: ELEARN-OPENSOURCE@LST.IIEP-UNESCO.ORG Reply-To: schoolforge-discuss@schoolforge.net
By Knut Yrvin - Skolelinux / DebianEdu - April 12th 2006
The Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research has founded a report about free software in schools. It covers planing and deployment of Skolelinux/DebianEdu that currently includes 234 Norwegian schools, 33,000 client machines, and 101,000 pupils and teachers. The focus is on technical issues, economy and organisation. There is also some feedback on how the teachers use free software in their teaching.
The main conclusion is that no pedagogic, technical, or economical objections using free software in schools remained valid. The numbers show that the municipalities save more when running and maintaining the schools ICT equipment centrally at many schools. The savings are considerably lager with GNU/Linux then with Microsoft Windows. Market prices show that the most cost efficient alternative are Skolelinux diskless workstations. This is at least 40 % cheaper than to operate traditional workstation pools (with thick clients).
Experiences from the municipalities show that the cost of running thin clients (ltsp) is more cost efficient than thick clients because it increases the lifespan on the hardware. Surprisingly, the cost of running graphical terminals such as Citrix is the most expensive solution. It is at least three times more expensive than Windows thick clients when comparing prices in the market. When using graphical clients such as Free NX the schools would get around the same expenses with operating the system.
The ICT coordinators in the different municipalities say that there are considerable challenges when introducing computer tools in the school. The management at every school must establish a maintenance regime and the teachers must learn to use computer tools actively in the learning process. The activity have nothing to do with the operating system in use. But the schools running free software can afford more equipment, and the lower cost of maintaining the system allows more resources to be used in teachers and the learning process.
The 17 page version for the report in English (that sums up the 65 pages report in Norwegian): http://developer.skolelinux.no/artikler/2006-04-02-debconf6.pdf
The 65 pages report in Norwegian (also with a short one page version): http://d.skolelinux.no/ressurssparing.html
Sincerely
Knut Yrvin
education@lists.fedoraproject.org