[school-discuss] Free software makes good sense in education, says FSF-India

["Frederick Noronha (FN)" <fred@bytesforall.org>]

Free Software and Education.

Introduction

In the early days of computers, users used to write programs for whatever 
computation they wanted done. And they used to share with their colleagues 
the programs they had written. Writing software was a community activity. 
As the application of computers increased, various groups started
realising potential of software and benefit they have in controlling
the software. These groups started copyrighting these 
software and keeping the 'source code' secret. Many programmers felt that 
this went against their basic community ethics and against the interests 
of society. It was as a consequence of this that people like 
Richard M. Stallman got together and started a new movement.
The objective of the movement was to create software that could be copied, 
modified and redistributed by users, all the time ensuring that the rights 
were passed on to subsequent users.

Free Softwares comes with certain freedoms.

Freedom 0: The freedom to use the software on any machine(s);
Freedom 1: The freedom to share the software with others;
Freedom 2: The freedom to study and modify the software; and,
Freedom 3: The freedom to redistribute the modified software.

These freedoms mean that, contrary to the case of proprietary software, 
Free Software can be installed on any number of machines, that one can get the 
'source code' of the software and modify it (or engage a programmer to do it), 
and that one can share the original and the modified software with others. 

Free Software in education

Free Software can be a valuable resource in education. Not only can it
be technically or pedagogically superior to proprietary alternatives, 
but it can also promote values we want students to attain through
education like:

* Freedom
* Cooperation 

The proprietary softwares on the other hand goes against the basic ethos of
Indian culture. In our culture we have tried to promote the sharing of
knowledge. We tell our children that Knowledge is something which gets
increased by sharing. We encourage our children to help each other in
learning by sharing knowledge acquired. Proprietary software tells the
opposite. It sees knowledge as an economic good only. Knowledge is something
to be controlled for economic advancement.

Today, many students and schools don't even know about Free Software
or the great advantages it brings. At the same time, software 
knowledgeability is required for more and more tasks, and Free
Software has a distinct advantage in this field. 

Free Education Software

In addition to GNU/Linux, the GNU Software and the GNU Documentation, 
there are some GNU packages specially designed for education:

* Dr. Genius is an interactive and graphical tool that allows the user
to explore and discover Euclidean geometry.

* Ggradebook is a graphical application for teachers that allows them
to track students' grades.

* GNU Typist is a typing tutor. It is an interpreter of typing 
tutorials, which includes tutorials for several languages and keyboard layouts.

* Solfege is program that can assist you with eartraining.

* Gcompris is a suite of educational software for young children. 

There are several other projects which provides tools for education.

* OFSET, promotes the use of free software in education.

* Gleducar, a GNU at education Argentinian project. 

Further information

http://www.fsf.org.in
http://www.ofset.org


Issues in IT education and Free Software advantage*.

1. Social.

More than mare understanding of the letters and numbers curriculum envisages
promoting certain values among the students. Sharing and cooperative
development is one of them. When we select the proprietary software we are
forced to say the opposite. We tell that giving a copy of software to friend
is illegal.

2. Local development and self reliance. 
    
By promoting proprietary software in school we are creating a long terms
dependency. The corporations which promote these softwares are not
interested in the local development. On the other hand Free Software helps
in local development. Local companies and groups can provide support for
Free Softwares with out help from some multi national corporation from out
side.

3. Financial

The State will have to spend a good amount of money on as the licensing fee
if its going to select proprietary software as the basic tool for IT
education. If we take the IT@School which is going to be implemented in 2614
schools in Kerala, the licensing cost alone will come to Rs 157 crores
 
4. Administrative

Software licensing involves very complex rules and regulations. Lack of
awareness and economic realities leads to copying of proprietary softwares,
use of a copy of software in multiple machines etc in schools. These acts in
good faith are seen as criminal act by proprietary software vendors. This
puts several people in legal risks unknowingly. (Copying of proprietary
software, which proprietary companies refer as piracy, is widespread among
teachers in India. Most of the government school headmasters face the risk
of criminal prosecution.)

5. Academic
   
Free Softwares like GNU/Linux are proven to be technically superior to
proprietary softwares. Adoption of Free Software is increasing across the
globe. Students should be introduced to fast growing technologies through
best tools available as Free Software. The availability of source code
enables students to learn more about computers and software.

Action Points

Based on the experience we had in IT@Schools project we provide some action
points to consideration of the government. IT@School was initially based on
proprietary platforms strong opposition from teachers and public catalyzed
by steps of FSF India lead to change in the policy little bit.

* Create curricula which don't specify select proprietary software

* Provide Free Software tools for IT education programs.

* Teachers training should be done on Free Softwares like GNU/Linux

* Creation and promotion of education by the government should be based 
  on freely available standards. There should not be any dependency on 
  proprietary platforms.

* Support may be provided for local language support in Free
  Software, thus enabling even students without good knowledge in English
  to use computers.


FSF-India

Free Software Foundation of India is a non-profit organisation committed to
advocating, promoting and propagating the use and development of
free/swatantra software in India. Our goal is to ensure the long term
adoption of free software, and aim for the day when all software will be
free. This includes educating people about software freedom and convincing
them that it is the freedom that matters. We regard non-free software as a
problem to be solved, not as a solution to any problem.


FSF

Free Software Foundation, USA, is the principal organizational sponsor of
the GNU Project. And leading the Free Software Movement around the globe.

The GNU Project was launched in 1984 to develop a complete Unix-like
operating system which is free software: the GNU system. (GNU is a recursive
acronym for ``GNU's Not Unix''; it is pronounced "guh-NEW".) Variants of the
GNU operating system, which use the kernel Linux, are now widely used;
though these systems are often referred to as ``Linux'', they are more
accurately called GNU/Linux systems.

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Free Software in Education for Kerala, a state in South India:
-------------------------------------------------------------.

Kerala (population 32 million, area 38.863 sq km) started a program called
IT@School for taking advantage of Information Technology to improve the
quality of teaching process. The current state government made IT part of
the curriculum and introduced IT as a subject in 8th standard (9th standard
will follow coming academic year).

The Government has introduced different schemes in which the schools can
arrange for the infrastructure required for IT training, including schools
partnering with private institutions to setup computer labs in schools.
Government has given orders which will allow schools to collect a fee of 25
Rs/month from the students. The text book and curriculum made by the company
specifically mentioned product from a major multinational corporation. All
these had introduced new social and economic issues in the state.

A strong protest came from the public, students and teachers organisations
on the stands of the government and that brought about some changes. KSTA
school teachers association affiliated with CITU had came out with protest
against the government policies which hurts the interest of the state,
helping only some multinational companies. The leader of Opposition Sri VS
Achuthanandan expressed concerns over the program. All these forced the
government to change its policies in some ways. The curriculum now talks
about Free Software also, text books contains sections on Microsoft-based
tools and Free Software. Schools were allowed use the platforms they want.

The introduction of Free Software in text book and curriculum raised
interest in school to explore the option Free Software as a way of reducing
the cost and may of them accepts that Free Software movement is something
which needs to be supported. More schools are accepting Free Software.

Case Studies.

Trivandrum.

Government Girls High Schools Challai is small institution in the Trivandrum
city the capital of Kerala state. Most students in the school come from low
income families of the locality. This school was fortunate enough to get
machines given from the education department.  A computer lab of five, old
Pentium 1 class machines serves the needs of around 350 students in the
school. The school is not able to collect fees from students as it puts
financial burden on the families of students in the school. Hence the school
is left with the old machines.

The school was running the machines with Microsoft Windows Operating Systems
which came with the hardware given to them. They were not aware if it was
licensed or not. If not licensed, the school was liable to face charges on
copyright infringements.  They don't have the money to upgrade the software
introducing new technologies to students. Also they would be forced to
upgrade the machines if they upgrade to newer proprietary operating systems.
All these forced them to look into alternatives.

The teacher in charge of the computer lab had heard of the Free Operating
System GNU/Linux. With help of the volunteers in Free Software Movement, the
school setup a GNU/Linux based Terminal Server solution. Now all the old
machines in the school can run latest GNU/Linux applications. They don't have
to worry about the NASCOM's software police.

Local language support:

By switching over to GNU/Linux the school is getting the added advantage of
running application with local language support. This is due to a project by
Free Software Foundation of India to localise Free Software to Malayalam.
Local language support is particularly important as the teaching medium for
most of the schools in Kerala use the Malayalam medium.

Kannur.

Sri Abdullakutty MP from Kannur, a district in northers Kerala, decided to
utilise his Member of Parliament's fund for setting up computer labs in
schools under his constituency. GNU/Linux and Terminal Server technology has
been selected for the schools. This helped reducing the cost of setup and
machines were made available to more number of schools.

The project which had completed in around 10 schools (50 in total)
will bring GNU/Linux to a large number of students. This will be the
largest of such initiative in the country. The effort is lead by
public sector company Keltron.

Foot Note:
--------

1) Operating System is the most important software being used in the
   computers. Without it, computers wont be able to do any useful task
   for the user. GNU/Linux is the most popular Free Operating System
   in use today. It was made by combining the GNU tools with Linux
   kernel. 

2) Terminal Server is a system in which there is a powerful central
   machine and very low end machines connected to it. This system
   enables reducing the over all cost of setting up a networked lab or
   even office. Very good for schools, as it can make use of old hardware
   efficiently.