[school-discuss] REMOVE mk@itdc.edu

[Mary Murlas <mk@xxxxxxxx>]

--- Knut Yrvin <knuty@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> By Knut Yrvin - Skolelinux / DebianEdu
> 
> 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 English 17 page version for the report (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 (with a short one
> page version): 
> http://d.skolelinux.no/ressurssparing.html
> 
>