After watching teachers and students use the K12LTSP system here in
Atlanta, in detail in elementary and now middle school, my vote for the
killer app/use case to make OpenSource become truly mainstream in
education is...drum roll...
Netbooks capable of also running as thin clients over wireless LAN
Here's why: netbooks, especially when they get below $200, are designed
for the key applications for education: web access, office suite (mainly
word processing, presentation, and spreadsheet), and to a lesser extent,
image manipulation. We set up a MAC lab in my daughter's middle school
and while Garage Band, iVideo, etc. were big hits when a teacher was
dedicated to running the lab, this year that teacher is doing a science
classroom, so guess what the other teachers use the Mac lab for? Web
access and word processing.
The only real thing holding netbooks back is the same thing holding back
our initial thin client rollout, that of supporting video w/o choppy
playout. But if the netbook has at least 250 MB RAM and can run the
browser/decoder locally, that would solve that problem, and the far
lower electricity requirements coupled with mobility and ability to run
them as thin clients over a wireless network, that solves all the
classroom wiring issues. And if HiVision ever makes good its claim to
offer $98 netbooks, then a netbook would be on the order of the cost of
a plotting calculator. For a classroom of say 30 kids, $100 netbooks
and a classroom LTSP server would cost about the same as some of those
expensive interactive whiteboards, less if the parents supply the
netbooks like they often currently do the plotting calculators.
Which is why I want wireless thin client use as well: that opens up all
the use cases that interactive whiteboards using applications like
TeacherTool and iTalc would allow. Hence my vote for netbooks that can
be used as wireless thin clients in addition to their normal standalone
use at home. Heck, even the Economist recommends Linux on netbooks now:
http://www.economist.com/science/tq/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12673233
Best, Daniel
Evan Leibovitch wrote:
Les R wrote:
Actually, Moodle is probably the killer app in this context, but
really I am
talking about a need that only Open Source Software and Open Content
can fill -
bringing affordable classes to kids.
Agreed.
I'm not so sure that this goal is best brought about by seeking to
define a "killer app" anymore. The software world is so competitive
and complex that it's hard to think that any single application would
be compelling enough to make people change their operating systems
and, indeed, their overall approach to computing.