[education-wg] Karen Cator

[Kevin Cole]

I hope my *very* humble comments can help shape the message...

On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 13:51, Mike <mhuffman at comcast.net> wrote:

> How do we invest in open source?
>
> Identify some funding that can be used for projects in K-12 schools that
> rely on open source software. This is clearly this first step to making
> anything significant happen. This is also a good way to develop some working
> models. Perhaps various models should be explored. One model would include
> full open source from operating system forward. Another model might consider
> open-source products on proprietary OS's. We need to get to the point that
> we can take schools where they are and help them to move forward. It is
> unrealistic to think that schools will discard all products currently in use
> and move to new, different products.

When schools decide to transition from Apple to Microsoft or vice
versa, how do they migrate? Also, my thinking about "investing"
includes student involvement: Since many schools have community
service requirements and internship opportunities, look for students
who are bright and curious to help.  They will require some management
from either educators or professionals (or both) but if there's either
financial gain or prestige / recognition to be gained, forming those
kinds of partnerships are a real investment.

> How do we determine if open source software is effective?
>
> In my opinion this is the wrong question. Do we ask “is Microsoft software
> effective?” “Is Apple software effective?” No. We tend to look at
> achievement levels after students have used various types of software. Our
> experience in Indiana showed little difference between proprietary software
> and open-source software. (Although we ran out of time to fully document
> this information before the program was substantially changed.)

And the question is too "Effective how?" (or "Effective at what?")  If
all you're measuring is "can a spreadsheet add numbers" or "does the
geography drill give the right answers" then, a lot of solutions will
work, proprietary or otherwise.  If, on the other hand, people are
able to tap the talent to redesign and redistribute, it's the
potential for innovation and customization which makes it exciting.
(On a more mundane level, one could look at total cost of ownership,
including licensing, number of programmer / sysadmin hours per person
per computer, anti-virus costs, etc.  But I'm not really any good with
those kinds of numbers.)

> The biggest challenge is ACCESS.  We found that the average high school
> student averaged 30-45 minutes per WEEK using technology in schools.  At
> that usage level it would be hard to determine if brushing teeth was
> effective, let alone the more difficult issue of technology.
>
> Perhaps the question should be, how do we determine if technology is
> effective? How do we gauge the effectiveness of software compared to its
> price? Would we be better off taking the money we spend for software and
> hardware and putting it into additional personnel? Should we look at the
> types of software that we are using? The fact that a school project has
> technology does not necessarily mean that it is successful or desirable.
>
> Is the model sustainable?
>
> This is a difficult one on several levels. I am hoping that her main concern
> is sustaining the model that is established for K-12 schools. The ultimate
> model should consider everything: hardware costs, software costs,
> professional development costs, and implementation practice. I am not
> certain that we are looking at these things now as we implement systems in
> schools. Although it is a good idea and we should be doing this, the
> question needs to be be more broadly applied to technology used throughout
> K-12 education.

Sustainable?  Is anything "sustainable" in the 21st century, where
products are obsolete before they're released?  I would say open
source is "migratable" especially if you're stressing open standards
for data.  I love Linux, but keep my eye on other open-source OS's out
there and haven't sworn fealty to Emperor Tux forever, nor even to his
relatives of the *nix family.  It's hard to build that kind of dynamic
flexibility into big organizations, but I think it's KEY for education
to make a valiant effort to do so.

-- 
Ubuntu Linux DC LoCo
Washington, DC
http://dc.ubuntu-us.org/