[education-wg] Karen Cator

Fri Apr 9 06:53:39 CDT 2010

Matt,

If you are not working with Chris Whiteley, creator of openZIS, you should
check it out:  education-wg at opensourceforamerica.org  He has an open source
SIF solution well developed and has done integration work now with
commercial vendors, MA DOE and some UK agencies.  I highly recommend him.
 Thanks

Casey Adams
Founder, OS4Ed

On Fri, Apr 9, 2010 at 4:17 AM, Matt Burkhardt <mlb at imparisystems.com>wrote:

>  On Thu, 2010-04-08 at 14:19 -0400, Kevin Cole wrote:
>
> 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.
>
>  I think there's also the idea of developing new software.  For example,
> I'm currently working with a co-op of charter schools to add functionality
> to two current open source packages called SchoolTool and CanDo using an I3
> grant.  Hopefully we'll end up with the money, but the bigger picture is
> that this new functionality will be able to be used by any other school.
> FYI, it's to add SIF compliance, XML import and export capabilities and
> better reporting.
>
> > 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.)
>
>  I agree and can't add anything substantial to these responses.
>
> > 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.
>
>  I think the TCO argument is best used here.
>
> >
> > 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.
>
>
>  If she's starting from zero on the open source business model, you need to
> help her consider some of  the business successes.  Red Hat just posted one
> of their strongest quarters, same with Alfresco and several others.  Mention
> that Google, Amazon, Facebook and other well known social sites run on open
> source software.  It might be good to talk about MySQL being purchased for
> lots of money by Oracle.
>
> In addition, I think the idea of service capabilities should be discussed.
> There is an open source service business in every state of the union, and if
> schools started switching over, there's enough knowledge around to help
> start up small businesses.
>
> My two cents and thanks,
>
>
>
> Matt Burkhardt
> Impari Systems, Inc.
>
> mlb at imparisystems.com
> http://www.imparisystems.com
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/mlburkhardt
> http://www.twitter.com/matthewboh
> 502 Fairview Avenue
> Frederick, MD  21701
> work (301) 682-7901
> cell   (301) 802-3235
>
>
>
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>

-- 
Casey Adams
Phone: 678.221.4602
Fax: 717.326.3543.
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