[Lias] Learning And Technology In Schools ( LATIS) NT

[Ben Minton]

hi Paul.

I hear you ! Remind which state you are in please ? If you are in Vic,
contact the OSV.org.au and get busy, 2 years will pass so quick $10.5
Million ... nice number if you can get it.

Sure I'll keep you posted on what I am doing. In fact I should upload it
to the Net at my ISP 'free 10 MB website'.

I take it you are currently in .edu support IT?

Yes, the comment on teachers is right on but you have to see how the
purchasing cycle works (sorry if you already know 8-)). The .gov
contacts the .edu and says you IT contract is up, what do you want? They
don't ask the teachers, they go the policy and concepts branch of the
educatino directorate, who are mostly public servants (admin types) or
former teachers who have moved up.

Most of them in the last 10 years have been using M$ stuff, so they just
say the usual please. Combine this with the bulk purchase of IT equip
for schools (good) and you get a very large scale M$ enterprise
contract.

However the future policy makers and education consultants are the
current generation of teachers, so ytou are spot on. We, the OSS
community, need to introduce these teachers to OSS for 2 reasons.

1. To highlight the wide variety of functionlaity available through the
entire package range of the OSS and,
2. Influence their personal views on technology.

Technology is a tool to help us do stuff, what gets forgotten n the
enterprise is that the stuff really matters, the tech does not.
Purchasing one brand of tech to do a wide range of soft is performance
limiting and myopic.

But then this policy runs around a lot in the .gov.au ... take defence
where they will buy one vehicle platform ie the Land Rover 110 6x6 and
modify it to do 11 different jobs, which it does, but not successfully
well.

I know that the impetus these days is to achieve the highest value for
money but I think and your last comments support this, that we are
concetrating too much on the tech value for money as opposed to the
functionality/performance value for money.

Apply that last statement honestly and without commercially driven
favour or current vendor support and OSS is the BEST choice.

Ben.

On Fri, 2004-02-20 at 11:15, Paul Shirren wrote:
> Please keep me up to date Ben.
> 
> We have a $10.5 million dollar contract for MS software here that runs 
> out in Feb 2006. The government here is doing some serious research into 
> using FOSS. Lots of internal surveys going around. A few pilot studies etc.
> 
> I am desperate to be involved but I am going to have to get a job in the 
> department to make a difference.
> 
> If you want to work together on anything or you are looking for any 
> specific resources let me know.
> 
> I do not know of any OSS in schools comparison site. SEUL does have a 
> big list of edu software though.
> 
> One of the concerns I have is that teachers always get left out. They 
> really have been left to fend for themselves which is why they use 
> software so badly, ie powerpointlessness. I believe that too many of the 
> FOSS in schools advocacy dwells on cost and technical issues and not on 
> teaching.
> 
> Frankly a computer nobody can use properly with FOSS is no better than 
> its Windows equiv. I want to do some teacher training in FOSS. And not 
> so much just teach the tools, but explaining the educational values.
> 
> Another project that really impressed me was the Scottish guy who got 
> OpenOffice cds into the libraries there. The howto on openoffice.org is 
> brilliant. A lot of our libraries in country areas here are joint use. 
> If I could get OpenOffice or OpenCD into the country libraries, they 
> would be in many school libraries as well.
> 
> Paul Shirren
> http://shirro.com/
> http://edufritz.org/
> 
> Ben Minton wrote:
> > Hi
> > 
> > Just looking at the NT Schools Technology site: LATIS  - Learning And
> > Technology In Schools ( www.latis.net.au )
> > 
> > Goto: http://www.latis.net.au/softbank/msselect.htm
> > 
> > ... here is a very sad page 8-(
> > 
> > Goto: http://www.latis.net.au/softbank/software_vendors.htm
> > 
> > ... a very expensive page
> > 
> > Is there a  'master' linux in schools site that can details known or
> > future OSS apps that can be compared against specific known Microsoft or
> > other education vendor software?
> > 
> > I know about the K12 website, but was thinking of a more technical,
> > costs, functionality sort of thing.
> > 
> > Ben.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > lias mailing list
> > lias at lists.linux.org.au
> > http://lists.linux.org.au/listinfo/lias
>