Norwegian experiences making By Knut Yrvin and Anders Kringstad Hansen By relation manager cand.scient Knut Yrvin Oct 10, 2007 Foils to free use when crediting the author

Prevent PC's breaking schools budget Background Values Economics Community and sustainability Warning: Some of this is not for nerds

Problems back in 2001 The computer equipment in schools was scarce, not scaled for running network services If updating proprietary software older computers was rendered useless Students was forced to be consumers of certain products What about sharing knowledge and experiences. What about creativeness?

We had to do something: do-ocracy

Skolelinux A complete ICT-solution for the schools network architecture out of the box operational concept with centralised management digital user profile OpenOffice.org and 75 user programs Presented in the pupils' mother tongue with the school's curriculum in mind Made for the school budget Three question – everything out of the box Try that with RedHat or Windows Server

Inspired by the common architecture from UNINETT – the national science network

Centralised operation with Skolelinux TC 1 x File- / Client-server WS LF Centralised services e-mail etc. 1-8 Mbit/s til og fra > 100 client machines TC = Thin Client WS = Workstation LF = Low Fat Client Full support of media rich applications and Internet based exams with thin clients Runs thin clients (w/o hard drive), laptops, low fat clients, workstations etc. Reduced demands for bandwidth Full reuse of older hardware from 1995 and newer Simple structure for running user applications ~100 EURO annually to operate every PC (ICT-contact and hardware are not included)

Values

Creating the future One precondition for learning is that knowledge is free and available either it's about Newtons laws of motion or the constitution. Insight gives possibility to build on what other has experienced – making your own future. Full access to the source code enables students to create the future The possibility to create is much more worth than consuming everything from one source!

Languages The traffic signs has to be in our native language Students needs to understand the road signs at the information highway to drive safely home The traffic signs has to be in our native language

The traffic constantly changes When you take the drivers licence you learn to travel safe handling constant changes in the traffic Driving the teachers BMW as fast as possible is not an option

About computers in schools Students sending drawings to school classes abroad. Students learn to express, share and create. The system is used to make and share music, to read, gather information and decode words (in lower grades). It's not about office-administration with 3-4 office-products! 12

Economical realities

The municipality of Nittedal in 2001 They did not got the money for buying new equipment and licenses in their schools. They decided to keep Windows 98 until 2008. After introducing Skolelinux in 2002, they got money to buy new hardware instead of paying Microsoft licenses.

Many principles have to choose between hardware or people Many principles have to choose between hardware or people. Most of the schools must pay expenses that compares to one or two teacher positions, the headmaster says ...

Huge differences Nittedal municipalities supports 400 office PC's. Six employees support 400 users paying Microsft 50.600 Euro annually. “Central” operator cost for each PC is 791 Euro annually 3200 users at 10 primary schools got 506 PC's running Skolelinux. Central maintenance with half time position (20h a week). Central operator cost for each PC is 100 Euro annually In addition each school got a local contact person with 1-4 hours a week doing easy “helpdesk” support. The municipality also has a pedagogic coordinator on half time (20h a week9. Totally they got 1½ man-year supporting 506 clients and 3200 users. That's 37 Euro for each user The regional hospital paid 3.800 Euro a year to the City Council at Akershus to operate a standard office PC in 2001 (ref: the contract) Municipalities often spends 5 times more than schools on computer maintenance

Experiences

Market prices annually Low fat client (diskless) got half the operational cost compared to any other client alternative (This including central operation and hardware and excluding local ICT-contact)

What does others say about Skolelinux «Skolelinux has taken the plan for using computers in schools seriously. They have made a complete product that is tailored to the pupils' daily work and the resources that schools have» Statskonsult 2003:24 p28 «Thanks to Skolelinux there is a tailored Linux distribution for schools that is easy to install, update and maintain». Teleplan, October 2003 p24 «More use of Linux in education can contribute to school children being more flexible, innovative and more competent users of computers». The Norwegian Technology Board, February 2004

> 450 schools using Skolelinux now Skolelinux 3.0 was released July 2007 We are now teaming up with LinEx in Extremadura - Spain

Warnings when starting up Make a realistic user participated plan Make realistic budgets. When using to little money you do not reach your goals Increase your procurement skills Collect experience reports on the web Buy equipment where everything is put together and tested, both reused and new Do centralised operation and maintenance It's a big difference on a deployment plan of hardware, and pedagogic use of computers in schools ..

Skolelinux deployment Learn Norwegian labor law §12.3 = user participation Get to know the Skolelinux systemet (20 h) Get to know the desktop (6 h) Projecting Building data net (320 h) Get reused hardware and new serveres (8 h) Get the cheapest broadband supplier (8 h) Deployment Installation and configuration (2 h) Set up the klients at whole the school (20-40 h) Support and upkeep Teaching User education of the teachers (6 h) LærerIKT with OpenOffice (40 h) Local support (2-4h a week w 50 pc's – 1 ½ day with 150 pc's) Centralised operation 10 schools (50% position a week) ...

And then: Anders Kringstad Hanssen

The basic ideas Pupils interested in technical, under-the-hood things – could learn by example – from source code written by expert programmers Using our own mother thong when travelling on the information highway Get more computer equipment and programs, and spending less time on maintenance. Getting more for less. 24

Master thesis by Åse Bratthammer Do you want to learn math, you have to work with it. You need to drill. Then it is no help to make hundreds of Power Point presentations of the theory. Not all us of computers is bad. We have to be selective. The Schools must utilise the advantages. Everybody knows the “advantages” with a word processor. That's obvious. But there are simulations and animations that could be a great value for each single student, but it must not take all the time. Kilde: http://www.bt.no/lokalt/hordaland/article336051