Below are few success stories that I have collected from the K12LTSP (K12 Linux Terminal Server Project). The original poster asked for some success stories to help him sell the idea to his school. I have included them here as an example of how OSS can benefit a school. Please excuse any of the spelling, grammar and layout, I have simple copied each users original posting and placed it here.
From: "David N. Trask;dtrask@vcs.u52.k12.me.us> To: K12LTSP <k12osn@redhat.com> Reply-To: k12osn@redhat.com Subject: Re: [K12OSN] Looking for successes. You want ammo....how's this! This is simply a re-post of something I posted to our state technology coordinators listserv....so excuse the "localisms". Read on.... ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Ok...I admit it...a couple of weeks ago when I was "under the gun" trying to get things ready for the opening of school I wasnaving much fun. But two weeks later...I'm having a blast! Why? After all, I've added four classes per week to my schedule...enrollment is WAY up....am I crazy? (Don't answer that) Truth is...I'm having a blast because two plus years of planning and persuasion are coming to fruition. This year...we started with Linux from the beginning. Not one eyebrow was raised...everyone simply dove in. I have not used Win XP with any class except Kindergarten yet this week. Not one. My assistant principal came in to observe (impromptu....just showed up) me this week...I told her that if she's coming into my class she's gonna' log in just like everyone else. So....never having worked with Linux before (not once)...she simply logged in...followed the directions I gave the class (OpenOffice writing prompt....cool stories) and began typing just like everyone else. Afterwards....she let me read her story to the class....it was great. The kids loved it and so did I. She (my asst. principal) quoted...I don't see why we need to pay for M$ Office anymore....OpenOffice is practically the same. Inside I was jumping for joy! Early in the week I received some donations of machines from a local institution. Nice machines too! I traded some of my nicer ones with the high school in our district (we're a Union....Vassalboro does not have a HS...nor do we need one....there's 7 of them within a 15 mile radius). They got machines they needed and I got the ones they didno make into thin clients. I gotta' tell ya'....take a classroom computer that's a few years old...use a big 'ol air compressor from the shop....a little Speedball cleaner....and some Goo Gone (to remove all the tape remnants) and you can make a machine look brand new! I tore out the HDdisconnected the CD-ROM's (would've pulled those too...if it werenor the hole), pulled out all the IDE cables....and added a network card and voila! A fully functioning Linux Terminal. I "processed" 14 machines this week and delivered 7....7 more are waiting (I just did them today). Earlier in the week I had put out an email to staff asking who would want a Linux machine in their classroom. I figured I'd get one or two responses....I figured wrong. I got lots of responses and even some from 1st grade staff. One of my veteran Linux teachers from last year quoted to me in the hallway, "Linux is so easy why wouldnou want one?" It was so awesome to hear that. I now have mini-labs in nearly every classroom (I have a couple left, but they'll be set next week). Nervous Linux rookies get all the help they need from the kids. One third grade teacher had kids tripping over themselves to show her the ropes of Linux after I put two terminals in her classroom yesterday. Same thing today with a fifth grade teacher. I should note that both the third grade and fifth grade teacher have been teaching for over 30 years. They're lovin! Earlier this week I was able to take $1300 that I had budgeted for a particular software package and use that money for something more useful...since I told the principal at this point it was fruitless to buy software we'll probably never use now. (yay!) We really hit the ground running this fall....things are running fantastic! No viruses...no crashes....just productivity and excitement. Even the school board members are starting to question the M$ money pit. At Open House on Tuesday night kids were bringing their parents....logging in to Linux and showing them what it was all about. So that's it for week two..... Now if only the laptops were that easy....hmmmm....maybe I should get started on them? LOL :-) Hey...check out some pics of the "Technology Pioneers" (the kids using Linux) on our website http://www.vcs.u52.k12.me.us Looking forward to seeing many of you a week from Monday at the Actem meeting....you won't want to miss it.....big MEDMS presentation...... David N. Trask Technology Teacher/Coordinator Vassalboro Community School dtrask@vcs.u52.k12.me.us (207)923-3100 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: "John P. Conlon;jconlon1@elp.rr.com> To: K12LTSP <k12osn@redhat.com> Reply-To: k12osn@redhat.com Subject: [K12OSN] Hog Heaven Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 18:32:28 -0700 Sender: k12osn-admin@redhat.com User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax) I am a 7th grade Humanities teacher at Nolan Richardson Middle School in El Paso Texas. The Humanities program is an English, reading, social studies integrated composite for gifted children. I started learning and working with K12LTSP and Linux in general last year and scratch built what I have i nmy classroom. If I leave it goes with me because I own everything except one printer. My principal became interested in what I was up to and started looking at costs. She got the district to approve over much protest a K12LTSP lab for a room in our library. I finally got my system up and running and a couple of gurus from the district came to see claiming that it wouldn't work and that we couldnget support. They quickly ate crow and started looking at costs. There has been such a turn around in my district that Thursday I'm going to an inservice just so that my school can acquire another lab plus server. Last school year I constantly dealt with data theft by one student stealing from another. This year I've have overheard some of those thieves complaining that they have to go to the lab to get their assignemnts finish their assignments and my life has been so much simpler. I may spend much of my conference period daily teaching other teachers what it is all about but that to shall pass and I'll still be having fun. Bye Pat
From: REMOVED BY REQUEST To: k12osn@redhat.com Reply-To: k12osn@redhat.com Subject: Re: [K12OSN] Looking for successes. Date: 16 Sep 2003 20:11:56 -0400 Sender: k12osn-admin@redhat.com X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.0.3 (1.0.3-6) I did it in a middle school (7-8), which will remain nameless because I want it to stay there. We are a BIG TIME Windows shop. There are about 25 client boxes using it, it works great, and it had one other major benefit. When Blaster/Welchia/etc. came a-calline had to go and touch EVERY LAST Windows NT/2000/XP machine to disinfect/patch them. That's over 20,000 machines, folks. However...there were about 25 clients--and one server--that laughed off these attacks. Imagine if the majority of the school system were using K12LTSP...and I wonder when the "next round" of viruses/worms will come. The 7th and 8th graders appear to like using it. They think--especially the boys--"Wow, we're using *LINUX*! We're the ELITE!" Yeah...elite on Pentium-166's w/ 32MB DRAM...but they're right. They do like Paul says kids should do--they do Web-based research, write documents and do presentations (they save in the MS formats so other teachers can read them), and anything else that you might expect a junior high school student to do with a computer to support the curriculum. The teacher who runs the lab loves it because all student data is now stored on a central server instead of using sneakernet and unreliable floppies. The teachers for whom the students do the homework don't really have an idea that anything's different yet; they just know that they can now grab their students' data off of some "Windows server" that's actually the K12LTSP box running Samba. The principal of this particular school was the one who approved it, with the local tech person's blessing. Unfortunately, even given the clear success, we cannot tell the powers that be. They would do everything they could to 1.) have me dismissed, and 2.) get it ripped out of that school. Thus, my success story seems to be for the "ears" of this group only. --TP
From: John Baillie <jbaillie@stmarys-school.org> To: "k12osn@redhat.com" <k12osn@redhat.com> Reply-To: k12osn@redhat.com Subject: [K12OSN] Re: K12OSN digest, Vol 1 #1374 - 9 msgs Date: 16 Sep 2003 17:49:39 -0400 Sender: k12osn-admin@redhat.com X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.0.8 (1.0.8-11) Brian, I am the technology specialist for a PK - 8 school in Central FL. Our our 38 seat k12ltsp Lab will hit the 2 year mark in February. Last week one of our 1st grade classes came in to the lab for the first time. Copying the log on information from the inside of their reading folder the 25 students logged on with their name and password. Using OpenOffice Spread Sheet they typed in 8 sets of 5 rhyming words taken from the Cat in the Hat. You should have seen how quickly they caught on. For instance the teacher would instruct them to start in D 8 and type in the word CAT. At first they would locate the D column and then with their finger count down to eight. By the time they got to the higher numbers most of them discovered it was easier to look for row 23 on the left and column D on the top and find where they meet. I caught some of the students showing others how they found the place so quickly. The students printed their work and were so proud of them selfs as was the teacher and her parent assistant. Last week one of the fourth grade classes came in to make a cover sheet for their reports on States. Prior to lab time the teacher had shown them in class what to do using MS Word and clip art. This teacher is very MS centric and was very disappointed in the selection of clip art I have installed on OpenOffice. I told her no problem we will just use Google image search and download an image and insert it in to their cover sheet. "Wow that's too much work. Clip art is so much easier!" In the end she realized it was not too much work and she also learned how to download graphics. The finished product was very nice and she was very satisfied. I have too many success stories to relay and not enough time to do them justice in an email. One app that I am looking forward to deploying is Moodle. I have a couple of teachers taking it for a test ride and they are very enthusiastic about it. There are some downsides also. But All in all k12ltsp has been a big success here. I have been fortunate to have a staff and administration that for the most part backs me up 100%. It would be nice if I could say Linux is in our school for a long time to come but things change too fast and you never know when some killer app might come along that only runs on Windows. Lack of support for one particular product forced me to make our lab dual boot. (please don't get me started on that one or I'll go into rant x 10) One word of advice training, training, training for the teachers! The students are VERY adaptable not so with the adults. There was an article about our school printed in Linux Journal last year http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reports/4306/1/ Hope this helps. John
From: "Paul Nelson" <pnelson@riverdale.k12.or.us> To: k12osn@redhat.com Reply-To: k12osn@redhat.com Subject: Re: [K12OSN] Looking for successes. I'd sure like to know who has said that Linux has been a failure at Riverdale. Perhaps they should actually talk to me. We're using Linux and the GIMP to teach digital photography: http://hs.riverdale.k12.or.us/%7Epnelson/gimp/ We're using Linux to teach network administration; http://k12linux.org/netadmin/ We're using the GIMP and OpenOffice to teach computer graphics: http://hs.riverdale.k12.or.us/%7Epnelson/graphics/ We're using Linux along with MySQL and PHP to teach web design: http://hs.riverdale.k12.or.us/%7Epnelson/web_design/index.term2 We're also using Linux to teach our Java AP course. When my students visit colleges and talk to the folks in CS departments, what do they see? Linux!!! Do all the CS departments in the area know my students, yes! They know Riverdale students know their stuff. And last of all, when my students come to school and say that their parent's copy of MS word will stop working in 10 days because they don't have legal software, what do I send them home with? OpenOffice!!! Now if you're talking about using MS Windows to teach kids how to read and do math. I don't think I can help you. Be sure to ask if the teachers wanting to use computers like expensive workbooks have looked into the research on best practices on using technology in schools though. Computers should be used for authentic tasks. Students should use computers in the same ways we use them as adults. (Research, communication, analysis, publication, presentation and collaboration...) ;-) Paul -- ====================================================================== Paul Nelson.............................. pnelson@riverdale.k12.or.us Riverdale High...........9727 SW Terwilliger Blvd. Portland, OR 97219 (503)892-0722......fax(503)892-0723.... http://hs.riverdale.k12.or.us
From: "John P. Conlon" <jconlon1@elp.rr.com> To: k12osn@redhat.com Reply-To: k12osn@redhat.com Subject: Re: [K12OSN] Looking for successes. Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 18:25:56 -0700 Sender: k12osn-admin@redhat.com User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax) I teach in a middle school but here are some facts that should help. We put in a 30 Terminal lab after doing our financial homework. To put in the same lab Windows based we had the following things to consider: Cost per machine which was about 900 each, cost of Microsoft Windows (x) version license for each machine, the cost per machine of the various software packages that we wanted. The final figure came out to $65,000 dollars. Doing it the K12LTSP way we had the cost of one server $5,500, 30 Terminals with monitors about $200 each, The cost of the operating system software - FREE, The cost of the software packages we wanted - FREE The final figure and what we spent was about $13,000. The first month of operation had an English teacher who couldn't spell computer let alone turn one on used the lab for most of its first 100 hour of operation. We had to impose a two days a week limit on our teachers to allow semi-equal access to everyone. Our usage has gone up to the point that we are installing two more labs this semester. We are running windows based software in the keyboarding lab using wine where just two weeks ago even with a security program the kids were trashing the computer beyond use. They're grumbling that they have to work now because they can't mess the computers up any more. All in all if your principal can't see the economics of this then he needs to find a rubber lined room to live in. Our district people have seen the light finally and have been able to put off another property tax increase because of the savings Linux / K12LTSP have provided. Bye Pat Nolan Richardson Middle school El Paso, Texas
From: "Richard K. Ingalls;awm002@mail.connect.more.net> To: k12osn@redhat.com Reply-To: k12osn@redhat.com Subject: Re: [K12OSN] RE: Looking for successes or Fighting the Good Fight Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 15:29:05 -0500 Sender: k12osn-admin@redhat.com Organization: Glenwood R-8 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Hey James! This is Richard Ingalls in West Plains! Remember me? I spoke at the More.net conference re: K12LTSP. Glad to see you on the list. My school was so far behind in the technology department when I signed on, but now I can spend my tech budget on getting hardware instead of worrying about paying for those software licenses. Linux to the rescue (Open Source Software, really)! Now, I just focus on getting good hardware to do what I need, put Linux on it and use it either as a server or as a desktop. I love it! Migrating my teachers over to it is a slower process, but it can be done. First, I put Open Source software on their Windows PCs (i.e., Open Office, Mozilla, GIMP, whatever). Then, I let them use it for a year. Then, I tell them that I can put an entire (but small) lab into their classroom using older PCs and a new server for under $1000 and that gets them hooked! "You mean I can have 6 computers that can do all this stuff in my classroom AND a laser printer for under $1000?" Yup. Very cool, eh?