[K12OSN] Best approach to calm the school's administration about Linux?

[anthony baldwin]

Joseph Bishay wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> After finally setting up everything and having the lab running 
> smoothly, some issues have arisen.
> 
> It seems rumours within the school's administration/board abound that 
> the lab we have is totally useless for preparing students for future 
> computer use/education.

That's absolutely preposterous.
They can learn all of the typical office productivity skills they would 
normally learn on a buggy, insecure Windope lab, such as word 
processing, spreadsheets, slide presentation, web page creation, etc., 
they can do internet research, manipulate graphics, etc., etc., just as 
well in your lab, and they'll have less down time for viruses and 
crashes.  Also, you can maintain current software without licensing 
costs (my school is all Macs still running OS 9, besides the linux boxes 
I've brought in and my OS X iBook.  Schools never stay current with 
proprietary stuff due to costs). Besides, now they will have access to 
source code and can learn so much more than they ever could in a 
Micro$lop lab. They can learn about networking by actually networking 
things, not by pointing and clicking, etc., etc.  The benefits of an OSS 
lab in a school are myriad:  costs, stability and security, and 
increased learning potential are all part of the package.
Don't get me started!

tony


> 
> Background: we are a small private Christian elementary school with a 
> very limited budget and basic staffing. The school board is also made 
> up of people who have no experience in teaching (mostly business 
> people) 

You mean "clueless morons".

and they don't interact with the school directly (IE: they're
> completely out of touch).
> 
> What would be the best way to reassure them that the system we have 
> IS able to prepare the students for the future (IE: Doesn't need to 
> be Windows)? Note that in our area (Toronto) there is no ministry-
> mandated computer curriculum, so essentially the lab is used as a 
> reference room for other subjects. 
> 
> Thanks,
> Joseph
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> K12OSN mailing list
> K12OSN at redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn
> For more info see <http://www.k12os.org>
> 


-- 
Anthony Baldwin
http://www.School-Library.net
Freedom to Learn!

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
GED$/L/P/FA d? s: a C++ L++ W++ N++ K- w--- M+ PS++
PE-- Y+ PGP- t+ tv-- b++(b++++) D? G e++++ h++ r--- y?
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------