Open Source for Schools

This mail is related to an issue I am actively taking up with my Children's School Authorities - rather seriously. The School's computer syllabus (say for class VIII - my daughter's class) teaches a lot of proprietary software. For class VIII other than teaching MS-Office, Photoshop etc., they insist on 'home work' for these software. For sure, I cannot afford a legal copy of Photoshop, nor do I want to purchase MS-Office.

Am wondering how many middle class people like me genuinely own these software? Negligible if not zero!!! Thus we are officially encouraging piracy to our kids.

I came across this article below, very similar and rather relevant to my issues and thus would like to share!!

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Why aren't schools adopting open source?

• Date: July 26th, 2009
• Author: Jack Wallen
  

Recently, I had a bit of a run-in with my daughter’s high school. She was undergoing an eSchool class over the summer called “Computer Applications,” and it turns out the class only actually “covered” Office Suites, namely Microsoft Office. Now in our household we do not own a copy of Microsoft Office. Instead, we use OpenOffice and have never had an issue - that is, until now.

The setup

Before my daughter started in on her eSchool, I set up OpenOffice to save in all Microsoft Office defaults. I knew this way she wouldn’t have any problem submitting her work. My presumption was correct…at first. But there was a wrench inadvertently thrown in the works. This wrench came when my daughter was discovered stretching the truth about her assignments. She said she had completed them but they weren’t accepted. She said she HAD to have Microsoft Office. Knowing what the assignments were, I decided to call the instructor of the class. It turns out there were a number of interesting issues going on. First and foremost the instructor was only able to teach Microsoft Office because (1) that is what she had and (2) that is what she knew. This, of course, led me to a question that I had to share.

Why are schools in the States not adopting open source software? It’s happening all around the globe. Schools, universities, businesses, corporations, governments are all adopting open source software. So why can’t the U.S.?

Adoption = savings, freedom, updates

Here in Kentucky the public schools are seriously strapped for cash - to the point that arts, humanities, and teachers (a precious commodity) are being dropped to save money. I have a suggestion for the public school systems around the country - adopt open source software and you will save a lot of money. Not only will you save a lot of money, you will also be able to keep all of your software up to date.

While I was looking into this eSchool class for my daughter, I discovered that the class supported Microsoft Office 97-2003. However, all the instruction for the class (including screen shots) used Office ‘97. So any student using the latest version of Office was going to have trouble figuring out what they were doing. Imagine someone unfamiliar with the various interface metaphors having to figure out how to do something from an outdated manual! Or what about a student practicing for an exam using Office 2010 only to go to take the final exam on Office 97?

This would not be the case if the schools adopted open source software. No longer would schools be using out of date and unsupported operating systems (I know schools and institutions still using Window 98 because they can’t afford to upgrade). Every school would have the latest-and-greatest software and the students would be somewhat closer to the cutting edge.

No longer a given truth

I’ve had many a discussion with people about this in various sectors of the professional world. Nearly every person I spoke with agrees with what I assumed to be a truth: At one point teaching school-age kids Microsoft, and only Microsoft, software was a safe bet. But things have changed. No longer is it safe to assume that every business uses MS software. Although most businesses are still sticking with one form of Windows or another, many of those same businesses are adopting OpenOffice, Firefox, and more as their software of choice. And thankfully for the students (and users of all ages and sorts), OpenOffice has done a great job of creating an interface that anyone used to MS Office will be comfortable with. So the preconceived notion that schools HAVE to teach Microsoft Office is no longer a given.

What about the private schools?

I say “public” because the private schools aren’t having such an issue. Here in Louisville, KY there are a number of outstanding private schools. I have spoken with various IT department representatives and was shocked to find out that some of these rather costly private schools (one private school has a yearly tuition of $17,500 - that’s a HIGH SCHOOL, people) have already adopted open source software. And these wealthier schools aren’t just adopting OpenOffice. No, some of them are even encouraging the use of Linux!