What does this mean for schools?

K-12 school systems, already cost-conscious, are in a great position to take advantage of open-source technologies–if only they would, some experts say.

According to Keith Krueger, chief executive officer of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), a national nonprofit organization that promotes the use of information technologies in K-12 schools, too many education leaders aren’t considering open-source software like they should be.

"The first step is to enable them to have a common language," Krueger says. Toward that end, CoSN and Educational Systemics Inc. have developed a "Primer on Open Technologies in K-12 Education," which was released at CoSN’s K-12 School Networking Conference in March.

"In other places, like Australia, open source has gone farther, faster," Krueger says.

Why is this? For one thing, U.S. school systems are notoriously resistant to change. Also, the argument that you can get as robust a computing program for free as you can from a commercial software developer funneling millions into research and development does not easily align itself to the way Americans typically do business. And while an IT director might fully understand the potential of open-source software, getting executive buy-in–whether it’s in the corporate, government, or educational world–for such a dramatic move can be difficult.

Further slowing or preventing open-source adoption in some schools "is that they’re Microsoft-centric and won’t allow another operating system on their network," says Michael Jay, president of Educational Systemics.

There’s also the matter of expertise required to make an open-source implementation successful.

Basha Krasnoff, research and evaluation specialist for the Northwest Educational Technology Consortium (NETC), notes, "I think it’s safe to say that, up until now, early adoptions of open-source technology were [owing] to one person who had the know-how and zeal to put in the time and effort needed to get it off the ground. The problem is, if you only have one person who knows how it runs, it will come to a screeching halt if that person leaves."

Shaun Taylor, a research associate with Educational Systemics, agrees. He says a major consideration should be the depth of the tech support you have on site.

"It’s a common story to hear about the open-source guru at a school who promotes open source and really spearheads the deployment. If the guru leaves, the school needs to find new support," Taylor says. "If a school is only running Windows, [administrators] know they can find new tech people easily. That’s not often the case in a Linux environment, where a different level of expertise is needed."

Winston Chou, technology director at The Rivers School in Weston, Mass., which recently switched from a Linux server solution to a Microsoft system, said the building-block design of Linux affected IT productivity and security.

"There were so many components to it, and each one had its own path," Chou said. "It was a sort of try-and-see thing. We would make a couple changes, and if it worked, great. We really couldn’t figure out if it was going to work until we made those changes. One application affected another. Every time we typed in a series of commands, we would have to list out the settings again, see what had taken [and] how it was configured, and see [if] it was working well with other parts of the Linux host."

While a strong support staff is needed regardless of what type of software is used, schools can simplify the matter by using services from companies such as Novell, IBM, or Red Hat. These companies can provide turnkey service and support–including timely updates and patches–for their open-source offerings, freeing school IT personnel from the need to be Linux experts.

Another concern among those wary of trying Linux is the availability of software to run on the system. But as Linux has grown in popularity, the number of applications written for it has exploded in kind. An Evans Data survey made public in February 2004 found that 1.1 million software developers in North America reportedly were working on open-source projects.

A popular way for schools to experiment with open-source technologies is to implement a Linux terminal server in a computer lab. This allows schools to connect lots of low-powered, thin-client terminals to a Linux server. Applications typically run on the server, displaying their output on a thin-client display. In this kind of setup, you can run any software application that is web-based.

While some open-source implementations are self-contained, like a computer lab that is running a word-processing application over a terminal server, other applications need to be compatible with a wide range of data or file formats.

"With any application, schools should look at interoperability," Jay says. The good news for schools is that open-source applications that are compatible with the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF)–a standard of interoperability for educational software–do exist.

The SIF Working Group certifies applications that adhere to this standard of interoperability on a test harness to make sure they can read and use data delivered by other SIF-certified applications. A limited number of the applications listed on the Open Group web site–part of SIF–are open source. School leaders should ask organizations that are writing open-source applications to create agents for these products to allow them to interoperate in a SIF environment, Jay says.

"But keep in mind that just because something is SIF-certified doesn’t mean it’s interoperable right out of the box," he says. "Some level of system integration still needs to take place in most cases."

Jay also warns that, even though Linux and other open-source programs are available free of charge, school leaders still should expect to pay for these solutions. If you license a full suite of open-source software from a company like Novell or Red Hat, for example, you can expect to pay license fees that include the cost of maintenance and support. And if you download a solution like K-12 Linux Terminal Server from the internet at no cost, you should remember that you’ll incur some expenses by installing and maintaining it yourself.

"One thing we’ve noticed that we’re concerned about is the perception within school communities from non-technical staff that things can be free," Jay says. "Schools need to keep in mind that the up-front cost is not the whole cost of implementing these products."

Krueger agrees: "A good place to start the open-source thinking process is to take a close look at total cost of ownership."

In deciding whether an open-source solution is right for you, you need to closely look at your goals and realistically evaluate your school’s capacity, leadership, training, and morale, Krueger says. Evaluation tools are available on the NETC and CoSN web sites.

Salvaging old machines

In August 2004, Kearney School District’s Waller wrote an article for eSchool News about how he resurrected 32 machines in a computer lab. They were all Pentium IIs or older that weren’t able to run anything more recent than Windows 98 and Office 97. Using Lumen Software’s Linux Terminal Server Solution, EzThin, Waller turned the old workstations into state-of-the-art machines that were more stable and, because the solution is Linux-based, free from individual licensing charges. (See "The return of the dinosaurs; How I resurrected my old machines," http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=5202.)

Lumen set up the computers to boot directly to the central server, and users were able to access their virtual desktop, which resembled the Windows interface they were accustomed to in appearance and functionality. This meant there wouldn’t be a long and painful learning process.

Since that article, Waller says he has purchased thin-client machines, a real advantage at a price of $200 per unit. "They’re great," Waller says. For one thing, thin clients are very small–a key benefit when terminals are on top of the desks.

He runs OpenOffice.org on them, one of the leading open-source office productivity suites. Lumen handles terminal services, which simplifies Waller’s job immensely, he says.

The only people who have raised issues are business teachers who want students to learn Microsoft Office, which is predominant in the business world. That argument doesn’t make a lot of sense to Waller: "No matter what you use now, the technology will be different in five years."

Waller set up the four technology labs mentioned at the outset of this report with help from the eMINTS National Center, a collaborative education program sponsored by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the University of Missouri System. The eMINTS program only recently began providing for open-source software.

"Our browser-based applications work the same in both classrooms," Waller says. "Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org interfaces are very much alike. Students don’t have trouble getting around."

What makes the labs different is the time needed for system maintenance. The two teachers in the Windows classroom take care of maintenance, such as installing patches and updating virus software, themselves.

In the Linux labs, Lumen does all of that for them.

"Lumen tells us what’s happening and then just takes care of it," Waller says. "It’s quite different from the Windows lab, where all at once the teachers might have 13 critical patches that need installation."

Also, with a Windows stand-alone workstation, what one student does to a machine affects everyone who logs on afterward, Waller says. He has to install special software so that’s not possible. With Lumen’s EzThin, everyone has his or her own login, and whatever students do on a machine affects only their settings.

Low maintenance

While other schools struggle with servers that crash on a regular basis, Norton High School’s Gerstenmaier says he doesn’t have to worry about that. "With Windows, you have to reboot all the time," he says. "With Novell [and its version of Linux], we can go a year without rebooting." That stability is one of the major reasons that Gerstenmaier’s school uses open-source software.

The fact that there’s not a lot of maintenance is key. "I have 3,000 kids in this school and two tech people," Gerstenmaier says. "They don’t have a lot of time to do repairs." And for Norton High School, price is definitely a factor. If the school were to use Microsoft Outlook as its eMail software, "we’d pay $2.50 per client. With Novell’s GroupWise, we pay 25 cents per client," Gerstenmaier says.

Gerstenmaier hasn’t had any trouble finding open-source software. "Nine out of 10 software programs will run over Novell NetWare," Gerstenmaier says. "One software program that has been key for us is WeBSET, from Lumen Software."

WeBSET is a special-education management system that is Novell YES Certified, which means it has demonstrated the highest level of compatibility with Novell products. Norton High School could have run this product off its own servers, but to avoid purchasing a new server, the school runs it as web-based software. Norton also runs Novell’s BorderManager, which includes firewall and Virtual Private Network (VPN) technologies, and Microsoft Office and Microsoft Publisher, "which run very smoothly over Novell NetWare," Gerstenmaier says.

Like Kearney School District, Norton High School also is saving money by being able to run current software on older desktops. "We’ve recently phased out our Windows 95 machines, but we’re still running our open-source software on our Windows 98 machines and they don’t miss a beat," Gerstenmaier says. "You can’t even tell what the software is running on. You might see a Novell log-in screen, but after that it looks like any Windows machine."

Gerstenmaier says Microsoft has been heavily courting his school. "They say they’ll pay for a company to come in and install all of the Microsoft and Windows software," he says. But in the long run, Gerstenmaier says, that move wouldn’t make much sense because of the overall low cost and low maintenance of Novell’s solution.

"With Microsoft, we’re always installing patches. That’s just not the case with Novell," he says.

Saugus Union School District’s Klein attributes his district’s success with Linux to its use of Red Hat’s server management solution, which enables IT administrators to manage, upgrade, patch, and monitor servers throughout the district from a single location. What’s more, he says, the one-time license only cost the district about $50 for the whole district; compare that with other proprietary server management applications, which Klein says can run as high as $500 a server.

That’s not to say all open-source solutions can be obtained at bargain prices. For one thing, Klein says, districts still have to make a significant investment in training and support, including certification and maintenance costs–not to mention the time researching the transition and promoting buy-in across the district.

"With any kind of transition like this, you really have to do your homework," Klein says. "It’s a total philosophy change."

And turning the doubters into believers isn’t always easy, he says. "The biggest fear out there is that this stuff isn’t high-quality," Klein explains, referring to the growing number of Linux software applications available for downloading on the internet via the Mozilla Foundation, which provides the Firefox web browser, and other open-source software promoters.

For schools, he says, the best way to approach a Linux migration is to start with a few smaller projects and build your way up to the larger servers and systems. That way, when it comes time to answer questions before the school board and other members of the community, you have concrete examples that you can point to and say, "Look–it works," he says.

Open-source learning management systems

Jeff Crawford, manager of networking and security for Michigan’s East Grand Rapids Public Schools, oversees the technology for six buildings, 2,800 students, and 350 staff members.

Crawford has incorporated a lot of open-source technology into the district. One of the most noticeable examples is the district’s use of Moodle, an open-source learning management system (LMS), for the last year and a half, a competitor to the proprietary software Blackboard. Crawford manages the district’s open-source technologies with Novell’s SUSE LINUX 9.2, professional version.

"We’re a Novell shop, but we also have Windows and Apple workstations," Crawford says.

For Crawford, two factors have led to him embrace open-source technologies:

1. Total cost of ownership (TCO).
"In 2001, I believe I was quoted a price of $40,000 per processor for Blackboard," Crawford says. Moodle, on the other hand, is free. But he acknowledges that Moodle "takes more love and care."

"If something bad happens with proprietary software, you can call someone–and if you pay lots of money, someone will fix it," Crawford says. "With Moodle, there are no strategic partnerships." But he says he’s the only person needed to maintain the Moodle system.

When it comes to training, Crawford says there is a learning curve with Linux–and if the district needs to hire people, it’s easier to find support people trained for Windows than Linux.

"We spend a lot on training," Crawford says. "On the other hand, the TCO for desktops is killing us."

2. The "do-it-yourself" nature of open-source software.
"In Moodle, if you don’t like an assignment module, you can go in and change it," Crawford says. "For us, a lot of our teachers teach college, so they’ve worked with Blackboard and they want everything from Blackboard to be in Moodle." So it does take Crawford extra time to ensure they get the functionality they want.

Currently, Crawford runs the network on six Novell Netware servers, but he is switching to two of Novell’s SUSE LINUX servers.

"The software available for SUSE LINUX is unbelievable," Crawford says. "With NetWare and Windows, that’s not always true. If you need a firewall on a Windows server or NetWare, the choices are narrow. With SUSE LINUX, you can pick from hundreds of free options."

One key to success: Creating a web-based environment

"By default, schools provide Microsoft Office–regardless of whether it’s running on Apple or IBM machines," says Jim Hirsch, associate superintendent for technology at the Plano Independent School District in Texas. "That kind of monopoly is not healthy."

Hirsch says Plano ISD, a district with 53,000 students and 29,000 networked computers, pays $500,000 in license fees each year for Microsoft Office.

But, he says, OpenOffice.org, which is free, might provide 95 percent of Microsoft Office’s functionality–and maybe 100 percent of the functionality that is needed in a school or office situation.

Hirsch warns that most school systems probably cannot run everything they need on Linux. "You’ll never replace all the instruction applications that you use," he says–but he recommends that school leaders closely examine the instructional software their institutions use. If it can be distributed on a browser, you can use Linux.

"Districts need to step back and say their applications must be web-based," Hirsch says. "What OS you run becomes less important if you use browser-based software–then the open-source discussion focuses on dollars only."

Like the others, Hirsch recommends that schools try small open-source tests. "We provide home computers for socio-economically disadvantaged students, and we use OpenOffice.org," he says. "They work at home and bring the disk to school, where they use Microsoft Office. The software is completely compatible for the work they’re doing."

Or, Hirsch says, if your school is going to teach web design, there are a number of open-source web programs out there instead of purchasing Dreamweaver. If you need Photoshop, you might look at a popular product called GIMP.

"Because we run Novell as our network operating system, it’s an easy transition for us to move to Linux," Hirsch says. "We’re now making our first foray into business intelligence and investigating different products."

Toward that end, all of the software Plano purchased last year was web-based. "Within 10 years, we’ll have turned over all our software and be completely web-based," Hirch says–setting the district up nicely for a full migration to Linux.

Paul Nastu is a freelance writer living in Colorado. Associate Editor Corey Murray and Assistant Editor Robert Brumfield also contributed to this report.

Related item:

Open-source applications and resources
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=5644

See these related links:

Kearney School District
http://www.kearney.k12.mo.us

Saugus Union School District
http://www.saugus.k12.ca.us

Details of Saugus’ migration to open-source software
http://www.saugus.k12.ca.us/migration/index.htm

Norton High School
http://scs.summit.k12.oh.us/norton/highschool.htm

K-12 Linux Terminal Server Project
http://www.k12ltsp.org

GNU Project
http://www.gnu.org

Linux Free Standards Group
http://www.freestandards.org

LSB Certification
http://www.opengroup.org/lsb/cert

Center for Digital Government
http://www.centerdigitalgov.com

California Performance Review
http://cpr.ca.gov/report

Consortium for School Networking