open source in schools

Open Source in Schools

Miles BerryElgg Conference

1st December 2008

Miles Berry

Head at Alton Convent Prep

Becta ICT in Practice Awards 2006

BCS, Naace, Mirandanet

Moodle, Elgg, Drupal, Edubuntu

Outline

Official Position

Applications

Advocacy

Structure

DCFS / SEED / DELLS / DENI

Becta (& Ofsted, QCA etc.)

RBCs

LAs

Schools - Governors and Heads

Teachers

Pupils

OGC

“UK Government will consider OSS solutions alongside proprietary ones in IT procurements. Contracts will be awarded on a value for money

basis.”

EDM

That this House congratulates the Open University and other schools, colleges and universities for utilising free and open source

software to deliver cost-effective educational benefit not just for their own institutions but also the wider community; and expresses concern that Becta and the Department for Education and Skills, through the use of outdated purchasing frameworks, are effectively denying schools the option of benefiting from both free and open source software and the value and experience small and medium ICT companies could bring to the schools market.

Becta - TCO

Becta - Frameworks

Functional Requirements

Technical Specifications

Invitations to Tender, eg

Net worth >£700K

D&B risk ≥3

3+ years audited accounts

History of major education sector contracts

Atomwide - Moodle & Elgg

Sirius - SEIF

And yet...

Open Source Schools“Becta wishes to ensure that schools are aware of and can access the wide variety of open source software in the marketplace. To achieve this it recognises that they must be supported in its awareness, adoption, deployment, use

and ongoing development.”

Red Hat, Canonical, OSS-Watch, AlphaPlus

Coordinate and support the community of schools who use and develop open source

BSF

Should we be?

LA Vision and Strategy for Change

ICT Output Specification

PfS & LEP

ICT as Managed Service

Local Choice Fund

Infrastructure

Web based applications

Web based applications

Web 2.0

Google

Hosting

Appliances

Open Source on the desktop

Portable Kit

Advantages of OSS

Cost

Freedom

Philosophy

Innovation

Tailoring

Development

Education vs Training

Ownership

Issues with OSS

Procurement = Purchasing

Sustainability

Support

Compatibility

Exam Boards

Key People

Becta

RBCs / LAs

BSF contractors

Governors

Heads

Network Managers

Teachers

Pupils

Contact details...

milesberry.net

twitter.com/mberry

mberry@bcs.org