Looking for Open Source in Education resources.

[Bill Sconce]

Ray's original question marked **>.

My comments at the end.

(A funny coincidence, Ray, that you'd write this (Wendesday) just as 
NELS was in process at UNH and educators from all over the northeast
were getting together about Free software in schools.)

-Bill



**> On Jul 19, 2006, at 12:45 PM, Ray Cote wrote:
**>
**> I've had a group of educators who are putting together a school 
**> technology plan ask me to provide them with links to some of "this 
**> Open Source software" that's out there.
**> 
**> The people I'm speaking with are mostly Windows folks with some  
**> Macintosh users as well.
**> I'm less interested in talking about the virtues of Linux, Firefox,  
**> and applications like Moodle at the moment and more interested in  
**> talking about the virtues of more education-specific applications.

> On Wed, 19 Jul 2006 15:41:48 -0400
> Ted Roche <tedroche at tedroche.com> wrote:
> 
> http://wiki.gnhlug.org/twiki2/bin/view/Www/LinuxInSchool
> 
> http://www.nhste.org/
> 
> http://www.caces.org/
> 
> http://www.nheon.org/
> 
> especially http://www.nheon.org/centers/index.htm
> 
> Links from Matt Oquist's page: http://majen.net/

(Bill:)

More on activities and how Free software is being used, accepted, and
acclaimed in education (including among the Mac crowd), plus another
software link or two:

NorthEast Linux Symposia (specifically devoted to K12):
    http://nelinux.net

A Shuttleworth Foundation project (yes, THAT Shuttleworth) for Free-
software school adminstration software...  [Python!]:
    http://www.schooltool.org

Seacoast Professional Development Center (help and training for teachers
and administrators, led by Dr. Steve Kossakowski, who has directed a
widespread adoption of Linux in the Exeter school system):
    http://www.k12opensource.org/spdc/

The "Blackboard Killer" (course management software, created by an
accomplished educator and supported by a worldwide/enthusiastic community
(although in PHP, regrettably :)
    http://moodle.org

A local company (Keene) which offers turnkey thin-client systems,
together with really slick admin tools (and which is investigating how
to go Open Source/Free!)
    http://resara.com/

Surprisingly to me, being from there originally, *Indiana* of all places
is in the process of a widespread Linux deployment in its high schools:
    http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=5819
    (or just Google for "linux schools indiana")


If talking to other educators would help any of your contacts lean
more easily toward Free software I can provide you with names of 
colleagues-of-theirs in New Hampshire from whom they can get reassurance
and success stories.  (So can lots of other folks.)

It appears that things are about to explode for Free software and K12.
(And this is before Vista.)

-Bill