'Becta, the government's education technology agency,
recently made a complaint to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for
alleged anti-competitive practices by Microsoft in the schools
software marketplace and in relation to Microsoft's approach to
document interoperability. Becta's advice to schools in relation to
the deployment of Office 2007 remains that schools and colleges
should only deploy Office 2007 when its interoperability with
alternative products is satisfactory. That would necessarily imply
effective support by Microsoft of the internationally approved ODF
file format.Becta's final report, on Microsoft's Academic Licensing
Programmes, which was scheduled for January 2008, will now be
deferred until after the outcome of our complaint to the Office of
Fair Trading is known. Becta's final report on Vista and Office 2007
is scheduled for publication in January 2008.'
Could this mean that BECTA is likely to (deservedly) push
open source office applications and new web 2.0 office apps? In a bid
to steer the majority of educational establishments away from a once
popular, clever but now unnecessarily costly package?
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Developing an interactive whiteboard common file format
2 comments Posted by Stephen Walder at 13:40There are plans to develop a common file format for interactive whiteboards, in consultation with industry, to allow resources to be easily shared. The lack of a common file format remains a major barrier to sharing interactive whiteboard resources. There has not been an open format available to allow a user to develop content on one platform and present it on another.Another good example of vendors creating a standard for interoperabilty! This move will no doubt aid the sharing of resources on various learning platforms.
With a common file format, resources can be developed once, then immediately distributed, without conversion, for presentation on any interactive whiteboard configuration. Institutions will no longer be locked into buying hardware from a particular vendor to support content developed on their existing systems. They will be free to purchase hardware and software from any supplier, or from a range of suppliers, assured that their files will be supported.
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A big thanks to Joseph Hartman, San Diego, California for making me aware of his blog. He's trying hard to accomplish a similar project to myself using Ubuntu and LTSP. Just like me he's coming across many obstacles and one by one he's managed to overcome them.
He recently posted a great metaphor for his reasoning in using FOSS:
Understanding Operating Systems through the metaphor of automobiles
His full blog can be found here:
Hartman's Blogtastic Blog
I'd sure like to hear from anybody else who's doing a similar thing to our two primary schools, as they say - many hands make lighter work!
Here are a few photos of NABB's library, before and after. Before the conversion, the room was mainly used for storage and eventually became a dumping ground for all the items the teachers no longer required in the classrooms.
Space is at a premium in Holmfirth J I & N School, it was therefore essential that whatever furniture was fitted accommodated as much as possible.
Before
This was the NABB's library back in April 2007.
After
In August 2007 it was complete.
There are 17 thin clients housed in the room. The Promethean ActivBoard is connected to a Windows XP machine in a server cabinet 15m away. The USB leads use repeaters so no data is lost. A standard USB connection can be no longer that 7-10m before a repeater is required.
Each HP 5725 thin client is mounted to the bottom of the furniture using HP's quick release bracket. This provides quick and easy access to all the cables & means that a client is very quick to swap.
It's been almost a year now since Promethean revealed that they're working on Linux drivers for their range of ActivBoards and still no news of when and if it's to be released to the public.
Through piecing together information I've googled, it seems that Promethean advertised for a Linux/Mac software tester back in March, it's unclear if they managed to recruit anyone for the position. Now they're again recruiting for a similar position :
Software Tester: "You will be responsible for testing the full range of software & hardware products on Windows, Mac & Linux platforms. You will assist with maintaining the issue database & will liaise with other departments to qualify issues raised from internal & external users."
This is becoming quite a problem for us because as I've mentioned before it's the school's intention to make the transition to FOSS. There is certainly more demand for Linux support from Promethean, especially this year, but the exact numbers are unclear. I would therefore urge Promethean to adopt a platform-agnostic approach within a reasonable time frame to satisfy this increasing demand.
I came across a few tools today to ease the setup of common Ubuntu addons. Commonly installed applications & drivers like ATI and NVidea drivers can now be installed with just a few clicks.
These two programs are a great addition to an install of Ubuntu. It saves time having to go through the repositories and find the additional utilities often required. Easy Ubuntu is easy, graphical and safe.
Here is a screenshot:
This is what Easy Ubuntu does:
Multimedia
- Enhance video player: Install a better multimedia backend (totem-xine replace totem-gstreamer)
- Free Codecs: Add Support for playing mp3 and other non-free formats
- Binary Codecs: Add support for proprietary video and audio formats (w32codecs) (only x86)
- libdvdcss: Read commercial and encrypted DVDs
- MIDI: Add support for playing midi files
Web
- Flash: Enable the Macromedia Flash plugin (only x86)
- Java: Enable the Java plugin (Sun Java for x86, amd64) (IBM java for ppc)
- Videos: Enable viewing videos embedded in webpages
Archives
- RAR: extract and create RAR archives
- ACE: extract ACE archives
- 7-Zip: Extract 7-Zip archives
System
- Repository list: Main, Universe, Multiverse and PLF (replace your previous sources.list)
- Fonts: Install Microsoft and other nice fonts
- DMA: Enable Direct Memory Access to improve DVD reading (breezy)
- Nvidia: install the official driver to enable 3D on Nvidia graphics cards
- ATI: install the official driver to enable 3D on ATI graphics cards
Voice Over IP
- Wengo: a free Voice Over IP software (available in dapper)
- Skype: the most popular VoIP software (only x86)
Another application that does a similar thing but is apparently more configurable is Automatix. See the screenshot below:
To see a list of what Automatix is capable of installing:
http://getautomatix.com/wiki/index.php?title=Software_and_Tweaks
Nabb saw it's first small influx of Year 5 children using the the Ubuntu thin clients. They were very impressed.
There were 6 children in all, I told them how to log in to the machines and then left them to explore! They were engrossed by what it had to offer. Given free reign, they obviously went straight for the games. They loved the variety that Ubuntu had to offer and word quickly spread when one of the children found snake.
In an effort to explore their creative potential, I pointed them in the direction of Tux Paint, a basic but feature rich paint program primarily for KS1 & 2 children. I showed them how to use the stamp feature (readily created images) and they were engaged until break time.
A screenshot of Tux Paint.
They wanted to remain in the library through break time, so I let them, encouraging them all to experiment with the applications offered by Ubuntu. Experimentation will never become a problem with the thin client system and I can remain confident that I'll never 'fix' anything again, as administrative tasks are locked down by default.
In contrast, I've just spent two days locking down Windows Server 2003 whilst effectively allowing all our pupils and staff access to their own personal XP environment! Each user now has their own username and password, therefore allowing access to their own personal My Documents. They also have the ability to customise applications and the desktop the way they want. Personalisation is something all kids love - take ring tones and wallpaper on mobile phones for example!