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Linux, Learning, and Little Kids

Christopher Dawson has been thinking aloud about Linux in the classroom at his ZDNet Education blog. Dawson, the technology director of a school district in northern Massachusetts, had sixty new Classmate Convertible PCs fall into his hands, and wonders if the Linux-powered machines are a better option for the district.

The Linux Classmate PCs run Edubuntu with a customized version of Ubuntu's Netbook Remix user interface. Dawson is suitably impressed with the educational software included by default in Edubuntu and how well the school district's necessary Windows-based software runs in WINE. Intel says that the software stack offered on its Windows XP Classmates is similar to the Linux machines.

Unless there are serious issues raised in testing, Dawson plans to purchase the Edubuntu-powered Classmates. He admits the teachers are a little hesitant about the decision.

Speaking from experience, the adults are always hesitant. He needn't worry about the students.

In order to make the most of the available hardware, and increase the number of computers available in the children's room at the library, I assembled (and simultaneously lobotomized) a few machines to run K12LTSP. K12LTSP is an offshoot of the Linux Terminal Server Project customized for educational environments. It calls for a desktop computer with reasonable specs, and any number of thin clients (ours consisted of old desktops, sans hard drives, that could boot from the network).

In some ways, this deployment had issues. The hardware in question was old, and it showed. People (not just the children) had the tendency to press the power button on the server -- randomly -- and power down the entire system. For a goodly amount of time, the staff seemed unsure of which machine to power on first in the morning.

The software -- the applications, and the operating system itself -- were rarely an issue. While the staff had varying degrees of comfort with starting up an application and working with it -- the kids approached these computers as they did the previous machines.

It's not that technology comes naturally to kids, of course. They were simply less concerned with how it was "supposed" to work, so long as it actually did. It meant little to them that they were clicking on the Firefox icon to get on the web instead of the giant "E" -- all that mattered was that they had a working browser.

Staff got accustomed to the software (which, though stable, was sadly done a great disservice by the failing hardware). It took longer, mainly because staff had less time -- and in some cases, little interest -- in sitting down and "getting their hands dirty" with the new system.

Dawson makes some valid arguments as to why he feels Edubuntu is a wise choice, and while the teachers might still hestitate, they must see the logic in his reasoning. Dawson says that XP is dated, and though it's gotten a stay of execution on netbooks, it's not really going forward, either. Windows 7 isn't available now on these machines, and it's still an unknown quantity. Will it be suitable for the school's needs when it comes? And won't there still be a learning curve?

Edubuntu, Dawson reasons, is "...new and shiny, inherently secure, and quite mature." He's sure, as I am, the kids will adjust (some within mere nano-seconds). He's also sure, as I am, that a few teachers will be surprised -- and maybe even impressed -- about what Linux offers, and how simple it can be.

• Windows
• open source
• linux
• education
• Classmate
• LTSP
• K12LTSP

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