14 DAY TRIAL // What would the connection between Linux and the education process be? Well, it's very simple and obvious. The Linux operating system and usually the free software, could represent a good, if not better alternative to those currently used by schools and other educational institutions.
The Kamloops/Thompson School District in British Columbia from Canada is one of the most excellent examples I could bring related to the successful major use of open source software. According to Gregg Ferrie, manager of information technology for the district, the Linux-based infrastructure set up at Kamloops might be "the largest Linux on-the-desktop implementation in Western Canada in public education". And this is not all. After hearing about the success got by Kamloops, some other districts have also expressed their interest into Kamloops district's custom-built thin client solution. It was said that even the department of education at the University of British Columbia is also considering making this implementation.
The Kamloops story begins back in the late 90's, when the shifting to free software idea was seriously taken into consideration. In 2001 the entire administration system was running Linux. Once the migration was completed, Ferrie and his system analysts team thought on a solution for providing services to all the elementary schools in the district. The team started working on the Linux Terminal Server Project in order to create a thin client system for the district's elementary schools. During the next scholar year, the system has been installed in 20 schools and one year afterwards Ferrie managed to deliver it in all the district's elementary schools.
After that it was the turn for the secondary schools to switch to free software in 2002-03. Here the team encountered a few problems, mostly due to the resistance opposed by some teachers who had had developed at that time courses for specifying a particular software, even though the schools were supposed to teach skills and not specific software. But this resistance was to fail very quickly and this task was completed well too.
Ferrie declares himself very satisfied with the job he did and he considers the results as even better than expected. "We're making much better use of the few resources we have ..." says Ferrie regarding the new system.