Opinion: Is Linux a solution for the school laptops program?

The Australian Federal and State governments have announced programmes to give school-kids laptops.

However, there are ongoing cost and deployment issues, which are causing these programmes to be delayed or stopped.

One solution is to use low-cost netbooks, allocating one per two students, with the students using 'live' Linux USB keys to store their operating system, applications and school-work.

This results in a major reduction in installation and maintenance complexity, but still allows the students flexibility in how they use their netbooks and applications.

This programme can be established for a cost of $500 per unit (ie, for 2 students sharing), or $1000 per 4 students.

This includes all hardware and software costs. All that remains is the effort of having designated teaching staff image the USB keys, which is a trivial, one-click exercise.

We've seen approaches similar to this one work in other countries. For instance, in France, 175,000 'live' Linux USB keys were supplied to Parisian school children.

It's clear that with the approach we've outlined above, it is feasible to ensure that every single school child in Australia has access to an educational netbook/laptop for much of the
school week, and to have that laptop filled with hundreds of useful educational software applications, all within the budget offered by the Government.

We must also provide our response to what we've been informed is the key criticism against using Linux in school education, namely that it's 'not Microsoft', and thus somehow won’t prepare students for the real world.
The reality is that students are not likely to be using the same versions of Microsoft's products, years later, when they enter industry; Microsoft's software changes, sometimes dramatically. Therefore,
learning computing on Linux, Firefox and OpenOffice.org is not a disadvantage.

In fact, there's no guarantee that students will be using a Windows desktop in 5-10 years time; it's therefore important that schools teach concepts, such as word-processing and spreadsheets, rather
than specific products, such as Word and Excel.

By contrast, we don't teach our kids Addison-Wesley calculus or Monsanto chemistry - we teach
them calculus and chemistry. Similarly, we shouldn't be teaching them just Microsoft computing, but computing. And the best way to ensure that they understand a concept is to teach them more than one form of it.

Here’s a breakdown of suggestions for the program:

1) Each pair of students is provided with a new netbook (ie, Eee PC,
Aspire One, Dell Mini 9, etc. style laptop).

2) Each individual student is given a 2-4GB USB key, which has a
self-booting Linux OS and all the core apps they need. This greatly
reduces ongoing IT tech support costs as the software is easy to
'install', update and 'revive'. Simply remove the old or
non-functioning USB key, pop in the new one, and reboot.

3) The students store all their data on the USB key, and sync that data
with a central server. They can access this data through a web-
interface, ie, the school Intranet or Learning Management System (eg,
Moodle or LAMS, both if which are free software.)

4) The school's existing wireless/wired network is used for
connectivity, so no additional cabling is needed. The school's
existing power sockets are used to recharge the netbooks; no
additional power resources are needed.

5) If ‘anything’ goes wrong with the operating system or applications,
the student's USB key is re-imaged with a fresh OS/apps copy, and
their data is fetched from the central Intranet server.

6) If the student forgets their USB key at home, they can be issued a
temporary one, and their 'data' is always available via the
school's file-store Intranet.

7) The USB system and application image comes bundled with hundreds of
free and open source applications (e.g. Firefox, OpenOffice.org etc),
for all manner of school and educational requirements: Maths,
Science, Geography, Music theory, Multimedia and Languages.

8) No Linux or additional systems expertise is needed, as the
technology to create (i.e. image) new USB drives with a Linux
distribution exists and is very easy to use. Therefore, there would
be no issues with current IT staff not having the knowledge needed
to deploy and support these new netbooks.

9) The students can use their USB key on any of the school-supplied
netbooks, or, for that matter, any other PC they may have at school,
home or in the local library.