[Andrew Field]

Many colleagues have an input in this, but I just want to draw everyone's attention to the Open Source Schools initiative.

http://opensourceschools.org.uk/

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Open Source Schools is here to share information about open source software in schools. Our aim is to help you decide whether open source software might offer benefits for learning, teaching, engaging pupils and parents, managing information and resources, or school administration.

The website provides information and articles about open source software, advice on getting started, case studies of its adoption in schools, a directory for exploring what is available, and a glossary.

We are building a community of people who have experience of open source software in schools, and those who are just getting started There are a number of forums designed to encourage you to share ideas and experiences and contribute to the debate about the use of open source software in schools.

On the about page, it also goes into further detail:

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The Open Source Schools Community is an initiative to help schools with awareness, adoption, use and development of Open Source Software (OSS). A number of schools are already realising the benefits of OSS within their ICT strategy. This project will work to share their experiences along with good OSS practice from other sectors with the wider community of educational practitioners, including teachers, decision makers and IT specialists.
OSS logo

Open Source Schools is a two year project supported by Becta. The goal is that during the span of the project there will be sufficient numbers of active members for the community to ultimately become self sustaining.

We seek to provide an informative and impartial website that will raise awareness of how OSS can be used to enhance learning, teaching and school infrastructures. The project is developing and supporting a community of practice that engages those who are currently using OSS and welcomes and supports new members who wish to explore the potential of OSS.

In short though, this is a great developing community who will be able to offer not just wishful thinking and "wouldn't it be great?" but actual examples of how Open Source software can be extremely successful within education.

More details to follow - but please do go to the website and explore further: http://opensourceschools.org.uk/

[Dan Moorhouse]

Alf Wilkinson has recently contacted me to ask what uses of Open Source software in history lessons I'm aware of. I use a few things which I'll outline later on - can people add a few examples of their own use of open source software so we can start building up a bank of ideas / strategies (and / or pitfalls)

[DAJ Belshaw]

The Open Source Schools project is now moving to subject-specific areas. Given the strength of the our community, I've volunteered to help co-ordinate the History effort.

Here's what the one of the leaders of the overall project replied when I asked her what was required:

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Basically we want stories of how teachers are using OSS in history lessons which will give other history teachers practical/tangible ideas about how to use it. Maybe videos to illustrate the software in use and/or what the kids are doing. Maybe some reference to the NC.

I'd like to stress that we're not necessarily looking for groundbreaking ideas here, just straightforward examples of how History teachers around the world use Open Source Software to enhance teaching and learning.

Like to get involved? Reply here or DM me for more details. I'm also available on Twitter (@dajbelshaw)

Doug

PS A recent presentation I did on Open Source Software can be found here.

[Lee Ball]

On the theme of this I thought I'd bring Karoshi to your attentions, Its a Linux distro built for the school environment.

They have also just released a new version which they are wanting bug testing for if anyone could give them the time to cast their opinions on it. This is after all the essence of Open Source and free software

And now, the link: http://karoshi.linuxgfx.co.uk/

Here is a thread on a forum about the new version: Linux Format Karoshi Thread