Open Options | Interview highlights

K-12 educators who use open
source - select for more info

Why open source?
- Wise spending | Quality software | Teaching | Empowerment | Equity
- Why access to source code matters
The open source community
- Community | Support
Zeal & pragmatism
Decisionmaking & migration
- Misunderstanding | Migration
Interview methodology

Why open source?

Wise spending |Analysis

We're always looking to save money, especially in these times... - Don Wolff, K-12 educator
Our total cost of ownership has been dropping like a rock. - Eric Harrison, K-12 educator
There isn't a desire to hurt any companies, but we must be good custodians of the few dollars that we are actually given. The total cost of ownership for a backroom Linux solution is much less. This allows us to stretch those budget dollars further and keep more teachers in the classroom. The lack of sufficient budget dollars has pushed us in this direction perhaps faster than we would have otherwise. - Mike Cullum, K-12 educator
I was going to teach the computer science classes and we were short on resources. - Jeff Elkner, K-12 educator
I had these great ideas for these great projects to do with the kids... but there is no way we could afford to bring Photoshop in. - Anthony Baldwin, K-12 educator
...hands down the total cost of ownership with Linux is by far lower than it is with Windows machines. - Anthony Baldwin, K-12 educator
By using Linux instead... we've been able to double to value... Not only do we deploy the clients and servers, but we're also able to purchase a laser printer and also a projector in each of these labs. - Trevor Larson, K-12 educator
Our support costs are the same. We even save a little money with open source because we're not paying for support contracts; we're using the community resources that we have. ...if we can get better software for free, it would be very irresponsible for us not to do that. - Ben Mabbott, K-12 educator
Because it's open source software, we're able to provide those services to our districts for essentially no cost. ...we don't have to worry about licensing costs.- Eric Harrison, K-12 educator

[back to top]

Quality software |Analysis

Why pay more for something that is that robust right now? - Mike Cullum, K-12 educator
...for those types of things, slowly but surely we've been replacing all proprietary stuff because the open source stuff just simply works better. - Eric Harrison, K-12 educator
We don't really have to worry about it. It just sits in the corner and does its thing. ... Apache does everything we want it to do out of the box. - Ben Mabbott, K-12 educator
...get the best software in the world without have to pay a lot for it. - Jeff Elkner, K-12 educator
With Linux all the updates are free. There's no virus software to buy. - Paul Nelson, K-12 educator

[back to top]

Teaching |Analysis

Teach concepts not applications. (survey write-in response)
We try to teach them how to use tools to think. - Don Wolff, K-12 educator
If they are only taught on one platform they don't learn any kind of flexibility whatever. - Anthony Baldwin, K-12 educator
Open source is a great teaching tool... you can get first hand experience with industry grade software that would cost thousands of dollars... (survey write-in response)
...as students get closer to actually graduating... [it's] more important to take a look at the specific software that they'll be walking into... - Mike Cullum, K-12 educator
When they're sitting there bored to tears... They do mischievous things. - Jeff Elkner, K-12 educator
....push the replacement cycle... out... [no forced] upgrades [or] new Microsoft licenses... You're able to focus on instruction. - Jay Keuter, K-12 educator

[back to top]

Empowerment |Analysis

I have more control over my own machine. ...there's a real sense of triumph when I tear things apart and get it back together again. - Anthony Baldwin, K-12 educator
Rather than a process that can take a year... I'm right there the day I want to use it. I just can't overestimate the value of that. - Jeff Elkner, K-12 educator
I have actually emailed developers on several occasions... - Andy Payne, K-12 educator
If you get one person who's really excited and has the energy and the time to do it it can be an incredibly rewarding experience, much more so than pulling something out of a box and 'press this button to continue.' - Mark Schmidt, K-12 educator

[back to top]

Equity |Analysis

...when kids have a computer and they can't afford Microsoft Office, I can hand them an OpenOffice.org CD. Here's all the software you need and it's free. ... A lot of the students are now using OpenOffice.org at home as well as in school. - Anthony Baldwin, K-12 educator
A lot of kids were living in foster homes and kids with bracelets on their ankles from the department of corrections because they were on house arrest that kind of thing. The graphics work was really a hook for them. It really kind of helped me reel them in. - Anthony Baldwin, K-12 educator
This year in my graphics class almost all of the students downloaded the software for their computers at home and were playing with it. - Paul Nelson, K-12 educator

[back to top]

Why access to source code matters |Analysis

The software grows and improves, and the end users benefit from that. - Paul Nelson, K-12 educator
I appreciate the source code being out there. ... If someone who's a programmer runs across this particular issue they can just fix it. I'm not reliant on whatever corporation it is to get around to fixing this problem. So it doesn't directly benefit me. But indirectly I think it's important. ... When they do have that source code available, that community has a lot more power to help each other. - Ben Mabbott, K-12 educator

[back to top]

The open source community

Community |Analysis

The open source model... The reason it works, the reason that good software comes out of it, is that it's based on collaboration. - Paul Nelson, K-12 educator
Giving back is almost my version of giving payment for what I've gotten... - Mark Schmidt, K-12 educator
They've been very free with their time and their expertise. .. They don't expect anything in return. - Don Wolff, K-12 educator
The community's out there, and they're ready to help. ... A lot of the time it's just letting them know you're there. - Ben Mabbott, K-12 educator
I've relied on the community a lot. ... I can usually get answers to issues I post within 24 hours, sometimes less. ... I've even in contact with some of the big guys, like I've had Eric Raymond email me back and help me. These guys are available online. They're like the open source gurus and they'll help you out... Mike Harris with Red Hat... A bunch of great guys. They'll help anybody out. A lot of them especially want to help the poor schools to open source. They've been very very helpful. - Anthony Baldwin, K-12 educator
You feel like you're helping a grassroots movement rather than a big corporation. ... You say, Hey I'm a member of [this LUG], you can join their mailing list, and you're in. - Ben Mabbott, K-12 educator
...teaching our students those kind of community principles is something that we should be doing. - Anthony Baldwin, K-12 educator

[back to top]

Support |Analysis

When you do usual stuff, it's easy to find solutions on the Web. - Ben Mabbott, K-12 educator
Lack of formalized support has been an ongoing problem. ... I have struggled immensely. (survey write-in response)
Unable to get any help at all from the school district. (survey write-in response)
Every year it gets easier. - Jeff Elkner, K-12 educator
Usually within a matter of a half hour or an hour I have several informative, correct answers to help me figure what I need to do to solve a problem. - Paul Nelson, K-12 educator
Sometimes there are people in the community that say "read the stupid manual." I've seen a change in attitude over the last year. When I first came in, it seemed like there were a lot of guys, they were heavy duty geeks and there was almost a resistance to helping the clueless Windows users out. More and more I see people being helpful with people that are moving away from Windows to the open source world... people are more patient with stuff that seems pretty basic. - Anthony Baldwin, K-12 educator
Get involved with mailing lists and local open source user groups; they are your best resource for advice and support. There is almost certainly a Linux Users Group in your area: find them! They probably have a website and a mailing list, which is a great resource for open source. Any problem you encounter has probably been seen before, and someone on the list probably has the solution, or can help find one. - Ben Mabbott, K-12 educator

[back to top]

Zeal & pragmatism

Analysis

There is a balance point. - Don Wolff, K-12 educator
We're not die hard. ... If there's a proprietary solution that works better for us, we don't mind using it. - Ben Mabbott, K-12 educator
There are some applications that we still need Windows for... the yearbook uses Pagemaker... The school newspaper is published on Microsoft Publisher. - Paul Nelson, K-12 educator
Some mission-critical apps just have to have MS Windows. (survey write-in response)
...Photoshop or the GIMP: it's infinitely easier to do the GIMP. I can put it on every computer I have and not worry about how many copies I need. ... It's just one less thing to worry about, which is always nice. - Ben Mabbott, K-12 educator
We had an audit request from Microsoft in the spring of 2002. The issue of audit is very very complex. It's time consuming. It's costly. It's costly to track the licenses as well as go through and do a physical audit of those systems. - Mike Cullum, K-12 educator
Microsoft has fiscally made it really difficult for us to keep current. - Jay Keuter, K-12 educator
Microsoft... Their business model is exploitive and it's vicious. I don't approve of they way they do business. ... Open source software is not built in the exploitive world of monopolistic dynasties. Nobody is coming to our school to audit our use of open source software to wring more money out of our school. - Anthony Baldwin, K-12 educator
I think Open Source is fatally flawed. How can you get something for nothing? (survey write-in response)

[back to top]

Decisionmaking & migration

Misunderstanding |Analysis

I think that supervisors hear 'open source' and think 'no security.' (survey write-in response)
Other admins and network admins will not acknowledge the open source community. They are blind to it. Ignorance is a terrible thing. I am the only one in this district using it. (survey write-in response)
There has been absolutely NO resistence to using OSS in the backend. (survey write-in response)
...they refuse to put my server behind their firewall... because they don't know how to secure a Linux box. - Mark Schmidt, K-12 educator

[back to top]

Migration |Analysis

If you are new to Linux, move slow and migrate small things (such as DNS, WINS, FTP, etc.) one at a time to a Linux-based system. (survey write-in response)
It's going to be better for everyone if there's a gradual change. ... Do it slowly... gradually... Start with your backend... then slowly move from there. Get in touch with people who have already done this. - Ben Mabbott, K-12 educator
Initial resistence was high. Once they used it, their resistence evaporated. (survey write-in response)
Teachers and staff have a much harder time adjusting than students. Hence, our deployments of Linux have focused on students' needs. (survey write-in response)

[back to top]

Interview methodology

The interviews were designed to study open source in K-12, particularly current users. The initial interviews were conducted between December 2002 and January 2003. In April 2004, follow-up interviews were conducted with most of the original respondents.

Initially the respondents were volunteers. The interviews were dynamic, using a standard set of questions for impromptu dialogue. Respondents received questions beforehand. The interviews were taped and transcribed and respondents were encouraged to review their responses and make corrections or clarifications.

Some respondents independently volunteered to be interviewed while others were sought out based on their survey responses or visibility in the K-12 open source community. The invitation was open to anyone using open source in K-12 and was publicized in the K-12 open source community. Various community mail lists and Web sites were used to invite respondents. All respondents were from the United States.

For the follow-up interviews, initial respondents were re-contacted and asked to describe changes in their implementations, to address new issues, challenges, and solutions, and to share insights and lessons learned.

This page also includes some write-in responses from the survey.

[back to top]

Open Options is a product of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. These materials are in the public domain and may be reproduced without permission. The following acknowledgment is requested on materials which are reproduced: Developed by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, Portland, Oregon.

This Web site was developed and maintained by the Northwest Educational Technology Consortium. The federal funding for the regional technology consortia program ended on September 30, 2005, and no further updates are planned unless additional funding becomes available. However, much of the content is still useful and NWREL will continue to provide access to this site to support educators and to meet its own technical assistance needs.