educationaLinux 2003 Tuesday 10:00 session

Tuesday 10:00 – Strathcona Baptist Girls Grammar School Case Study

A case study in the deployment of Open Source operating systems and software in the K-12 environment.

During 2001 Strathcona undertook a study to review existing IT infrastructure for student use. The outcome of this review identified a number of issues which has resulted in the school moving from a sole Microsoft desktop environment to a mixed one, where half of the student workstations (approximately 100 machines) now use RedHat Linux 7.3. As a result of our very positive experiences during 2002 the School will expand our deployment of Linux on the desktop for student and staff use during 2003.

This presentation looks at the drivers for change, decision making process, the rationale behind the change and the experience so far.

This presentation will outline:

the reasons why the change to a Linux desktop environment was undertaken including:
- financial implications
- pedagogical drivers
- resource utilization
the technical infrastructure and design of the deployment including:
- desktop hardware
- network infrastructure
- server infrastructure
- desktop operating systems
- server operating systems
deployment timeline
software applications utilized on the Linux desktop
implications for staff professional development
evaluation of the experience so far
concentrating on:
- student response
- staff acceptance
- parent response
- financial implications
future developments and directions
lessons learnt

Although the presentation focuses on organizational and pedagogical aspects of the deployment, discussion of technical aspects will also be undertaken.

About Kim Perkins

Kim is the Information Services Manager at Strathcona.

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