K12 Open Technologies

The most visible open source application in K-12 schools is Linux. Servers using this free or low-cost operating system are appearing on school networks. Sometimes dedicated Linux servers are employed to host particular applications; other times Linux is the backbone of the entire network in some school districts. An assortment of applications is built on the Linux platform, including Web servers, server scripting languages, databases (Apache, PHP, and MySQL), mail servers (Sendmail, Horde), firewalls, cache servers (Squid), and network management utilities. In addition to the direct savings for open source over commercial software, there is an implicit savings in hardware.

Linux can run on older, less powerful servers than Windows. Consequently, schools are able to set up multiple Linux servers on old machines to accomplish the same goals that they could meet with fewer, high-powered, more expensive, and newer servers. In some instances, schools run Linux machines in a computer lab for teaching programming while the rest of the school uses Windows or MacOS.

Linux Terminal Server allows a full computer lab to run on thin clients from a central server. This greatly reduces the amount of time spent on installing and maintaining software on student workstations. Thin clients place a smaller processing load on user workstations, thereby allowing schools to make use of a variety of older, less powerful computers with a minimum of maintenance headaches.

Hundreds of open source classroom application programs are available free of charge. This list includes desktop applications such as word processing, spreadsheets, graphics, and presentation programs. There are also enterprise-level, administrative programs for enrollment, managing test scores, and hosting e-learning. Adopting open source applications could save a school thousands of dollars. Some schools prefer to use popular commercial applications because it better prepares students for the software they will likely encounter in their workplace. Schoolforge provides links and reviews of the most popular programs.

Some open source programs support traditional classrooms. MyEDesk is a digital drop box and virtual drive for posting and distributing course documents to students, parents, and teachers. UTIPs is a test item pool server with a library of 10,000 test questions. Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS) provide all the tools to develop and publish electronic courses. .LRN is a course and research collaboration tool that has become popular in higher education. It is built on the OpenACS platform.

Open source LCMSs for education are becoming widely available. Often these are associated with courses and content that is also freely available. MyClassroom from Visionlearning.org provides a library of learning modules and also a course authoring system. OpenCourse is a Web-based online course content management system that focuses on sharing Reusable Learning Objects (RLOs). Interact is an online learning and collaboration platform developed by the Christchurch College of Education, New Zealand. It is a free alternative to commercial programs such as WebCT and Blackboard. Atutor is another full-featured LCMS from Canada. Moodle is a complete online course management system that offers most of the features that commercial learning systems offer, such as assignments, forums, chats, online journaling, and quizzes.

There is a rapidly growing system of content libraries supported by state, federal, and private organizations. Examples include The National Science Digital Library (NSDL) sponsored by the NSF, the Digital Library for Earth Science Education (DLESE), and the New York City Public Library Digital Collections. These libraries serve as portals to large collections of free text, photos, and data.