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Victoria, BC, Canada
Gregg Ferrie is the Director of Information Technology for School District No. 63 (Saanich) in southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Gregg has a Master of Science degree in Information Systems and has been involved with open source software since the late 1990s. The school district has implemented Linux diskless clients utilizing many open source programs and has recently incubated the openStudent Student Information System as an alternative to commercial SIS's currently being deployed. Gregg is passionate about the support and use of open source software in K-12 education.
Authored Comments
I have been involved in educational technology for a long time and my experience is those who are trained in commercial software operating systems and software often rely heavily on vendor provided support and services. As well they have little control or access to proprietary systems. Conversely administrators who manage Linux-based OS tend to rely on community support and become self-reliant. I do not think it is a stretch to say that Linux administrators are problem solvers, generally understand the inner workings of the operating system and have much greater control over their environment.
Teaching children to be problem solvers and becoming self-reliant would seem to be an advantage pedagogically than having them understand commercial software systems. Certainly teaching basic coding may even become part of literacy in the future.
Thank you for the comments.
Great comments Patrick and very valid questions. Rather than try to answer all of this in the comments section I might write another article that addresses the opportunities and challenges of implementing this kind of technology in school districts (if the editors approve). Having been through the process twice now and I think I can offer some solid recommendations for any district considering this path.