[LINK] Linux for Schools Project Interview

[James Morris]

Here's an interesting OLinux interview with Phil Jones of the UK based
Linux for Schools Project (http://www.lfsp.org/).

http://www.olinux.com.br/artigos/393/1.html

       Linux For School Project: More schools should adopt this idea!
                      Por: Marcos Martins Manhães
     _________________________________________________________________

   OLinux: Who did came up with the LFSP idea? Who are the people behind
   the project?

   Phil Jones: I started the project. I first got into Linux because I
   heard it was free and IBM were doing support for it. The project began
   because I was fascinated by the multiuser capabilities of Linux.
   Coming from Windows I found it amazing that a single Linux machine can
   support multiple interactive user sessions at the same time. I wanted
   to prove to myself and others that it works. I thought a school would
   be a good place to test in. I met Nigel Paul of St John's School
   at the London Linux User Group and he invited me to his school.

   OLinux: What were de main ideas in the begining?

   Phil Jones: The main idea was to provide a Linux account for 80
   pupils. We set this up on an otherwise obsolete P166 computer which
   lives on the school's internal network. We have given each pupil a
   personal web page, MySQL database, telnet access, email with Pine and
   network chat with 'talk'. The purpose is to teach HTML and publishing
   web pages, PHP and MySQL, remote access with telnet, Unix commands,
   simple Telnet based email, email etiquette and network chat. The chat
   part is just for fun, but we use that to show that a single machine
   can be accessed remotely and support many users at the same time.

   OLinux: Tell us a bit more about the softwares developed for this
   project. Who is responsible for the development of the LFSP packages
   components?

   Phil Jones: The software packages are Createusers, Gethelp, Mysqlquota
   and Web User Interface. The first three are my own work and the last
   one is adapted from Emmanuel Pierre's program .

   Createusers adds users in bulk. Gethelp provides a quick reference of
   simple Unix commands in telnet sessions. Mysqlquota allows the size of
   user's MySQL databases to be controlled using Linux quota. Web User
   Interface is a CGI script that lists all user home pages.

   I developed them with a little help from the Unix hackers at my
   previous employer, Three Valleys Water and the London Linux User
   Group.

   OLinux: What are the advantages of using Linux in an educational lab?

   Phil Jones: Control. Freedom. Stability. Security. Lower costs. Better
   performance. Great support from Linux-using education community. An
   escape from the upgrade trap. No licence hassles. And a brilliant way
   to make otherwise obsolete computers useful again; see the Linux
   Terminal Server Project for more about this.

   OLinux: In your opinion, what are the main obstacles to get Linux
   inside the schools? What do you think about the benefits of the open
   code?

   Phil Jones: Unfamiliarity, compatibility and the time/effort needed
   are the main obstacles. Linux is a 'rawer' computing experience that
   requires learning. The rewards are there, of course. Compability with
   Microsoft Word is a problem because that program's everywhere. In so
   many schools they're just trying to keep what they've got working and
   there's no time or resources for trying out something new.

   There's also a (wrong) perception that schools have to give children
   what they'll find in the workplace. Children can easily adapt from one
   platform to another. Also by the time they get out of school it'll all
   have changed anyway. If my school had that idea then they would have
   trained me at twelve to be expert on Word Perfect 4.1 for DOS. There's
   no need to worry about it. Trust in kids' adaptability.

   The open code is a massive benefit because it gives back power to the
   users. In what other system is everything open to inspection? Where
   else do users have the option to fix things they don't like?

   OLinux: How old are the kids in this project? Puting the kids in
   contact with Linux since they are realy young can possibly estimulate
   the use of Linux at home?

   Phil Jones: They are under 13. Ten years old is a good time to start.
   At home, children will have whatever computer they're supposed to have
   to play games on. Some geek kids may get into Linux so some
   familiarity from school is going to help there.

   OLinux: IBM is investing a large amount of money in Universities at
   developed coutries like USA and Canada. On the other hand, Microsoft
   is parcialy opening the code of its softwares for Universities at
   sub-developed countries such Brazil. In your opinion, what's the
   diference between these two strategies?

   Phil Jones: I don't really know. I suppose IBM is doing whatever they
   think is appropriate for them in the country in which they're working.
   It must be bad to feel left out, if that's what you're thinking.
   However much IBM invests in Brazil, they must be hoping they will do
   well out of it in the end, so good luck to them.

   OLinux: Can you tell us how many scholls are using the LFSP packages?

   Phil Jones: No. I know of two, that's it. I don't know how many times
   the packages have been downloaded, let alone whether they are being
   used.

   OLinux: What's been doing to propagate the LFSP to the rest of the
   World?

   Phil Jones: It's on Freshmeat and there have been a couple of
   articles about it. Some online, and in print. There's an article
   at Linux User which mentions me and St John's School. Wired has
   also got an article. I was offered an interview by The Times
   Educational Supplement, of London, which I missed, unfortunately. I've
   been asked a few questions by Silicon.com for a forthcoming article.
   Finally yourselves have kindly offered me this online interview so
   thanks for that.

   OLinux: How can people help to improve this iniciative?

   Phil Jones: Make Createusers support LDAP. The lightweight directory
   access protocol looks like the future for large-scale Unix account
   management. What's needed is a quick and easy way to set up LDAP and
   add lots of users to it. I don't know how to do that yet, in fact I
   don't know anything about LDAP.

   Get schools to teach HTML in class. Every school should at least have
   one machine, with Linux, that has everyone's in-school home page on
   it. No, Frontpage does not count, they should learn the code. Learning
   to code, with syntax, and structure, is important.

   Get schools to teach at least one programming language. The language
   should be able to do graphics and sound, ideally. It's fascinating to
   take control of the machine and make it do exactly what you say.
   Things like loops, variables and subroutines teach logical thinking.
   Everyone can learn a little. Oh, and maybe have schools teach some
   database skills as well.

   OLinux: Here in Brazil, the Ferderal Government bought 200 thousand
   PCs for the public educacional sistem. This machines were bought with
   public money. Unfortunatly they pic Windows to run on this PCs and
   completly excluded Free Software. What do you think about this
   decision (We, the brazilian citzens, are realy apset)?

   Phil Jones: At $US40 each that'd make the United States US$8,000,000
   richer. Just for the operating system. I don't know if it's $US40 each
   but it's probably something like that. To put it in perspective that's
   enough money to buy one quarter of a new F-16 fighter plane. I think
   it's money unnecessarily spent but I could imagine there has been some
   high level politics going on. Funny I thought Brazil was going to
   choose Linux for its schools.

   I think the real cost will be raising children used to computers
   without proper programming tools normally installed and readily
   available. That means programming won't be in the school day, which
   means building one's own software won't be playground stuff, which
   means fewer adult Brazilian programmers one day, which means less
   freedom for Brazil to help itself, which may cost Brazil dear I guess.



- James
-- 
James Morris
<jmorris@intercode.com.au>