Under the leadership of Steve Stiles EPISD has been looking into the educational uses of Linux, and other Open Source (ie,. free) Operating Systems and Applications that are supported by users worldwide. Sites and articles in educational journals and technology magazines have documented the trend.
The samples below are types of software that Technology Coordinator Alan Hodson (aahodson@episd.org - 915-887-6871) has deployed in some schools, and is willing to install and train at campuses requesting them.

	Open Source Software	Open source software is computer software for which the human-readable source code is made available under a copyright license (or arrangement such as the public domain) that meets the Open Source Definition. This permits users to use, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified form. It is often developed in a public, collaborative manner.
	Wiki Servers	Wikis are free electronic Bulletin Boards that allow campuses to post and share information very easily, by just using a browser. Wiki Servers can be PCs, Macs or Linux boxes, and don't need to be dedicated machines (they can still be working as regular instructional or admin computers) There are TWIKIs also.
	Squeak Programming	Squeak is a programming language that helps teach children critical thinking skills through math and science activities. This powerful computer environment can be used to develop a pilot curriculum to help students attain math and science literacy at a very young age- This is work in progress of computer and education giants such as Dr. Alan Kay, Seymour Papert, Jerome Bruner among others.This requires faculty training.
	E-smith INTRAnet servers	Mitel Networks SME server (formerly known as E-smith Servers) are dedicaded old PCs (like Dell Optiplexes) that are running modified free Linux server software and that excel as intranet web servers and electronic storage areas. Ideal for Web Design classes, video storage, school-based web pages, computer clubs, InteGrade and teacher backups, etc.
	K12LTSD Thin Client servers	The K12LTSP.org network is a world-wide effort to help schools set up powerful servers running free Linux OS that in turn control many diskless workstations (no hard drives or CD players, just video and network cards) - total cost: under $350 per station . All client software is free and it can emulate Windows applications. Ideal for labs. MacOS 10.3 can link with the miriad of resources linux offers. The Symbiont is one of many providers
	Mr Seymour's Website EPISD's own Moodle	Moodle is a course management system (CMS) - a software package designed to help educators create quality online courses. Such e-learning systems are sometimes also called Learning Management Systems (LMS) or Virtual Learning Environments (VLE). One of the main advantages of Moodle over other systems is a strong grounding in social constructionist pedagogy.  Moodle is Open Source software, which means you are free to download it, use it, modify it and even distribute it (under the terms of the GNU General Public License). Moodle runs without modification on Unix, Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, Netware and any other system that supports PHP, including most webhost providers. Data is stored in a single database: MySQL and PostgreSQL are best supported, but it can also be used with Oracle, Access, Interbase, ODBC and others.
		Open Source applications, originally available only for computers running Linux, have now been ported to Windows (PCs) and Macs running OS X. OpenOffice.org is an office suite application available for a number of different computer operating systems. It supports the OpenDocument standard for data interchange as its default file formats, as well as Microsoft Office '97-2003 formats, among many others There are many multi-platform Open Source links and references listed [HERE] GIMP, is a raster graphics editor used to process digital graphics and photographs. Typical uses include creating graphics and logos, resizing and cropping photos, altering colors, combining multiple images, removing unwanted image features, and converting between different image formats. GIMP can also be used to create basic animated images in GIF format. It is often used as a free software replacement for Adobe Photoshop, the most widely used bitmap editor in the printing and graphics industries
	SchoolBell	SchoolBell is a free, open source web application to allow groups and organizations to coordinate the sharing of calendars. SchoolBell allows you to create calendars for people, groups, and resources (such as rooms, computers or projectors). A calendar is created for each of these which may be accessed through the web or through a client application that supports the iCalendar standard (Apple's ICal or Mozilla Calendar).

OSS/FS undoubtedly offers public school districts many benefits. Besides boasting a cheap price tag, it offers reliability, performance, support for different and antiquated architectures, and fully featured software for students, faculty, and staff. Unfortunately, OSS/FS struggles to compete with proprietary software in this space because of many factors, including vague and ill-conceived conceptions of OSS/FS, market share inferiority, and brute force tactics from the closed source software industry. Advocates of OSS/FS in schools can sidestep these barriers by appealing to members of the OSS/FS community.[source]

These money-saving and divergent-thinking approaches to technology deployment are not related in any way to e-rate or other technology initiatives. They stand by themselves, as alternative tools for teachers and administrators wanting to increase student critical thinking skills via technology knowledge and understanding, and wanting to use communication tools that require a minimum amount of effort to install and maintain. Cost is right.

Jan/08