Working with Community Software in Rudolf Steiner Education

A Case Study Revised August 2010

Lorien Novalis School for Rudolf Steiner Education Dural NSW Australia
This Case Study is a snapshot of where we are after 8 years of working with Open Source Community Software in our School Administration and High School. In essence it outlines one school's approach to selecting, installing, using and maintaining often inexpensive (or no cost), high quality hardware and software. The Study also discusses the philosophical and ethical considerations of our school ICT strategy, but it is not directly about the Scope and Sequence of teaching and learning as such. The case study's focus, is firmly on the practicalities of working with ICT and in particular with Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), at Lorien Novalis School. Contents Overview 2 Our ICT Philosophy 2 Our ICT Principals 3 Why Choose FOSS 4 How We Started 5 Computer Laboratory 2002 5 First Upgrade 2006 6 Computer Lab Upgrades 2010 9 Current Education Software 10 Managing Large Classes 11 ICT in Classrooms 12 The Lab in Action 13 The Film Lab 14 2010 Admin Network Upgrade 15 School Management Software 16 Professional Development 17 Lorien Novalis Website 18 Security and the Internet 19 Staffing and Maintenance 19 2011 and Beyond 20 A final Word 20 Open Source Links 21

Overview
Steiner Schools lay the foundation for lifelong learning during early childhood and primary school - through a uniquely human education Steiner Primary Education is a multi-disciplinary, multiple intelligence-engaging and dynamic experience. It provides a natural and human environment where children learn to observe, question, and express themselves fully. This expression includes consistently producing creative and original work: in spoken and written text, performance and visual arts, scientific observation, mathematical relationships and appropriate technology. From a Steiner viewpoint, young children need to communicate and learn deeply without the mediation of complex technology. This unplugged experience is seen as crucial; to children developing an uncluttered self-image, and to the most valuable form of self-efficacy one they completely own Steiner high school students learn to apply ICT creatively, ethically and with deep knowledge Steiner high school students have an empathetic and deep interest in the world and its humanity. They enthusiastically embrace a wide range of complex technologies, especially ICT to help them engage this interest. Furthermore the foundational work they received in the primary years now come to the fore, as they consistently apply their creativity and enthusiasm to ICT in its many forms. This is refreshing within a global education paradigm of clip-art, copy, paste, crop, mash, rip and mix a paradigm where original content is becoming a rare commodity. .

Our ICT Philosophy

The philosophy and practices underpinning Rudolf Steiner Education have convinced us that human communication mediated by digital technology is detrimental to early childhood and primary education. However, the same philosophy and practices also indicates that we are duty bound as educators, to fully support graduating students by ensuring they attain deep knowledge and competencies in a wide range of ICT. As a Steiner School we are also dedicated to the spiritual, emotional and physical health of our children, students, staff and community, as such we are mindful that whatever the benefits of ICT, any implementation of technology at school should first and foremost do least harm spiritually, psychologically, physically or environmentally. There is no question that the twelve human senses are constantly being assaulted by the digital world. Through our teaching we must do everything possible to enliven the children's relationship to real world phenomenon And finally Lorien Novalis School feels duty-bound to promote human freedom in relation to ICT by naming and confronting commercialization, exploitation and the product branding of children through digital media and technologies Contents 2

Our ICT Principles

Digital technology including computers, laptops or other mobile devices are not used in any kindergarten or primary classrooms at Lorien Novalis School. Digital presentations for parent evenings and digital cameras on excursions can be used at the Class Teachers discretion. Deep knowledge and a wide range of competencies in ICT will be developed throughout the high school years. ICT education must be based on a students developing a sound understanding of the underlying principles of digital technology hardware and software We aspire to provide children and students with the most natural and healthy school environment. Therefore, we limit the amount electromagnetic radiation at school by requiring that mobile phones be turned off during the school day and all computers, including laptops, be connected to the networks via network cables. Fixed Computers with large, low-radiation screens, will be used in preference to laptops in order to promote: better posture and reduce eye strain, to provide a larger screen working surface for teaching and learning and to better differentiate modes of learning digital learning spaces vs 'unplugged' reflective learning spaces In order to combat the commercialisation of education through digital technology Lorien Novalis School supports Free and Open Source Software(FOSS), wherever it is in keeping with the schools philosophy. By its nature, our education will do much to protect and enliven the senses of young children. This is all the more important today due to the devastating effect technology generally, and ICT in particular, has on our 12 windows on the world, our senses. In Particular we must continue to deepen our work in the Arts across the School for all teachers and students. This is very important since there is now overwhelming clinical evidence that modern technology is anathema to the crucial (Will) sense, that of human movement. Here, ICT not only deeply impacts on the two fundamental dynamics in Steiner education living human speech and Eurythmy (Life Movement) but also by assaulting the way children perceive colour (eg. atomised HEX colour-space) and and sound (eg. atomised MIDI-based music). Consequently, it is very important that Eurythmy, Creative Speech, watercolour painting and singing, for example, continue to be held strongly across our school curriculum. This is especially important in High School where students experience digital colour and digital sound everywhere in their lives - even through ICT at school. We will encourage and promote original creative work across the school and especially in relation to ICT in High School. We will help promote a healthy self-image in our students by requiring open and respectful communications, especially with respect to ICT. This also includes accepting ownership of everything we do on the school networks no anonimity. Contents

Why Choose Open Source Software?

There are several reasons why we chose to work with Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), and the GNU/Linux operating system in particular, for our servers and desktop computers on the Education Network, namely, FOSS/Linux: is about sharing. Linux is a community project rather than a global duopoly (Microsoft and Apple), allows us to step back from the commercial branding and lock-in of students at schools by the big software companies, is very good, secure, stable and is licence free allows students at Lorien Novalis to get closer to the technology as such a good thing, is free in two ways: free as in no (or little) cost and free as in freedom of speech - because the software code isn't secret as it is with most commercial software, is totally configurable because the software code is open an available, gives students a new perspective on what a modern computer is students have to leave their Mac/Windows comfort zone, Linux effectively doesn't have viruses, There are thousands of FOSS/Linux software applications available for free, is closely connected to concepts of Creative Commons and copyleft this give students an alternative perspective in issues concerning plagiarism and copyright, is focused on interoperability despite the hurdles placed by some commercial software and hardware interests, there are considerable successes.

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How we started
In the early 1990s Lorien Novalis established a small Appleshare network for administration. By the end of the 90s a small Apple computer room had been added in the school office building with (10 X G3 iMacs). The computer room was used for lessons with Classes 11 and 12. Students also had lessons in electronics and some programing

Computer Laboratory 2002

In 2002, senior students, teachers and parents converted a old art room into a 32 workstation Computer Lab. This was a very important step in our work with ICT. For the first time, students and teachers could experiment with software and hardware without worrying about the (understandably precious) School Office Network. We now had a totally independent Education Network where we could develop a more 'grass roots' relationship to technology. The next important decision, was to place the Server (room), in the Laboratory itself we wanted everything out in the open, so to speak - after all it is a laboratory as much as a classroom. The school provided $9000 which was spent as follows: Furniture: flooring sheets used to build desks ($600) Electrical work: Professional installation of 3 protected mains circuits servicing 70 power outlets. ($8000) Network cabling: Cat5E loomed and connected by a teacher/technician and senior students. ($400) All computers, screens and servers were secondhand and donated by local companies and parents. All software was Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in particular we decided on the French Linux distribution Mandrake (now called Mandriva). Desks were built with electrical power and a service tray underneath to keep cables out of the way

Senior students sorting through donated equipment prior to testing

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Computer Laboratory 2002 - continued

There were plenty of network cable helpers!

Class 12 give an ICT OH&S briefing to Class 8 this happens annually

We soon realized that there was too much 'technology' for the size of the room and started fund raising immediately to buy LCD screens. Lorien Novalis now had two operational Networks (Education-Linux and AdministrationApple) each with their own dial-up Internet connection (later to become two ADSL Internet connections)

First Upgrade 2006

By 2006 the Lab was well established and was now being used by students in Classes 9 to 12 as required. It comprised 30 networked workstations, file and proxy servers, ADSL, printer and scanner stations and 120 user accounts. And after struggling with old (free) hardware for four years, the school provided $25 000 funding for computer hardware and this is how we spent it:
Desktops: 30 X secondhand 1G Pentium III Compaq, small form boxes @ $200 per unit; and 30 X new 15 glass protected LCD screens @ $300 per unit.($15000) Servers: One new 3G HP Proliant server @ $3500, one second hand Compaq proxy server @ $500. ($4000)

Other Hardware: One new UPS, Two secondhand Printers, One secondhand scanner, One new ADSL modem, One secondhand switch, One new LCD projector and screen cost $6000.

30 X $500 The new LCD screens workstations are much healthier

From the very beginning in 2002, we had to decide on seemingly trivial settings and procedures for the network such as what to call each network user (high school students and staff) and to what degree users could configure the look and feel of their user account. Not all of them turned out to be trivial. 6 Contents

Server and networking are an integrated part of the Laboratory room not hidden away from the students

The Laboratory Server desk in use

The Laboratory print station printing is very rarely used

From the top: network switch with cables plugged directly in, proxy server and screen, main server (modem on top) and screen,UPS (white)

Sometimes, buying a commercial Linux distribution, helps because of the extra support and boxed manuals

Some light reading - the FOSS community is all about sharing and improving technology in freedom.

The wall clocks our the Computer Laboratory help us to work with local and Internet (Universal) time

Shown above is the login (welcome) screen used by students and staff on the Education (Linux) Network in 2006. Students learned to log in, find their way around the network 'file tree', including in shared (public) directories and in the student intranet web pages

Having a quality LCD projector in the Computer Lab has been very useful, both as a teaching support and for student presentations and for them to share their work

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Computer Laboratory 2006 - continued

Notwithstanding the cramped seating arrangement, The Lab became quite workable with the small form factor computers and LCD screens. The computer Laboratory was also now being used to teach an IT Vocational Framework course in Years 11 and 12. In 2006 we were teaching from the rear of the classroom. The photo on the right shows how the teacher's computer screen (foreground), is also the projected image (projector screen). This was an attempt give the teacher an overview of what students were doing - in a less than ideal, seating arrangement. A view from the rear of the room Note the guitars and banjo hanging at the back of the room multimedia :)

A view from the front of the room Many of the photographs show a poorly lit laboratory - this was to allow for clearer photographs of the technology. In fact the room is quite light, having white walls, two large skylights and a bay window

A view from the rear of the room

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Computer Lab Upgrades 2010

Following the election of the Australian Rudd Government in 2007, Grant money was offered to all high schools in Australia for high school computers and on-costs for associated infrastructure. Lorien Novalis School took full advantage of the National Secondary Schools Computer Fund and has already accessed more than $100 000 for new computers and infrastructure - some for our current Laboratory and some for a new facility being built this year. Again, our choice to use FOSS/Linux software meant we could do much more with the grant money. Here housed in a secondhand open server rack (left) are some of our new grant purchases (right). From top to bottom: network patch panels patch cables and a managed network switch, a new server running Red Hat Enterprise Linux, beside it is the daily backup disk and modem, finally the UPS (managed power supply). The new desktops are running the latest Mandriva Linux distribution Mandriva Linux 2010. Below is the new login screen

Anonymity and Web2. It is the experience of schools generally that anonymity promotes poor behavior on their networks (often by some otherwise good teenagers) - what one might call the Facebook syndrome (Facebook is described as a social risk reducer which implies, people do and say things they would never do face-to-face). We had decided in 2002 that we would use full names for the student user accounts and the student and teacher usernames would be the first name (and last name initial). This is in line with how we address each other at school first names. As an example my account on the Education network is Stuart Rushton and my user name for logging in is stuartr. These details along with a clear photograph are visible for all 200 student and staff users to see. The use of real names and real faces is crucial in our opinion. This (real name real photo) is now becoming an industry standard for things like help desks in order to reduce poor behaviour between adults.

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Anonymity and Web2 continued

It is understandable that high school students think of their school user account as a private and personal space where they can do and say as they like and more than they would in real life this the social networking paradigm they are familiar with. We are striving to put the Education Network into perspective for them - within a Steiner school context. One way to achieve this is by promoting a culture where student's network user accounts are private and personal, but no more so than their Main Lesson book or a piece of their artwork. Thought of in this way it is reasonable that their teachers and parents view their digital work including logging into their digital workspace where appropriate.

Education Network - Current Software

All of the software required to run our Education Network is available for free. Currently we choose to pay for an enterprise supported version of Red Hat Linux ($349) for our main server and for a Limited support version of Mandriva Linux 2010 ($55). $55 for an unlimited number of Desktops and all of the software needed for general school work. Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) available for our Education Network would list in the hundreds. Here is a list of the software we most commonly use: DESKTOP Mandriva 2010 Powerpack Desktop Operating System Firefox web browser 3.6 Open Office Writer word processor Open Office Calc spreadsheet Open Office Impress presentation (Powerpoint) Open Office Draw (this Case Study was produced and converted to PDF in Open Office Draw) GIMP graphics like Photoshop Plus 100s of Software for almost any need NETWORKING Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Main Server PHP LDAP User and Groups Management Squid and SquidGuard network management and student usage logs iTALC Classroom Management Software ZIMBRA (coming soon) Email platform KOHA (coming in 2011) Library Management

Having configured our desktop computers it is a very simple process to replace a broken one or add another to the Network we simply copy a software image (binary code) of one of our Education Network computers onto a new computer (we buy computers without an operating system installed on them) and there it is, a new Network computer ready to go no fuss, no cost (except for the hardware) But FOSS is not just about acquiring free software and improving it. It is also about sharing improvements back to others in the FOSS community. In this spirit Lorien Novalis School would be happy to share the software images of our fully functioning Education Network. Potentially, this could provide another school with an instant network (desktops and servers) including all of the software mentioned above. Of course, there would be lots to setup including local expertise and hardware, but our 8 years of research and development would in the images Working with Open Source is much more about working with real people and their skills than it is about opening endless boxes of one-size-fits-all software. Contents 10

2010 managing large computer classes

We are trialing iTALC, Open Source Software at the moment. Below -iTALC classroom management screen showing all student screens. Yes computing is about exploration and individual journeys - but often it is still about explanation and instruction by teachers. For example, when one is introducing a new computer application or a way of working to a large class. Of course it isn't very politically correct to control other's computers in this way - but lets not let political correctness get in the way of a good education :) Using this software the teacher can see and support students who are logged into the Network. Note the new position of the teachers computer (below) front right as viewed. Here are some of the things iTALC Classroom Management Software is doing for us: The teacher can see all of the students screens along with their names, They can take over a student's computer if the student is stuck and help them, They can select a students screen to go up as the projected image - as a demonstration, The teacher can have his/her screen go on all student screens, The teacher can lock and unlock the screens of individual students if needed, And they can lock and unlock all of the student's screens while conversations take place.
hers Teac C ITAL puter com n at the e scre t fron

Below, iTALC has been minimized, and the teacher is now showing their working screen to the class.

These photographs were taken with the room darkened for better exposure of the screens. The room is normally quite light and airy

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Working with ICT in Classrooms

The English Classroom 'unplugged' This is our high school English Room. We don't want to see it filled with laptops or other computing or portable digital devices - our solution is to have a minimalist connection to the Education Network. A student or teacher can log into their user account and share their work or an Internet site with the rest of the class. The room also has facilities for recorded music, video or DVD. The English Classroom on the Education Network

This Network cabinet contains a networked computer plus audio, graphics and network cables for a presentation laptop at the front of the class

A presenters laptop can be connected from the front of the classroom to the projector and the Network

The projector and screen transform the room into a collaborative, networked teaching space

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The Computer Lab in action

Class 8 German. As part of a German lesson students visited the Computer Lab. Working in small groups students were required to conduct an Internet search entirely in the German language and find a recipe for a traditional meal. They were to discuss several and choose one. This recipe was then written by hand in their notebook.

Want to work on the Internet in German? Limit your search to the top level German domain name by using advanced search techniques. For example type into any search engine the word you want to search, say kuchen, followed by site:.de. Your search will look like this kuchen site:.de and the sites that are returned will, with a few exceptions, be in German. The class also searched for recipes in German by restricted their searches to Austria (site:.at) and Switzerland (site:.ch)

Of course the best things in life can't be done on or in a computer! 30 minutes in the computer Lab one week An hour in the kitchen the next week

Taking a class to the computer Lab without a tight focus can be, and often is, a waste of time. Computers are masters of banal distraction. A lesson like the one above worked really well because the students had been prepared prior to the visit and because the groups and the tasks were well defined and the task itself, though challenging was achievable within each group.

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Photography has always been an educational theme at Lorien Novalis School. Currently our Film Lab has two spaces, a Dark Room for wet photographic work and a Digital Film Room for collaborative digital movie work The Dark Room Developing and printing wet film teaches students to measure and mix liquids, to plan creative work, to be accurate with timing and how to be patient. We feel it is important for students to experience the reflective and almost meditative experience of wet film work an experience which is in stark contrast to the very exiting (but instant gratification) world of digital imagery. The Digital Film Room is an evolution of the original student Apple computer room which was housed in the school administration building till 2002. It works as a totally independent network and includes several Apple iMacs and while it is not at the moment connected to the Education Network server, it is planned to do so in the future.

The Film Lab

The Digital Film Room

Year 11 students collaborating on a short film The main software students use is iMovie, iPhoto iDVD and Final Cut Pro movie maker. The main reasons for using Apple for digital film, and not Open Sources movie software such as Kino and Cinelerra, are: Ease and quality iMovie is easy to use and Final Cut Pro produces good movie quality Precedence - that's how we always did it, and we already had the computers and software Staff Skills our teachers already have the skills to teach Apple movie making no retraining Industry Standard Final cut pro is an industry standard Linux and Apple work well together they are both Unix-like Student Experience - It gives the students a more diverse experience by adding Apple to the mix

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2010 Administration Upgrade

Today, the compliance requirements of schools are such that having a few office computers connected to the Internet is no longer enough. In 2010 we upgraded our Administration Network in order to install some added features for our school administration. They included: upgrading our accounting software from singleuser to multi-user, enabling staff user accounts on the Administration Network (similar to the existing Education Network), upgrading to a digital phone system, improving security through a better UPS and proxy server and the introduction of an on-line school management system (Edumate). Lorien Novalis School Management System (Edumate) Server, running on Suse Linux Edumate Backup external hard drive School digital phone network hardware

Patch panels and cables for phone and computer networks

Managed network switches Door to the small Administration server room, in the School Administration building KVM switches allow all hardware to connect to one LCD screen Windows XP digital phone management. Admin backup (right) Apple Xserv server running Mac OSX Snow Leopard

UPS Power Supply

Administration proxy server running Ubuntu Linux The 1TB external hard drives (above) are currently off-site and are swapped with three identical ones over weekends

The Administration server (open) rack located to the right inside the server room door (top left)

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2010 Administration Upgrade - continued

On-line School Management System. We decided to provide our school administrators and teachers with an on-line school management system. It is designed to allow easy yet secure access to its underlying database functions such as enrollments, timetabling, academic reporting, billing, and much more. Only time will tell if it will actually help us keep compliance levels high and stress levels low. So far it is looking very promising.

Our school management system menu page. The facility is accessible from anywhere there is Internet

Staff have accounts to access both the Administration Network and Education Network. There are shared and dedicated computers on both networks, but all computers are accessible to all. High school students can only access the Education Network.

This is an Administration Network iMac running OSX Snow Leopard located in the Administration building. The computer is dedicated to a front desk staff member - but if required any staff member could log into it

This is an Education Network computer using Mandriva Linux and is also located in the Administration building. The computer is dedicated to a teacher in a staff room. but if required any staff member could log into it

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2010 Administration Upgrade - continued

When compared to the Education Network, nearly everything on the Administration Network cost a lot of money. Apple hardware is famously expensive, as is accounting software and the school management system. However, this is all specialized software designed to meet critical school needs. Administration Network Hardware: One Xserv Server with OSX Snow Leopard Ten iMac computers with OSX Snow Leopard One Edumate Server with Suse Linux (based on FOSS) One proxy server with Ubuntu Linux (FOSS NO COST) One Windows XP computer - digital phone manager Network switches etc. Various printers Other Software for the Administration Network: One Edumate Licence (based on FOSS) One MYOB multi-user Licence One Adobe Acrobat Unlimited Apple Remote Desktop 3.3 One Retrospect backup One Apple Parallels One Microsoft Project for mac Ten Microsoft Office for Mac Ten iWorks Ten iLife Ten Open Office Open Source Software (FOSS NO COST) Ten Firefox Open Source Software (FOSS NO COST) Ten GIMP (like Photoshop) Open Source Software (FOSS NO COST) Joomla Web software (FOSS NO COST)

Professional Development in ICT

The Education Network Computer Laboratory is also used for professional development requiring ICT and has been used as such since 2005. The image on the right shows the Lab ready for an Edumate (school management system) training session with teachers. Note the session teacher's computer console at the front displaying the other teachers screens - on iTALC classroom management system.

A teacher professional development session in progress (left)

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Lorien Novalis School Web Site And Open Source Software

Our site was developed on Joomla (FOSS) by and ex-student and is hosted by Sydney Web Hosting, a company that supports and uses Open Source including Linux. . We are in the process of reworking our Website and possibly moving from Joomla to Wordpress (also Open Source).

Lorien Novalis Website (left) uses Open Source Joomla software and is hosted quite inexpensively by an Open Source focused company

Joomla has many features that we don't use or need and the Joomla control panel (left) does not allow for simple editing by teachers and staff. For this reason we are looking at Wordpress (also Open Source) for our new Website

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Security and the Internet

Students and Staff are required to sign a Network User Agreement Students do not have unsupervised access to the Computer Lab Education Network Internet Access (Currently) Upper Primary (not currently using computers) - White List (Wikipedia plus .edu and .edu.au top level domains) Classes 8 to 10 Black List (includes no social networking or youtube) Classes 11, 12 and staff Black List (includes no social networking) Administration Network Internet Access (Currently) Staff Only - unrestricted Student Passwords Network passwords for students are fixed and held by the student's Class Guardian this saves a lot of IT help desk type work. Also students know their Guardian can monitor their work on the Network (in the same way a teacher can with any other school resource say, a main lesson book or some art work. Student Internet Logs Students are well aware that teachers can see a list of where they have been on the Internet, as well as where they attempted to go Internet Connections Education Network - dedicated ADSL modem in bridge mode managed by its proxy server Administration Network - dedicated ADSL modem in bridge mode managed by its proxy server Backups Both Network Servers and the Edumate Server are backed up daily onto three external hard drives. Each weekend the drives are swapped one set is always kept off-site. Each term images are made of server and desktop computers and these are also kept off-site

Staffing and Maintaining ICT

Both Networks are managed and maintained by the same team: One Part-time ICT strategist/coordinator/manager (teacher) One Part-time Apple and database specialist (teacher) One Casual/Consultant Unix/Linux network specialist and programmer (ex-Lorien parent) (Adding them all up would be lucky to make one full-time equivalent IT position (cost averaged over a year). Is it enough? No, but we get there). Additional support: One consultant Linux and network security specialist (Solutions 1st) One consultant Linux and School Management System developer - ex-Steiner student (Edumate) One consultant Web design and development (current Lorien parent and ex-Lorien student (Pinto Creative)

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2011 and beyond

A new Education Network Computer Laboratory is taking shape on the school grounds - somewhere near the blue excavator. It will be a much less cramped computer lab but even in this new building the networking technology will not be hidden. The plans include a glass walled server room in the Computer Lab.

The New Computer Laboratory will function much as the current one does - with more space and better furniture

2 1

The New Computer Laboratory Server Room will provide additional physical security by having an actual room for the network hardware, however the room will have glass walls and students can still see the workings of a 'network'

A Final Word
All complex technology will fail at sometime - hardware wears out, software gets glitches. We have had long periods (six months) where everything ran like clockwork. Then there are the times when one would wish for any other responsibility than ICT. How to develop the ICT infrastructure we want - and to keep it working and within our budget - is as big a challenge as any facing us. Focusing on Linux/FOSS has helped us on in all those areas and its fun! (mostly) All the wonders of ICT will come to naught if the human will is destroyed in childhood by that very wonder

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The College of Teachers, Lorien Novalis School for Rudolf Steiner Education, Dural, NSW, Australia

Case Study Open Source Links

Red Hat Linux (based on FOSS) http://www.redhat.com.au/ Fedora - the free version of Red Hat (FOSS NO COST) http://fedoraproject.org/ Mandriva Linux (based on FOSS) http://www.mandriva.com.au/ Ubuntu Linux(FOSS NO COST) http://www.ubuntu.com/ ITALC Classroom Management System(FOSS NO COST) http://italc.sourceforge.net/ PHP LDAP Database - (FOSS NO COST) http://php.net/ PHP LDAP Database Manager - (FOSS NO COST) http://phpldapadmin.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page Open Office - (FOSS NO COST) http://www.openoffice.org/ The GIMP (Photoshop-like) - (FOSS NO COST) http://www.gimp.org/ Koha Library management System - (FOSS NO COST) http://koha.org/ Source Forge hundreds of Open Source Software - (FOSS NO COST) http://sourceforge.net/ School Forge dozens of Open Source Software focused on schools (FOSS NO COST) http://www.schoolforge.net/ (Consultant) Edumate School Management System example of the specialist Linux support available (based on FOSS) http://www.edumate.com.au/ (Consultant) Solutions First example of the specialist Linux support available (based on FOSS) http://www2.solutionsfirst.com.au/ (Consultant) Pinto Creative example of the specialist Web Design/Development support available (based on FOSS) http://www.pintocreative.com

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Links - continued
Joomla content managed website software (FOSS NO COST) http://www.joomla.org/ Wordpress website software (FOSS NO COST) http://wordpress.org/ Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in Australia (FOSS NO COST) http://www.linux.org.au/foss_in_australia Next Australian Linux Conference Brisbane 2011 http://lca2011.linux.org.au/ One of many Linux magazines (FOSS NO COST) http://www.linux-mag.com/ Linux Training example (FOSS NO COST) http://www.linux.org/lessons/ Zimbra state-of-the-art Email (FOSS NO COST) http://www.zimbra.com/

MANDRAKE - our first Linux operating system (in 2002) on the Education Network server and desktops. No licence fees, no viruses and only limited by our old hardware

Produced on the Lorien Novalis Education (Linux) Network using Open Office Draw and The GIMP

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