Back to School

Classroom computing is a big topic – and a big market around the world. Teachers and education experts are looking for new ways to delivery curriculum efficiently with maximum benefit for their students. Many of the available education platforms got their start before the widespread acceptance of Linux, which means Windows and Mac OS systems had a big head start on the market. But, open source innovation has opened the classroom doors to Linux. Several specialized Linux distros compete for the chance to serve curriculum to students.

One of the biggest reasons for considering Free software is that it offers lower cost – and sometimes even has no cost. But, FOSS provides other benefits for educational users. For instance, the adaptability and rich diversity of the open source ecosystem leads to an abundant variety of solutions tailored to specific interests and use cases. Also, an open environment reduces the possibility of vendor lock-in, which can lead to reduced choice and unnecessary expense with maintaining and updating the network.

A vast number of Free education-related applications are available for all versions of Linux. You'll find office applications, graphics, and presentation tools, learning tools, multimedia solutions, and a variety of educational games.

The modern school network, however, isn't just a room full of autonomous PCs. Leading classroom systems offer tools for collaboration, as well as teacher interaction and oversight. Some systems depend on thin client workstations and a terminal server model for supporting classroom activities.

One issue associated with rolling out open source software in schools is the general unfamiliarity with the Linux environment (see the box titled "Windows Preferred"). Each solution must provide the necessary documentation or background support to help teachers, students, and school IT staff use the systems productively.

This article tours some popular Linux distros designed for educational environments (Table 1). You'll learn about Sugar [1], UberStudent [2], Edubuntu [3], DebianEdu [4], openSUSE Edu-Life [5], and UCS@school [6].

Sugar

Fedora's Sugar, which evolved from the One Laptop Per Child project [7] (see the box titled "OLPC") is designed to make the world of computers as simple and intuitive as possible for children. The user interface designed for pupils isn't just aimed at first-graders but at older pupils, too. Sugar also demonstrates how difficult it is to devise a universal solution for pupils worldwide.

The user interface is kept pleasingly simple, and design is clearly aimed at mobile devices – in particular, the XO laptop, which was the target hardware for the OLPC developers. Sugar's interface, however, is different from all other known GUIs (Figure 1). Anyone starting life in the IT world using Sugar will probably find it difficult to switch to other conventional user interfaces later.

Figure 1: Fedora-based Sugar was originally developed for the OLPC project and has an idiosyncratic interface.

The OLPC initiative wanted to familiarize as many children as possible with computers, especially those in regions of the world with a shortage of computer hardware. By Sugar's own account, the system specifically targets immigrants who need to learn a new language and users with disabilities.

The user interface provides only icons for the many applications (Figure 2). A number of learning, puzzle, and communication program hide behind these icons. Sugar connects each user with a Jabber server by default. In any case, the system focuses heavily on the collaboration and communication between the students. Sugar keeps track of all activities locally in a journal, which contains elements such as images and texts.

Figure 2: The many non-text symbols in Sugar are used to help overcome language barriers, but they don't make it any easier to get started using the system.

If you don't have a central server, the Sugar can form a mesh network. Alternatively, you can set up a Sugar server based on CentOS. Teachers also can configure the network, including CentOS-based proxies like Squid (along with filters) or WWWoffle [9], which can deliver content despite shaky Internet connections. Sugar uses the free web-based Moodle learning platform, which groups the students and provides learning materials. Users can store their own activities on the server.

UberStudent

Whereas Sugar is aimed at children, UberStudent tries to educate older students. Even the name seems a bit pretentious, and the description on the website even more so (Figure 3). The system, we learn, "pushes users to the head of the class." Anyone who scans through the website will receive requests for donations at almost obtrusively short intervals.

Figure 3: Although UberStudent seems somewhat pretentious, it does provide a few useful applications that aren't available in other distributions.

UberStudent is based on Ubuntu 14.04 but also provides the update manager from the Linux Mint project. The project initiator, Stephen Ewen, repeatedly leveled criticism at the desktops Unity and Gnome 3 in the past – his Linux distribution consequently uses Xfce with a specially designed interface.

Unlike systems intended for younger students, UberStudent plays down the simple math and reading and focuses on tools for research and writing, study aids, and "self-management" tools.

The default configuration comes with the Zotero research tool, the Cherry Tree note-taking application, several logic puzzles, and a number of tools with "encyclopedia" in the name, like "Encyclopedia of Philosophy" and "Encyclopedia of Mathematics." UberStudent offers a diverse collection of helpful applications for high school and college-age users; however, you won't find an accompanying set of management tools and server software. No wonder: UberStudent is not really intended for use in school classrooms but is more for learners' personal computers.

Edubuntu

Edubuntu, which is classified as an official Ubuntu project, is significantly better networked and more extensive that UberStudent or Sugar.

Edubuntu includes puzzle and educational games and applications for children in preschool or primary grades in the preschool and primary packages. An essential difference from Sugar: The programs in Edubuntu use conventional menus which display both icons and text.

It is worth highlighting the very successful software collection GCompris [10], which includes a wealth of applications (Figure 4). The GCompris applications are separated into tools for learning the alphabet or for basic arithmetic operations. Games and puzzles like "Connect Four" or chess complement the collection. You will also find software that describes the basics of power circuits or the water cycle.

Figure 4: The software collection GCompris for Kids provides plenty of games and fun.

The Edubuntu developers appear to expect a lot from young children: When starting the application to experiment with the power circuit, a message appears, stating that the electric simulator Gnucap is missing, followed by a detailed description of how to install it. It's only in the final sentence that information is provided to say that Gnucap isn't absolutely necessary. The message alone is probably enough to confound primary students, and teachers need administrative rights to download the software.

One software package for pupils in first grade mainly consists of KDE applications, including the guessing game KHangMan (Figure 5). The application also serves as an example of the predominantly Anglo-Saxon orientation of many learning programs, such as Hangman. It is easy to see the problem with internationally standardizing the educational software – applications where children can learn to spell, do simple math, and use computers are really useful for grade-schoolers. However, the more advanced the students are, the more country-specific the requirements become.

Figure 5: KHangMan: Are the gallows really necessary? Things that are acceptable in one country might cause offense in another.

The supplementary packages secondary and tertiary make applications available for higher grades. Academic programs like Chemtool, which illustrates complex chemical compounds, is a good example of this category. Other tools act more as accessories and supplement the research, including the digital Atlas Marble (Figure 6) or Kstars, which invites you to explore the night sky. Linux also provides a massive selection of applications for budding programmers. Despite criticism, Edubuntu's software complements the pupils' textbooks well. Many programs also invite you to experiment.

Figure 6: Edubuntu includes includes many applications for older students, such as a digital atlas.

A major difference that exists between Edubuntu and DebianEdu (which you will learn more about later in this article) is the underlying server infrastructure. Both systems might operate in a thin client environment, but Edubuntu targets an easy installation within a limited infrastructure using the Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP, [11]), which loops through the graphical interface directly to the thin client (see Figure 7).

Figure 7: Edubuntu tries to make it easy to get started with Linux – a terminal server sets up quickly and works without any further action.

The server equipment limits the number of connected clients; an up-to-date computer with four CPU cores and 8GB of RAM can provide about 20 clients. It makes sense to use a server if you are operating Edubuntu in a classroom setting. The option to set up Edubuntu as an LTSP server is available upon installation and works afterwards without any need for further input.

A decisive disadvantage in Edubuntu: Users work directly on the server. For example, during the tests for this article, an update message appeared, which the server obediently passes on to the thin clients. A student who gets hold of the admin password will have direct access to all their fellow pupils' data.

If system administrators want to create their own user accounts, they need to use self-constructed solutions. The default installation only provides the Ubuntu or Gnome user management. Epoptes [12] is available as a central remote maintenance and client-monitoring tool. However, configuration files need to be edited, and you need to start the Epoptes server via the command line. Basic knowledge of Linux is therefore a requirement.

It is also possible to connect diskless workstations to the Edubuntu LTSP server. The workstation takes over almost the entire role of a computer and operates as a Network Block Device (NDB). This setup relieves the server and reduces network traffic between workstations and servers because the workstation directly depends on the Internet. However, a separate DHCP server is required on the network. Finally, the workstation must also meet the system requirements for an Edubuntu installation.