The Hindu : Front Page : Free or open source for students?

News: ePaper | Front Page | National | Tamil Nadu | Andhra Pradesh | Karnataka | Kerala | New Delhi | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Retail Plus | Classifieds | Jobs |

Front Page Printer Friendly Page

   Send this Article to a Friend

Free or open source for students?

Vasudha Venugopal

CHENNAI: Recent discussions on which software package to be incorporated in the free laptops to be distributed to students this year in Tamil Nadu have highlighted the attempts across the country to promote the use of Free and Open Source Software in education and other fields.

While the government's tender specifications call for dual-booted laptops offering the Windows starter edition and Linux (Tamil version), activists say it must be only an open source.

An oft-cited example is the IT@School project, started by the Kerala government in 2003. “We had both Windows and Linux initially, but we migrated to the open source completely in 2008,” says K Anvar Sadath, executive director of the project.

While Swecha of Andhra Pradesh is also striving to train students and teachers in free software, Assam, Punjab and Haryana have started using open source software in education.

It is unfortunate that while in the West, the dependence on proprietary software is decreasing, the developing countries are giving in to predatory marketing tactics, says Atul Chitnis, consulting technologist and founder, FOSS.In.

Training of teachers can go on simultaneously, says Mr. Anvar, recalling his experience of training more than 10,000 teachers in a month through videoconferencing facilitated by the open source environment.

Now Kerala has 600 open source learning centres across 14 districts, offering specialised training in animation, graphics and multimedia on open source technologies, apart from regular education.

Gurumurthy Kasinathan of the Bangalore-based IT for Change says: “Many free educational software applications, bundled with Ubuntu GNU/Linux, are powerful in helping teachers and students understand concepts in math, science and social sciences.”

S. Shanu, convener of the Free Software Foundation, Tamil Nadu, says linguistic flexibility is a big advantage of free software. The culture of innovation and community-based support systems can transform the way students think. Some industry professionals and government officials cite authentication, warranty and access as reasons for preferring proprietary software to open source technologies. “If you want to buy a proprietary system, you pick up one, but how many local directories tell you what to do if you need open source software. Heterogeneous environments of companies train us to choose the best tool for the job, considering compatibility with specialised applications and vendor support,” says Suresh Ramanujan, a software consultant.

However, academics feel, it is the flexibility to understand the logic of the software that an open source offers, which is the key. “The question is what kind of learning process are we encouraging among students, and not if we should let them decide on their own, says Pratap Reddy, Chairman, Board of Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru Technical University.

The stack of free software for school education is so huge that it does not need a learning management system or specially designed tools for building it, say experts.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page

News: ePaper | Front Page | National | Tamil Nadu | Andhra Pradesh | Karnataka | Kerala | New Delhi | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Retail Plus | Classifieds | Jobs | Updates: Breaking News |

via hindu.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Low cost Bariatric Surgery in India for obese people with amazing cost saving for International Patients

Obesity now days being worlds most affecting health disorder and giving rise to a lot of various health hazards is the biggest threat to population through out the world. Our Low cost Bariatric surgery is the best proven method that results in a durable weight loss. Diets and other medical plans for weight loss have been shown to have very poor long term results and all with inability to maintain the weight loss. Long term weight loss without Bariatric surgery is only achieved by 5-10% of obese women, man and children. The people getting the Bariatric surgery throughout the world is the highest in western country itself it is estimated that around every year more than 200,000 bariatric surgeries are being performed in US itself still a lot of people needing the surgery  are unable to the get the surgery because of various factors such as the high end cost of the surgery, the surgery not being covered by the insurance or sometimes not getting the appointments. These have been the
Read more

Liposuction cost reduction of up to 70% and still the first-class treatment! | Plastic Surgeons Uk

The cost is an important factor when considering liposuction, but the quality of health care as important. But now you can have is becoming a tourist doctor and get a free vacation with the savings! Before examining the possible huge savings from a liposuction surgery performed by your plastic abroad, liposuction can see and who is responsible for the procedure. What is liposuction? Liposuction is a procedure for liposuctionto help re-define the body by removing unwanted fat from areas including possible (also called "lipoplasty" or "suction lipectomy" note): Abdomen · · Gluteus · Coscia · Hips · Knees · Upper arms · China · Glue Sinuses ° Today, we have extended the techniques of liposuction, including: Ultrasound-assisted liposuction ·(UAL) · Tumescent Technique · Super-wet techniques These techniques help plastic surgeons provide patients with a more pleasing appearance and operation of which the recove
Read more

Low cost Cosmetic Surgery in India with a lot of savings and providing desired results for Patients

Cosmetic surgery is a subspecialty of medicine and surgery that uniquely restricts itself to the enhancement of appearance through surgical and medical techniques. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PRLog (Press Release)  –  Oct 09, 2010  – Low cost Cosmetic Surgery in India has become the most favorable destination for International patients from around the globe. Hospitals for Low cost cosmetic surgery in India had made cosmetic surgery risk free with the advancement in the medical technology. Indian hospitals are taking every possible step to make cosmetic surgery more save and effective. Cosmetic surgery is a subspecialty of medicine and surgery that uniquely restricts itself to the enhancement of appearance through surgical and medical techniques. It is specifically concerned with maintaining normal appearance, restoring it, or enhancing it beyond the average level toward some aesthetic ideal. Cosmetic surgery is a multi-disciplinary and comprehensive approach directe
Read more