People generally have a strong preference when it comes to their desktop computer. However, bulk purchasing meant to cut costs determine the platform educational institutions use. Microsoft and Apple have been notoriously unfriendly to the bottom line of school districts for years.

In the back rooms of many school districts sit servers that have worked uninterrupted for years. They’re veritable workhorses that rarely need maintenance or have suffered infiltration by some vicious hacker. It’s a good chance that some form of Linux resides on those machines.

With pressure to upgrade, Linux is beginning to venture out of the back room and onto the desktop. Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 could very well be the answer to the school system at an operating system crossroad. It labels itself as 90% the functionality of Windows Vista for 10% the cost.

With pressure to upgrade desktop stations, Linux is beginning to look good to many schools.

If that’s too steep try the completely free Ubuntu and its variety of sub-distributions such as Edubuntu (the educationally pre-packaged version). This system customarily installs in about twenty minutes and is fast becoming the wunderkind of the Linux world. They’ll even send you a fully bootable CD of the system at their cost if you don’t have the time or the connection to download a copy. Don’t want to install it over your current OS? Run the complete version from the CD!

To be sure, the choice is one for the future as districts begin to look at ways to save the almighty buck.

Here are six compelling reasons to consider Linux as an operating system in your school district:

1. Cost or Lack Thereof. Most versions of Linux are free… in the sense of “free speech” not a “free lunch.” By this I mean that the community that improves on this operating system does it collectively and with passion. “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume…” (Excerpted from the Declaration of Independence). Yikes! A bit heavy for this article.
2. It’ll Surf. Students primarily use the web. Installed desktop applications are becoming passé with all of the innovations from Google and other completely online services such as Zoho and Desktoptwo. They need a reliable machine and they need the internet!
3. Comparable Software. The majority of the software available holds to the same philosophy as the OS: open and free. It is astonishingly easy to find a freely downloadable replacement for a higher-priced commercial product. For the few desktop apps I’d use it would be wonderful to be able to say to my students that this is where you’ll go to download it rather than to this store to buy it.
4. Reliability. Linux has already established a stronghold with many notable companies such as Google, Novell, HP and Oracle to support their website presences on the server side. These companies understand that Linux runs and runs without security breaches and downtime which they can’t afford. Anyone who has ever worked in an IT department knows the sheer panic that ensues when the server is down.
5. Use of Existing Hardware. Linux allows you to use aged hardware thus extending the life of the computer and holding at bay Moore’s Law. I’m currently running SUSE on a three-year old machine and its stunning built-in features designed to increase productivity such as window-tiling and multiple desktops do not miss a beat. I didn’t even have to replace my graphics card as was suggested by the Microsoft Vista Upgrade Advisor!
6. Appeal. Students need other experiences and in most cases they are the flexible group when it comes to technology. As Linux becomes more and more friendly to use it will begin to wear down the folks who may still be bitter over the fiscally responsible choice.

Further reading:

• Linux definitely has a place in education [Education IT]
• All of our Elementary School workstations run Linux… [Kamloops, BC SD 73]
• San Diego schools pick SUSE Linux desktop [DesktopLinux.com]

“The stapler’s jammed!” a student shouts from across the room. Argh! Now you have to stop everything, fix it for them, locate more staples, go ask the office because you are probably out of staples, and hope that the staple cache lasts to the end of the year. Staplers are one piece of classroom tech that is used frequently, but can oftentimes underperform, causing frustration and time wasting. But being able to staple papers together is an organizational must. So what to do about this little problem?

Use a staple free stapler.

Remember that paper-bending and ripping trick that kept papers together for about 50 seconds? That’s the idea behind the Staple Free Stapler (SFS), except, this time, it works. The SFS punches a tab into the paper, which it neatly bends over and tucks into a slot that it also punches. The SFS works for up to 5 sheets of paper.

Pros:
Holds up to five sheets of paper together, staple-free
Pages can be easily separated
No staples to prick fingers
No staples to purchase or locate
Safe for all ages
No jams to fix
Better for the environment

Cons:
Can only hold up to five pages. For more, one will need…a stapler

This might be a good option for student use, allowing them to staple their work before they turn it in. Placing a SFS with student teams, tables or groups would also save a line at the stapler and get work turned in faster, without having to worry about staple jams or reloads.

See a review at the Gadgeteer. Cheapedia also has several photos and a video review. If you are ready to plunk down the cash, you can snag your own staple free stapler here.

Wrapables Staple Free Stapler [The Gadgeteer]

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Don’t get us wrong. At TeachClever, we’re all about using technology to make us better, more productive teachers. For the most part, we are faster, more efficient and effective due to technology. But Andrew Kantor from USA Today points out that technology can’t, or shouldn’t replace everything. Here are four things that technology doesn’t effectively replace and what it means for teachers:

Spelling. Sure spell check is a wonderful tool for editing, but it’s easy to become dependent on it. Rather than learn to spell words correctly, we just wait for the spell check to tell us we’re wrong. So we never learn to spell those challenging words, like dependent, which I spelled wrong typing this article and let spell check fix it. And I’ll probably spell it wrong again next time.

Teaching students spelling and word study are still valuable skills. Most students will create content digitally in their futures, but there will still be a place for writing by hand. And pausing to think about the correct spelling of a word is a waste of time.

Thoughtful writing. With email and any digital form of writing, we can crank out our ideas with little thought, and then revise later if we don’t like what we see. But sometimes we don’t get to the revising, and send off an email that we later regret. Before computers, people had to think carefully about their word choices, because severe editing was just too hard.

Giving students a chance to write on paper as well as with word processors serves the need for thoughtful writing while still providing opportunities to use the revising and editing advantages of the digital form. It’s OK that students don’t type everything.

Math. Calculators are wonderful for difficult calculations, but no one should have difficulty with basic math facts. Relying on calculators for every math problem keeps students from learning the skills they need to function when electronic aids may not be available. Sure you can crank out the tip on your cell phone tip calculator, but should you need to?

Teachers can help students by having them put away the calculators for all but the most challenging problems. This is probably more appropriate for younger grades that are still learning math facts. And why not leverage the power of technology towards learning math facts, by using a website that provides practice.

Building a knowledge base. Google and Wikipedia are perfect for delivering pinpoint knowledge about a specific question. They are indispensable tools when you know what you are looking for. But there is something to be said for browsing and perusing books. It helps to build up a knowledge base. If you don’t know something exists, it’s hard to search for it online. This doesn’t mean that you can’t do effective general research online. Just that the web is perfect for learning about things you want to learn about, while print materials are great for learning about things you didn’t necessarily seek out in the first place. Put another way, a web search starts with you, you type in the topic. But browsing print materials can lead to unexpected learning that happens when you stumble upon a title that you weren’t actively seeking out. Incidentally, some websites are trying to bring this idea to the web.

Teachers can build up their students’ knowledge base by providing time to read, having a collection of good information books on hand for students to browse, and having students supplement online research with print-based materials.

I’ll be the first to admit that I usually go to technology first when I have a problem to solve or a task to complete. But it’s overkill to go to the computer to check the spelling of a word I should know, jot down a grocery list or write a birthday card, calculate a tip at Cracker Barrel, or browse for undiscovered topics of interest and usefulness. In these cases, using technology makes us less productive. Helping students to know when to use technology and when not to is an important skill that might be getting overlooked.

What other areas can you think of where technology hinders productivity? Share in the comments.

Don’t let technology rob you of the fruits of doing things the hard way [USA Today]

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Studies show that computer keyboards have more bacteria than toilet seats.

Yuck! That’s from an NPR report and they have a pretty extreme solution to the problem: just toss your keyboard in the dishwasher! While you may not want to do that with school equipment, having 30 pairs (or more) of grimy-fingered hands all over your classroom or lab computer keyboards might make you wonder what’s growing in there.

Some places offer dishwasher-safe keyboards, and that might be an option for your classroom keyboard if it sees a lot of traffic, but if you’re not willing to shell out $50, try these ideas to make your keyboard a little more presentable. And here’s another idea: keyboards are so cheap, why not consider buying a new one yearly for your classroom? What are your tricks for dealing with keyboard cleanliness? Let us know in the comments.

Are Computer Keyboards Dishwasher Safe? [NPR via Lifehacker]