Albany Senior High School/e-learning

Without sharing, there is no education (David Wiley).

Why does Albany Senior High School use free software? We want to create a school and a community where everyone has access to a wide range of powerful tools wherever and whenever they like.


 * 1) We want our students to be active learners: building, making, demonstrating and creating things. In order to do this, they need a wide range of digital tools on every device they have access to. Using free software allows students the means to build 3D models, produce short films, fly through the solar system or analyse their tennis serve without having to pay for the privilege of doing it.
 * 2) We want our students to be able to work on their learning wherever and whenever they like. Using free software means they can install learning tools on their own device, dad's laptop, at mum's work and at grandmother's house free of charge.
 * 3) We don't want students who can't afford expensive software to have to resort to illegal means to obtain tools for learning.
 * 4) We want students to be able to legally share useful learning software with their friends. This helps build our learning community.
 * 5) We operate a BYOD policy which means students can bring their own digital devices from home. They come in all shapes, sizes and operating systems, and most free software we use runs on a wide range of platforms. The school doesn't need to worry about licencing, installation or removal of software from any of these devices.

In short: we use free software because we believe that this approach is the best way for us to achieve our vision: "We nurture each other; we inspire each other; we empower each other to achieve highly and become good citizens."

=Software=

Other

 * Canonical offers all Ubuntu users 5GB of free cloud storage. Any files placed in the Ubuntu one folder will be synced with any other Ubuntu computer you log into. Even if you would like to access your files from a Windows or Apple computer you can log into http://one.ubuntu.com/ and access them. This enables students to work on any files at school, at home, at Mum and Dad's work, the local library etc.


 * KAMAR is not open source, but it is the student management system we use.

= Hardware =


 * We have 200 student desktops running Ubuntu 10.04. These computers allow students access to their files wherever they login. We use Ubuntu One to offer students access to their files wherever they are on the world. The main software packages installed on the student machines are listed below under software.
 * We use HP laptops for our staff, and these run Ubuntu Linux.
 * We have a Trapeze wireless network which runs 801.11N wireless (54mbps). There are two wireless networks: one for staff (ASHS-Staff) and one for students (ASHS-Students). Internet access is via fibre optic connection to the Vector NEAL loop at 100mbps. We use Watchdog to filter our internet traffic.

= Open Content =

Wikieducator
We use open and free content from Wikieducator. This enables us to collaborate with other educators to produce multimedia, online teaching and learning resources. OERs are remixable, portable and in the public domain. Some of the OERs that we are currently working on are:


 * Macbeth
 * William Blake: Songs of Innocence and Experience
 * Black Civil Rights in the USA 1954-1970
 * New Zealand's Search for Security 1945-1985
 * The New Zealand Wars
 * The Origins of World War II 1919-1941