Let’s Get FOSS into a Higher Level in Philippine Education
The Pilipinas Anti- Piracy Team or PAPT which is mainly composed of the elements of the Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation and the Optical Media Board, have recently announced they would be intensifying their campaign against the use of pirated software for 2009. Time and time again the PAPT has made this pronouncement and yet it seems that they are still having a difficult time in curbing the use of pirated software in our communities in spite of spending millions of pesos of tax payer’s money and countless hours of investigative work. It is not that they are not trying hard enough for it they have raided and persecuted in court countless companies that they caught using pirated software. Maybe, they have failed to realize that there is something in our system that has been telling people that using pirated software is not a crime considering that they have been using it and have been setting as an example to countless numbers of today’s students.
Being an Open Source Educational Technology Advocate has been very frustrating. I have the opportunity to visit a number of public and private schools in the different parts of the country. Might it be the schools that offer elementary and high school levels to technical vocational schools, still I find a majority of them using pirated software in their offices and computer laboratories. Worst some public schools were given computer units that they could use by the Commission on Information and Communication Technology with Edubuntu software installed then later being formatted to pirated Windows systems.
It is time for us in the open source community to exert our influence in asking for a definite policy on technical education with regards to the use of pirated software in our school system from the Department of Education. We have always been wondering why there is a breakdown in the value system in our communities and these breakdown will continue as long as our schools are setting an example that it is just fine to break the law since they are openly showing that they are using pirated software in their operations. The Department of Education should make it clear to the school administrator might it be coming from the public or private schools that if they could not afford to buy licensed software then the best thing to do is to use open sourced software for their operations. We will be able to break the cycle of corruption in our society by the schools providing an example that as one of the basic pillars in our society they are following what is required by law.
I happen to spent the day yesterday at the Rosario National High School in Rosario, Cavite as part of the team of Agham and CPU that handled the career orientation seminar of the fourth year students. There I met Mr. Noel Z. Alberto the ICT coordinator of the said school. Having been enlightened on the need to use open source software as part of the values formation of the school, he embarked on a program in which he mass migrated the computer systems that they are using in their school from pirated Windows XP to Ubuntu 8.10. In the course of the day we were able to talk what he is currently experiencing in the sudden shift from proprietary software to open source software.
Reorientation Problems
This is one of the most common problem for someone who is shifting from Windows to Linux. Mr. Alberto and his co teachers are well versed in the way of Windows and are now experiencing some problems in learning how the new technology works. While I was there, a teachers was quite frustrated in doing her work using the Open Office Spreadsheet. It seems according to her he could not make alt +164 to work. He also related he was having some difficulty in the flash player program in order to watch Youtube videos on line.
These are reorientation problems brought about by people who are used to operate in Windows suddenly facing the challenge of using Linux in their operations. What is required in this situation is let people slowly learn the new way of computing. With enough patience, time and proper training in learning the new ways, they could slowly adopt to the new environment in which they are operating in.
Hardware Problems
Before I the end of yesterday's activity, Mr. Alberto provided me with a list of hardware related problems that they have encountered in using Ubuntu 8.10. Such as shared printer could not be detected after the initial shutdown and restart, how to enable floppy drive, cd and dvd drives and most importantly the screen resolution on the LG monitor that they are using is fixed at 856x600 and they need at least 1027x768 resolution so that they could work effectively.
This is one area in which open source groups would really need to give support to the public school system in the Philippines. Most of the computer systems that could be found in our public schools are usually old units donated by well meaning foreign organizations. From what I gathered the computer in their computer lab has the following specifications: It is a Compact Deskpro Sbm Model with an Intel 815E-B chipset, 256 mb of ram and LG Studio Works 452Y monitor. Being only a user of Ubuntu I promised to address their problems by referring it to the different technical groups in the open source community.
Open Source Curriculum
Their shift to Open Source Software has left a whole in terms of the curriculum since the books that are provided to them by the Department of Education are all Windows based textbooks. The learning process is at a loss right now as to what computer related skills are needed to be learned for each year level. Standards must be set and learning materials be provided so that the students and teachers would have a much better learning environment in computing.
Finally I have found a school with the school administrators having the motivation to take the risk and use Open Source Software for it is the correct thing to do. It would provide the students the proper values that there are choices to be made and all they need to do is to chose the correct one. I am hoping that Open Source groups would provide support to make the journey of the Rosario National High School in to the world of Open Source Software a truly fulfilling one.
