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 12.04. 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 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.

Hardware use by teachers
There is a guide for using school laptops with video and audio [here.]
 * We use HP and Lenovo laptops for our staff, and these run Ubuntu Linux.
 * We endeavour to use data projectors and e-presentations whenever possible for the following reasons:
 * Delivering content that has been prepared beforehand gives us more quality time for intentional instruction. Full-class and one on one.
 * Reinforcing concepts visually, verbally and in writing gives students the multiple "ways-in" to subjects.
 * Anyone who is away from class has easier access to course material to catch up.

= 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. ASHS OER projects are listed here.