FLOSS IN EDUCATION CONFERENCE

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Press Release 
FLOSS in Education Conference, 18th February 2004
London, England, 2nd February 2004
A one day conference on Free, Libre and Open Source Software in Education will be held at the Institute of Education, University of London on 18th February 2004.
The conference will provide up to the minute information on the fastest growing technological revolution since the Internet. It will demonstrate how some schools are already saving a fortune in software licenses and how future trends in global development will affect education. Attendance is essential for those with strategic planning roles who need to be well-informed of future trends. Those taking part have practical experience of integrating FLOSS into existing Windows-based networks, and the cost savings that can be made as a result.
Speakers at the conference come from a range of backgrounds and experiences of FLOSS. The keynote speaker is Professor David Hargreaves, Chairman on the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTa) and Assistant Director of the Specialist Schools Trust. David is also a Senior Associate of the Think-tank Demos and a Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge. He has been Chief Inspector of the Inner London Education Authority and Chief Executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, as well as holding academic posts in teacher education at the Universities of Manchester, Oxford and Cambridge. He is visiting Professor of Education at the University of Manchester.
East Hull CLC runs a 120 station thin client network running Mandrake Linux and its Director, Dougall Gill will be speaking at the conference, discussing the cost savings made as a result. Eric Farrell, Head of Modern Languages at St. Monica's RC High School is running a development project to implement a language laboratory using Free Software.
Wakefield City High School have installed a hybrid Windows/Linux network and is bidding for Specialist School Status in Maths and Computing. Martin Jowett, Head of Design and Technology will be explaining how activities with Free Software and refurbishing computers form the basis of their Specialist bid.
Other contributors include MJ Ray from the Association For Free Software and Tony Whitmore from Regents Park Girls School in Southampton. They will be discussing the use of FLOSS (including the Koha library system) in FE. Steve Alexander of z3u will be talking about SchoolTool, a Shuttleworth Foundation funded project to create a school administration system that is flexible enough to be used anywhere in the world. His presentation will include a demonstration of the current functionality.
Richard Allan MP (Lib. Dem.) will be taking part in a "Question Time" style debate with Richard Rothwell, Chairman of SchoolForge-UK and Ivan Pegg, Project Director of Wakefield Education Action Zone. The debate will be chaired by Ian Lynch, Director of The Learning Machine and former OFSTED inspector.
The conference is being organised by the Association for Free Software, SchoolForge-UK and The Learning Machine. Registration is just £59 + VAT. 
More information and a booking form can be found at: http://www.schoolforge.org.uk/flossie/conference200402.html