Brecksville-Broadview Heights City School District opts for Eee PCs

John Schinker is the technology co-ordinator for the Brecksville-Broadview Heights City School District in Ohio, which is comprised of six schools serving some 4,800 students from kindergarten to grade 12.

Schinker oversees all aspects of technology for the district, including hardware, software, instructional applications and networking operations.

Schinker purchased eight Linux-based Eee PCs for the district: one for the technical staff, one for himself, and one for each school, with instructions to pass them around among students and staff to determine how they can fit into the district's educational environment.

If we had gone with Windows, it would have increased the cost by about US$150 and the hardware would be underpowered

"For us, the price was the major selling factor. If we had gone with Windows, it would have increased the cost by about US$150 and the hardware would be underpowered. Even running XP SP2, we would need more RAM in them. Linux was really the way to go to keep the cost manageable," Schinker said.

So what do the kids think of Linux compared to Windows?

"So far, it hasn't been an issue. Other than the Eee PCs and most of our servers, we're Windows only. But the Eee PC is so intuitive, it hasn't been a problem. Our experience with the Eee PC has prompted us to look at using something like Linpus on our older desktop hardware too," he said.

Schinker said one positive outcome from Linux is that it forces the district to limit the scope of the Eee PCs.

"By not running Windows, we can put some limits on the expectations of the little laptops. They're not going to run Accelerated Reader, or Successmaker or Adobe CS. We can focus the expectations on the things that it does well rather than trying to make all of these other applications work, and that is really nice from a tech perspective."

What the Linux Eee PC will do for the district is allow kids to access the Web, write essays and stories, collect and graph data, and prepare and deliver presentations.

"My own kids, ages 6 and 8, really like Tux Paint. They say it's as good as or better than the commercial Kid Pix program."