Sustainability

Sustainable Software is like sustainable environmental development. For example, the survival of the "Big Five" animals in Africa (buffalo, elephants, leopards, lions and rhinoceri) depends on maintaining a sustainable balance between them and their food sources (plants and animals). Likewise, the sustainability of a school's technology program is dependent upon the ratio of its costs in terms of time and money to its benefits in terms of security, dependability and utility. If costs are more than the environment can afford, in terms of animals and plants in the first case, and in terms of time and money and frustration in the latter, then it becomes unsustainable.

Many schools have adopted unsustainable technology solutions; they are paying more than they can afford in the long-term in money, time and frustration. Often, however, they do not realize that they have made a mistake until it is too late; nor do they realize that there are ways to make technology for schools affordable without sacrificing power, utility, security or dependability. These depend on finding solutions that do not lock you into a single vendor, platform or programming standard, that contain unpredictable costs, or that work with artificial barriers between you and the programmers/maintainers. If you can find a way to fulfil these requirements using software, then you've found sustainable software. One of those ways is to combine FLOSS (Free/libre Open Source Software) with people who know both education and complex software. This is exactly what ITeachNet does and would like to share with your school.

But We're Rich!

Ah, this is so very commonly heard. 

• Are you so rich that you wouldn't raise morale and keep better teachers longer if you paid more or gave them more benefits?
• Are you so rich that you couldn't use extra money for other things than software?
• Are you so rich that you can afford to pay high licensing fees and buy the latest hardware, white boards, projectors, audio-visual peripherals . . . instead of building/maintaining atheletic equipment or buying musical instruments or science lab equipment? 

It isn't hard to add to this list.  Intelligent, carefully planned adoption of free and open source alternatives is a journey, not a product that you can buy and be done with.  You should have a guide that will be there for the long-term, even when you are no longer at the school.  ITeachNet.org is the safe way to begin this journey.

Click on the links to the animals in the menu (top or bottom) to see examples of software that will improve your school's survivability.