Universities

Educational institutions often face a dilemma of balancing technology features with needs. Ironically, the very institutions that are supposed to teach students how to "think" often default to the "status quo" when it comes to technology, and they miss out on many opportunities to effectively put technology to use.  If you’re reading this… think outside the box!

There are three primary concerns that OpenTech helps to address:

  1. ­Technology requirements
  2. Distance Learning
  3. Constituent Relationship Management (fundraising, etc.)

Distance Education & Learning 

Many institutions struggle with the decision to invest resources in distance education or even an online collaboration tool for students to use outside of the classroom.  Whether you simply want to augment learning or you desire to offer complete classes remotely, we provide a solution that is often preferred by students over certain commercial Course Management Systems.

  • – manage grades & attendance
  • – online student interaction
  • – submit assignments online
  • – provide tests & quizzes online
  • -remotely train staff
  • – share courses & lesson plans
  • – easily communicate

face the problem of putting computers in the classroom. Educational discounts are available, but costs are still prohibitive, and they often result in upgrade cycles that predictably drain future budgets. Old hardware cannot run the newer software, and if they are simply maintained, the different versions of software eventually fail to interact with one another.

Essentially anything that works for homeschooling will work for educational institutions – that is, it scales up easily. Homeschools are pretty much everything in one place. Educational Institutions such as public schools, private schools and small academies often lack the resources to provide for their students on a consistent or current basis. While some computer labs are quite modernized, many more are outdated and lack the necessary software to educate students on the very skills they attempt to teach. The hardware used often times cannot handle the required software updates and so new money must be aquired to replace machines which are only a few years old.

The use of Open Source Software by FLM enables frequent updates, if desired, with minimal impact on increasing hardware requirements. A single computer that many families discard today could serve as a server to a dozen workstations for a school, with updated software. In addition, there are no licensing issues to worry about. One copy of the software can be installed on an unlimited number of workstations with no penalty. How’s that for interoperability!?

1“Educational institutions” corellates to publicly and privately funded institutions, normally referred to as schools or academies. This is seperate from homeschooling for our purposes, though anything used in homeschooling can normally be brought to a formal classroom environment and vice versa.