Honeycom Intranets for Schools Presents Reasons Why Open Source Matters.

WREXHAM, UK December 11, 2010 (Press-News.org) Many schools have been overly stretched when keeping up-to-date with campus technology services to support online learning activities and statistically many schools have found themselves locked-in with outsourced web developers and redundant technology that has quickly become out dated and cannot be easily replaced. In the not too distant past, many schools relied solely on email systems, interactive CD-ROM's and MS Office to provide the tools needed for enhanced learning and curriculum delivery.

Today, 10 years into the new millennium, many schools do now utilize more advanced systems for curriculum delivery and more sustainable learning management systems. Statistically, we now find that most schools do now use better supported systems such as Moodle, Sims.net, PowerSchool, Edline, Studywiz, Microsoft Sharepoint, Google Apps and, for the intrepid, maybe even an online Facebook presence. Whilst Moodle is free and openly developed by a world of outwardly mobile experts, most solutions available for schools can be quite costly and leading into many thousands of dollars to implement. Moodle is remarkable because, like Wordpress, it is developed by academics for academics and the source code is free for open development. Teachers are comfortable with using Moodle and because many teachers do use Moodle, schools are also able to easily maintain it with the transition of staffing. Quite simply, Moodle is safe for schools to invest in and they can avoid lock-in with a developer and steer clear of developing in-house version software's that led many schools into deadlock in the not so distant past.

Open Source software, just like Moodle, appears to be leading the way for schools and keeping them ahead with better organizational effectiveness without dependency on software licenses for profit. Given that Moodle is very successful at what it does, what other open source software is available for schools and how can schools create intranets which benefit from such open development? How can schools freely create a comprehensive toolbox (or dashboard) for their students and faculty so that they can deliver the resources necessary for effective teaching and learning in 2010 onwards? The goal of this article is to provide a little in-site into how this can be achieved.

Honeycom Intranets Ltd, based in North Wales, have created a striking demonstration of how Joomla (the worlds leading open source content management system) can be used to create a sustainable and free framework for schools and their intranets. The Honeycom School Intranet Demo illustrates how schools can implement a robust infra-structure built upon linking the very best open source technologies together with universal login. Unlike other profit intranet solutions, Honeycom Intranets illustrate how to rapidly deploy a school intranet at a very low cost and without any developer lock-in. Such open source intranets are designed to harness and project the collective experiences of its users and Honeycom Intranets have developed a high quality intranet package for every school need by linking the best open source software together.

Such open source intranets can consolidate and standardize all department sub-sites into a unified system and easily identifiable brand where any school user can feel as though they are using one comprehensive system rather than forced to use multiple systems to accomplish a single task. With Joomla based intranets together with linking many freely available open source projects this is achievable for any school and at little cost. With Joomla open source technology school intranets can easily include familiar software such as Moodle and Wordpress which many teachers are already comfortable to use. With Joomla schools can maintain photo galleries, videos galleries, daily notices, blogs, discussion forums and provide access to the entire network using one universal log in. To see how, try the HoneycomIntranets.co.uk demo available on their web site.

When combined with Cloud Server technologies where schools do not require campus server systems, such open source software's can be hosted and quickly expanded using top-tier secure corporate servers that avoid the complexities and costs of on-site server deployment. In 2010, schools can utilize the world's best known networks to power their intranets that are built open open source technologies without lock-in with ready access to staff who are experienced in managing and maintaining them. Open source matters!

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If you'd like more information about this topic, or to schedule a free consultation, please call our London support center at 020 3368 6424 or email sales@honeycomintranets.co.uk

Honeycom Intranets Ltd provides and hosts the best intranets for schools. Our online dashboards are ideal for shared course resources using tools that teachers are familiar with.