This preliminary study has shown that Norplant is acceptable as a contraceptive method among adolescents in Greece and can be prescribed safely.

This preliminary study has shown that Norplant is acceptable as a contraceptive method among adolescents in Greece and can be prescribed safely.

The authors present their experience and practices of introducing cloud services, as a means to simplify the adoption of ICT (Information Communication and Technology) in education, using Free/Open Source Software. The solution creates a hybrid cloud infrastructure, in order to provide a pre-installed (Ubuntu and Linux Terminal Server Project) virtual machine, acting as a server inside the school, providing desktop environment based on the Software as a Service cloud model, where legacy PCs act as stateless devices. Classroom management is accomplished using the application “Epoptes.” To minimize administration tasks, educational software is provided accordingly, either on-line or through repositories to automate software installation (including patches and updates). The advantages of the hybrid cloud implementation, include services that are not completely dependent on broadband connections’ state, minimal cost, reusability of obsolete equipment, ease of administration, centralized management, patches and educational software provisioning and, above all, facilitation of the educational procedure.

In this chapter, the authors present the methodology and the results of their effort towards the introduction of cloud services as a means to simplify the adoption of ICT in education using Free/Open Source Software. A hybrid cloud infrastructure is established in order to provide Linux and optionally MS-Windows desktop environments with the Software as a Service cloud model. Legacy and modern school PCs function as stateless devices. To achieve this, their “Sch-scripts” application performs an unattended installation of the Linux Terminal Server Project software to a school computer that also hosts centrally maintained virtual machines. Classroom management is accomplished using their “Epoptes” application. Administration is only required in the school server while the educational software is provided with the Software as a Service model either in online form or through repositories that automate software installation. Four-hundred-twenty schools have already implemented this architecture and 117 responded to the evaluation survey. The statistical analysis of these answers confirms the design principles, which include minimal cost, as well as reusability of obsolete equipment, ease of administration, centralized management, patches and educational software provisioning, classroom management, and above all, facilitation of the educational procedure.