Moving at the Speed of Creativity - It’s time for schools to embrace open source

It’s time for schools to embrace open source

Published by Wesley Fryer in open source on August 21st, 2005

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School systems around the world are continuing to spend a ridiculous amount of money every year on software and operating system upgrades. In many cases, these schools and the trustees responsible for their budgets are throwing money down the toilet. Have you read Oversold and Underused by Dr Larry Cuban? If you have anything to do with educational technology purchases and budgets, you should. It is appalling how much money schools are wasting every year on educational technologies that are doing very little, if anything, to constructively improve the educational experience. (Don’t leap to the conclusion that I am anti-edtech: I am not. I am pro-distruptive/constructive edtech, and mostly con-sustaining edtech. More on this is available and coming!)

The July 2005 BBC article “How schools can get free software” raises issues that every school and school district, based in the UK or elsewhere, should be asking and answering creatively. No, I do not think every computer in a school district should be running open source software. But in many cases, school computers should.

What percentage of the new software features in Microsoft Word XP do you think users in your local school systems have even tried, much less are using on a regular basis? Probably a pretty small number. Open source software can and does provide an amazing amount of functionality for an amazing price: Zero dollars, zero Euros, zero Yen. Are there many CIOs out there reading and paying attention? For the sake of we taxpayers, let’s hope so.

I will be writing and publishing an article about open source software in education soon for School Library Journal. I also hope to publish a podcast/skypecast interview with my friend Miguel Guhlin of San Antonio ISD, who is one of the most knowledgeable folks I know in education when it comes to the use of open source software solutions. This fall I will be utilizing Moodle (free open source CMS software, providing functionality similar to WebCT and Blackboard but for zero software cost) for my EDIT 5310 Microcomputer Applications course, which I am teaching for Wayland Baptist University here in Lubbock, Texas.

If you want to read more about open source, check out Miguel’s blog postings on this topic.

Open source software in education. It’s time for a change.

On this day..

2 Comments »

http://www.mguhlin.net/blog Miguel Guhlin

I’m not anti-edtech either, but I’ve woken up to the fact that K-12 education has wasted so much money. The subject of a podcast I’m developing, we’ve moved from a fascination with gathering personal communication, tool-based software to focusing on how we can collaborate on communications with others. What is amazing to me is that this spells the end–at long last–of proprietary software focused on selling us yet another version of Reader Rabbit, etc. The masses get it–it’s about communication, not rote memorization a la computer. Worse, India, China…they have already gotten it. Sheesh. When will the U.S. get it?
http://www.wesfryer.com Wesley Fryer

I think many of the folks “getting it” when it comes to the failure of many public schools to adapt to our new information environment, what we know about teaching and learning, and the needs of kids to be engaged in authentic learning contexts are the droves of people home schooling and seeking other alternative settings to their public school. Tunnel-vision focus on high stakes testing is not the appropriate response here. High standards and rigor certainly are, but high quality education begins with high quality teachers. Sadly, policymakers and administrators are chasing many of those out of our classrooms as quickly as they can. My new edtech catchphrase this year is, I think, “disruptive technology.” I theorize that if teachers constructively use disruptive technologies (like podcasting, blogging, 1:1 immersion, etc.) we can help many in the public school sphere “wake up” to the possiblities of authentic instruction that is appropriately technology infused.