Free and Open Source Software in K - 12 Education
Is open source too difficult?
Okay. We have an open source community on Ning. I go to to the wiki and it is Wikispaces. I click on resources and I am delivered to Google sites.
It seems to me that Open Source fails to meet the needs of its own proponents. Or do we have different definitions?
This is an honest question. Discussion?
It seems to me that Open Source fails to meet the needs of its own proponents. Or do we have different definitions?
This is an honest question. Discussion?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Miguel Guhlin on -
Free open source software has different adherents representing various stakeholders. For example, I could easily host a K12 Free Software Moodle with built-in wiki. But then, I'm an ed-tech administrator with access to multiple servers and enjoy the support of my supervisors. But some classroom teachers don't enjoy those benefits, lack the time to learn how to manage K-16 FOSS solutions, and the authority and/or budget to setup their own servers.
What is important to consider that many commercial ventures have at their foundation, free software. This free software has been customized, revised, and though unrecognizable to the casual visitor, a trained eye can recognize the underlying free software solution.
So, no, FOSS hasn't failed to meet the needs of its proponents. Rather, it continues to flourish in an environment hostile to freedom--our public schools.
Thanks,
Miguel Guhlin
Around the Corner-MGuhlin.org
http://mguhlin.org
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Permalink Reply by Steve O'Connor on -
Anybody with a $5 cpanel based web hosting account can install Moodle in less than three minutes. Then they can do the same with WordPress and set up a blog in same time it takes to set up a Blogger account.
I'm talking about the resources that we bring to bear in our advocacy of open source, not specifically the school. Although our school has a $10 shared hosting account that we have used to deploy a number of open source software packages. Granted, we are a small school, but the belief that deploying server side open source software is onerous is a myth that keeps people from exploring.
Back to schools: What gives individual teachers the authority to deploy free commercial solutions (often bypassing the school), if they don't have the authority to use FOSS?
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Permalink Reply by indigo196 on -
What do you mean by Open Sources fails to meet the needs of its own proponents? I am not following you on that?
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Permalink Reply by Steve O'Connor on
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Why aren't the proponents of Open Source Software deploying their blogs, websites, and social networks using Open Source Software? Again, we are not talking about schools specifically.
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Permalink Reply by indigo196 on
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Some of the things you have brought up are open source (Wordpress) or use open source (Wikiplaces), but I do not think that open source advocates would ever claim that open source is the swiss army knife of IT. They would acknowledge that some proprietary solutions are 'easier' to deploy and in some cases better.
The larger 'key' to open source is that it can be modified to fit needs and does not force you to modify your needs to fit the product you have.
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Permalink Reply by Steve O'Connor on
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Of course I know Open Source is not the end all. You know that I personally use Macintosh computers as well as linux, for example.
I'm not sure Swiss Army knife is an apt comparison as these tools are divergent in source and nature. I agree that open source is not the proverbial shmoo.
I guess I wonder what the obstacles are to walking the walk. I think the message would resound more authentically if we were to use appropriate open source tools to disseminate it. There are, in this case, appropriate tools.
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Permalink Reply by indigo196 on
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I think in this case of using Ning and other such sites is about the hosting more than the Open Source component. I am not sure that people have the resources to host a site like this... though they could potentially use a site like Wordpress that is both OpenSource and hosted.
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Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on -
I'm reminded of an all-day international meeting I facilitated last year on open source adoptions in schools. One gentleman from Germany said that it typically took four years after adoption of an Open Source program for the educators to start understanding what Open Source was and its pedagogical benefits.
For example, I think most educators using Moodle are using it because of functionality, not the underlying values (although, one could easily argue that the underlying values are what give Moodle some of its functionality!). But even if the educators don't understand at the time why an Open Source tool is being used, there's an integrity to doing so that effects all of us in the long run.
On the other hand, I can learn to use Ning and to deploy a network around a topic in a very short time, with limited to no technical support issues. While there are times when I believe it's important to "eat your own dogfood," there are other times when trying to do so creates an impasse at a particular moment. I spent several weeks planning out this network, and worked closely with Revolution Linux to consider doing so in Elgg. They determined that they weren't comfortable configuring and supporting the network, so we went ahead with Ning rather than wait. We felt that the educational community was missing a way of easily and quickly gathering around Open Source topics, and that for $25/month, Ning could do that right away.
I know you weren't specifically targeting this network in your good discussion starter, but the issue is real and important. I do ALWAYS do all of my presentations in Impress. Sometimes I like Impress better than PowerPoint, but at other times I use it even though I could do something a little bit easier in PP.
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Permalink Reply by Chris on -
First of all--keep in mind that much of the web is based on LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), all of which are open source. (this includes wikispaces).
Second, the power in open source is that it can be customized to meet the needs of its users. Rather than waiting on a company to make a change that is needed--it can be made by any user (or at least suggested to the developers). There's power in that. If I need a feature, I have input on the creation of that feature. If its a good enough idea, it will happen.
Lastly, I'm sure that most of the functionality of this site could be done using Open Source software. There are wikis out there that are open source (including MediaWiki, the engine behind Wikipedia), you can create a blog from Wordpress, etc. I just think for simplicity's sake, Wikispaces/Ning/Google were used. Sometimes ease of use comes before everything else.
I hope I understood your drift....
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Permalink Reply by Michael Paric on -
Chris,
I agree on all of your points, however public schools don't have the resources to piece all the Open Source tools together, let alone customize for their specific needs. The teachers I've worked with don't care that Open Office can be modified anyway they want or even that it can be freely and legally distributed to their students. They just want something that works with the curriculum they already know and doesn't take time away from teaching because of a learning curve. How do we make it "Dead Freakin' Obvious" (as quoted by IBM in their view of Open Source) to our educational system?
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Permalink Reply by Michael Paric on
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There's the inertia argument: IT Directors with years of working with Windows machines who refuse to consider alternatives, teachers and parents who use Windows at home and/or work and feel comfortable with it despite its obvious flaws, but I believe the biggest detriment is the lack of consistent, reliable support. As I stated on my blog "Is the Community Enough?", major school districts won't rely on grass-roots efforts to change their technology platform. If the Open Source Community casts a weary eye towards any group who tries to organize a commercial business promoting, installing and supporting Open Source-based technology, it won't gain any traction. At least not in the U.S.
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