Open Source Education

Through my perusal of my RSS feeds this afternoon, I caught the following article - Choices Abound - Google Moodle Microsoft and Blackboard.  MGhulin mentioned (and I feel I must emphasize) the FREE series of Online Courses available from INGOTS that can be setup for use in a Moodle without problem. Using the link above, brought me to a series of courses that could be integrated into a school system's Moodle then modified to fit their own needs. Wow... amazing.

But what was also interesting to me was the image that was at the top of the article...

Image Source: http://www-03.ibm.com/industries/global/images/HD_OpenED_hero_930x280.jpg

This thought of Open Source Education flooded my brain cells. Thinking of the Open Source Definition, I can only hope for a day when the teaching and learning process embraces these concepts. Imagine... it's easy if you try:

• Free Redistribution - schools (or school systems, or Departments of Public Instruction) create a course and freely trade it to other schools so that all students are learning the same concepts, using the same resources. The price (free) would help to redirect school budgets to quality curriculum development so that better courses are developed and better teachers are trained.
• Source Code - no more copyrights on educational material would ensure that material is updated frequently. Access to the source files would also make sure that factual errors don't exist for long, as many eyes catch many mistakes. Teachers are also amazingly resourceful with material. Give teachers the ability to update their own curriculum and new strategies and ideas would be sure to develop and spread.
• Derived Works - when new ideas and strategies do develop allowing existing materials to be modified using these concepts would only improve them. Creating new courses and improving them, only makes things stronger.
• Integrity of the Author's Source Code - educators are somewhat territorial, but, this clause might allow for some to release their "source" but still keep control over what is said. This idea of "forks" would encourage individuality and differences to be brought to the educational community and competition would still occur for the best idea.
• No Descrimination Against Persons or Groups - isn't equal education what we're all about?
• No Descrimination Against Fields of Endeavor - who's to say Math materials can't be used in Science classes, even English classes? Let's call this one interdisciplinary studies...
• Distribution of License - no "hidden clauses" make all teaching and learning transparent to all parties involved.
• License Must Not Be Specific to a Product - no curriculum or topic should be specifically designed for a certain school system or country. I'd also think that this might add a tie-in to allow some of the traditional education resources to be used in corporate training programs and vice versa.
• License Must Not Restrict Other Software - everything a school system does doesn't have to be "open source". Privacy and security needs must be recognized. But this should not be the ONLY consideration.
• License Must Be Technology-Neutral - focusing on one particular way of doing anything leads to serious problems if it ever comes to realization that we're doing the wrong thing. Whether this be in teaching Microsoft Office as a Computer Applications class, or emphisizing SAS or Cisco in IT courses. Vendor-neutral wherever possible can make things a lot more universal.

Maybe this is a bit of a stretch, maybe I'm just crazy, but, just maybe...