Before I was aware of the free and open source software alternatives, I would
have probably accepted this request as fair enough. But when I learned how good
Open Office was for example, and saw what OpenOffice.org had to say on their
website, "You can install this software on every computer in the school and on
every pupil's and every teacher's computer at home without paying any license
fees. Please encourage others to do so..." I had to ask these questions:
Why are public education departments buying software at such an expense, and
insisting that their staff and students use the same, when the equivalent
alternatives in software are not only free, open and more flexible, but are more
equitable, accessible, usable and reliable for the students and teachers?
And while we are considering that question I'd like to put forward
another:
Why are those same public departments investing so much in a culture and
practice of copyright, intellectual property and user pays business models when
technology such as the Internet, free and open source software, and concepts
like open courseware make it economically viable to at last offer a free and
open education equally to all?
Jimmie Quesinberry on 29 Jun 10"The Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) is an online community of open study groups for short university-level courses. Think of it as online book clubs for open educational resources. The P2PU helps you navigate the wealth of open education materials that are out there, creates small groups of motivated learners, and supports the design and facilitation of courses. Students and tutors get recognition for their work, and we are building pathways to formal credit as well. Sign-up for the next round of courses is tentatively scheduled to open in September 2010. However, you can still access all the course materials and even follow the discussions. And our pilot phase courses are in the http://archive.p2pu.org."
