Friday, December 22nd, 2006, 7:10 pm
Open Source Software in British Education
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A short essay of mine has been published over at newassignment.net. It is a short writeup which, at least at the time, contained ‘inside information’ from a project that I am involved with. The unedited version lies below:
By its very nature, learning involves exploration. Exploration requires transparency, versatility, and openness. Therefore, one of the areas that benefits education the most is the Open Source paradigm for development, collaboration, as well the widespread use of Open Source software.
There is an ongoing debate in the United Kingdom. The Open School Alliance recognised the fact that an Open Source approach to education would benefit the students not only by providing necessary skills, but also by reducing costs. There is an absurdity which took many observers’ attention. While recommendations are made by a government body called BECTA to acquire Open Source software in schools, facts on the ground suggest that these recommendations are completely ignored. Instead, pricey proprietary software is being acquired. It restricts the scale of knowledge offered to students, as well as leads them to depending on companies.
Members of the parliament have entered this vibrant discussion. They are presently working to reverse the worrisome trend. They wish to introduce more schools Open Source software rather than retain a state of ‘neutrality’ wherein vendors use incentives to promote their closed systems. To date, eighty-six members of parliament have questioned the exclusion of open source software from UK schools. They respond to an early day motion (EDM) tabled by John Pugh.
John Pugh MP has recently said: “In my experience a school is a key part of the community and as such has a role to play in the economy of that community — the emphasis on somethings seems to be local supply but not for information technology.”
In journalism, just like in school and academia, one needs to find a state of independence from industry. This rationalises a symbiotic relationship that exists between the community-oriented approach — that which replaces reliance on products and their vendors — and its appraisal. This culls out the tendency to incorporate bias, whether deliberately or not.
We sent the word out to the press/wires the other morning. We have approached the 100-MP milstone with 97 signatures by now.
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Related articles for some context:
January 11th, 2007 at 12:32 am
hello, have nice day