The Open EDge

There has been much discussion of late about the potential of social networking in the K-12 environment. These tools, which include blogging, podcasting, file sharing, and RSS, as well as the "social" structure of friendships, communities, and peers, have been said to have the potential to transform both teaching and learning, and rightly so. They enable creativity through easy to use tools, and encourage collaboration and sharing.

Our district has realized some amazing, quantifiable benefits, from improved science scores as a direct result of teacher review podcasts and group science projects to improvements in reading, writing, and language fluency, not to mention increased confidence and student engagement. We have communities of teachers developing and testing content, sharing ideas, discussing technologies, and communicating with their respective communities. We have students doing research outside of the base curriculum, both in groups and individually, to develop informational podcasts. Second graders are collaborating on creative writing and podcasting projects, while fourth graders post class reviews. In short, the concept of community is alive and well at Saugus.

K-12 technology leaders from around the globe gathered this year in San Francisco for the CoSN 12th Annual K-12 School Networking Conference, which has been a resounding success. The K-12 Open Technologies Initiative, for which I am a panelist, was well represented this year, with a variety of sessions focusing on open technologies in the K-12 environment.

For those who attended (or wish they could have attended) my session on Thursday entitled Open Source Implementation in K-12: Case Study of Saugus, CA the presentation and supporting documents are listed below.

Thanks to everyone involved for all your hard work - it really paid off this year!

CoSN 07 Case Study Slides application/pdf
Open CD Support Document application/pdf
Open Technologies in Education application/pdf
Short List of Open Source Software application/pdf

OpenOffice is a powerful suite of productivity applications with functionality that rivals Microsoft's Office suite. We use it extensively at Saugus, as it is part of our default computer image for both PCs and Macs. One of the most common questions we get about it is "where can I get a good manual or tutorials." Luckily, there are quite a few great resources for help with OpenOffice.

One of our favorite printed books is Point and Click OpenOffice.org from Prentice Hall, which is available from informit.com, or your favorite online bookseller. It's a very easy read and does a great job of covering all the primary applications in the suite. It even includes some video tutorials on CD with the book. The videos are also available online (for free) at the NewsForge site. Based on the whiteboards in the background of the videos, I would bet that the writer of this great book is a teacher.

Discovered a very interesting video on the web today, in a blog called Dangerously Irrelevant by Scott Mcleod. It's an adaption of a video called "Did You Know?" by Karl Fisch, which describes the state of our tiny planet, with a particular focus on the relationship between the United States education system and the rest of the planet. A real eye opener that ought to establish a sense of urgency in any educator.

The following question was posted on a mailing list recently, and I thought it was quite relevant to anyone looking into Open Source Software (OSS.)

"I have been asked to investigate the use of open source software to replace existing proprietary packages. I would be interested in why you have or have not used open source software and, if you are using it, what you are using and how is it working. I am specifically looking at office suites, e-mail clients, and desktop OS. We currently use Microsoft Office, Exchange, and Windows 2000 and XP for our desktop OS. "

This sort of question is becoming more and more common in K-12 today. While the "whys" and "why nots" are important, approach is at least equally, if not more important than the "whys." My response:

So far, the responses to the question, "If you had the choice between 5-6 new computers or an interactive whiteboard and projector for your classroom, which would you choose and why?" have been very interesting! I must admit, I have been a little surprised - I expected a bit more diversity. Barring the, "I don't have the space" issue, most of the focus, up to now has been on the teaching side, rather than an argument for learning. I think the big question is, "which would affect learning in a greater way?"

Based on the responses, it would seem that the projector is a slam dunk - everyone thinks that would be a huge benefit. But the argument for the boards is a little less clear cut. I'm curious about the lasting impact. Once the "wow" factor has worn off, do they truly offer enough benefit over a projector alone to outweigh the cost? What if the question choices were 6 computers vs. 3-4 and a projector vs. projector and board?

As I sit in my hotel room at a California education technology conference, where I have been presenting and promoting open technology use in K-12 environments, it is difficult to quantify the shock of the recent announcement by Novell that they are, for all intents and purposes, partnering with Microsoft. While most commentary thus far has spun the deal as some sort of validation that Microsoft is finally recognizing the viability of Linux and OSS in the marketplace, or that this is some sort of response to Oracle's Red Hat Rip Off, I see this as a new threat to open source of a greater magnitude than the community has ever seen.

To understand my concern, you have to believe, as I do, that anything that reduces competition reduces choice, and ultimately hurts everyone. Consider the force of Novell's patents in the industry as a whole - their mere existence, alongside Novell's promises to protect the open source community from patent threats has undoubtedly bolstered the confidence of open source developers and vendors, as Novell has, up until now been "on their side." Now, Novell and the combined weight of its patents are behind the company to whom the success of open source is the greatest threat. This will undoubtedly influence corporate customers who are interested in and/or using Linux to make sure that their Linux distribution of choice is Suse Linux if, for no other reason than to protect themselves from potential litigation. As Ballmer said, "let's get you a version of Linux that protects our (Microsoft's) intellectual property."