OStatic

Though today's piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education is less about the advantages of open source courseware and more about the advantages that open source courseware has suddenly been given, it's worth taking a few moments to read and consider.

The leading proprietary course management system, Blackboard, announced this month that it was purchasing another of its major competitors. Many Angel Learning clients said they chose the company because of its low-key approach and helpful customer service, coupled with the open nature of at least portions of its source code.

It's an area where software preferences -- not necessarily in regards to open or closed code, but service, features, and responsiveness to client needs -- are not simply a matter of favorites. As the Chronicle explains, the course management system isn't just a platform for managing coursework, schedules, and grades. It's an extension of the school.

Where Blackboard has seemingly fallen short, where Angel Learning excelled, and how this acquisition is being received has resulted in many educational institutions giving open source alternatives a much closer look.

The South Carolina Department of Education and the non-profit Palmetto Project have teamed up to get a laptop in the hands of every elementary school student in South Carolina. Inspired by the vision behind the OLPC Initiative, educators, philanthropists, entrepreneurs and government officials started working together in 2005 to see if they could make this happen.

The OLPC/SC hopes to distribute as many as 50,000 laptops this spring to eligible students. The effort is underwritten and managed by the Palmetto Project, whose mission is to put new and creative ideas to work in South Carolina. While low-performing school districts with limited resources are a special focus for the OLPC/SC, the group is adamant on one point: There are no free laptops. In fact, there are two requirements for children wishing to receive a laptop -- one is merely a token, the other puts the greater meaning of the laptop in perspective.

Even as a child, I knew that Pixie Sticks were just trouble. The paper tubes loaded with colorful yet mysteriously flavorless sugar weren't particularly tasty, and too many of them led to mom and dad either threatening to pull the car over or hinting ominously about what would happen if they had to tell me again. Parents today know that in addition to the traditional side effects, Pixie Sticks aren't terribly good for USB ports, either.

That's not the case with the other sort of Sugar. Sugar, the kid-friendly open source desktop that was featured first on the OLPC XO laptop is now available (in a beta release) as a liveUSB image. The Sugar on a Stick environment is powered by Fedora 11 and features familiar Sugar desktop applications and functions, as well as new educational and collaborative tools, such as the InfoSlicer online content editor, remixer, and delivery application.

We've written on numerous occasions about open source adoption in government and education. The ways that open source solutions make sense in (and even philosophically complement) these areas are many, and often make any obstacles involved seem less critical. But for reasons that are frequently unrelated to the utility or appropriateness of open source software, adoption in the public sector has been slow.

It is on the increase, however. The Daily Gazette in Schenectady, New York, recently ran a piece detailing the reasons why the public sector has been hesitant about -- but not entirely resistant to -- adopting open source software.

ZDNet's Chris Dawson has been thinking about Linux in the educational setting quite a bit lately, thanks to his school district's purchase of some new Intel Classmates, and the educational and financial benefits they bring.

Fueled by a piece he read in a recent openSUSE Education newsletter, he began pondering the ins and outs of open source software software adoption. Though he mentions Linux specifically, his thoughts transfer quite well to free software on closed platforms. Dawson asks if Linux is only for the poor -- if the economy wasn't in such a rough spot, would school districts (or businesses, or individuals) be moving to, or even seriously considering, open source platforms and alternatives?

It's a great question, and it's hard one for me to answer honestly. I know how I'd love to answer, and I know perfectly well that answer is unrealistic. Even if increased open source adoption in certain fields is primarily due to the dismal economy, it doesn't mean better financial times will lead to mass open source abandonment.

Last week, Moodlerooms announced that it had teamed with Google to integrate the Google Apps for Education service into Moodle.

This allows students and faculty using the open source Moodle learning platform to access all of Google's educational tools and applications, as well as the Moodle system, with a single sign on. Even more significantly, it simplifies managing and maintaining network collaboration tools, and allows students to access the system and get working on any computer that has a browser.

Christopher Dawson has been thinking aloud about Linux in the classroom at his ZDNet Education blog. Dawson, the technology director of a school district in northern Massachusetts, had sixty new Classmate Convertible PCs fall into his hands, and wonders if the Linux-powered machines are a better option for the district.

The Linux Classmate PCs run Edubuntu with a customized version of Ubuntu's Netbook Remix user interface. Dawson is suitably impressed with the educational software included by default in Edubuntu and how well the school district's necessary Windows-based software runs in WINE. Intel says that the software stack offered on its Windows XP Classmates is similar to the Linux machines.

Unless there are serious issues raised in testing, Dawson plans to purchase the Edubuntu-powered Classmates. He admits the teachers are a little hesitant about the decision.

Speaking from experience, the adults are always hesitant. He needn't worry about the students.

It's no secret at this point a few of us at OStatic are passionate about the use and adoption of open source software in educational environments. Education is an area where the use of open source software feels so natural, but hardware lifecycles, the timing of support and license expirations, and budget crunches slow down the adoption process for many educational institutions.

The Brazilian government officially embraced open source software in its schools, announcing it had selected Userful,Positivo, and ThinNetworks to supply 324,000 virtualized desktops in each of the country's municipalities. This is not only the largest deployment of virtualized desktops in the world -- it's also the largest single deployment of Linux desktops.

Maybe it's personal bias, but a few of us here at OStatic have wondered why using open source software isn't a foregone conclusion in education.

The BBC has posted an insightful piece on open source software in schools that not only touches on the strengths of the software, but also the complexities of deploying it in these environments.

The Digital Divide -- there isn't a nation where it doesn't exist, yet it seems so relative. In one place, a child going online via dial up using a PII seems at a disadvantage. Elsewhere, that child has a tool that could change his life. The opportunity to learn not only facts, but how everything fits together is platform independent. The PII is just as valuable as a new laptop costing thousands. Both are meaningless if children can't access all they offer. Any technology costs money.

Open source has much to offer here. Lower costs, good support for old hardware, and software that can be modified to individual needs. OLPC champions low-cost laptops for every child. Userful takes a different approach.