White Paper
Open Source and e-learning
Open sesame
White Paper: Open Source and e-learning
Who would have thought that a bunch of programmers would have so
revolutionised the world of knowledge? In the long term this movement
may have as profound an economic effect as many historical, ideological
movements. Their natural instinct for collaboration, and knowledge
of the tools of collaboration (the web), gave them a unique advantage.
This coupled with their revulsion at the tyranny of proprietary
code and licensing, led to the workers themselves colonising production
and doing it for themselves. This in itself was the result of a
highly educated group of people taking control and creating their
own future, a perfect example of the positive power of education
in the context of greater social goods.
Open Source has already rippled out into education and training
in many other ways. Marx was right in seeing that everything eventually
becomes commodotised, even learning. Education is a natural home
for open source, and other open movements, as education is widely
seen as a public good. It’s early days and Open Source may
well contribute to dramatically lowering the cost of education,
a political goal with which few would argue.
In a recent speech to school students Bill Gates, the world’s
wealthiest man, was reputed to have said, “Be nice to nerds.
Chances are you'll end up working for one.” College drop-outs
Bill Gates and Paul Allen, founders of Microsoft, quit in their
first year at Harvard, having picked up on software interests outside
of their academic institution. Steve Jobs and his partner Steve
Wozniak who set up Apple, were also drop outs as was Michael Dell,
founder and CEO of Dell Computers and Larry Ellison, Oracle’s
founder and CEO. Even the newer, younger breed such as Google founders;
Sergey Brin and Larry Page were drop outs. Forbes published list
shows that the average net worth of the 30 college drop-outs is
$3.3 billion, more than twice that of Ivy League Graduates.
Then came the backlash...
In this new white paper, Donald Clark discusses how Open Source
has done more than simply re-energise the software industry. After
decades of dominance by software giants such as Microsoft, SUN,
IBM and Oracle, it threatens to turn the industry on its head.
Register for your free copy
Summary of contents:
- Open Source - a digital reformation
- Drop outs drop in
- Digital Reformation
- Counter-reformation
- Holy war
- Open source and learning
- Open Source myths
- Too much of a culture change for our organisation
- Open-Source software isn't reliable
- Open-Source is always 'in development'
- Open-Source software isn't supported
- Open-Source software isn't controlled
- Open-Source is just esoteric code
- Open sesame
- Server operating systems
- Email servers
- Web servers
- Databases
- Open-Source in e-learning tools and platforms
- Authoring tools
- Community software
- Training platforms
- Education platforms
- Open access in e-learning research
- Open-Source in e-learning content
- Open access
- Patently absurd
- Connection not collection
- Conclusion
- Other Epic e-learning white papers
- EPIC THINKING
- Conclusion
- Appendix - Open-Source e-learning projects
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