Open Source Education?

ICT Evangelists are the natural prime-movers in any new trend. They are essential to progress. But, assuming their cause is a good one, they have to be followed and supported by the politically-astute and influential doers if real progress beyond the first inspirational wave is to be achieved (see my thoughts on evangelists here). To gain ground, any really worthy development needs an assured, influential and hard-headed focus to ensure that the case for that development is put forward strongly and effectively. The evangelical trailblazers may be the key factor that starts the ball rolling on a new cause, but real progress needs that next step too. Of course, the two need not be mutually exclusive - an evangelist can be a mover and shaker too! The open-source movement is a good example of this process of crusade followed by political/economic muscle. Huge strides have been made in the deployment of open-source in various arenas, not least in the web server market. But the importance of building and sustaining an effective bsuiness case for any such development can be seen here, where the political muscle of Microsoft is allowing it to make great strides against, for instance, the open-source Apache web-server, especially in the Big Corporates market! The hugely exciting developments in Web 2.0 are another case in point. When combined with the potential of a large-scale initiative like the Scottish Schools Digital Network (SSDN) there arises, I believe, the very real possibility that Scotland could begin to pursue some notion of 'open-source education'. SSDN, bringing together curricular and MIS data within an entirely web-delivered, anytime/anywhere environment, and offering the potential for truly personalised collaborative learning within a safe and secure environment (where safety and security are required - which is not in every circumstance!), and combined with the Web 2.0 applications, will produce the ideal vehicle for such developments. If the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) manages to elude the dead-hand of the subject specialists and the curricular die-hards and really does begin to open up the curriculum for Scottish schools, we will create a genuine opportunity in the next 5 to 10 years to turn our education system inside out. Similarly, the shift from summative assessment to authentic formative assessment, as embodied in the equally critical Assessment is for Learning (AifL) initiative, will help create the landscape in which this can happen. Inside out? By this I mean that we must take the chance to bring about the circumstances in which learners - from the point at which they are capable of doing so - are allowed to determine their own learning needs by negotiating with their teachers precisely how they will - together - meet those needs. The combined might of SSDN, Web 2.0, CfE and AifL is generating a tidal wave that could change the way in which education, and especially school-based education, is conceptualised and exploited in Scotland. We only have to look at the hugely compelling initiative being taken by MIT to put as much of their courseware as possible online (look at their site) to get a glimpse of the future, a future in which learners will be able to exploit massive banks of high quality resources freely available online, and in which teachers (and students themselves) will be able to grab such 'stuff' and combine and re-combine it in an infinite variety of ways, to see the rich learning landscape that, to some extent, is already here. It is a goal worth pursuing, and Scotland seems to be headed in the right direction.

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© John Connell
The views expressed in this weblog are entirely my own and are not intended to reflect the views of any other individuals or organizations. All sources will be fully acknowledged.