Thornburg (2009) succinctly
stated, “The constantly changing landscape of educational technology can be
thought of as a series of transitions from older tools to newer ones” (p.
1). These newer tools help us to complete
the same tasks which we performed with the older tools, but in a more effective
or efficient way, or may allow us to do things that we could not do
before. The newer tools should be used in
the environment of teaching and learning to augment or enhance human
performance.
One such technology which is
shaping the educational landscape is the open source technology. The idea of open source allows users free
access to design and redistribution of software by making the source code available
for manipulation as long as these co-developers and co-designers credit the
original author of the source code. Pan
and Bonk (2007) defined open source as, “Any computer software program whose
source code is free to its licensed users for use, modification, and
redistribution” (p. 2). CoSN K-12 open
technologies is an initiative sponsored by corporations such as IBM, Cisco, and
Pearson Education with the goal of making K-12 curriculum available to teachers
and learners worldwide. Wiley (2010)
described the concept of this technology in education as openness and sharing
and proposed that the three were synonymous. Wiley (2010) suggested open source as a
technology would allow us to share our knowledge and expertise as is evident
from sights such as Curriki.org which provides a forum for educators to network
and share curriculum and lesson plans openly and free of charge. Open source is paving the way in education. Open source courseware such as the MIT
initiative which offers free classes for various disciplines in efforts to “unlock
knowledge and empower minds” (MIT, 2002-2012), and Khan Academy whose website boasts
that, “You can learn practically anything for free” (Khan Academy, 2012) allow
students, teachers, and parents to access meaningful learning 24/7, free of
charge. Open source course management
systems, such as Moodle, and other open source applications have indelibly
influenced face to face, hybrid, and distance learning to enable collaboration,
social networking, social bookmarking, and the co-creation of knowledge. The idea of open source technology opens us up
to potentially replacing the published textbook by resources that are the
product of the effort of multiple authors who have edited, improved, and
changed material that is now available to the masses free of charge around the
world in a much shorter time period than it took to write, edit, review, and
publish the printed text. The benefits
of the open source initiative and its technologies are endless for the learning
community worldwide.
Security is a concern in this
community of openness which allows anyone to contribute. There is a fear that hackers may access
information or that users could unknowingly download a virus to their
computers. Constant modifications could
render the software unreliable and even useless to the learning community, since
there is no paid technical support, if there are too many problems, developers
may abandon the project leaving users stranded.
Fortunately creative commons licenses, peer reviews, and initiatives
such as the open source initiative (OSI) support security, reliability, and
validity of open source applications.
Please view the
videos and links below for more information on the idea of sharing knowledge through open
source technology.
References
Mayer, R. E. (2009). Multimedia learning (2nd ed.). Cambridge ,
MA : Cambridge
University
MIT. (2002-2012). MITOPENCOURSEWARE. Retrieved
from http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
Pan, G., & Bonk, C. J. (November, 2007). The
emergence of open-source software in North America .
International Review of Research in Open
and Distance Learning, 8(3), 1-18.
Video:
Baraniuk, R. (August, 2006).
TED: Richard Baraniuk on open-source learning. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_baraniuk_on_open_source_learning.html
Wiley, D. (March, 2010).
TEDxNYED: David Wiley. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb0syrgsH6M
Websites
CoSN K-12 Open Technologies: http://www.k12opentech.org/
Moodle: http://moodle.org/
