Posted by
Waski_the_Squirrel on Sunday, August 03, 2008 5:46:12 PM
The short answer to the question in my title is that schools don't like new ideas. Now, that might seem to run counter to what we see in schools: they jump on every new fad. While schools do tend to jump on new fads, the fads aren't too different from current practice. They aren't truly disruptive change that fundamentally alters the way the school operates.
Schools have been slow to implement open source software because:
- Lack of familiarity: many "tech" people at schools are teachers who fell into the position but have no love for it.
- Prior Investment: schools are heavily invested in software. To start using open source software is to call that money wasted.
- Familiarity: People don't like change. OpenOffice may not be much different from Word, but it is different. People have an emotional reaction to it and then claim "it's harder to use."
- "The Real World": A common claim is that the real world uses Windows, so students should learn it. Funny, when I was in college, we used Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. The year I graduated, the world went on to Windows 98.
- History: Let's face it, open source software is innovative, but it has been slow to become a competitor to closed source. Its original market was "nerds" who didn't mind that it was difficult to use. Many people still think it is like that.
- Salesmen: Open source software has fans like me who share it, but no true salesmen. If you look back at my writing, you'll see why I'm a teacher and not a salesman. Closed source has salesmen who visit schools and give gifts to encourage purchase of their product. Open Source gets forgotten beside this glitz.
- Compatibility: Sometimes open source software is not compatible with what the school already has. For example, my school uses PowerSchool for its grades and attendance. That program is the one reason I still have to use Windows. Nothing in the open source world works with it.
- Support: This spring, when PowerSchool (on my computer) started popping up random grades for only my Physics students, the tech person called them and was able to get it fixed before the students killed me. With open source software, you are on your own. To many people, that's scary.
Open source software is disruptive change. I outlined why schools resist that disruption. Tomorrow, I want to look at how innovators, like me, can get schools to convert to open source.