Posted by
Waski_the_Squirrel on Wednesday, August 06, 2008 3:03:28 PM
It's time to come out of the high political blog with U.S. Senators and return to the prosaic world of education. I have described open source software and I have outlined a few reasons why schools have not turned to open source. Today, I want to give a few suggestions for altering the culture.
- Use open source in your classroom: Nothing speaks louder than success. If your school won't let you install the software directly, tell your tech person you need it so you can work on your files both at home and at school. (It worked for me!)
- Produce great things with your software. You will wow your audience.
- Mention what you are using. Don't be a pest, but this is advertising. You can't advertise if you don't say anything.
- Have CDs of the software available. I've converted several students to OpenOffice this way. Admittedly, most were looking for an improvement on Microsoft WordPad. That brings up the next one:
- If people are happy with what they're using or comfortable with it, they won't wear down very quickly. Your Open Source software will feel like they've given something up unless you lay the groundwork first.
- Let your tech people know about it. Some will be utterly opposed, but you may be able to get them to install it on computers at school as an alternative. Your foot will be in the door.
- Be patient. You are trying to disrupt and entire culture. If you move too quickly, you will face a massive mutiny. I'm still not there in my school, but I've built up interest.
This is a battle worth fighting. Money not spent on software can be spent in other ways. It can be spent on other technology or on other needs that the school has. In the public schools, money can be raised by legalized theft (taxes). However, if you are in a private school, you depend on the free market. Open source software should hold a huge appeal.
It is a battle worth fighting in your own home. I bought the Microsoft Office Suite when I first bought my computer. Even though I got an educator's discount, that little disk cost more than the printer or the scanner. Since then, I have added high level typesetting software and high level photo manipulation software to my computer that has saved me thousands. The short version is that I'd never own that kind of software were it not for open source.
I'm doing more because of open source.