On the Trails

“It’s mostly the same–the web is the same, the word processor is better than what I have used before, and
Moodle is great. I have a Windows computer at home, and my friend has a Mac. I use Nintendos, Xboxes, and PlayStations, and I also use my cell phone, my sister’s cell, and my friend’s. They are all just a little different, but it is no big deal. It’s just nice having access to computers in my classrooms.”

Mike Huffman, and Laura Taylor. “eSchool News online -
Changing the world–one desktop at a time.” eSchool News Online.
(2007). 17 June 2007 Link to article.

I hear it all the time – we need to prepare students for what they are going to face in the “real” (whatever that means) world. So,
therefore, we must buy all this software and hardware – blah, blah. The quote above, from an Indiana high school student, describes kids today – they can adapt to anything. The “real world” to them is connecting to all sorts of devices with all sorts of interfaces with all sorts of operating systems and in the cheapest ways possible.

Remember, those students are going to create the “real world”. When I was in high school (1980-1984) I never could have imagined that I would be sitting outside on my deck connecting wirelessly to my iTunes collection and writing a “blog.”

The point of this little rant — if school leaders believe that technology improves learning and technology costs money, than shouldn’t we find technology resources that are affordable, if not free? Like Open Source? If you read the article above, you will see that the state of Indiana is beginning to think this way.

Here is a link to a web page that I am maintaining of Open Source alternatives to typical software deployments.

Technorati Tags: openSource, eSchoolNews, indiana

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