The open source approach to education

Free, Libre, Open Source Software (FLOSS) refers to any software distributed under a licence that allows users to change or share the software source code. The three most important characteristics of FLOSS are that: · it allows free (unrestricted) redistribution · the source code is available at minimal cost · derived works may be redistributed under similar non-restrictive terms.

These principles have emerged from a long and complex history that is intricately bound up with early development practices around mainframe computers, debates over the nature of knowledge and information, and the emergence of home PCs and the commercial software market. FLOSS principles have, from these origins, inspired new approaches to copyright (such as Creative Commons) and have come to inform a cultural phenomenon that is underpinned by technological development with the aim of contributing to the public good.

Futurelab's interest in this area stems from the belief that FLOSS provides an example of peer-production which is driven by collaborative, social modes of interaction and knowledge exchange. This paper discusses some of the potential ways in which the approaches that characterise FLOSS might be applied in educational contexts; specifically, whether they can act as a model for education in: · offering new approaches to teaching and learning, specifically enabling personalised learning and enhanced learner voice · enabling knowledge sharing and collaboration between teachers · overcoming structural divides between developers of educational software and its users.

The paper does not discuss the pros and cons of schools adopting open source software systems, but examines the possibilities opened up by pursuing an open source philosophy. FLOSS approaches enable the creation of distributed collaborative networks of people working together to solve problems. This might provide a powerful way of thinking about how learners might work together, within or across schools, to generate new knowledge and practice of relevance to them. It offers the opportunity for learners to identify small tractable problems and together create ultimately significant contributions to knowledge.

With regard to teachers, FLOSS approaches provide an insight into how knowledge can be shared, modified and adapted across the teaching profession and in different contexts. We could conceive of networks of teachers and researchers working together on different educational challenges to create new approaches that are open to and usable by all. These approaches raise questions about the growing trend towards copyrighting and selling of teaching strategies, curricula and schemes of work.

It is also possible to conceive of young people or teachers working together as programmers to create new resources and tools that are of relevance to them in supporting their own learning. These approaches go beyond the traditional distinction between 'users' and 'producers' of educational resources, instead, they offer models of innovation in which these communities are intermingled, the notion of ownership is changed and the economical model of cost and reward is reworked. These new hybrid models of innovation that FLOSS exemplifies require us to ask what models of ownership we might need to develop; what mechanisms might need to be put in place to encourage exchange between sectors; what role users of educational resources might play in the creation of resources; and what business models would need developing to allow further exploration in this area.

FLOSS is more than software: it is of relevance to our understanding of how people learn and produce knowledge; of how communities collaborate and work to solve problems; and of how innovative practices emerge. As a movement it raises a provocative set of challenges for educators and developers of educational resources.

Futurelab is a not-for-profit organisation that is tapping into the huge potential offered by digital and other technologies, to develop innovative learning resources and practices that support new approaches to education for the 21st century. This report forms part of their Opening Education series which is designed to open debate and stimulate new visions for education.