NECC 2008 Reflections: Open Minds, Open Education, and a View of Open Culture

Open Minds, Open Education, and a View of Open Culture
David Thornburg, Thornburg Center


David Thornburg of the Thornburg Center is one who never fails to be passionate about his topic; he clearly loves education and loves kids. In this presentation, he shares the beauty of Open Source software. A few of Thornburg’s points:

· As the cost of hardware decreases, the escalating cost of software is an increasingly significant part of our technology budgets and we have to pay attention to it.
· “Single platform software is anti-child” – Thornburg believes a student should be able to access the same software at home as at school or anywhere else regardless of platform but many are serving the platform, not the child.
· We need access now, more than ever, for every learner in the world
· Technology is changing faster than pedagogical practice
· Question shifts from “Given current classroom practice, how should technology change?” to “Given current technology how should classroom practice change?”

My reflections:
· I think the “question shift” is interesting…we’ve often said instruction should drive technology and not the other way around. But, perhaps, there is a place for looking at technology first if for no other reason than to open our minds to possibilities not available to us 5, 10, 15 years ago.
· While I understand the point, I’m not sure I like the broad brush painting of single-platform software development as “anti-child”. Those are pretty harsh words to hear at an educational conference…some people are just makin’ a living.
· I’m concerned about looking to open source for everything. Some open source software is truly essentially the same as its more expensive competitor. However, some of it just can’t match up. I’m concerned that my district might move to an open source concept-mapping software because of the exorbitant price of the industry standard but I have yet to see open source / web based options that really do what the more expensive option does. I don’t want to sacrifice the educational benefits of packages because we can find a “similar” free one.