Introduction to Free and Open Source Software in Education
This is a two-week unit focused on the practical application of Free and Open Source software (F/OSS) in education. It is suitable for advanced undergraduate learners in K-12 teacher training programs. The unit is not intended to be an exhaustive review of F/OSS. Rather, the unit assumes no prior knowledge of F/OSS and is intended to act as an introduction and a guided exploration.
Upon completion of this unit, learners will be able to:
- Describe F/OSS in their own words
- Provide examples of how F/OSS can benefit education
- Provide examples of F/OSS tools
- Explain some of the barriers to F/OSS adoption
- Describe how instructors might start using F/OSS
I've released the unit under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Generic License (CC BY-SA 2.5).
What prompted me to release this unit is twofold. On the one hand, I've decided to eat my own dog food. If I'm constantly advocating for open educational resources and the use of F/OSS in education, then I need to practice what I preach. On the other hand, as I was developing the two modules in this unit, I was disappointed at the paucity of resources that were readily available for introducing F/OSS for education to learners with little to no prior knowledge in this area.
Actually, there is also a third reason. I would hope that by releasing under a CC BY-SA license, if anyone does use these resources and makes improvements on them, the changes will be returned to me so that the community can benefit.
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