Educational Origami

I have long been an advocate of Free and open source software (FOSS). There are an amazing array of tools and technologies available to use from a dedicated community of enthusiasts. I applaud these people as they have done much to enable my teaching.

But while I wholeheartedly applaud them, I must also lament the situation that has forced me to rely on them and their generosity.

Few Businesses can not afford to make education specific software

Many companies, Microsoft & Adobe are I feel included in this same boat here.  Education particularly K-13 is poorly funded and as a result, almost out of self defence, Schools will try for the cheapest option. When you have the choice between a supported, professionally developed package designed for the K-13 market or a cheaper, possible free alternative that is used in business but can be adapted to K-13 what do you choose. K-13 education is hard market to thrive in.

Teachers have an almost universal opinion that these tools should be free. Do teachers have an understanding of the cost of developing, testing and refining technologies? Many can’t understand the cost structures that companies have to put in place, and if you add to that picture the losses to piracy. K-13 is a hard market to justify your investment in.

I suspect that the cost of development also explains why many of the tools we use in schools are ones ported across to education from the business. There is not the money in Education to support purpose built applications. I think there is a market for these tools, a huge market, but there is not the funding to be able to sustainable support it. This is really not a software developer problem but a reflection of global government approaches to funding education.

Sustainability, is also going to become an increasing issue in the FOSS sharing spaces. How do you support a Free product? What happens to a product when the developer/s runs out of steam? What happens to the school if the lynch pin of your system goes unexpectedly end of life? Is the FOSS community for your favourite application a vibrant community of many or of one?