Open Education
The Office of Educational Technology (OET) develops the nations education policy and provides direction for using technology to transform education. The department recognizes that open licenses and software are essential to meet it goals and is implementing policies to further the use of open standards.
"We believe that educational opportunities should be available to all learners. Creating an open education ecosystem involves making learning materials, data, and educational opportunities available without restrictions imposed by copyright laws, access barriers, or exclusive proprietary systems that lack interoperability and limit the free exchange of information"
The consortium has the objective of advancing policies that require open licenses for information, materials and applications.
The Department of Education defines open licenses as follows:
"Openly licensed educational resources are learning materials that can be used for teaching, learning, and assessment without cost. They can be modified and redistributed without violating copyright laws."
The U.S. Department of Education requires that all software and materials created grant funds are openly licensed to the public. This is a two billion dollar initiative and is the largest Open Education Resource initiative in the world.
Global Education
The adoption and use of Linux for education is occurring globally. Brazil, Spain, India and Germany are a few among the many countries that have active educational programs utilizing Linux.
Open Source software supports education globally by providing education focused distributions and distance learning applications/services. Millions of students utilize Edubuntu, OpenSuse Education or some Linux bundle with enhancements for education. Others utilize online course content delivered through systems such as the Free Technology Academy or MOOCs like Edx.
Linux is being selected because of its low cost and economic benefits but also because of the opportunity it provides for practical learning.
Brazil
The Brazilian government designed and implemented a plan to increase computer access in their schools. They believed that the development of computer skills in K-12 was essential to the long term success of their students and their society. Their goals were to (1) create a more skilled workforce, (2) decrease the digital divide, (3) diversify the economy by enhancing the utilization of technology and (4) increase the participation of their citizens in the "knowledge-based economy".
Linux was implemented to provide technology access and today 35 million students in over 50,000 schools throughout Brazil are now enjoying 523,400 new computer stations, in what has become the largest digital inclusion project in the world. See Brazil Case Study
Kerala India
In 2008 the Government formally ordered that only free Linux-based software should be used for IT education in high schools. The project is being implemented in over 12,000 schools and involves 5 million students and 200,000 teachers. India has some of the best computer and software learning schools in Asia and produces some of the best programmers in the world. Kerela in India is one of top regions in the country for IT learning, from primary schools to technical schools and universities.
In addition to use open source in schools the Kerala government has established The International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS) in order to assist in the development and training of software developers. The institute establishes mentoring programs and relationships with organizations engaged in open source projects.
Financial Opportunity
Personal Opportunity - Free software gives you access to billions of dollars of software at no cost. Use this software for your business, personal use or to develop a profitable skill. Access to source code provides access to a level of capabilities/information that companies protect though copyrights. Open source is a core component of the Internet and it is available to you. Leverage the billions of dollars in resources and capabilities to build a career, establish a business or change the world. The potential is endless for those who understand the opportunity.
Business Opportunity - Goldman Sachs, IBM and countless large corporations are leveraging open source to reduce costs, develop products and increase their bottom lines. Learn what these companies know about open source and how open source can give you the advantage.
U.S. Government - On January 20 2009, President Obama's first day in office, the Open Government initiative was issued to provide transparency and access to Government data. Learn how our Government is using open source and the opportunities this provides for you. Leverage Use open Government data or
Free Books
The Free Books Library is a collection of thousands of the most popular public domain books in an online readable format. The collection includes great classical literature and more recent works where the U.S. copyright has expired. These books are yours to read and use without restrictions.
The Library of History by Diodorus the Sicilian is one of the most highly regarded universal histories in antiquities. His work includes the history of Egypt, Asia, Africa, Greece and Europe. His book is a must read for research of ancient history.
The Histories of Herodotus written in 440 BC is considered to be the founding work of history in Western literature. His history included stories and fables but he claimed to have traveled extensively and learned about many countries through direct observation.
The thesis of Stolen Legacy is that the Egyptians created what is wrongly called Greek philosophy. Dr. James argues that the African origin of Greek Philosophy is well known but rarely discussed. Ancient Greek historians such as Herodotus and Diodorus the Sicilian wrote in significant detail about the contributions of Egypt. Egyptian technology and libraries were unmatched and Greek philosophers such as Pythagoras and Plato studied there. The contribution of Africa to the intellectual foundation of modern knowledge is tremendous but unacknowledged.
Bible Study The King James Bible (kjv), World English Bible (web) and Bible in Basic English (bbe) are all examples of public domain books. The King James Bible (kjv) online uses the content from these books and open source software to enhance Bible study capabilities. The site includes the verse of the day, search tools, christian literature and links to related content. It demonstrates the use of open source to create a valuable service.
Free Software
Free Software provides computer programs and capabilities at no cost but more importantly, it provides the freedom to run, edit, contribute to, and share the software. The importance of free software is a matter of access, not price. Software at no cost is a benefit but ownership rights to the software and source code is far more significant.
Free Office Software - The Libre Office suite provides top desktop productivity tools for free. This includes, a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation engine, drawing and flowcharting, database and math applications. Libre Office is available for Linux or Windows.
Linux is an open source computer operating system (OS) used on laptops, games, watches and super computers. The software and the source code used for Linux are both available to you at no cost. Use this powerful resource to your advantage.
Source Code - Want to change a program or know how it works? Open Source provides the source code for its programs so that anyone can use, modify or learn how to write those programs themselves. Visit the GNU source code repositories to download the source.
Educational Materials
Study at Harvard, Stanford or MIT - Open edX provides free online courses from Harvard, MIT, Columbia, UC Berkeley and other top Universities. Hundreds of courses for almost all major subjects and course levels. Open edx also offers some paid courses and selected certifications.
Linux Manual Pages - A man or manual page is a form of software documentation found on Linux/Unix operating systems. Topics covered include computer programs (including library and system calls), formal standards and conventions, and even abstract concepts.
