Education

We are well into the beginnings of the Information Age. It stands to bring about the establishment of a new world order. The proportions and the effects of this restructuring will far exceed the ones brought about by the Industrial Age. It is time for the sharpening of the tools that will be needed to build this new age.

Educators have been called upon throughout history to combat a closed mindset among people, to let the world know about the ‘other’ side, the ‘free’ side. Censorship has been imposed on all types of flow of information by various powers who don’t want a new world order to be instated. The censorship today comes in the form of licenses that aim to destroy the tools which are required to build the ‘Information Age’ and laws that limit free and open use of tools which have been developed. The powers imposing this censorship attempt to create an artificial scarcity of information in order to maintain the hold they have of the world they first got control over and keeping in mind their best interests.

It is indeed a strange world where educators feel that sharing information, as opposed to concealing information, is a malpractice. Perhaps the competitive world is to blame for this, where everyone wants to have an edge in their field. But, the advance in all forms of arts and sciences, and the overall increase of human knowledge is the result of the open flow and sharing of ideas, theories, studies and research.

Yet throughout most school systems, the software in use on computers is closed and locked, making educators equal partners in the crime called censorship of the cornerstone of the building of this new age, that is, information. This software not only seeks to obscure its functioning, and the user is restricted to manipulate it according to their requirement due to the chains that bind him in form of the End User License Agreement. High costs of these kinds of software eat into the school managements limited financial reserves. The use of such closed software in education may be justified only where no suitable open source solution exists

Students should not be restrained from trying to break the shackles. They are the ones who are going to pioneer this revolution. This is the generation which will decide what course the world is going to take. They should be encouraged to explore and experiment with their surroundings without having to worry about legal hassles, fines and punishments. Furthermore, we should create an open environment for them where they are inspired to share their research and findings with the whole world. Constraining students to move the confines of a few closed, proprietary programs merely cages those students potential and in the process, hinders the growth of the new age.

Open Source can and will revolutionize education around the world. Switching to Open Source Operating Systems is just the tip of the iceberg. For the movement to be successful, it needs the backing of the present Open Source fraternity.

Inside This Section

Communication

In the super-fast paced world of today, something which is not ‘instant’ is as good as a rock. And above all, we need instant communication. For communication over the internet, we have e-mails and Instant Messengers or IM’s as we call them. Most of the IM’s belong to the line of CSS such as MSN and Yahoo! The developers of these systems do not disclose their source codes. Read More