Site Strategy

So, we wrote a "hard hitting" article this month explaining part of our decision to drop the Open Source for Education section of our newsletter.

Maybe this article will clear up the distinction between…

• Open Source programs for Windows™ that teachers use


• Open Source advocates that demand Linux replacement for desktop computers and the elimination of all Windows™ software


• Classroom Toolkit's Open Source for Instructional Materials movement. Classroom Toolkit views operating system debates as a distraction to educational decision-making

What we Expose

Our article exposes the fact that Linux arguments and debates about replacing the operating systems for the desktop computers and servers are technical arguments that…

• Focus upon technology instead of instruction


• Ignore teachers and how teachers work


• Focus only upon one kind of learning task that students perform, i.e., writing research papers


• Miss the "forest" (a school district's network as a dynamic, living ecosystem)


• Focus on a "few trees" (extending the useful life of some old computers)


• Ignore the fact that all instructional project require at least a 30% budget for training and professional development

Read the article.

This article will anger the Linux crowd that would ban Windows™ from our schools because Microsoft™ charges money for software licenses.

But, the article will show teachers what this debate is about, and explain the reason that Classroom Toolkit decided to make an editorial change and drop Open Source as a separate article section of our newsletter.

Classroom Toolkit will still share sources of affordable and usable tools for teachers, no matter what company produces the tools.

We just intend to distance ourselves from…

• The radical and useless arguments that tell teaches what they need


• That are propagated by non-teachers who do not know the "ins and outs" of education


• Advocated by non-teachers who don't know how to teach


• Pushed by non-teachers who don't know just how much professional development is needed to make their "recommendations" work


• Extolled by non-teachers who don't care how much work they add to a teacher's workday

Until these Linux advocates figure out how their recommendations can produce measurable instructional goals, and until these advocates can produce an educational rationale for their recommendations; teachers should put them in their place.

Whether a politician or a technical expert, have you told off the clueless non-teacher who wants to run your job their way? (That is, make you job harder. Take up more of your time on non-instructional distractions?)

The day is still young.