Open Source Software Institute and North Mississippi Education Consortium Announce FREEDOM To LEARN Initiative
Aug 13th, 19:31 UTC
Pilot Program to Provide Free/Open source Software
to Mississippi Public Schools
Oxford, MS - August 13, 2002 - The North Mississippi Education Consortium (NMEC)
will lead a pilot program designed to provide Free and Open-Source software
to Mississippi's public school system.
The program, called "Freedom to Learn," is part of a Ph.D.-level
study exploring alternative technologies and methods of reducing costs while
increasing efficiency and student productivity within public school systems.
The program will be hosted at the University of Mississippi's School of Education
in Oxford, Mississippi. Freedom to Learn was conceived and initiated by the
Open Source Software Institute (http://www.oss-institute.org) a (Mississippi-based)
non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the development and implementation
of open source software within government agencies and academic entities.
"The goal of this program is to harness the vast resources available through
Free and Open-Source software and apply these resources to good use in Mississippi's
public school system," said Jim Chambless, Dean of the School of Education
at the University of Mississippi. "This program will allow us to explore
opportunities in cutting edge technologies that can save our public schools
money while freeing funds to improve the computer systems being used by students
and teachers."
Free and Open-Source software represent a variety of software solutions whose
license requires that the software code be open, extensible and freely distributable.
The "freedom" and "openness" of the source code allows for
collaborative development by programmers and enables the software to be customized
to meet the clients' needs.
The Freedom to Learn program will identify, collect, analyze and combine software
applications and program packages that promote literacy skills, communication
skills, mathematics, visual arts, data collection and organization, and Internet
browsers.
Program researchers will initially target between six and 18 public school
districts in northern Mississippi. Within each selected school district at least
two schools with similar educational needs, demographics, technologies and financial
resources will be selected to participate.
Half of the schools selected will serve as a control site, while the other
schools will have their existing student computer labs audited, then reprogrammed
with open source software solutions that closely mirror the software being replaced.
The experimental school sites will be monitored both directly and remotely by
the research team for up to 18 months.
"Nearly all of the existing programs utilized within the schools systems
have an Open- Source or Free-source alternative," said Don Schillinger,
the 47-year-old Ph.D. candidate leading the Freedom to Learn study. "We
are exploring the feasibility of collecting the Open source and Free-Source
programs that are currently available today and customizing them to meet the
needs of each school district participating in the program.
"By utilizing Open-Source software, we can customize the software to look
and feel almost exactly like what the students and teachers are currently using,
and add powerful educational applications to their desktops at no or low cost,"
Schillinger continued. "Since Free and Open-Source programs are not limited
through restrictive license agreements, we can also change the programs to address
any specific needs that the teachers or student require. Open-Source models
have an inherent advantage in that you have the ability and right, through the
General Public License (GPL) agreement, to alter the program to meet your needs."
Another benefit to the use of Free and Open-Source software is the price. All
of the licensed software solutions to be considered for the Freedom to Learn
program are available without charge through the Internet.
"Free and Open-Source software programs are developed through collaborative
efforts of programmers around the world. Since there is no restriction to the
access of the source code, the only thing limiting the development of any program
is the need of the client and the imagination of the programmers," Schillinger
said. "Most of these programs can be purchased from traditional vendors,
like any other software. What you're paying for, in that instance, is their
development time and follow up support for the program. However, if you have
the expertise, you can download the programs yourself and customize it in-
house. That is what we see happening with the programs we'll implement in the
schools."
Two additional attributes of most Free and Open-Source software applications
are that they run efficiently on older computers, and their low or no cost increases
access to the students and teachers of Mississippi. Both of these considerations
may have dynamic and far reaching educational implications.
NMEC will coordinate with the Open Source Software Institute to provide support
and training for the teachers, instructors and students involved in the program.
"Freedom to Learn is a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate the practical
application of Free and Open-Source Software," said OSSI Chairman and Founder
John Weathersby. "OSSI will provide access to the open source industry
and will help support this program in every way possible.
"It is our position that Open-Source software is the most logical technical
solution in a public service setting," Weathersby continued. "This
study and all the programs and application development that will result from
Freedom to Learn will become a true public assets and will benefit everyone.
OSSI is proud to be associated with this effort and we are excited to have identified
a group that has the leadership and vision to take a project like this and run
with it."
Project Freedom to Learn will begin with this fall semester and is scheduled
to continue through next school year. Five additional State's have expressed
interest in adopting the Freedom to Learn program.
North Mississippi Educational Consortium
The North Mississippi Education Consortium is a partnership among forty-three
North Mississippi public school districts, three community colleges, and the
University of Mississippi School of Education. Its purpose is to provide means
whereby participating members can assure quality educational programs through
cooperative efforts and shared resources, for the benefit of students and communities
being served. These efforts include: pooling local resources for special projects;
professional development; sharing of expertise among members; identifying and
securing revenues for cooperative projects, and exerting influence on state
and national educational issues.
Open Source Software Institute
The Open Source Software Institute (OSSI) is a non-profit organization comprised
of corporate, governmental and academic representatives whose mission is to
promote the development and implementation of Open-Source software solutions
in government agencies and academic entities. For additional information refer
to the OSSI website at http://www.oss-institute.org.
# # #
(Submitted by John Weathersby of Open Source Software Institute)
| 
