Changes

Forty years of observation suggests that engaging children in using computers and in programming software to run on computers is a powerful means to drive learning. The process of writing and then repairing (also known as “debugging”) a program, which Solomon described as “the great educational opportunity of the 21st Century”, provides a basis for active learning through heuristic problem solving. Free Software enables and encourages students and teachers to engage in real science and engineering and to take responsibility for the tools and practice in their classrooms.

Forty years of observation suggests that engaging children in using computers and in programming software to run on computers is a powerful means to drive learning. The process of writing and then repairing (also known as “debugging”) a program, which Solomon described as “the great educational opportunity of the 21st Century”, provides a basis for active learning through heuristic problem solving. Free Software enables and encourages students and teachers to engage in real science and engineering and to take responsibility for the tools and practice in their classrooms.

It goes beyond programming, however, because it sends a message to the learner (yes, teachers are learners too) that they do not have to accept the world as it is handed down to them. Rather they can edit the instruments of change in all aspects of their lives.

It goes beyond programming, however, because it sends a message to the learner (yes, teachers are learners too) that they do not have to accept the world as it is handed down to them. Rather they can be the instruments of change in all aspects of their lives.

Of course, this is not the message that your audience of IT leaders wants to hear because it directly undermines their ability to lock in school districts and since with Free Software the end user has the ability to dictate change, the highly profitable practice of planned obsolescence is not viable.

Of course, this is not the message that your audience of IT leaders wants to hear because it directly undermines their ability to lock in school districts and since with Free Software the end user has the ability to dictate change, the highly profitable practice of planned obsolescence is not viable.