Co-sponsored by IMB and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, K12 Open Technologies is a site intended to "raise awareness among K-12 education technology decision makers about the use of open technologies." By 'open technologies' the sponsors mean "an umbrella term that includes open source software, open standards, and open hardware." Sounds good, though as Tom Hoffman cautions, 'open source' has a very specific meaning while 'open technologies' does not. "They should not co-opt the open source name for their own purposes, or dilute its meaning in the minds of educators," he writes.
My own criticism is more pointed. Where is open content in this mix? It can't be that they simply forgot. The site points out, "Huge libraries of content are being assembled by organizations, agencies and individuals." True, but a lot of that is intended for sale. Is this where the 'private' part of the equation comes in? I always worry about these public-private partnerships, of the sort CoSN promotes, just because there's always some sort of loophole. Let's see K12 Open Technologies promote open content, and do the job properly.
My own criticism is more pointed. Where is open content in this mix? It can't be that they simply forgot. The site points out, "Huge libraries of content are being assembled by organizations, agencies and individuals." True, but a lot of that is intended for sale. Is this where the 'private' part of the equation comes in? I always worry about these public-private partnerships, of the sort CoSN promotes, just because there's always some sort of loophole. Let's see K12 Open Technologies promote open content, and do the job properly.
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