Learning and Leading - February 2009

READERS
respond

L&L wants your opinion! Send comments to letters@iste.org. Participate in our monthly reader poll at http://www.iste.org/LL.

POLL RESULTS

Yes
78%

No

22%

Are Free Tools Worth the Price?

Most commenters and poll takers agree that free tools are often surprisingly useful in the classrooom.

Get More Than You Paid For

The old adage “what you pay for is what you get” is no longer true for most open source applications. Many of these applications are as full-featured as their commercial counterparts. As for bugs, the response by the open source community is far more responsive in updating and fixing problems than you will ever get with the large commercial companies. When your curriculum drives you to find a technology solution, look toward open source, and you might be surprised what great tools are available.

Renee Ramig

Seven Hills School

Walnut Creek, California

Caveat Emptor

I have found that any free or open source programs that are available for download are not worth the trouble in configuring or retraining users to accept a different program. Often the “communities” built to support these programs do not have the depth to support them.

Joe Gruce

New Hampshire Society for Technology in Education

Hollis, New Hampshire

Just Right for a Down Economy Many school districts simply cannot afford licenses, lengthy agreements, or upfront costs with today’s economy and budget cuts. Free tools bridge that gap and ensure our students learn in a 21^st-century environment.

John David Son

Kentucky Society for Technology in Education Benton, Kentucky

It’s All About the Curriculum

It is important to focus on the reason we use these tools in the first place. Any resource material, technology related or not, should support the curriculum, not be the curriculum. To say that a teacher must revamp the curriculum to either use the tool or compensate for its loss is putting too much emphasis on the tool itself.

Scott Schaeffer

Exeter Twp. School District Reading, Pennsylvania

Stir Things Up

Education needs to move from static objects to dynamic ones. Our students and the world model this behavior regularly. Much the same as textbooks anchor and drive our curriculum beyond usefulness, reliance on too many proprietary software tools can lead to stagnation. A few good purchased tools and a bevy of free ones will keep it moving!

Mark Hines

Mid-Pacific Institute

Honolulu, Hawaii

We Are the World

Free tools are invaluable regardless of the time, effort, and sometimes frustration involved. They are our only option in “flattening classrooms” and engaging students in global collaboration and learning. Free Web 2.0 tools provide a level playing field so that all students worldwide have the possibility to understand one another.