Android

Android developed by Android Inc., the Linux-based operating system that has had people excited since its emergence in 2005. The collaboration with Google and the Open Handset Alliance has seen Android become the world's best selling smartphone platform*. 

Google Inc. released the Android software under a free, open-source license and so the whole Android experience takes on the aspect of a wider, shared collaboration through developers who have written over 200,000 apps for the operating system so far. The great thing is its free.There's an entire open source community out there and if we're ever going to bridge the digital divide, surely open source will play a key factor. Go, Android, Go! 

*Android is also the operating system on my Samsung Galaxy S.

Power Fox

For open-source advocates, try Mozilla Firefox. Like many browsers, it has had many incarnations (and a few name changes too). However, I like the "fox". It's slick; it's smooth; has a few tricks up it's sleeve and it's sharp ... rather like a fox indeed. There are other Internet browsers out there, but Firefox has been my preferred browser for a number of years and the recommended browser for the best viewing experience for this blog.

Copyright Free

Open education - it's an ideal scenario - though with all the proposals around lifelong learning, open networking, classrooms without walls and so on, the whole issue of freeware/open-source at some point becomes an unavoidable part of the debate.

Of course we can't ignore the many who make their livings through genuinely protected works, but the tenet of availability and free distribution is at the heart of Copyleft. Ideally open*, ideally organic* and ideally without walls*.

*There are many accounts of this not being the case. These are cautious ideals, but ideals nonetheless.

Without Walls

It's a great idea, and I quite agree that in many cases we can live, learn and work without walls and boundaries.

My teaching experiences have mostly required me to look for some kind of shelter, and in most cases, roofs and ceilings have been held up by walls. The pendulum for and against open-plan primary school settings in the UK swings constantly one way and another, and is, if anything a reflection on the fact that no one particular model is superior. It is, after all a question of teaching and learning styles and appropriacy. I should confess however, that I do like to keep out distractions so walls do serve a purpose beyond keeping schools standing upright.

Learning Without Walls?

But there are places in the world where learning occurs in the great outdoors - of course there's a whole area of non-traditional or specialist learning that happens outdoors, but then there are traditional classes that are delivered and studied in open ground, under the shade of trees and so on; but of course, much of this is because of lack of choice especially in parts of the developing world.

So why is there a great trend by educators in the industrialised world to rip down walls, where in other places, walls would be the START? Well, there-in, is the attempt to reach out; to empathise, share knowledge and ideas, to join-up learning experiences, to free minds and (for me, the moral obligation) to bridge the digital divide.

Are you listening Microsoft?

See http://educationaltechnology.ca/couros/ for more.