Sakai Featured at eLearn Magazine

0zach • 18th Jan 2008 • Found on the Web, Sakai • Sakai

The current top story at eLearn Magazine is about the proliferation, albeit slowly, of open source software in higher education. Laurie Rowell cites various studies that suggest Sakai and Moodle adoption are growing quickly, but that even so CIOs like to take their time and make sure they know which way the wind is blowing.

I think the reason it takes so much time is that open source systems are not just different products, but an entirely different kind of product. Open source is as much an approach to systems as it is the systems themselves. Rowell rightly points out that it’s not about saving money, since you’ll need staff to take a much more active role in your software strategy than they had before.

Another good point is that we can’t very well expect our instructors to start hacking the code themselves; It’s not what they’re here to do and it’s not what they’re compensated for.

Those of us in the instructional technology business need to make it our mission to amplify teaching. We should be able to put tools in the hands of our faculty to let them do what they already know how to do, but better, faster, and further.

This is a tangent, but here is the video where a young Steve Jobs says, “[A computer is] the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.” This is a very worthwhile 60 seconds of tape: