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Open Source Pros and Cons

For cash-strapped school districts, free is a very good price. But, is it always the best route to go when you’re considering educational software?

To help technology decisionmakers who are grappling with that question, NWREL has launched a Web site that explores Open Options: Making Decisions About Open Source Software for K–12. The site—www.netc.org/openoptions—was developed by the Laboratory’s Northwest Educational Technology Consortium (NETC) under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

"Free is a very misleading word: the sale price may be low, but the total cost may be high," explains Kym Buchanan, a NWREL research specialist. "We’ve been getting a lot of questions about open source systems, particularly Linux, from educators who may see companies like Amazon.com choosing open source to run their businesses."

Open source software is openly accessible to the user. Anyone is legally allowed to use, change, and/or redistribute it without cost. Proprietary software, on the other hand, is licensed to users for a fee.

The new Web site provides background information, a list of pros and cons, and questions to ask when making software decisions. A number of examples shows how K–12 educators are using open source and why they chose it.

So, is open source the answer to educators’ prayers? The answer is an equivocal "it depends." Says Buchanan, "The consensus among users we talked to is it’s a good solution for some situations, but not developed enough for others. Whatever the case, it’s still something that should be on everyone’s radar screen."