Summary of advice for educators

Under the current financial climate it is difficult to see schools' reliance on using free software content not increasing in the near future. Therefore, it is important that educators always evaluate the product carefully before adoption or purchase. This should involve the following:

• Checking customer (especially educational users) views on, and reviews of, the product/service
• Researching and analyzing technical support levels given by the product or user community
• Constructing a well planned timeline for software implementation
• Creating of a financial plan to project both short and long term purchase costs
• Developing of an institution-wide acceptable use policy
• Ensuring adequate resources are invested in training and professional development...not just in terms of "how to" but in terms of effective use

Please see the page Evaluation Criteria and Template for Free Software to learn more about key points to consider when adopting any type of free software.

Open Knowledge and Education

The implications of open knowledge and open access to information in education are profound. For the Generation-Y Millennials born into the digital age of social networking, sharing, remixing, mashing, creating, collaborating and posting. Students today learn from each other, and may even teach the teacher. Teachers in the future may more often play the role of guide and facilitator; therefore, selecting appropriate tools may be key.

Free and mostly free resources provide tremendous opportunities for educators and educational institutions who do their homework and make practical decisions. Today's student live digitally, and using tools that allow them to collaborate and create may improve their interest in subjects they may never have enjoyed before.Yet, all free resources are not the same nor is the definition of free as straightforward as it might appear. While most of us tend to think of free as “without cost” (gratis), others believe passionately in our unencumbered right to free (as in liberated) information.

Copyright Implications

The alternative to “free information” however, means someone or something owns it. Traditional Copyright licensing provides the means for protecting the intellectual property rights of the creator. It gives an author of original work exclusive rights to the work for a defined period of time, including its publication, distribution and adaptation, after which time the work enters the public domain.

In response to increasingly restrictive copyright legislation, free culture advocates like Lawrence Lessig (co-founder of Creative Commons) works with others in the Free Culture Movement to ensure that there are alternatives to restrictive Copyright. Creative Commons operates on the principle idea that everyone should be able to share, use, remix, and reproduce various types of sources for educational and non-educational purposes with no cost to them. Rather than restrict access to their work through rigid copyright licensing, creators can choose from a variety of Creative Commons licensing alternatives to grant copyright permissions to their works. Copyleft is a type of license that attempts to ensure that the public retains the freedom to use, modify, extend and redistribute a creative work and all derivative works (i.e., works based on or derived from it) rather than to restrict such freedoms. Understanding terms like intellectual property, public domain and fair use, instructors must model good practice and teach students current copyright regulations.

There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

Educators must be aware of the types of software they use and the real costs that are involved. Everything - even free- comes with a price. Software charges are but a minuscule portion of the total cost associated with any software implementation. Training cost, lesson planning, hardware and network costs, as well as migration and support costs typically make up the lion’s share of any project. Students and teachers can be constantly subjected to intrusive advertising. Failure to understand the limitations and permissions of the license agreement can result in a costly lawsuit. Default settings on free software often grant suppliers access to user computers and user databases. Having grown to depend on its functionality, mission critical software can unexpectedly and without notice be subjected to new user fees or disappear at the whim of the provider. Unreliable software can have catastrophic consequences at both the individual device and enterprise levels.

When considering free software and services it is wise to heed the caution in the old saying: "There's no such thing as a free lunch." Too often users confuse FREE with simplicity, low risk, and no cost. Although it might seem contradictory, FREE can be costly, and a free mistake can be costly. Just as knowing how to operate an oven does not make one a master chef, having limitless access to tools and information does not make students experts in critically evaluating the quality, limitations and risks inherent in the information, tools, license agreements, and online communities they engage with. In order to help students make informed decisions, teachers must become informed and always teach the critical thinking skills that are necessary to navigate the tangled web of today.

"Your Neighborhood: Electric circuitry has overthrown the regime of 'time' and 'space' and pours upon us instantly and continuously the concerns of all other men. It has reconstituted dialogue on a global scale. Its message is Total Change, ending psychic, social, economic and political parochialism. The old civic, state, and national groupings have become unworkable. Nothing can be further from the spirit of the new technology than 'a place for everything and everything it its place'. You can't go home again." - Marshal McLuhan

Next up: Enjoy some of Cost of Free's Best Sources of "Free" for Education