UK Blogger Glyn Moody shared with us this morning that Russian Schools will be purchasing no more software, and only go with free, open-source software.
Read his post here.
This is an interesting move, and could have some interesting repercussions down the road for both the school system and the software markets in Russia and beyond.
In schools I've worked in, I have always promoted Microsoft's Office Suite for in school use, mostly because of my belief that part of a schools responsibility is to prepare students for the workforce, of which 90+% use Microsoft Office on a very regular basis. Teaching students to effectively utilize the software in their work (note I'm not promoting teaching the software itself, but the use of it as a tool) helps them make smooth transitions to post-secondary and the work force, where they will undoubtedly encounter the monopolistic MS office.
Recently, I've turned to promote Google Documents as a valuable option, free option, to MS office. The skills are relatively the same, and a transition should be relatively smooth. It seems the Russian Schools are moving in that direction as well.
My biggest question in this decision is "why?" If the decision was made with sound pedagogical rationale, I'm OK with that. If it was a financial decision, I have to question the validity of it.
If you read the article, please also read through the reader comments following the post. Often times, these are as interesting as the post itself.
