Teaching Open Source: miles to go before I sleep

There simply is not enough exposure to open source in our schools. Surely, there is much work that can and should be done to introduce secondary (and primary!) students to open source tools, applications, operating systems, and methodologies. But even at the university level there is a surprising absence of knowledge of open source among students, even as they graduate. Despite to abundance of open source software that is essential to the success of the world wide infrastructure of telecommunications, and the increasing reliance of companies upon open source, students are failing to know of its role, influence, and necessity as they enter the workplace.

Craig Gardner has been teaching open source in secondary school and university for many years and would like to share some insights into how students, schools, and companies will be better served with a curriculum that includes open source. Craig has worked at SUSE for over 7 years in varying engineering and training roles, and has been a consumer of and contributor to open source projects for over 25 years.