An Open Source Education

The philosophy of an open source project is simple; universal access to a products design allows anyone to make improvements to the product for the benefit of all. This leads to an interesting process where people will work for free to improve an existing product. A person is driven to work on the project because it is of personal interest to them. Interest is a powerful motivator. It can turn the pure drudgery into a pleasurable pursuit. In a high school education, students see learning as a boring job. Instead of being motivated to learn, students are motivated to get good grades.The interest is not there. High schools can learn how to motivate students by understanding how open source projects keep programmers interested. The key is universal access. An open source programmer can see what others are doing, what projects are available, and then choose what he or she wants to work on. This same flexibility can be integrated into high schools by having less required classes and offering a larger breadth of electives. With a more open education system, students will become more invested in their education because they are in classes that are of interest to them.