Recently BECTA adopted the CFF for Interactive Whiteboards and other interactive products in the UK. While it is known that the UK is the leader in the ICT world, and what happens there usually migrates to the rest of the world, I have little hope that it will happen in the US anytime soon. There is too much at stake since the US has so many classrooms awaiting interactive technology. The big players, who will go unnamed, are not willing to give up their only advantage, even if it means the schools, the children and the taxpayers need to suffer at their expense.
Open Source is the answer. It allowed universal usage, development and growth of so many things we take for granted: the internet, telecommunications, automobile design, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, document sharing and wikipedia are some examples. Why not allow open source sharing of educational content? Teachers sharing lessons with each other to improve the product we have to offer our children is a great concept!
The US does not have an equivalent to BECTA, so the move to open source education needs to come from the bottom, not the top. The leading manufacturers will not be willing to share, so the smaller manufacturers need to make an issue of this. The schools, teachers, educational leaders, and taxpayers need to speak up and support open source.
