Open Source Professional Development

There has been quite a push recently for open source software. For those of you not familiar open source refers to software where the source code is readily available. This means that anybody can access the code, make changes and release the result themselves. Because the code is freely available there isn't one person who must track and fix bugs and generate updates. This leads to a piece of software which improves at an exponential rate as it becomes more popular and more developers begin adopting it.

Popular open source programs

With the open source initiative consumers are given a choice in the software they use. They are no longer forced to pay hundreds of dollars for software. Why can't the same open source theory apply to professional development? A similar model has already been developed by the creators of EdCamp, an free "unconference" which promotes the sharing of ideas via fellow teachers, not hired guns delivering presentations.

The Open Source initiative follows four "freedoms" set out by Richard Stallman in his Free Software Definition. Those freedoms can be easily adjusted to fit the idea of an open source professional development (italics are modified from original);

• The freedom to run the session, for any purpose (freedom 0).

• The freedom to study how the session works, and change it so it fits your needs as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source material is a precondition for this.

• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).

• The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source material is a precondition for this.

In an open source professional development model teachers would develop and lead professional development sessions within their school. Those teachers would then share their presentations/sessions under a creative commons license, making them usable and re-mixable by other teachers.

With an open source PD model it would be much easier to disseminate ideas throughout schools. Teachers passionate about education could help their fellow teachers develop new methods to use within the classroom while saving schools money that could be put toward much better uses.

Do any of your school districts use in-house talent for PD sessions? How does that work out?