Schools that #GoOpen should #GoOpenSource School administrators know that traditional proprietary textbooks are expensive. Teachers in budget-strapped schools often face shortages of textbooks. Worse, print content is usually out-of-date as soon as the ink dries on the page. There has to be something better than students hauling bulbous backpacks loaded with dead knowledge stamped on dead trees. In the fall of 2015, the U.S. Department of Education launched the #GoOpen campaign, an initiative encouraging public schools to adopt openly-licensed digital educational materials to transform teaching and learning, and perhaps lighten both backpacks and textbook bills. The Department recently published the #GoOpen District Launch Packet, a useful step-by-step implementation guide for schools planning a transition from traditional textbooks to Open Educational Resources (OER). Why not trust students to write a classroom textbook? Over the past two years, Penn Manor High School student technology apprentices created and revised an internal training handbook and customer service guide for students who are new to the one-to-one laptop program help desk. See http://ift.tt/2bQWEvt
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