In this month's cover feature, "The Case for Open Source," T&L blogger Miguel Guhlin explores the advantages and possibilities of a movement that in the past few years has increasingly gained momentum in the education space.
Learn how the raw materials provided via open source dovetail with the rise of the "participatory" Web and its encouragement of all users to collaborate and share content. Guhlin also addresses the latest developments that are making open source ever more viable for schools, in spite of the still-existing challenges.
Customizing and manipulating raw material is a theme also running throughout "Digital-Age Assessment," in which educator Harry Grover Tuttle provides a detailed blueprint for integrating digital e-portfolios into your spectrum of evaluation tools. Also, Jeffrey Branzburg gives tips about how to keep your PC running smoothly in the How To column.
Find out what corporate know-how brings to school and district IT efficiency in this month's Product Guide on enterprise resource planning. Susan Brooks-Young also explores how foundations and businesses can help you achieve the funding you need.
We bring you up to speed, as well, on the latest in multimedia editing with Carol Holzberg's review of the Adobe Digital School Collection. And Michael Simkins offers a brand new use for mashups in education in our Emerging Tech column.
Circling back around to the idea of participation online, with all the hullabaloo surrounding the dangers to kids on MySpace, it's encouraging to note the latest stats on student behaviors in that environment (News and Trends). Perhaps we aren’t giving students as much credit as they deserve for policing themselves in a social networking situation.
