Open Source Curriculum Development

Linux, Open Office, Apache, and dare I say it...? Wikipedia, are several examples of the greatest open source projects currently online. Contributed to by thousands of people, constantly growing, evolving, and customizable for use, these projects are powerful examples for us of how curricula can and should naturally evolve.

Writing a curriculum document is a heavily political, very expensive, and historically dangerous process. It often takes years, costs thousands (if not millions) of dollars and is often outdated before it is released. And yet many districts, schools, provinces, and states continue to produce documents that are "mix - and - match" collection of outcomes which draw heavily on documents produced by others; re- inventing the wheel each time.

There needs to be a better way....

Which brings me back to ideas of open source. Establishing a database of outcomes which can be drawn upon would be a powerful model to use. Depending on what level this is accomplished at, this may look differently. At the provincial (or state) level, a database could be used by districts, schools, grade level teams, or individual teachers to create a document individualized to meet the needs of their location, their community, or their classrooms. Restrictions and requirements could easily be put in place. For example, schools or classes could have a list of required outcomes, and then the rest of the document could be left open for individualization.

Historically, documents such as these have been sources of pride for provinces and states as they have attempted to ensure their students are "prepared" for their post - school lives. These documents have also served as a major source of socialization as schools have attempted to ensure that students have "proper" attitudes and knowledge. I think it is time that we fully acknowledge the fallacy that this is. In a multicultural, globalised society, schools need to give up a lot of this role. Propping up national identities and assimilating immigrants has been a major historical role of schooling, but this has become increasingly tenuous and questionable in modern societies. When we understand and acknowledge this as a smaller portion of the role of our institutions, it will leave us much more free to develop curricula in common with other districts, states, and even nations. While there will never be (and really should never be) schools which try to free themselves completely of teaching kids about their national identity, or a set of community values, and concern for their fellow humans, many parts of our curricula can be developed in common with people in other places leading us to a more global understanding of education and of global skills.

Comments

[Jeff Utecht]

Some schools I believe are starting to do this through curriculum mapping software. Rubicon Atlas http://www.rubiconatlas.com/ is a very popular one in International schools. Basically each school can put their S&Bs in the program and then every teacher can create their lessons based off those S&Bs. Once you join Rubicon Atlas you have access of all other schools in the database (as I understand it) so you can view a 3rd grade class in Spain or a 7th grade class in Vienna. By viewing what other schools are doing in different grade levels you get a sense of how others are meeting S&Bs and you can view other schools' S&Bs. The one part that is missing is the ability to mash-up the S&Bs with others using the program. But would you really want to? S&Bs are supposed to be your rock to stand on. I haven't used Rubicon Atlas in a couple years, but my current school is moving towards using it. Open curriculum mapping is a great way to start that conversation between schools, states/providences, countries.

[Janice Stearns]

I'm just beginning to research curriculum mapping and came across your post. Some schools would like to buy Rubicon's Atlas program, but it is so expensive. Unbelievable that they would charge so much for a simple database program.

I am looking for software that does the same for a lot less that can be used in our district. One might not have access across the country, but is that really necessary? I would really like to see open source software on curriculum mapping that had a social network built in as well.

[Peter Teal]

Hello. I'm the CIO of Bethlehem Central School District in Delmar, NY. Our district has just begun looking at curriculum mapping software, and is eager to purchase an existing product. So far, the existing software that I've seen has been lousy at best in terms of ease of use, ability to import and export data, and share data with other districts.

I'm a software developer (ColdFusion), and so is one of my colleagues. I would love to build a new, free, open product from scratch. Unfortunately, I'm new to curriculum mapping, so this would have to be a work in progress. I understand the basics, and will start working on a demo soon. If you would like to see/have input/comment on the demo, I could post a link here, or you can touch base with me via email. My email address is pteal at bcsd dot neric dot org.

-Peter

[David Tong]

I am currently working with a number of international schools from various countries to implement a new Curriculum Mapping System. We are planning to form a consortium to support the development of this application. My clients are willing to share it with other schools when it is done. I don't think it will be fully open source, but I guess it will be semi-open-source or requires a membership. No matter what, it will be much cheaper than Atlas since no one will collect any software license fees. My clients will own the copy right.

It has a very flexible design that allows schools to setup and define their unit pages and etc within hours. Why I know? I am the guy who is designing it on the technical side :). But, it will take months before it is ready.

If you are interested, you can send me an email to "wtcorp at gmail.com" with out the quotes and spaces and use the real at sign.

-David