Open Options | Research Notes

No case studies. While planning this project we intended to write several case studies of decisions about open source in K-12. Since we wanted our case studies to both reflect our recommendations on tech planning and demonstrate long-term results, we were unable to find a suitable case. Most current users are independently choosing open source. In rare cases, a school or district is deliberately choosing open source. (The Riverdale School District in Portland, Oregon is a ready example and already well documented.) In many cases, schools or districts are still considering or starting to implement open source solutions. These cases are still strongly based on individual initiative and/or self-described experiments. We will continue to look for broader, longer-term cases.

Special thanks to Mike Cullum, Eric Harrison, Paul Nelson, Ben Mabbott, Sid Leader, Eugene Story, Forrest Stevens, Anthony Baldwin, Don Wolff, Jay Keuter, Andy Paine, Trevor Larson, Jeff Elkner, Jonathan Moore, Mark Schmidt, Kelly Kuntz, and the staff of NETC and NWREL.

Open Options is a product of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. These materials are in the public domain and may be reproduced without permission. The following acknowledgment is requested on materials which are reproduced: Developed by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, Portland, Oregon.

This Web site was developed and maintained by the Northwest Educational Technology Consortium. The federal funding for the regional technology consortia program ended on September 30, 2005, and no further updates are planned unless additional funding becomes available. However, much of the content is still useful and NWREL will continue to provide access to this site to support educators and to meet its own technical assistance needs.