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Free Software in the Icelandic Education System

In a special issue of skóla og námskeið (english: school and courses), which accompanied Fréttablaðið on the 25th of August 2009, there was an article about a project within the Ministry of Education in cooperation with a group of free software advocates, to increase the use of free software within the school system. One of the reasons for the project is the Ministry’s agenda to increase knowledge and competence among students in IT related subjects. We (The Icelandic Society for Digital Freedoms) wholeheartedly agree with this reasoning as the society believes that access to computer source code and the freedom to modify and explore the software will result in a better understanding of information technology which in this context benefits the country and the nation as a whole. A strong indication of the government’s understanding of the benefits of free software is for example the fifth item on the official government policy for free software (direct pdf) which states that students should have equal opportunity to learn about and use free software as well as proprietary software.

Another important reason for the collaboration between the “free society” in Iceland and the Ministry of Education is the fact that recent Icelandic experience has shown considerably decreased expenditures after switching to free software in an educational context. The most prominent example being the foreseen savings of The Comprehensive College in Akureyri (VMA) which as was reported by the RÚV evening news on the 11th of August, the estimated savings for VMA are at least 5 million ISK per year, only from the switch to free and open-source software. VMA has now set up the free operating system Ubuntu on all their personal computer equipment. Ironically the following report on that very same news program was an interview with Kristinn Breiðfjörð, chairman of the Icelandic Association of Head teachers, where he stated that it’s almost impossible to reduce expenditures without laying off staff. Head teachers are now seeking to save costs by increasing the amount of children in each class, reduce subject variety, and cut down on school trips. We would like to use this opportunity to point out to principals and head teachers to review their IT infrastructure and see if free and open-source software could help reducing expenditures and reduce the economic crisis’ impact on the education of our children.

In the previously mentioned coverage by Fréttablaðið and the associated press release from the Ministry of Education, there is also a mention of the currently undergoing efforts by FSFÍ and the ministry to build a central information portal for educational facilitators in Iceland to share their experience and knowledge of using free software. This information portal will provide a platform for sharing of free software adaptations, experiences or developments from the context of the Icelandic educational system. FSFÍ is actively now seeking system administrators and other parties from within the school system which have developed or adapted free software for use within their institutions. They are invited to take part in the first steps of building up this information portal, and to provide the feedback required to ensure it’s usefulness. Additionally we would be delighted if this same portal could be used for the sharing of any open educational resources, and we are actively seeking teachers who develop those who are interested in collaboration.

Press release by the Icelandic Ministry of Education: http://www.menntamalaraduneyti.is/frettir/dreifibref/nr/5047
Fréttablaðið newspaper from August 25th 2009: http://vefblod.visir.is/index.php?netpaper=1105
RÚV Evening news from August 11th 2009: http://dagskra.ruv.is/frsjonvarp/2009/08/11/