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  Why should open source software be used in schools?
Medical Education Posted by I. Valdes on Monday September 03, 2001 @ 11:08 PM
from the medical-education dept.
LinuxMedNews hasn't posted anything on medical education in a long time, but that doesn't mean it isn't at least as important as improving patient care. This hard-hiting article sums up why open source software should be used in schools in general, but everything applies to medical schools as well: '...The advances in all of the arts and sciences, indeed the sum total of human knowledge, is the result of the open sharing of ideas, theories, studies and research. Yet throughout many school systems, the software in use on computers is closed and locked, making educators partners in the censorship of the foundational information of this new age. This software not only seeks to obscure how it works, but it also entraps the users' data within closed, proprietary formats which change on the whim of the vendor and which are protected by the bludgeon of the End User License Agreement. This entrapment of data is a strong, punitive incentive to purchase the latest version of the software, regardless of whether it suits the educational purposes better, thereby siphoning more of the school's limited resources away from the school's primary purpose. The use of such closed software in education may be justified only where no suitable open source solution exists. Digg this article



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    Re: Why should open source software be used in sch
    by I. Valdes on Monday September 03, 2001 @ 11:10 PM
    A major problem, however, is the entrenched nature of closed-source software in medicine and medical education which will probably take years to replace with open source counterparts. -- IV
    [ Reply to this ]
    The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them.
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