April 26th, 2016

Charlie Reisinger: Using FOSS to Empower Students

The Video Screening Room

When Pennsylvania’s Penn Manor High School launched the state’s largest free software learning program, they did it a little differently than most schools. As click-baity ads on FaceBook like to proclaim: You won’t believe what happened next.

If you’re an open source believer, you must see the tremendously inspiring and informative TEDx talk by Charlie Reisinger, IT Director of the Penn Manor School District, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Viewing this video makes me want to jump out of my chair several times to cheer. One of the most powerful lines is: “Together these problems create a costly chain of vendor software lock-in and student learning lock-out. How do we break free?”

Reisinger is writing a book about the Penn Manor story and I had the great privilege of a draft of it. He’ll be distributing the finished version of the book as a PDF for free — perhaps as early as this summer. I would not be surprised at all if National Public Radio, the BBC, CNN, Wall Street Journal or the New York Times did a story about the Penn Manor School District. To call these folks very smart, courageous visionaries is somewhat of an understatement.

Leave a supportive comment on this YouTube video, if the video resonates with you. Reisinger will notice and appreciate it.

Editor’s note: This article was updated 4/26/16 at 10:23 p.m. EDT to correct information about Reisinger’s book.

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