Teaching Open Source - Education Success Stories

Most schools do not teach the concepts or methods that we use every day in Free and Open Source Communities, and this is putting students at a distinct disadvantage when entering the technology sector. While they learn the basics of Computer Science or Engineering, they often graduate without ever hearing the words "Open Source" from an instructor. Additionally, many students are never exposed to the concept of source control or even community methodology.

My day job at Red Hat is to change that. I've discovered (and helped start) some amazing efforts to actively involve open source tools, ideas, methods, and communities into academic programs and student life and I want to share those programs with you. In this session, I'll discuss how some schools are teaching open source today.

Each school is different, what works for one, will not work for another, but each school represents a starting point and encouragement for other schools to figure out how they can incorporate FOSS into their corner of the universe. In general, the open source community is unaware of this academic/FOSS gap, and I hope that by pointing out these success stories, it will motivate us to consider how we might partner with educational institutions and related groups to encourage student involvement. Without new community members, no community can thrive, and what better place to look than students?