Following a corruption scandal involving the superintendent of Los Angeles Schools and executives from Apple and Pearson Education, the city’s iPad for every student plan has been halted. Apple and Pearson have both spent considerable lobbying effort to establish themselves in the US education system, a relationship that has encouraged the use of proprietary electronic learning materials that stress the importance of computerized testing on machines with tightly controlled access out of the hands of students. Open source offers a wealth of technologies that could benefit education immensely by encouraging students to dig into and learn from the technology they use while providing a platform for learning.
