I had a great time at Texas Linux Fest on Saturday. There were many good presentations and a few really inspiring ones. I particularly enjoyed Max Spevack's talk on Open Source and education.

Texas Linux Fest

Written by Jen on April 12, 2010

He discussed bringing the "open source way of thinking" into higher education. He described the open source way of teaching and learning as an apprenticeship, where participants are paired with mentors and travel through the phases of Apprentice, Journeyman, and Master. He posed the question to the audience: should higher education incorporate this model? This concept speaks deeply to me and I think it's especially applicable in the work place. As Max pointed out, mentoring is essential for passing knowledge down from the old guard to the new, otherwise, so many lessons learned will be lost and will have to be relearned. Attending this event inspired me to get involved in an open source project and give back to the community that gives so much.