FOSStering Education

This talk will focus on why Free and Open Source Software is essential in Educational Technology, especially in the Indian context.

We'll discuss the perils of proprietary software in education in terms of cost, ecosystem-locking and obviously the privacy of students' data.

I will share how FOSS acts as a solution to some of these problems and successful case studies from the ecosystem.

Here's the broader agenda of this talk -

- FOSS vs Proprietary software

- Current state of the Indian education ecosystem

- Perils of proprietary software in education

- Why FOSS makes sense in education

- Challenges in FOSS adoption

- Policy Implications of FOSS in EdTech

I will also share some case studies from the ecosystem -

- IT@school project by the Kerala govt (single largest deployment of FOSS in education in the world!)

- FOSSEE by IIT bombay

- https://spoken-tutorial.org/

Here's a better detailed blog post on the topic (WIP) - https://ansharora.in/foss-in-education/?token=c2484bd558

If time permits, I would like to highlight FOSS United's efforts this scope. FOSS United is a non profit organisation aimed at strengthening the FOSS ecosystem in India (disclaimer - I work at FOSS United)