Bryant Patten
Executive Director
The National Center for Open Source and Education

Open Source and Education: Welcome to the Future
With communities demanding lower school budgets and parents seeking 21st century skills for their children, schools are examining the ways that Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) can help. This session will explore three different ways to integrate Open Source into your school. We will demonstrate a brand new creativity tool (Scratch) from MIT, present an international Open Technologies certification program for K-12 students (INGOTs), and describe a summer technology camp based on FOSS tools that allows the campers to share their newly-acquired skills and tools with their peers at home. 

Bio

Mr. Patten has spent the last 20 years developing educational software for a variety of clients including several international textbook publishers. He has managed the engineering departments for several companies, including his own, and has won several awards for software design. He is currently the Executive Director of The National Center for Open Source and Education. The Center's mission is to help schools, particularly rural schools, succeed with Open Source software. He has spoken about Open Source at VermontFest, Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference, NECC, K-12 Open Minds, and 2006 Linux Conference Australia.

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