Open source will not save education

He described it to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The problem isn't supply. It's demand. Teachers won't or can't invest the time needed to integrate new technology into their work. So 20 years have been essentially wasted.

I have watched this waste first-hand, as both a parent and reporter, and Zemsky is right. By the time a computer technology is in place, and teachers are given training on using it, it's obsolete.

On the other hand computing has been a great tool for parents. It has enabled early intervention in our kids' education, and it has given our kids the power of the Web at ages where their imagination can really take advantage of it.

Computing has also been a powerful tool in the developing world, where time is often in greater supply. Every village which is connected to the Web becomes part of a global village, and can learn at the world's pace.

With open source direct costs can be minimized. Even a simple Linux box can open up a child's world. When Everex put 10,000 Linux PCs on sale at Wal-Mart for $199 late last year, they were snapped up for just that reason.

But what any computer technology demands of its user is time. Unless you spend the time to learn what you have, learn what it can do, and integrate that into your life you have an expensive boat anchor.

Even if it's an open source boat anchor.