How to Use Open Source Software in Education

There are many papers about projects that release their software as open source. Our panel looks at why open source is a good idea for education, and how it can best be leveraged. The panel represents industry and academia and its members have years of experience in the field. Specific questions that panelists will address, in addition to their position statements, are: What makes open source particularly attractive for educators and students' What are barriers to use? What areas of computer science and what levels of study are most appropriate for introducing open source? Finally, this panel takes a step back and looks at the broad issues associated with using that software in education. We will mention the specific details of releasing, curating, licensing and using open source software. But most of all this panel wants to explore how, for educators, open source works. We believe it is because open source fosters an ecosystem of collaborators who can pool resources and expertise to build new collaborative ways of solving hard research projects. We look forward to the contributions from the audience and energetic debate.