20260625 SchülerInnen motivieren!

25.06.2026 SchülerInnen motivieren!

Open Source in School

According to the official policy of the EU and also that of the German federal government, “digital sovereignty” should be the top priority. Instead, practices in government agencies — and, unfortunately, in many schools as well — are still decades behind. In schools, young people need to be introduced to alternatives to Google’s Android, Microsoft’s Windows, and Apple’s iOS — and they need to do so as soon as possible. If it doesn’t happen during this stage of their lives — when will it?

The article from Netzpolitik.org linked below highlights three examples from schools where this has worked. But in none of these cases was it a sure thing, as it — if high-level policy were to have its way — should actually be through curricula, financial support, and technical assistance. The trends working against this:

“We’ve always done it this way.”
“Students should learn to type on a typewriter first.”
“Nobody knows how to use that.”
“If something goes wrong (a security breach), we’ll be the ones left holding the bag.”

That last “argument” in particular is utter nonsense given that 95% of security vulnerabilities are in Windows, but the others aren't any better — they're just more convenient. But with a little daring and curiosity, things can be changed (see the linked article). The students will thank us for it, and it’s much more interesting than creating presentations and working with spreadsheets using the usual programs. In theory, it should even be cheaper for the administration if they no longer have to buy licenses from Big Tech. As the author himself experienced, the latter is very theoretical, because at one of his employers in the telecommunications industry, Microsoft licenses were actually paid for twice — once with the purchase of the device and then again with a corporate license — and that was for 120,000 workstations at that time.

Let’s not get discouraged — the proof is in the pudding! This increases motivation in the classroom, especially for young people, and having their own real email address and cloud storage also creates an incentive to work with these tools at home.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)