Most Danish schools use Google or Microsoft, In other countries some prefer open source tools for digital independence to avoid reliance on big tech companies. This topic was recently discussed at a conference in Holland, where a French speaker presented their perspective.
At the Public Spaces conference in the Netherlands on June 6th, Alexis Kauffmann from the French Ministry of Education and co-founder of the non-profit software platform FraMaSoft, discussed France’s move towards a comprehensive open source-based education strategy, 2023-2027. The aim is to achieve digital sovereignty and reduce dependence on big tech companies like Microsoft and Google, which are widely used in education systems, including in Denmark. (Link to the debate here)
Kauffmann said that France has never officially embraced big tech in schools, which makes the project easier, and that the public generally is skeptic towards monopolies and the abuse of private data. The country is thus undergoing a cultural shift in the digital education sector, promoting the use of free, open, and interoperable code, data, and content, referred to as “digital commons”. This approach encompasses not only free licenses but also community involvement and governance.
“One of the key actions is to offer authoring tools to our teacher and tools based on open source software. No Google Classrooms. Not Microsoft Teams. We have chosen Moodle Elea as a learning management system,” explained Alexis Kauffmann who also pointed to other tools to learn to code and mathematics like Jupyter. They have there an app platform with open-source tools like Nextcloud, Big Blue Botton, and Collaboration. They even have their own ‘github’ (owned by Microsoft) called La Forge, where teachers share code.
Screendump from debate: Alexis Kauffmann to the left in the panel.
“To support this, we have public funds for digital commons, we organise workshops and finance the software, and therefore we can do without Microsoft and Google,” Alexis Kauffmann explained.
“I am not saying it is easy. The biggest obstacle is political courage to resist the lobbyists both at a national and European level,” he said and pointed to other risks like the quality of big tech’s products, being isolated in Europa, and artificial intelligence. He hopes other European countries will follow suit and quoted The European Council Recommendation on education:
The EU Commission intends to “support the development, in cooperation with Member States and
stakeholders, of guidelines and quality requirements for accessible, well-designed, and high-quality digital education content and virtual learning environments and tools (such as standalone learning management systems and applications, including open source solutions) to help education and training systems systematically evaluate their quality, safety, trustworthiness, reliability, utility, and inclusiveness.”
Big Tech in The Danish Education System
The author of this post was represented at the conference, because the organisers were impressed with the Danish Data Protection Agency, DPA, which had banned Google in Danish Schools, and they wanted to hear more about that. I could tell them that most school representatives were working towards legalising Google in schools, and that they said they’ve found a solution, where Google has changed its terms of conditions. The DPA, however, has not yet responded to that. I also told them that the organisation of municipalities, KL, for years had refused to do any pilots in schools in order to test alternatives to Google and Microsoft, but that some municipalities recently on their own are analysing whether they can do som pilots.
The scene has changed a lot in Denmark in the recent years. Especially when it comes to words about our dependency on big tech. Actions to become more sovereign are still lagging. Municipalities are dependent on Microsoft and schools on Google and Microsoft.
Statens IT, The Agency for Governmental IT Services in Denmark, has since 2019 been able to offer computers built only on open-source software. To their surprise, nobody has shown any interest, I was told.
Now when Microsoft has increased it prices and seems to use extra security measures as means to it, the customers of Statens IT might change their opinion. Especially because they could save between 30 and 40% in license fees, according to Statens IT.
Recently, the Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Politiken that when it comes to tech, Denmark cooperates with France. So, I guess the next step for Denmark is to do as France, show courage and work on a long term strategy for digital sovereignty.
Photo: Unsplash.com
