CINXE.COM

<!DOCTYPE html> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <link rel="author" href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org" /> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="/graphics/gnu-head-mini.png" /> <meta name="ICBM" content="42.355469,-71.058627" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/layout.min.css" media="screen" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/print.min.css" media="print" />   <title>Free Software and Education - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/side-menu.css" media="screen" /> <style type="text/css" media="screen"></style>  <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="/education/education.html" hreflang="x-default" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="en" hreflang="en" href="/education/education.en.html" title="English" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="ar" hreflang="ar" href="/education/education.ar.html" title="العربية" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="ca" hreflang="ca" href="/education/education.ca.html" title="català" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="de" hreflang="de" href="/education/education.de.html" title="Deutsch" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="el" hreflang="el" href="/education/education.el.html" title="ελληνικά" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="es" hreflang="es" href="/education/education.es.html" title="español" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="fa" hreflang="fa" href="/education/education.fa.html" title="فارسی" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="fr" hreflang="fr" href="/education/education.fr.html" title="français" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="hr" hreflang="hr" href="/education/education.hr.html" title="hrvatski" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="it" hreflang="it" href="/education/education.it.html" title="italiano" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="ja" hreflang="ja" href="/education/education.ja.html" title="日本語" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="ko" hreflang="ko" href="/education/education.ko.html" title="한국어" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="lt" hreflang="lt" href="/education/education.lt.html" title="lietuvių" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="ml" hreflang="ml" href="/education/education.ml.html" title="മലയാളം" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="nl" hreflang="nl" href="/education/education.nl.html" title="Nederlands" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="pl" hreflang="pl" href="/education/education.pl.html" title="polski" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="pt-br" hreflang="pt-br" href="/education/education.pt-br.html" title="português" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="ru" hreflang="ru" href="/education/education.ru.html" title="русский" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="sq" hreflang="sq" href="/education/education.sq.html" title="Shqip" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="tr" hreflang="tr" href="/education/education.tr.html" title="Türkçe" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="uk" hreflang="uk" href="/education/education.uk.html" title="українська" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="zh-cn" hreflang="zh-cn" href="/education/education.zh-cn.html" title="简体中文" />    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/server/banners/fundraiser.css" media="screen" /> <style type="text/css" media="screen"></style> <style type="text/css" media="screen">  #fundraiser { direction: ltr; } </style>  </head> <body> <div class="inner">  <div id="top"> <p><a class="skip" href="#content"><b>Skip to main text</b></a></p> </div> <div id='fundraiser'> <div class="message"> <p class="headline"><b>Come build a better world with us!</b></p> <p><a href="https://my.fsf.org/donate?mtm_campaign=fall24&mtm_source=banner">Please don't scroll past this. We've been building a better world with free software since 1985. Today, we ask for your support. Only with your help can the FSF continue to be the cornerstone of a more just digital society! Donate to help us reach the goal of USD $400,000 by Dec 31.<span class="gnun-split"></span></a></p> <p class="button"><a href="https://my.fsf.org/donate?mtm_campaign=fall24&mtm_source=banner">Donate<span class="gnun-split"></span></a> </p> <div style="clear: both"></div> </div> <div class="progress"> <div class="progress-bar"><span class="percentage">$46,778</span></div> <span class="goal">$400,000<span class="gnun-split"></span> </span> </div> </div> <div style="clear: both"></div> <div id="header" role="banner"> <p id="gnu-banner"> <a href="/"> <img src="/graphics/heckert_gnu.transp.small.png" height="48" width="49" alt=" [A GNU head] " /><strong>GNU</strong> <span class="hide">Operating System</span></a><br /> <small id="fsf-support">Supported by the <a href="#mission-statement">Free Software Foundation</a></small> </p> <div id="switches"> <div id="search-button" class="switch"> <a href="//www.gnu.org/cgi-bin/estseek.cgi"> <img id="search-icon" height="30" width="30" src="/graphics/icons/search.png" alt=" [Search www.gnu.org] " /></a> </div> <div id="language-button" class="switch"> <a href="#language-container"> <img id="language-icon" height="30" width="37" src="/graphics/icons/translations.png" alt=" [Other languages] " /></a> </div> </div> </div>   <div style="clear: both"></div> <div id="navigation" role="navigation"> <a id="more-links" href="#navigation" title="More..."> <span>Site navigation</span></a> <a id="less-links" href="#content"><b>Skip</b></a> <ul> <li id="tabAboutGNU"><a href="/gnu/gnu.html">ABOUT GNU</a></li> <li id="tabPhilosophy"><a href="/philosophy/philosophy.html">PHILOSOPHY</a></li> <li id="tabLicenses"><a href="/licenses/licenses.html">LICENSES</a></li> <li id="tabEducation" class="active"> <span class='no-display'>=</span> <a href="/education/education.html">EDUCATION</a> <span class="gnun-split"></span> <span class='no-display'>=</span> </li> <li id="tabSoftware"><a href="/software/software.html">SOFTWARE</a></li> <li id="tabDistros"><a href="/distros/distros.html">DISTROS</a></li> <li id="tabDoc"><a href="/doc/doc.html">DOCS</a></li> <li id="tabMalware"><a href="/proprietary/proprietary.html">MALWARE</a></li> <li id="tabHelp"><a href="/help/help.html">HELP GNU</a></li> <li id="tabAV"><a href="/audio-video/audio-video.html">AUDIO & VIDEO</a></li> <li id="tabArt"><a href="/graphics/graphics.html">GNU ART</a></li> <li id="tabFun"><a href="/fun/humor.html">FUN</a></li> <li id="tabPeople"><a href="/people/people.html">GNU'S WHO?</a></li> <li><a href="//directory.fsf.org">SOFTWARE DIRECTORY</a></li> <li><a href="https://h-node.org/">HARDWARE</a></li> <li><a href="/server/sitemap.html">SITEMAP</a></li> </ul> <div style="clear: both"></div> </div>  <div id="content" role="main">  <div class="nav" role="navigation"> <a id="side-menu-button" class="switch" href="#navlinks"> <img id="side-menu-icon" height="25" width="31" src="/graphics/icons/side-menu.png" title="Education Contents" alt=" [Education Contents] " /> </a> <p class="breadcrumb"> <a href="/"><img src="/graphics/icons/home.png" height="26" width="26" alt="GNU Home" title="GNU Home" /></a> / </p> </div>  <div style="clear: both"></div> <div id="last-div" class="reduced-width"> <div class="important comment" role="complementary"> <p>The GNU Education Team welcomes the Free Software Foundation's petition to call on school administrators around the world to stop requiring students to run nonfree software. <a href="https://my.fsf.org/give-students-userfreedom">Sign the petition for freedom in the classroom</a>.</p> </div> <div class="article"> <h2>Free Software and Education</h2> <div class="thin"></div> <h3>How Does Free Software Relate to Education?</h3> <p>Software freedom plays a fundamental role in education. Educational institutions of all levels should use and teach Free Software because it is the only software that allows them to accomplish their essential missions: to disseminate human knowledge and to prepare students to be good members of their community. The source code and the methods of Free Software are part of human knowledge. On the contrary, proprietary software is secret, restricted knowledge, which is the opposite of the mission of educational institutions. Free Software supports education, proprietary software forbids education.</p> <p>Free Software is not just a technical question; it is an ethical, social, and political question. It is a question of the human rights that the users of software ought to have. Freedom and cooperation are essential values of Free Software. The GNU System implements these values and the principle of sharing, since sharing is good and beneficial to human progress.</p> <p>To learn more, see the <a href="/philosophy/free-sw.html">Free Software definition</a> and our article on <a href="/philosophy/shouldbefree.html">why software should be free</a> (as in freedom).</p> <h3>The Basics</h3> <p>The GNU Project was <a href="/gnu/initial-announcement.html">launched</a> in 1983 by Richard Stallman to develop a Free Libre operating system: the GNU operating system. As a result, today it is possible for anyone to use a computer in freedom.</p> <p>In this six-minutes video Richard Stallman explains briefly and to the point the principles of Free Software and how they connect to education.</p> <div id="video-container">  <video id="rms-movie" controls="controls"> <source src="/education/rms-education-es.ogv" type='video/ogg; codecs="theora, vorbis"' /> </video> <div class="emph-box"><p>  <a href="https://audio-video.gnu.org/video/rms-education-es-high-sub.en.ogv"> Download and watch the video</a> at a higher definition in the Ogg Theora (ogv) free format.<span class="gnun-split"></span>  Transcriptions of this video are available in <a href="/education/misc/rms-education-es-translation-to-en.txt">English</a>, <a href="/education/misc/rms-education-es-transcription.txt">Spanish</a>, and <a href="/education/misc/edu-misc.html#transcription-rms-education"> other languages</a>. <span class="gnun-split"></span>  SubRip subtitle files are also available for download in <a href="/education/misc/rms-education-es-sub.en.srt">English</a>, <a href="/education/misc/rms-education-es-sub.es.srt">Spanish</a>, and <a href="/education/misc/edu-misc.html#subtitles-rms-education">other languages</a>. </p></div>  </div> <h3 id="indepth">In Depth</h3> <div class="table"> <ul> <li>Learn about the <a href="/education/edu-why.html">Reasons Why</a> educational institutions should use and teach exclusively Free Software.</li> <li>An article by Richard Stallman: <a href="/education/edu-schools.html">Why Schools Should Exclusively Use Free Software</a>.</li> <li>An article by Dr. V. Sasi Kumar on the <a href="/education/edu-system-india.html">education system in India</a>.</li> </ul> <div class="edu-note" role="complementary"><p> We are looking for free educational games, or information about free games that can be used for educational purposes. Contact <a href="mailto:education@gnu.org"><education@gnu.org></a>. </p></div> </div> </div> </div> <div id="navlinks"> <div class="backtotop"> <hr class="no-display" /> <a href="#content"><span>BACK TO TOP </span>▲</a> </div> <div class="reduced-width"> <h3>Education</h3> <dl> <dt class="current"> <span class='no-display'>=</span> <a href="/education/education.html#content">Main page</a><span class="gnun-split"></span> <span class='no-display'>=</span> </dt> <dt> <a href="/education/edu-cases.html#content">Case studies</a></dt> <dt> <a href="/education/edu-resources.html#content">Resources</a></dt> <dt> <a href="/education/bigtech-threats-to-education-and-society.html#content">Big Tech Threats</a></dt> <dt> <a href="/education/resisting-proprietary-software.html#content">Resistance</a></dt> <dd> <ul> <li> <a href="/education/successful-resistance-against-nonfree-software.html#content">Successful resistance</a></li> <li> <a href="/education/dangers-of-proprietary-systems-in-online-teaching.html#content">Online teaching</a></li> </ul> </dd> <dt> <a href="/education/edu-faq.html#content">FAQ</a></dt> <dt> <a href="/education/edu-team.html#content">Our team</a></dt> <dt class="nolink">In depth</dt> <dd> <ul> <li> <a href="/education/edu-why.html#content">Why educational institutions should use and teach free software</a></li> <li> <a href="/education/edu-schools.html#content">Why schools should exclusively use free software</a></li> <li> <a href="/education/edu-system-india.html#content">The education system in India</a></li> <li> <a href="/education/drm-in-school-ebooks-when-life-imitates-dystopian-stories.html#content">DRM in school eBooks: When life imitates dystopian stories</a></li> </ul> </dd> <dt> <a href="/education/misc/edu-misc.html#content">Miscellaneous materials</a></dt> </dl> </div> </div> </div>  <div style="clear:both"></div> <div id="language-container"> <div class="backtotop"> <hr class="no-display" /> <a href="#top"><b>▲</b></a> </div> <div id="languages" class="rounded-corners"> <div class="button"> <a href="#top" class="close"><span>BACK TO TOP</span></a> </div> <div id="set-language" class="button"> <span class="gnun-split"></span> <a href="/server/select-language.html?callback=/education/education.html" rel="nofollow"> Set language <span class="gnun-split"></span> </a> </div> <p>Available for this page:</p> <div id="translations"> <p> <span dir="ltr" class="original">[en] <a lang="en" hreflang="en" href="/education/education.en.html">English</a>  </span> <span dir="ltr">[ar] <a lang="ar" hreflang="ar" href="/education/education.ar.html">العربية</a>  </span> <span dir="ltr">[ca] <a lang="ca" hreflang="ca" href="/education/education.ca.html">català</a>  </span> <span dir="ltr">[de] <a lang="de" hreflang="de" href="/education/education.de.html">Deutsch</a>  </span> <span dir="ltr">[el] <a lang="el" hreflang="el" href="/education/education.el.html">ελληνικά</a>  </span> <span dir="ltr">[es] <a lang="es" hreflang="es" href="/education/education.es.html">español</a>  </span> <span dir="ltr">[fa] <a lang="fa" hreflang="fa" href="/education/education.fa.html">فارسی</a>  </span> <span dir="ltr">[fr] <a lang="fr" hreflang="fr" href="/education/education.fr.html">français</a>  </span> <span dir="ltr">[hr] <a lang="hr" hreflang="hr" href="/education/education.hr.html">hrvatski</a>  </span> <span dir="ltr">[it] <a lang="it" hreflang="it" href="/education/education.it.html">italiano</a>  </span> <span dir="ltr">[ja] <a lang="ja" hreflang="ja" href="/education/education.ja.html">日本語</a>  </span> <span dir="ltr">[ko] <a lang="ko" hreflang="ko" href="/education/education.ko.html">한국어</a>  </span> <span dir="ltr">[lt] <a lang="lt" hreflang="lt" href="/education/education.lt.html">lietuvių</a>  </span> <span dir="ltr">[ml] <a lang="ml" hreflang="ml" href="/education/education.ml.html">മലയാളം</a>  </span> <span dir="ltr">[nl] <a lang="nl" hreflang="nl" href="/education/education.nl.html">Nederlands</a>  </span> <span dir="ltr">[pl] <a lang="pl" hreflang="pl" href="/education/education.pl.html">polski</a>  </span> <span dir="ltr">[pt-br] <a lang="pt-br" hreflang="pt-br" href="/education/education.pt-br.html">português</a>  </span> <span dir="ltr">[ru] <a lang="ru" hreflang="ru" href="/education/education.ru.html">русский</a>  </span> <span dir="ltr">[sq] <a lang="sq" hreflang="sq" href="/education/education.sq.html">Shqip</a>  </span> <span dir="ltr">[tr] <a lang="tr" hreflang="tr" href="/education/education.tr.html">Türkçe</a>  </span> <span dir="ltr">[uk] <a lang="uk" hreflang="uk" href="/education/education.uk.html">українська</a>  </span> <span dir="ltr">[zh-cn] <a lang="zh-cn" hreflang="zh-cn" href="/education/education.zh-cn.html">简体中文</a>  </span> </p> </div> </div> </div> <div id="mission-statement" role="complementary"> <div class="backtotop"> <hr class="no-display" /> <a href="#header"><span>BACK TO TOP </span>▲</a> </div> <div style="clear: both"></div> <blockquote> <p style="direction:ltr; text-align:left"><a href="//www.fsf.org"><img id="fsfbanner" src="/graphics/fsf-logo-notext-small.png" alt=" [FSF logo] " width="75" height="25" /></a><strong> “The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a nonprofit with a worldwide mission to promote computer user freedom. We defend the rights of all software users.”</strong></p> </blockquote> <div id="support-the-fsf" class="button"> <a class="join" href="//www.fsf.org/associate/support_freedom?referrer=4052">JOIN</a> <a class="donate" href="//donate.fsf.org/">DONATE</a> <a class="shop" href="//shop.fsf.org/">SHOP</a> </div> </div>  <div id="footer" role="contentinfo"> <div class="unprintable"> <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to <a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> <p> Please see the <a href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a> for information on coordinating and contributing translations of this article.</p> </div>  <p>Copyright © 2011, 2012, 2014, 2020, 2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc.</p> <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p>  <div id="bottom-notes" class="unprintable"> <p><a href="//www.fsf.org/about/dmca-notice">Copyright Infringement Notification</a></p> <div id="generic"> </div> </div>  <p class="unprintable">Updated:  $Date: 2022/05/09 06:27:10 $  </p> </div> </div> </body> </html>