Mixing Philosophies, will it work?

Having some time on my hands today, I got to thinking about my two passions: Open Source and Educating my children (Homeschooling). The Open Source movement is based on allowing the Internet community to assist in project development. This project could be a new computer application, a new operating system to run your computer devices or just a way to get a new idea out there and growing. As a child growing up in a small town, we lived by the proverb "It takes a village to raise a child."

My thought now is how do I leverage the two of these philosophies to bring the best of both worlds and make it available to the rest of the world? Is there a way to blend the Open Source methods with a traditional homeschooling curriculum? As time progresses and you become active in the homeschooling community, there is a point when you realize that there are a lot of resources out there and many of them are beyond your scope of expertise. Is this a reason to allow yourself not to give your child the best chance to gain a new skill or experience something that you wouldn't normally do because you are not the subject matter expert (SME) in this area? Of course not, you would try to seek out a person who has the skills to teach this subject to allow your child the best opportunity available. Depending on the state that you live in, you could have regulatory hurdles to jump through in order to make sure that you are not overstepping your boundaries, so be sure to double check with your local district office if there are ever any questions.

What is the next logical step in this process? Can we leverage the Internet and it's technological advances such as Email, Instant Message Chat and Internet Video to create a better learning experience for our children? While nothing can match one on one interactions that we rely on to make sure that our children are getting the best education that time will allow, making this opportunity available to people who do not have a large community resource to work with can expand the educational experience for a number of children around the world. Can you imagine finding the SME on a particular subject from five states away having an interactive session with your child? For example, my daughter has a passion for veterinary science. While being able to go to our local are animal hospital was a wonderful experience for her, what would she think if she could be seeing current Cornell University doctors explain how they take care of elephants and dolphins, something that we really don't have an opportunity to see down here in our local community. I know that this is a huge exaggeration, but the point is, if we can merge the tools and the communities together, there are endless possibilities.

As time goes forward I want to look into bringing these two communities together and seeing if there is a way we can make a difference to more children than our own.