Jonathan,

As Heather said, this is a very provocative piece indeed. However, given the 1000 word limit, I think it would be in your best interests to possibly narrow the focus of your paper a little bit. My main critique is the section concerning Free Software. As Heather noted, I believe the "achievement gap" occurs when equivalently capable students accelerate at different levels due to various external factors. In any case, this section does quite a bit of speculating about what will happen ONCE all educational software exists for free. What makes you think that there would be a lack of educational software for disabled students? If anything, wouldn't the amount of software for these types of students (deaf, learing disabled, etc) INCREASE with the existence of completely free software because there is no longer a profit incentive to cater to the group with the largest consumer base (your normal, non-disabled student)?

It seems that focusing on what the free software will look like once it exists involves a lot of speculation and might not be as interesting/relevant in comparison to some other routes you could go.

You've got a really interesting piece. Looking forward to your final version.

-- EdwardBontkowski - 24 Nov 2009