South Africa has tremendous potential, with a new generation of young people poised to become global leaders and innovators. Unfortunately, most of these young people are attending schools that are underfunded, lack teachers and have poor access to educational materials. Tapping into South Africa's potential will require dramatic improvements -- and innovations -- in how education works.

The question is: can open source thinking spark these innovations? Would free, editable textbooks for every grade make a difference? Could students teach logic and analysis skills to each other? Can schools and local entrepreneurs team up to make sure students have access to the Internet? These are some of the questions that South Africa's Shuttleworth Foundation is asking.

This talk will provide an overview of three Shuttleworth Foundation initiates that apply open source thinking to the challenge of radically improving education in South Africa.