A perceived advantage of open source development of educational software is that it potentially allows teachers to make their own adaptations. This link between making software and learning is echoed in a constructionist approach, as proposed by Seymour Papert and pioneered through the use of Logo in schools, in which model-building activity is seen as the medium for developing domain understanding.

The presumption that constructing software is necessarily closely linked with domain learning is not endorsed either by the history of software development or by the history of learning technologies inspired by Logo - both are at best qualified success stories. Indeed, this presentation makes the case that traditional thinking about programming, and especially the emphasis on the formal representation of knowledge that it promotes, is a serious obstacle to blending open-source development with learning activities effectively.

We believe that the integration of software construction with learning is much better served by an alternative approach to model-building ("Empirical Modelling"), in which the primary emphasis is on developing computer artefacts to expose the experiential roots of knowledge. This approach will be introduced and illustrated with reference to a series of workshops on the theme of human solving of Sudoku puzzles that was developed as an online activity for gifted and talented pupils in July 2008.