[school-core] Re: [school-discuss] Putting all of our ideas together (was "M$ Elevate America")

[David Bucknell <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Marilyn, Joan, Lee and Bryant, and Casey,

(I'm copying this to Justin and Laura and others who may be lurking on
the schoolforge-core list.)

I'm writing to ask you to get involved in a curriculum (or, in small
"bytes," a lesson)-planning sub-project for schoolforge.

In the course of jogging my memory about whether Lee was the same Lee
whose ideas were so exciting, I stumbled upon this thread (below) of
nearly two years ago about ideas for promoting FLOSS in schools.  You
were all in the thread I picked at random.  I don't see Casey there,
but I know he was involved.

In my recent message to schoolforge-discuss, I talked about getting
started by voting on projects and adding screenshots.

But Lee just wrote saying we were missing a lot of things and asked for a wiki.

Then I re-read this thread (again, message below) and realized that
you were focusing on teaching materials.  In the most recent iteration
of this conversation, I don't think we ever hit the nail on the head
like that.  Teaching materials.  Everything we were planning needs
to/could lead to the classroom ... eventually.  We want the teachers
involved.  Of course we need the sys admins and the lab teachers to
get to the teachers and then, probably, to the department and school
heads.  But even those people (among them most of us involved on the
tech side in schools) have the ultimate goal of getting teachers
involved.  Lessons.  Curriculum.  The classroom.  Bingo!

I'm just saying that you had a good idea and good energy behind it.
Would you all get involved in a sub-discussion (we could announce it
to the whole list to let anyone else interested join) with the stated
goal of producing teaching materials (not just PR)?

My thought is that good teaching material is good PR -- so, although
it may have to be "packaged" to sell to a conference, the teaching
material could be used by _anyone_ at in-service workshops or whole
conferences.

I apologize for not formulating this more clearly, but my sense is
that _you_ have the necessary knowledge and interest in this topic and
would know how to get going toward this goal.

If I'm missing the point that you're really interested in, then please
point that out, but could we start right away.

Here's the list of addresses to which I'm sending this.  We'll create
a mailing list just for this if you like.

marilyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Joan Davis
<joand@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,opensource@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx,roberto03@xxxxxxxxx,
dodecapusrex@xxxxxxxxx, "Justin" <jriddiough@xxxxxxxxx>, "Simon,
Laura" <Laura.Simon@xxxxxxxxxx>


Best wishes,

David

On Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 11:54 PM,  <marilyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I finally took the time to read through all the threads.  What a bunch of
> great ideas!
>
> It seems to me we need someone whose passion is to link us all together.
> Don't know how it would be done.
>
> I appreciate the advice I get from this group, but apart from you guys, I
> feel pretty alone - teaching digital graphics, video, and music using
> Linux.  My favorite tool is still the Musix live DVD, and now also on USB.
> Ubuntu-Studio on the desktop . . . Classes on Moodle . . . Blender, the
> Gimp, Cinelerra, Drupal, Audacity, Ardour . . . all wonderful tools.  Just
> finally put Sugar on a live CD - and WOW is that plain fabulous, especially
> for my children in elementary school.
>
> Currently, my main focus is on modifying everything for dyslexic students
> (my kids are dyslexic).  So we have text-to-speech on Firefox, using the
> FoxVox addon.  Audio books from http://librivox.org and displayed well on
> http://booksshouldbefree.com. ; Using the OMusix addon in Firefox so kids can
> follow the html text, courtesy http://gutenberg.org, as they listen to the
> audio book.  Taking advantage of other great software like TuxPaint.  The
> EeePC/Linux version is such a wonderful tool for my dyslexic daughter, age
> 10 . . . too bad that Microsoft leaned on Asus so they don't even make them
> anymore.
>
> I'd really like to get http://highschoolcourseexchange.org up and running.
> It would require FOSS.  I have had some email conversations with Rich B. at
> http://connexions.org and think their work with Open Educational Resources
> could contribute to that end.
>
> So . . . my next  class is coming.  :)
>
> Marilyn
>
>
>
> On Tue, 26 Jan 2010 07:38:57 -0800, Joan Davis <joand@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
> I agree that as far as P-12 education is concerned, curriculum is the key.
> I've worked and studied in the learning/educational technology research
> field for several years now. A common complaint among ed tech researchers is
> that great learning software is developed, research is conducted, and then
> the software is shelved as researchers move on to other work. Some of the
> projects are tied to curricula, while others are more exploratory. Perhaps
> some of these earlier learning technology projects could be included in the
> clearing house that Lee's described, too. Also, I think it would be
> important to link open source software to existing curricula, too.
> Joan
>
> On Jan 26, 2010, at 6:53 AM, lee rodgers wrote:
>
> Hi Jo,
>
> Curricula seems to me the missing link in gaining broader adoption. The need
> already is stretching beyond digital media - it's becoming fully
> multidisciplinary w/ the protean ubiquity of technology far beyond just
> basic multimedia & animation (digital microscopes, PC/book projectors,
> OCR/scanners, tablets, color laser printers...).
>
> Thinking about the original comment about certification, perhaps in K-12
> this matters more b/c the skill set required to handle all these tech issues
> is a steep overhead for most educators. So lacking a curriculum we get a
> barrier to adoption, but a digital K-16 curriculum would cover a great deal
> of ground.
>
> I suppose I'm thinking of a Wiki-based online clearing house then, easily
> organized to meet needs by topic & age/grade level. There'd be standards for
> the curricula, courseware & lesson plans with reviewers for each specialty
> teaming on the various sections.
>
> A couple of existing K-12 projects come to mind.
>
> Already the California Open Source Textbook project & El Paso ISD are
> working (separately) on open source textbooks & curricula for K-12 here in
> the USA. My impression is that COST has some substantial backing & the EPISD
> is being pushed by its superintendent, asking EPISD faculty to author their
> own texts & curricula. The focus, however, is mostly on the 3 R's, science &
> humanities with the obvious missing component being digital media, devices &
> services.
>
> I conversed w/ the fellow that runs the TeachJ blog
> ( http://teachj.wordpress.com ;), got into a session about open source,
> limitations, Linux, ec. He sees a lack of decent or broad curricula as a
> barrier to justifying FL/OSS in his computer labs (he's running a Macintosh
> lab...). When I showed him CinePaint's abilities (full CMYK, etc.) he agreed
> that it'd serve his students very well in & out of the lab BUT the problem
> was twofold: Not Macintosh (standard GIMP is headed toward full 16/24-bit
> CMYK but not there yet) and no curriculum to justify dual-boot on PC's.
> Although he already uses some open source in his labs like Kompozer (Nvu),
> his advanced students find themselves hitting the limits of the tool, so
> it's a mix & match situation for many instructors in the higher grades.**
>
> /lee
>
> **[makes me think ... with increased availability of any WYSIWYG html
> editing tool wouldn't overall interest & demand for a thorough tool like
> DreamWeaver actually increase, benefiting MacroMedia? Increasing the
> ubiquity of FL/OSS in K-12 seems a win-win to me...... :-) ]
> ________________________________
> From: Joanne Long <jcl_1111@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: schoolforge-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Mon, January 25, 2010 2:10:14 PM
> Subject: Re: [school-discuss] M$ Elevate America
>
> Lee
>
> This sounds like a great idea. I have just started a small business selling
> open hardware devices for science labs. Currently it looks like we will be
> consulting about 50% with some big research institutes to work on custom
> software/hardware, but I am particularly interested in open hardware for
> science education. I worked in K-12 education before starting the business
> and have been brainstorming how best to implement the use of open hardware
> in education. We were thinking along the lines of selling kits with
> curriculum, but I would be really interested in joining a co-op type
> structure where we could contribute Labs and hardware for students and
> schools. We are still in the early stages, but once we have some tried and
> tested products we will be putting together manuals and tutorials and would
> love to contribute to a program or movement such as you described. We have
> also looked at grants/SBIRs to fund some of this work.
>
> Jo
> ________________________________
> From: lee rodgers <sregdoreel@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: schoolforge-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Mon, January 25, 2010 8:02:24 AM
> Subject: Re: [school-discuss] M$ Elevate America
>
> Hi Joan, Bryant
>
> Thanks for your comments.
>
> Thinking in terms of outcomes & trying to not rant (as is my tendency...):
>
> Infrastructure:
>
> Goals:
>
> -Boiler-plate servers, workstation, & USB flash drive images (portable
> freeware...). Would include related manuals, curricula & best practices for
> users & admins (even if implemented by local service vendors).
>
> -Servers/services: On this part I recommend everyone take a continued look
> at the Karoshi Linux distro. It enables power users to run a school network,
> intranet & edu portal using Linux, includes LDAP/SAMBA network domain, LTSP,
> Moodle portal & many other intranet & LAN services that an independent
> school could want. I used it w/ a SOHO router, 60 workstations on-campus,
> worked great (in Texas...).
>
> -"Free labs" hosted by interested organizations.
>
> Software:
>
> -A fairly complete free, shareware, FL/OSS & abandonware repository, links
> to reasonably priced commercial to fill in the gaps. Example: The Flash
> animator Swish, which doesn't cost $600 like MM Flash & is still excellent.
> The old abandonware Lifeswif would work but is rather bare bones, lacks a
> working manual...
>
> Curricula:
>
> -K-12 curricula for digital media, including "train the trainer" materials.
> Enlist user groups to write curricula, set curricula templates, rubrics,
> scope & sequence, & standards.
>
> -Best practices for teaching digital media (hardware, classroom setups).
>
> [The scope of Windows apps is surprising. I have a repository of dozens of
> free & FL/OSS *Windows* programs (dating back a few years now), some were
> science, maths, unusual finds. During my year of teaching digital media I
> used quite a few of them, even found already-existing curricula from around
> the world for FL/OSS tools like GeoGebra. I found that almost all of the
> apps were either already portable (runs on USB stick) or could be made to
> run portably (java apps, TuxPaint, etc...).]
>
> Funding:
>
> On the foundation/grant side, the emphases would be on grassroots education,
> digital media education, workforce dev, resource ubiquity & ethical
> computing, increased public-driven digital media.
>
> Is it feasible for enough of us to give the world a wake up call, either
> start a nonprofit or coop w/ one already existing, acquire physical host
> sites (demo labs) & apply for grants?
>
> Movement:
>
> Seems that the open source world sees this as a side issue or narrow
> interest (which it isn't). However it's too much to ask of one person, too
> much to risk & not enough clout from a single advocate.
>
> I threw a great deal of time into it at two different schools & I have to
> admit it was a very steep curve & couldn't enlist a serious successor or
> partner in each case.
>
> It's only my impression but I still feel that open source in education is
> still stuck in the "idea" phase with a handful of early pioneers. It may
> require some serious sponsors to lend their weight to the effort to get it
> to catch on. Just as Linus Torvalds enlisted help from other people &
> smartly turned it into a movement, maybe a similar clever co-op mindset
> would create the critical mass necessary?
>
> To this day my kids' current schools lack OOo on their system desktops at
> school. I suspect that most of this probably stems from administrative
> confusion about fiduciary & IP liabilities, but what a world it would be
> were some notable sponsors to help push FL/OSS in education (i.e. Oracle w/
> OpenOffice )?
>
> /lee
>
> ________________________________
> From: Joan Davis <joand@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: schoolforge-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Sat, January 23, 2010 11:02:34 AM
> Subject: Re: [school-discuss] M$ Elevate America
>
> Thanks for your email, Lee.
> A friend and I have been brainstorming how to start a small company or
> organization to do some of what you described, particularly provide support,
> training, documentation, and customized  software for P-16 educational
> institutions. Our personal interests are more related to open source
> integration in teaching and learning activities than to technology
> infrastructure and school administration. During our brainstorming, we came
> to a similar conclusion as you that the revolution will have to come from
> small public schools and districts, private schools, and charter schools. We
> haven't made much progress because she has a full-time job, I'm in my last
> year of graduate school, and neither of us has the start-up funds to get
> things moving.
> However, I (and probably my friend) am willing to contribute to a group
> effort. I think having a funded organization--similar to the Apache Software
> Foundation perhaps--will be important for sustaining the effort.  I recall
> reading that some U.S. government agencies has funded projects related to
> open source projects. The Humanitarian FOSS project (http://hfoss.org/),
> funded by  the National Science Foundation, is one example.
> Regards,
> Joan
> On Jan 23, 2010, at 6:34 AM, lee rodgers wrote:
>
> This is the kind of discussion that I've been looking for, the reason I
> joined this mailing list years back.
>
> For K-12 schools what is missing is a stable, working clearing house &
> interest from the FL/OSS community. It would also require some real funding,
> working disk images, how-to's & hands-on laboratories, & a plan to get it
> into the hands of school users & admins.
>
> From what I see the education profession is talking out of their butts about
> digital media. The school districts IT dept's have it sweet. The districts
> go for weird frills like smart boards & expensive drawing tablets instead of
> understanding ubiquity. If you pin them down on using commercial software &
> the problem of homework & bootleg software, their eyes glaze over.
>
> As a teacher at a small school I ran into a real need that - as far as I
> know - has not yet been met. I was able to roll up my sleeves & improvise,
> building a digital media lab with a mix of Linux & Windows. It was a rough
> ride in spots but it was doable, I did it for a charter school. I saved
> easily a few thousand dollars in server, workstation & software licenses on
> 70 workstations & 3 servers. I would restart the project again - I also did
> a lot of development at a private school a couple of years back - but
> instead it looks like I'm going back to SQL database administration for now.
> If I could find interest locally or funding I'd be back in it.
>
> From what I can see the revolution will have to come from small schools,
> from below, the small districts, indep. private & charter schools. If
> someone can come up with a plan, endorsements & some funding, I'm interested
> in working on the effort again.
>
> /Lee
> ________________________________
> From: Bryant Patten <opensource@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: schoolforge-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Fri, January 22, 2010 5:06:20 PM
> Subject: Re: [school-discuss] M$ Elevate America
>
>
> On Jan 22, 2010, at 4:02 PM, Tim Dressel wrote:
>
>> Being one that has both feet intermingling with FLOSS and the
>> commercial side, I think you are right, it is important that the FLOSS
>> community step up to the plate to put together a comprehensive
>> training package, course list, and promotional materials.
>
> In the K-12 space, there are several of us scattered around the U.S. that
> are trying to bring the INGOTs program ( www.theingots.org ) to the U.S.
> This would cover the student certification.
>
> Does anyone know the current state of the Red Hat Academy initiative?
>
> After the Open Minds conference, Vern Ceder and I talk with Jim Lacey, the
> head of the Linux Professional Institute, about some kind of teacher
> certification for FOSS experience.  He seemed open to exploring the idea and
> maybe now is the time to pursue it.
>
>>
>> I would enjoy being part of a group that could create a package
>> similar to the Elevate America portal
>
> Count me in.
>
> Bryant
>
> *****
>
> Bryant Patten
> Executive Director
> The National Center for Open Source and Education
> www.ncose.org
>
>
>
>
>



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