[school-discuss] draft of Feb press release

[David Bucknell <david@iteachnet.com>]

Dear Schoolforge Members,
In anticipation of the next monthly press release, I have written a very 
rough draft. I would appreciate receiving:

*more news
*specific wording suggestions
*corrections
*focus suggestions

If someone would pen a one or two sentence summary of the current list 
conversation's purpose, I would use it instead of mine ;-).

I would also like to begin lining up:

*those willing to translate and
*those willing to post

Deadline is February 10th.

Thank you,

David Bucknell
opensourceschools.org

***SCHOOLFORGE PRESS RELEASE***

[http://schoolforg.net February, 2002]

SchoolForge, a coalition of organizations supporting free and open resources 
in education has nearly fifty members (47).

SCHOOLFORGE NEWS: 
*Coalition Grows; Begins Work on Open Standard for Educational Resources

In January, SchoolForge coalition members grew in number to 47 organizations 
from eighteen countries dedicated to fostering free and open resources in 
education, and began working on a set of open standards for the development 
of software and content for education. Called EduML, the standard was 
actually begun some time ago, but is now being revised in earnest. Those 
interested in collaborating on this effort are invited to join the 
schoolforge-discuss@schoolforge.net mailing list a form for which is 
available at http://schoolforge.net/sfdiscuss.php. 

The schoolforge.net site has a full description of the purposes and 
operational methods of the coalition as well as a form to be completed by 
those interested in joining. News, software and curricular resources from 
members are available, as well as a full list of members and their 
descriptions. Members of the press or organizations wishing 
to learn more should contact info@schoolforge.net.

MEMBER ACCOMPLISHMENTS

*BlueEdu Linux, a complete Linux installation for schools, releases version 
1.0

*k12LTSP, the Linux Terminal Server Project for education, tests 2.0

*MimerDesk 1.5 Released


LATEST MEMBERS

These groups joined us in January of 2002:

Open Schooling [UK]: The Open Schooling project has the goal of providing 
FDL'd curriculum that meets the standards set out by each country, state, 
province, etc. Printable versions will be made available for schools and 
publishers to make books. (http://openschooling.org)

Northwest Educational Service District 189 [US]: NESD 189 is a regional k-12 
service center for regional districts in [ where? ], and which also develops 
Web-based tools for education using GNU tools. (http://www.esd189.org)

TEFL China Teahouse [China]: Purpose is to learn how to do for teachers 
through an open resource teaching materials movement what IT professionals 
have done for themselves through the Open Source Software movement. 
(http://teflchina.com)

Lone Jack C-6 Schools [US]: Public k-12 Institution using Linux as its 
primary server operating system and for terminals in labs and classrooms. 
[http://blue.ljc6k.k12.mo.us]

GnuSkole [Denmark]: Goal is to promote the use of open source software in the 
Danish primary school system by publishing documentation, finding and 
translating educational software, and holding a discussion forum for teachers 
and system administrators at schools. [http://www.gnuskole.dk]

Goa Schools Computers Porject [India]: Equipping schools in Goa with computer 
labs. (http://www.goasudharop.org/gscp)

Linuxlab.org.za [South Africa]: Open source schools advocacy group in South 
Africa. (http://linuxlab.org.za)

Globewide Network Academy [US]: Collects information about distance learning 
from various sources and publishes an open source database. 
(http://www.gnacademy.org)

Regional Institute for Scholastic Excellence [US]: A group of secondary 
alternative schools, funded by the State of Illinois, to provide 
"standards-based" curricula, learning and behavior modification for students 
released from their "home" schools until they are ready to return to complete 
their high school education programs. (http://www.s-cook.org/rise/default.htm)

ENMAC Linux User Group [Mexico]: Promotes the use of Linux for Mexican 
educational environments.  (http://enmac.seul.org)

Greek Research and Technology Network [Greece]: Provides advanced Internet 
services to the Greek Academic and Research Community. (http://www.grnet.gr)

***
A FULL LIST OF MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS is available at 
http://schoolforge.net/members.php
***

WORLD-WIDE DISTRIBUTION

Schoolforge Member (projects) are located in these (18) countries so far:
US, Belize, Italy, Mexico, Colombia, Finland, Australia, Denmark, India, 
Greece, France, Norway, Turkey, Singapore, South Africa, UK, Canada, China

***
TRANSLATIONS of this announcement are available on http://schoolforge.net.
***

Copyright schoolforge.net, February 2002. Permission to repost with 
attribution to schoolforge.net is granted.