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Re: [school-discuss] Free-Open Baccalaureate Idea
Excellent idea. Yishay.Quoting Yishay Mor <y.mor@ioe.ac.uk>:
> David (and others),
[respectful snip]
> Here's m proposal:
>
> Create two projects and three communities that evolve in tandem:
> * The content project, with a team of educators to author, edit and
> structure the learning materials.
> * The platform project, with a team of developers to provide an open
> source system to support the content project.
>
> Needless to say, no wheel inventing allowed. We start from some
> existing OSS Wiki clone, and add functionality to it.
>
> These two projects define two communities, hopefully with some overlap
> in membership. The third community I have in mind is the "consumer"
> community - teachers and students that will use the content from early
> stages, and provide critical feedback to the first two communities.
This is a very smart idea. I had not thought of it, but it's the critical
constituency, so if we could get some users trying it from the start as you say,
that would be great.
> If you find this interesting, I suggest you set up a discussion space
> for any interested parties (looks like you have the resources, and it
> would make sense to tie this idea into the existing framework).
Will do. sfbac or sfcontent or sfcurr ...?
>
> Also, I suggest we try to interest some academic partners (I know a
> few). They can bring expertise, funding and publicity.
> But we should probably have some prototype to show first.
>
Fantastic. Ian brought up the problem of the UK's national curriculum aleady. I
think that's all the more reason to allow folks to start on a core of courses
(i.e. units, lessons, texts, other) for particular age-groups/spans,
developmental levels -- written broadly so they'd be easy to adapt to a
particular country or locality's private standards. Not easy, but I think worth
doing as it would create something with which a willing teacher could take and run.
>
> best,>
> - Yishay
and to you.
I'll get back with list info.
David
>
>
> David Bucknell wrote:
>
> >This is a proposal for another Schoolforge project. I take the idea that we
> are
> >"forging" a school as my inspiration, and so I am interested in the creation
> of
> >all of its parts.
> >
> >If you are an experienced teacher with up-to-date curriculum knowledge, no
> >matter what part of the world you're from, or a free and open source user
> and
> >promoter who would like to see it used in education, let's join efforts via
> a
> >wiki and build the foundation of a curriculum, lessons, texts and other
> >resources that could be adapted internationally.
> >
> >As we have begun working on the collaborative book about free and open
> resources
> >in education (http://sfzwiki.opensourceschools.org and
> >http://members.iteachnet.org/mailman/listinfo/sfbook) some of us have been
> >thinking of that other part of the greater project that has been started
> and
> >stopped by numbers of people:
> >
> >*the curriculum,
> >*lessons,
> >*texts,
> >*software, and
> >*other resources.
> >
> >I see no reason that by using a wiki, we could not begin all them at once.
> I
> >would love to see an international group form from among those already
> >interested in curricula, lessons, texts and software to create courses in
> each
> >area and at each level. After all, a wiki is always in process and can
> always be
> >revised to make it consistent. For example, a group could, and should,
> form
> >around creating an English (or any other language) course for elementary
> >(primary), middle or secondary levels. We will need people willing to act
> as
> >project leaders, just like Linus or RMS or esr did for their projects.
> However,
> >I should think primary effort would be given over to the curriculum first,
> for
> >perhaps a year. Then those interested in writing lessons and texts and
> other
> >resources would know what goals they were working toward.
> >
> >The curriculum should follow current educational standards and trends, so
> we
> >must enlist both practitioners and theorists from around the world. We may
> end
> >up identifying a common core on which we can agree and set up ways for
> divergent
> >philosophies to carve out their own niches.
> >
> >For example, most current curricula are "standards-based," but that type
> of
> >curriculum is often tied to testing. It need not be. We could leave that
> part
> >for others. Assessment of progress can come in many forms. The main thing is
> a
> >system of diagnosis and prescription. The curriculum must allow a teacher
> to
> >identify a student's level (regardless of grade/year placement) and
> prescribe a
> >set of tasks to move him or her ahead -- toward agreed-upon goals.
> >
> >Regardless of what the curriculum ultimately looks like, it should have
> these
> >characteristics:
> >
> >*portability
> >*a free and open license such as the FDL or the equivalent Creative
> Commons
> >license (I say this in light of recent discussion on the sfbook list)
> >*built-in internationalizability
> >*built-in customizability
> >
> >*Because of the growing success of the International Baccalaureate, a
> non-profit
> >project that costs a lot of money and is tightly protected by copyright,
> I've
> >often thought a free and open alternative could be named the Open
> Baccalaureate
> >or the Free Baccalaureate or the F.O.B., the Free and Open Baccalaureate.
> >
> >It has been difficult to think up how to fund and organize the
> international
> >collaboration needed, but as John Ingleby pointed out, Wikipedia provides a
> good
> >example of an international wiki effort. So, is anyone interested, please
> speak up.
> >
> >The exciting thing about a schoolforge curriculum project is that it would
> give
> >new meaning to technology integration (a current theme/goal). It is not hard
> to
> >imagine that this group would/could create something that seamlessly
> integrated
> >computer use in a usable, appropriate and sustainable way few others could.
> I
> >wonder, for example, if we couldn't lend our efforts to Bruno Coudoin's
> GCompris
> >so to give it a complete set of lessons for beginning reading and
> mathematics.
> >We'll need all kinds of help, so if you're interested, please speak up.
> >
> >Best wishes,
> >
> >David Bucknell
> >Schoolforge Supporter
> >
> >
> >
>
> --
> **********************************************************************
> Yishay Mor
> http://ioewebserver.ioe.ac.uk/ioe/cms/get.asp?cid=4381&4381_0=7303
> y.mor@ioe.ac.uk Ph +44(0)20 7612 6963 F +44(0)20 7612 6964
> AIM,Yahoo: yishaym; Jabber: yishaym@jabber.org; ICQ: 179772099
>
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