Re: [school-discuss] Passing of the torch

Thanks Doug. I found SchoolForge while working from the perspective of "if I were a teacher, and wanted to start using open source materials..where would I go?" The resources that SEUL/edu and SchoolForge have put together seemed to provide the answers to these questions.

We hope the direction SchoolForge moves will be another step in the evolution of the project and the resources it has created. Using the resources as the foundation, such as the application index and the case studies - we hope to expand by focusing on strong community interaction through the website (and bringing current innovative web tools, such as wikis/digg style news/forums/comments to various aspects of the website).

Another aspect we would like to implement, towards fostering the sense of an 'open source community' within education will be the listing/indexing of open educational resources. The idea behind this is if a teacher comes across the site that new to the concepts of FOSS, seeing how the community works together to create and enhance in regards to educational content (such as lesson plans, work sheets, etc) would be probably one of the best ways to introduce them to the philosophies of open source. Once this has been accomplished, then we can then start to look at and work on the 'standards database.'

A little history on Tyson and myself - We have been watching open source, and have wanted to get involved with some projects for quite awhile - but never really found the right place to jump in. We share a passion for technology and creativity, and feel pretty good about the direction we have in mind.

Beyond SchoolForge, there are mountains of projects and resources for education out there, and we look forward to collaborating with individuals and groups to understand which wheels have already been invented :) Mostly, the goal will be to work with those in which the contributions benefit both projects.

Soon, there will be a beta site up (it's up, but still waiting on some things to be done) that everyone will be welcomed to visit and share ideas and opinions. I'll be pretty busy until after July 4th, after that I'll be able to start putting time into getting the new site going.

On 6/28/06, marilyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx < marilyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > wrote:

I too thank you, Doug, for all of your hard work.  As a teacher I have used the
resources of SchoolForge over and over.

Thanks!

Marilyn

Quoting Douglas Ort <doug0531@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

>
> My connection with Doug Loss goes back to 1998 and SEUL/edu.  For his fine
> years of oversight and technical excellence, though the work was quite a
> burden at times, I do thank him.  Mr. Loss, my personal best to you and
> yours.
>
> Douglas Ort
> Not a techie, but a faithful lurker over the years.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-schoolforge-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto: owner-schoolforge-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Doug Loss
> Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2006 6:25 PM
> To: schoolforge-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Cc: arma@xxxxxxxx; riddiough@xxxxxxxxx; tysongray@xxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [school-discuss] Passing of the torch
>
> It's finally come.  As many of you know, I helped start and manage
> SEUL/edu and later Schoolforge.  I like to think both organizations had
> some beneficial influence on the use of free/open source software in
> education around the world.
>
> After some years though, I essentially burned out.  I backed off and let
> the day to day operations of Schoolforge run on autopilot.  The current
> website shows this, I think.  I kept looking for someone to take over
> the management of Schoolforge.
>
> Well, I've found someone.  Someones, actually.  Justin Riddiough and
> Tyson Gray have agreed to take on the awesome responsibility. :)  I'm
> sure they'll do a better job than I did.  They have some very
> interesting and I think exciting plans.  I'll let them tell you about
> those themselves.
>
> I'm going to be sure they both have the authorizations they need to get
> things running as they wish (Roger, could you see about that please?
> Thanks!).  After that I expect they'll take Schoolforge to new heights!
>
> --
> Doug Loss              Unquestionably, there is progress.
> drloss@xxxxxxxxxx       The average American pays out twice
>                        as much in taxes as he formerly got
>                        in wages.
>                           H. L. Mencken
>
>
>
>
>
> --
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