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Re: [school-discuss] FW: OpenOffice in education



Hi Ian,

I was very excited to receive this email.  I fully agree with you that
the opportunity to participate and make a different is by far the most
important educational aspect of using Free Software.

In Arlington, VA, just across the river from the nation's capitol, a
group of us are in the process of setting up community computing centers
using Free Software at several locations within the county.

The office suite is the application for which most users run a computer
in the first place, so I was delighted to see the beginnings of an
OpenOffice.org educational project.  A few quick questions:

1. How can folks get involved in the OpenOffice.org educational project
(are you the one they should contact, if not, whom?)

2. Is there and OpenOffice.org educational project website? (if not,
would you like help setting that up?)

We will of necessity be developing teaching/learning materials for the
users of the computing centers we are setting up.  It would be great if
we could work with other interested folks to do this.

Thanks!

On Sat, 2004-02-28 at 05:43, ian wrote:
> On Fri, 2004-02-27 at 23:45, Jacqueline McNally wrote:
> 
> <SNIP>
> > One of the most interesting discussions is free as in beer vs free as in 
> > freedom, particularly in an educational setting.
> > 
> > With Free/OSS, students and teachers are empowered. They have the 
> > opportunity to participate and make a difference.
> <SNIP>
> 
> This is by far the most important educational aspect of using Free
> Software. Its early days yet but the OpenOffice.org education project is
> aimed at involving schools in the community so that children learn by
> being an active part of that community. There are many spin-offs from
> citizenship to internationalism. If we could mobilise even 1% of the
> young people in schools to contribute to the OpenOffice.org community,
> the effect would be huge. Imagine 1% of all the school age children
> around the world contributing one item of clip art for them and their
> friends to use. 
> 
> We are currently running a competition for schools to design the Mascot
> for the Openoffice.org education project and we have enteries from
> schools in several countries. We have a school in the UK burning
> OpenOffice.org discs and sending them to Malaysia where there isn't
> access to broadband as part of a vocational course. We have a group
> meeting on the 8th April to plan improvements to the database facilities
> in OpenOffice.org to make them more suitable for schools. So small
> beginnings but a lot of potential. 


-- 
Jeffrey Elkner <jeff@elkner.net>
Open Book Project <http://ibiblio.org/obp>