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

["Hildy9" <hildy9@comcast.net>]

Jan,

I have recently started a website www.tutorialsforopenoffice.org  Please
send me information on your program so we can cooperate.


Walter Hildebrandt
Denver CO
hildy9@comcast.net
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jeffrey Elkner" <jeff@elkner.net>
To: "ian" <ian.lynch2@ntlworld.com>
Cc: "Jeffrey Coupe" <jeff@cicinternationale.org>; "Phil Shapiro"
<pshapiro@his.com>; "Kay A. Pentecost" <tranzpupy@ix.netcom.com>; "Paul
Flint" <flint@flint.com>; <schoolforge-discuss@schoolforge.net>
Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2004 10:26 AM
Subject: 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>
>