[no subject]

[ian <ian.lynch2@ntlworld.com>]

On Sat, 2004-03-20 at 17:26, Jeffrey Elkner wrote:
> 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?)

I am the education lead for the project. The main communication is on
the educ list and I moderate it. Not much traffic yet but you can
subscribe by sending mail to educ-subscribe@marketing.openoffice.org

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

We have a page at http://marketing.openoffice.org/education/schools/

I have downloaded CVS but still need to learn how to use it so I can do
more with the page.

> 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.

What we might need to do is set up a downloads website because its not
straightforward getting resource downloads from the OO.o website because
of copyright clearance through Sun. My longer term aim is to get a
variety of free teaching resources eg Impress presentations that can be
downloaded. I have attached one I did with some pupils we had on work
experience, as an example. [The attachment had to be deleted, as it was 
too large for our software settings.  Sorry.  Doug] We could get the 
pupils themselves to contribute to these so all benefit. It would be 
fairly easy to cover all basic math requirements like this, for example. 
Just need to mobilise the workforce ;-). In fact I have started a 
certification system called INGOTs (International Grades in Office 
Technology) where for the higher levels I intend to accredit pupils who 
make some substantial contribution to others by providing FLOSS resources. 
Content as much as software. There is more information about the INGOTs at
www.theINGOTs.org. I already have a lot of schools here in England
signing up and it will also provide an income stream to enable further
development.

-- 
ian <ian.lynch2@ntlworld.com>