[school-discuss] Meeting Curriculum Goals with Free Software - Seeking Feedback

[Justin <jriddiough@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello everyone,

I'm still trying to gather stories from people relating to how 
curriculum goals have been met with Free Software.  I hope to work with 
these towards building some very nice presentations (maybe a slideshow, 
etc, released under CC and built entirely with FLOSS) and narratives to 
place on the website. 

Once this is finished, the next step will be getting them in front of as 
many eyes as possible.  Such as getting them noted in articles, and I'm 
considering submitting them to the UNESCO IIEP wiki in response to the 
'stories and awareness raising' calls that have been put out. 
http://oerwiki.iiep-unesco.org/index.php?title=OER_stories

So far, there have been a few takers and I can't wait to see what else 
comes back.  This will really highlight a lot of the accomplishments of 
FLOSS development in education, while at the same time expressing the 
variety of participants in the FLOSS community.

What we are looking for:  (reply here or to myself at jriddiough@xxxxxxxxx)

1.  Goal: Teaching [subject - 
reading/writing/math/science/art/technology] to [grade]

(First Paragraph)
2.  Background: What subjects you teach, how long you have taught them
3.  Technical context: How frequently you use computers/software in this 
class

(Second Paragraph)
4.  Overview: Describe the activities and information that was taught, 
and what software was utilized
     4.1  What type of activity?  Were students exploring, following 
steps, discussing, etc?
     4.2  Was the lesson primarily directed by the teacher, did 
students get into groups?

(Third Paragraph)
5.  Result: What did you think of the outcome?  Were the students 
excited/engaged?  Was it easy to implement as a teacher? What was the 
biggest obstacle to overcome?  Biggest (or any surprises?  What 
recommendations/advice would you give to others considering trying 
this?  Any pushback from administration or district IT, and if so, how 
did you overcome it?

As a side note, a Wiki was suggested as a tool for doing this.  I do 
think that this is something that should be used for this, but it wont 
happen right away.  Once these initial narratives are online, we will 
learn more about what people are looking for.  That way, when a wiki is 
set up, we can deliver more focus and impact - and the URL structure 
will have been established with search engines.  Thoughts, opinions, 
stories?  :)

Justin