There are three projects that I would like to nominate.
1. ÂAssistive technology for non-readers including text-to-speech, audio books, video instruction, and voice recognition (20% + of all students need these tools)(http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/dyslexia-iq-0923.html) ÂTexas law as of June 2011 requires that schools use assistive technology for these students. ÂIt would be nice to see these options given to the schools before money grabbing proprietary groups get in there. ÂI have phone conversations with the TEA dyslexia consultant, Virginia Gonzalez occasionally and we talk about free apps. ÂIf we presented her with concrete tangible good-looking options in some form, I am sure she would distribute this information to the schools.
2. ÂFine arts instruction with project type outcomes using for example Musix with their huge collection of music apps, Blender, Gimp, Inkscape, Synfig Studio, Cinelerra, Audacity, including the art projects Joel has going, and practical applications like Spoonflower, composing music, making videos, etc  This could be a way to get the arts back into schools.
3. Apps and OS for smaller children like TuxPaint and other ÂTux apps and definitely Sugar OS, gCompris, WriteType ÂThere are so many great ones.
I agree that we have great conversations, but are less focused on a cause. ÂSome of us have dabbled with causes, but have not found much traction. ÂThere are smaller victories here and there, but the general population at large is still widely ignorant about theÂexistenceÂof anything open source.
Maybe if we just create splashy cool YouTube videos . . . .back them up with coordinating spots on the website . . . and then start a show on the Oprah Network. Â:)
I am actually serious about that.
Â
Marilyn
Â
On Tue, 25 Oct 2011 08:38:26 -0400, Casey Adams wrote:
One thing on this site that jumped out at me that I think would really be appropriate for this list: Âgetting our list members to unite behind a common cause. ÂOn this list, we all seem to discuss ideas, send things we think might be of interest, etc., but we do not seem to be taking any compelling action steps. ÂIt seems if the entire population of this list got behind a good open source thing for schools and pushed together we could achieve some real change.
Maybe we could as a group nominate and agree upon 1-3 open source projects that have real potential for education, help publicize it, help marshal resources, contribute help ourselves and really make some progress with one of these projects. ÂWe should all think about where open source can help most and then move together as a group. Just an idea, but one I think has real merit. ÂThanks.
Casey Adams
Phone: 205.612.5489
Fax: 717.326.3543.
On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 5:10 PM, Joel Kahn <jj2kk4@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I don't know how many of you are familiar with this:
http://www.dosomething.org/
I think it should be possible to make some FLOSS projects
thatÂwould work well with Do-Something's approach....
JoelÂ
Â