Projects: Free & Open Source Education

Thursday, November 13, 2003 - 03:43 PM

Education, Open Source, Open Access Archives and..collections of free books and textbooks. An exellent example is Schoolforge, a foundry. Where you will find the information, the tools and materials you need to "forge" or make a school and all its parts. All free for the asking (or download), and, in the future, international in content and character, schoolforge is not a place or an organization, but a cause, and a collection of people and projects dedicated to it: bringing quality, affordable and dependable software and teaching materials to the people who need them around the world. As such, it is not a "service" so much as it is a community focal point, which, as much as anything else, represents an opportunity to get involved in one of its aspects.

The job we have set for ourselves is large, too large for any one person, group or organization. Furthermore, there already exist numerous individuals, companies and organizations and schools working on it. Schoolforge and the work it does comprise all of these efforts and provides them with a common entrance, by which they can discover, meet and collaborate with those of similar goals, and through which newcomers may discover each part or all of the world of free and open source solutions for education.

What's in a Name? By analogy to the free and open source software development site, sourceforge, schoolforge is conceived of as a site where schools can be developed. "What?" I hear you say, "You're going to build schools?" Not exactly. We're going to build what goes into a school, particularly, the software and other learning content that is needed by teachers and students to get on with their work.

This work will be done at each of the Schoolforge members' sites, links to which are provided on this site. More of a process than a location, schoolforge is also a new and still-developing idea, which may take roots in many places in the near future.

How does it work and how can I join? Schoolforge works via the participating sites, their communities and communication methods, and by a mailing list, which we invite you to join (here).

How did Schoolforge form? There were several identifiable causes. First, those working for free and open source solutions in education began to see, during the past year, that the time had come when our various efforts would either complement or compete with one another. We decided that working together promised more hope than did competition. Secondly, there is a shared sense among those in the community that a clear message about free and open source solutions is needed, and that clarity would be impossible without unity. Third, the proposed settlement of the US vs Microsoft trial, which appears to offer an alleged monopoly still more ways to further its grasp, galvanized the community into action. The establishment of the Schoolforge coalition is our first step toward providing an alternative to schools. Its work will be our next.

Article: Linux Enables Safe Computer Donations to Schools

*NEW* [Weblog] [Home] [What is Schoolforge] [Schoolforge Members] [News Resources] [Software Resources] [ Other Resources] [Mailing Lists and Chat]

Comments or Questions ? Contact us at info@schoolforge.net Textbooks are fundamental to modern education. But until recently almost all textbooks have been published for profit by huge corporations, keeping prices artifically high, limiting access, and subjecting content to heirarchical control

• COLLECTIONS OF FREE BOOKS (BOOKS, TEXTBOOKS AND MORE] [article] [Eldritch Press dedicated to the Public Domain] [Wiki Books] [Emergency Medical Services]

• OPEN ACCESS ARCHIVES [Article] [News] Influential scientists, educators, and business people are urging journal publishers to free their published works so they can be accessed in comprehensive digital archives. That would create the opportunity for new services that dynamically interconnect material in the archives. To achieve this, two issues endemic to scholarly journal publishing need to be tackled: decoupling journal content from publishing process; defragmentation of the control of access to works at the article level.
[MIT Opencourseware] [ArXiv, Cornell University] [The Internet Archive] [Berklee School of Music Shares] [CiteSeer] [Open Source Textbook Project]

• FREE/OPEN SOURCE [Article] [Definition] [see also "GIFT CULTURE"] ["FREE CULTURE" (MP3 or FLASH -Lawrence Lessig (Stanford)] All software is built with source code. Open source means the code is open and you can see it, change it, learn from it. Bugs are more quickly found and fixed. And when customers don't like how one vendor is serving them, they can choose another without overhauling their infrastructure. That means: No more arbitrary pricing. No more technology lock-in. No more monopolies.
More Open Source Books: [The Cathedral and the Bazzar] [Free as in Freedom] [Computing Research Repository]

• OPEN EDUCATION
Cyberlaw is not simply a compendium of cases that happen to involve computers or the Internet. In cyberspace, technical architecture can determine and constrain behavior much as traditional laws do in our communities. To study cyberlaw, then, is to be mindful of the dynamics of the code. The Berkman Center's profoundly interdisciplinary approach to this study¬óencouraging development and use of Internet technology as a means of understanding it¬óinforms a wide range of educational endeavors.

Projects in this vein of inquiry include: H2O, a project to develop software tools for computer-mediated teaching and learning, to be shared with the Harvard community and beyond ~ Classroom & Meeting Tools, an aspect of H20 that draws from our webcast/scribing work for ICANN ~ Internet Law Program of Instruction, a cyberlaw 'summer camp' for professionals in law, business and journalism ~ Clinical Program in Cyberlaw, which gives HLS students real experience in cyberlaw practice ~ Berkman Online Lecture and Discussion(BOLD) Series, a set of interactive online seminars.

• June 3, 2004. Greplaw, a production of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law has this article, Information Can Not Be Owned: There is More of a Difference than Many Think. Jean Nicolas Druey, professor emeritus at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. [more]