An opportunity to put the record straight about open source
Robert Jones
widely-read edu blog. It contains some very sloppy thinking about Open
Source. Anyone care to put Ewan right?
http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2006/12/should_schools_.html
Robert
http://www.jonesieboy.co.uk/blog
Iain Roberts
Not sure someone who uses "right" when they mean "write" is necessarily
an ideal person to be leading the way on an education debate, but
perhaps I'm just getting too old :-(
Iain.
Ewan McIntosh
Iain Roberts wrote:
> Not sure someone who uses "right" when they mean "write" is necessarily
> an ideal person to be leading the way on an education debate, but
> perhaps I'm just getting too old :-(
>
> Iain.
Hi Iain,
Normally blogging courtesy is to point it out in an email ;-) On
reading the post you'll see that it isn't really about Open Source so
much as it's about where we store information and files. I have no
pretense to know too much about Open Source which is why I don't blog
about it often. Educate me, tell me the way it is, answer some of the
questions I have, but please don't patrionise me.
Iain Roberts
Hi Ewan,
Apologies if you felt I was being patronising; you'll have to excuse my
lack of knowledge about blogging courtesy (maybe the blogging community
has something in common with the OSS community there, unwritten rules
and all that).
I've posted something to the blog giving my take on Open Source, in
answer to a particular question posed about OSS rather than open
information.
Best wishes & happy new year,
Iain.
Ewan McIntosh
separating the debate(s) out for myself and my readers - thanks to
those from this list who have helped do that, especially Steve Lee. It
seems that the main things are:
OS software
OS information / open information
Whether marketing benefits or philosophy will help people 'get' OSS
more in the future.
Thanks, Iain, for your reply. I hope the blogging community and OSS
community can perhaps get a little closer - there might be some mutual
benefit as well as some shared unwritten rules ;-)
What OSS-specific blogs do you guys know out there?
Ian Lynch
> The one thing the discussion on the blog has been really good at is
> separating the debate(s) out for myself and my readers - thanks to
> those from this list who have helped do that, especially Steve Lee. It
> seems that the main things are:
> OS software
> OS information / open information
> Whether marketing benefits or philosophy will help people 'get' OSS
> more in the future.
You might like to know that the INGOT certification programme is in part
about teaching both students and teachers the basics of open systems
including the difference between open source and open standards together
with implications for freedom of information and citizenship. They are
currently going through the QCA process to get them in the National
Qualifications Framework and we are expecting a good level of take up
from the trials where over 6000 certificates have been awarded. There is
also a Comenius project in planning to take INGOTs to every EU member
state and we already have a presence in Australia, USA and several other
countries.
Education is what in general helps people get things and the best way to
get something into the curriculum is to provide government recognised
qualifications that are relevant to the subject.
>
> Thanks, Iain, for your reply. I hope the blogging community and OSS
> community can perhaps get a little closer - there might be some mutual
> benefit as well as some shared unwritten rules ;-)
Blogging is a requirement for the Level 2 Gold INGOT and part of the
assessment and moderation method. That will also ensure that more people
are familiar with Blogging. Students all so have to set up and manage an
e-portfolio for the L1 INGOT. All of this is done using Drupal, an Open
Source application. We will also be using Moodle to support free and
open source content to support certification. Basically, all of this
stuff and the major productivity tools are available free from the
internet. All it needs is better education to enable people to take more
advantage of these resources and promote social inclusion. The
government is not willing/able to act so we will.
Ian
--
www.theINGOTS.org
www.schoolforge.org.uk
www.opendocumentfellowship.org
Steve Lee
A few I like:
Dana Blankenhorn for good coverage of events and issues:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source
The Linux and Open Source Blog is generally more Linux focused:
http://linux.wordpress.com/
.
Frank Hecker, director of the Mozilla Foundation posts some excellent
articles amongst his weekly reports: http://www.hecker.org/
Also on the Mozilla Foundation board is Gervase Markham who also has a
column in the Times: http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/gerv/
Miles Berry sometimes covers FOSS (especially elgg & moodle) and has
much to say about educational tech, http://elgg.net/mberry/weblog.
Check Miles' friends.
My little effort is http://elgg.net/stevelee and you can use my
bloglines feeds on http://www.bloglines.com/public/SteveLee
Steve
Steve Lee
and e-portfolio requirements are more recent but strike me as being
important social skills for todays e-citizen and especially those
going through education. The same can be said about an appreciation of
Open Source. http://theingots.org/community/bronze
Having guided both of my children on the road to achieving 'My First
Ingot' and helping my wife get the ECDL, even when taking into account
the huge difference in level that there is a marked difference in
approach.
My strong perception is that the Ingots encourage understanding and
measure competency while the ECDL encourage rote learning and measure
product familiarisation. To be fair I'm judging based on one set of
ECDL training resources (which had problems explaining some basic
concepts) but I've heard similar views from others.
It would be interesting to see the results of a double blind test to
see how graduates from both deal with unfamiliar but similar products
and are able to find things out for themselves. To my mind that's the
skills that are needed (unless we are to exist in a sterile and
restrictive product mono culture).
--
Steve Lee
www.oatsoft.org
www.schoolforge.org.uk
www.fullmeasure.co.uk
Steve Lee
of FOSS. This post references a top 50 list of great FOSS programs.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=883
"Because Uhlman was aiming at a more important point. There are, in
fact, great desktop Linux applications out there, applications that
can replicate not just a basic machine, but most anyone's machine.
This is not known by most people, because open source squeezes out
marketing. Getting the word out on our great desktop Linux
applications should be an important goal for 2007, and beyond. "
Much the same applies to FOSS for Windows
Steve
On 12/31/06, Ewan McIntosh <ewan.m...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
>
Ian Lynch
> It's a while since I read the INGOTs handbook and I think the blogging
> and e-portfolio requirements are more recent but strike me as being
> important social skills for todays e-citizen and especially those
> going through education. The same can be said about an appreciation of
> Open Source. http://theingots.org/community/bronze
The handbook on the web site is now very out of date. I just haven't up
dated it to the newer versions because there are so many frequent
revisions owing to dialogue with QCA and feedback from the schools. I'm
just finishing yet another revision for QCA which will hopefully be
close to the finished article. Once I get feedback on it and if there
are no more major revisions I'll make it generally available on the web
site. Assessors attending the recent training have more recent versions.
> Having guided both of my children on the road to achieving 'My First
> Ingot' and helping my wife get the ECDL, even when taking into account
> the huge difference in level that there is a marked difference in
> approach.
INGOTs are specifically designed to meet the recently drafted functional
skills standards and to prepare students for self-sufficiency at the
lowest possible personal cost. They also support progression to L2 from
complete beginner in line with QCA's Foundation Tier development policy
and fit the structure of specialised diplomas. They are therefore a lot
more geared to pre-16 use in schools than ECDL but they can be used with
any age.
> My strong perception is that the Ingots encourage understanding and
> measure competency while the ECDL encourage rote learning and measure
> product familiarisation. To be fair I'm judging based on one set of
> ECDL training resources (which had problems explaining some basic
> concepts) but I've heard similar views from others.
>
> It would be interesting to see the results of a double blind test to
> see how graduates from both deal with unfamiliar but similar products
> and are able to find things out for themselves. To my mind that's the
> skills that are needed (unless we are to exist in a sterile and
> restrictive product mono culture).
I think you will find there is a significant cost difference too. There
is no aspect of the INGOTs that can not be done with free software
although users are free to use any suitable software they like. On the
grounds of inclusion, I think starting with free software is better than
gearing everything from the outset to stuff that is expensive and many
candidates would not be able to afford to buy legitimately at home.
Don't forget more than 25% of children are living in poverty so the idea
that they all have the latest computer technology at home is misguided.
Those with knowledge could have perfectly usable refurbished computers
running free software. Again we get a lot of rhetoric from central
government and the DfES about inclusion, equal opps and bridging the
digital divide but when it comes to practical action they seem more keen
on giving gongs to monopolists :-)
Steve Lee
community pages of the web site?
Steve
On 12/31/06, Ian Lynch <ian....@zmsl.com> wrote:
>
Ian Lynch
> Does 'My First INGOT' still Exist Ian? I can't see it on the new
> community pages of the web site?
Yes, its got three possible names. My First INGOT, Bronze 1 or Entry
level certificate in Open Systems and Office Applications. The new
community pages are mainly geared for Silver and Gold but we will
develop more support stuff for all through this and Moodle once I get
all the QCA stuff out of the way and we get sufficient income to pay for
the development.
There are now 3 Bronze INGOTs MFI being the lowest level so we have
Bronze 1 MFI (Entry level 1)
Bronze 2 BI (Entry level 2)
Bronze 3 BI (New) (Entry level 3)
Silver (Level 1)
Gold (Level 2)
This gives us coherent progression from the lowest level of attainment
to Level 2, something which is surprisingly not very well supported by
the traditional exam boards.
It also provides coherent progression across the draft functional skills
standards published by QCA in November. Silver and gold can be extended
through optional units giving us structural compatibility with
specialised diplomas when they come on board in 2008.
We have to show compatibility with existing national qualification
strategies to have the certificates approved for pre-16 use so hopefully
this design will do the trick.
Steve Lee
Cool, I can tell the kids they now have Bronze 1 without doing any
extra work ;-).
Steve
Ian Lynch
> Ah I see, Bronze is now clearly positioned for Key Skills.
Functional skills. Key Skills are not the same. All rather confusing to
say the least.
>
> Cool, I can tell the kids they now have Bronze 1 without doing any
> extra work ;-).
Yes that is true. We will have some new certificates in a couple of
months but I'm waiting for QCA before I do too much modifying on the web
site to be sure its going to be OK without haveing to keep changing
things.