A milestone for education on Free Software and Open Standards has been reached. On September 5th 2007 the beta version of the SELF Platform goes live. The official launch is taking place during a conference on Free Software in Education in the Netherlands, accompanied by satellite launch events in Sweden, Bulgaria, Argentina, Mexico and India with workshops and conferences.
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Anybody up to writing good directory software?
Tue, 2007-02-20 11:17 — David JonathanSince the very beginning, directories (of any kind) have had a very central role in the internet. (I have recently grown fond of Free Web Directory. Even Slashdot can be considered a directory: a collection of great news and invaluable user-generated comments. As far as software is concerned, doing a quick search on Google about software directories will return the free (as in freedom) software directories like Savannah, SourceForge, Freshmeat and so on, followed by shareware and freeware sites such as FileBuzz, PCWin Download Center and All Freeware (great if you're looking for shareware and freeware, but definitely less comprehensive than their free-as-in-freedom counterparts).
Is better education the key to finding better software?
Sat, 2007-03-03 03:25 — Edward RusselI read David Jonathon's article Anybody Up To Writing Good Directory Software? the other day, which got me thinking about software directories in general. As David mentioned, many of the software directories one finds when doing a quick google search are free as in beer, not as in freedom. But what interests me is the software directories that already exist, providing a combination of both free as in beer software, and open source software. Sites such as Freeware Downloads and Shareware Download don't advertise themselves as providing free as in liberty software, but each of them have a good selection of open source software available... if you know where to look.
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dave
4 years 37 weeks 5 days 6 hours ago
Back when I was studying programming,
Back when I was studying programming, one of our lecturers got fired (for making racist remarks) and walked out with all of the lecture notes and our semester's grades/marks. His replacement lecturer came in with no idea of where we were up to, how much we knew, or how well each of us were going.
I was alarmed that a teacher could be so against students and the principles of teaching that he would do this. It occurred to me that, as a teacher, wouldn't you want your experience to be passed on to other teachers so that it doesn't only benefit your own students but everyone else's too.
Since then, I have been dreaming that one day schools will keep open source lecture notes for each subject, notes on students current progress, tests, test results, etc., online so that, if a teacher is suddenly no longer available (even for just one class), a substitute teacher can step in, have all the materials available, be right up to date with everything including the students, and carry on almost seamlessly.
I imagined a wiki style system where different teachers could work out time tables, curricula, add notes, ideas, etc., and allow their combined year's of experience meld to produce the best classes available.
I am glad to see this sort of thing finally starting to come about through projects like this.
Jimbob
4 years 37 weeks 5 days 5 hours ago
Yes. If more teachers become aware
Yes. If more teachers become aware of free software and more importantly its spirit and intent, then there will be more teachers who are likely to share their work with other teachers. Being a teacher will become easier. And, if there's one thing we need more in the world, its (good) teachers.
kiba
4 years 37 weeks 5 days 5 hours ago
I challenge the idea of school
I challenge the idea of school systems.
Why not do "unschooling"? If cultivated right, the child will be able to learn just about anything, with no need for formal class educations.
Plus it will feel more "natural" than just learning something for a set period of time on a bell.
Learning would be disassociated with the school system and make learning a lot more enjoyable than the current do homework, memorize fest.
If there is anything that you didn't know, you can alway go back and learn.
The school system don't teach many things such as learning how to run a business, critical thinking, and philosophy.
With unschooling, I think it open the door to a deeper and more diverse education.
Jimbob
4 years 37 weeks 5 days 1 hour ago
Aren't you talking about Steiner
Aren't you talking about Steiner schools? A bunch of friends of mine went to schools like what you are describing. Two of them joined the circus and one of them became a pizza delivery guy and used to make chainmail as a hobby. Useful skills. If you let children decide what to learn they usually pick stupid things to learn about.
IMHO, you need a balance between having skills to get by in life math, english, science, social studies etc. and skills that relate to interests so that you can enjoy making whatever living you decide to make.
kiba
4 years 37 weeks 4 days 20 hours ago
Jimbob: Steiner school? Huh? U [...]
Jimbob:
Steiner school? Huh?
Unschooling does not mean you neglect critical skills like mathematics nor does it requires you to go to "school".
P.S I gottach stop talking about school system, not related to FSDaily.