Hi
a friend of mine is involved in an european project which promotes the use of ICT in public schools:
http://fcl.eun.org/living-schools-lab http://www.europeanschoolnet.org/
This project is coordinated by several Ministries of Education, but it's also supported by some big ICT players, as you can see here: http://fcl.eun.org/participate
My friend is concerned about the presence of these companies. It's quite likely that they are going to use the project to promote their products. As far as I can see, all these companies produce proprietary software or hardware.
What can we do to guarantee the presence of Free Software projects and companies in this project? Is there any European directive which recommends the use of Free Software in such situations?
I think that FSFE may take a stand and do some "lobbying" about this project. What do you think?
Thanks, Federico
I completely agreee. I was in the FLC for a visit during the media&learning conference, and I noticed the "windows" effect .. the people presenting technology was very nice and when we asked (also Edith Ackermann was there) for a non proprietary learners response systems they introuced http://www.socrative.com/
I think they should focus more on cases of good uses of ICT also for "low budget needs"
My best regards
Eleonora
Il 04/12/2012 9.48, Federico Bruni ha scritto:
Hi
a friend of mine is involved in an european project which promotes the use of ICT in public schools:
http://fcl.eun.org/living-schools-lab http://www.europeanschoolnet.org/
This project is coordinated by several Ministries of Education, but it's also supported by some big ICT players, as you can see here: http://fcl.eun.org/participate
My friend is concerned about the presence of these companies. It's quite likely that they are going to use the project to promote their products. As far as I can see, all these companies produce proprietary software or hardware.
What can we do to guarantee the presence of Free Software projects and companies in this project? Is there any European directive which recommends the use of Free Software in such situations?
I think that FSFE may take a stand and do some "lobbying" about this project. What do you think?
Thanks, Federico
European "Free Software in Education" mailing list
Eleonora Pantò eleonora.panto@csp.it writes:
I completely agreee. I was in the FLC for a visit during the media& learning conference, and I noticed the "windows" effect .. the people presenting technology was very nice and when we asked (also Edith Ackermann was there) for a non proprietary learners response systems they introuced http://www.socrative.com/
Agreed to -- and great to read that Edith is pushing for free ICT!
I conducted an interview of Walter Bender (http://www.sugarlabs.org) for OLPC France a few years ago, and it captures the main ideas about why free software is so important to learning:
http://olpc-france.org/wiki/index.php?title=Interview_Walter_Bender_au_Sugar...
BG: And why free software? Are there any limitations attached to free software, or just more potential? And what is the crumple zone idea that you have?
WB: Okay. So, Sugar has to be free. It has to be free software, software libre. We don't have the right word in English really, for freedom. And the reason is because Sugar is about learning. And learning fundamentally is not about receiving ideas, it's about appropriating the ideas. Putting an idea to use. You can't do that unless it's free software. And there is another aspect of free software which is an aspect of culture, that is important to learning. Free software is not just about sharing, free software is also about critiquing. It's about engaging in a critical dialogue about ideas. And that's fundamental to learning. And so without the culture of free software, the learning is not as rich. So Sugar has to be free software.
Now I'd like to make an analogy to the automotive industry. The automotive industry used to make cars which are very rigid. And when that rigid car would hit a tree, nothing would happen to the car. But all the energy, the impact, would land on the passengers of the car. So they would protect the car and not the passengers. But then they realised that that's actually wrong. People are more important than cars. And so they made this concept called the crumple zone where instead of making the car rigid, they made the car flexible so the energy would be absorbed by the car. The car would fail, not the people. And we try to make that same analogy with Sugar and I think it's inherent in free software as well. The idea of a crumple zone, where we don't make everything locked down or rigid. That's an impossible goal. There's always going to be problems. But instead of imposing the problems on the user, on the child, on the learner we make that be an opportunity for learning.
(Sorry for the long excerpt.)
I think they should focus more on cases of good uses of ICT also for "low budget needs"
+1!
Best,
Sorry for pushing and for double posting... Can anyone point me to an European directive which encourages the use of Free Software in public institutions?
Thanks in advance
Il 04/12/2012 09:48, Federico Bruni ha scritto:
Hi
a friend of mine is involved in an european project which promotes the use of ICT in public schools:
http://fcl.eun.org/living-schools-lab http://www.europeanschoolnet.org/
This project is coordinated by several Ministries of Education, but it's also supported by some big ICT players, as you can see here: http://fcl.eun.org/participate
My friend is concerned about the presence of these companies. It's quite likely that they are going to use the project to promote their products. As far as I can see, all these companies produce proprietary software or hardware.
What can we do to guarantee the presence of Free Software projects and companies in this project? Is there any European directive which recommends the use of Free Software in such situations?
I think that FSFE may take a stand and do some "lobbying" about this project. What do you think?
Thanks, Federico
Hello,
thanks for picking that up.
* Federico Bruni bruni@fsfe.org [051212-0111am]:
My friend is concerned about the presence of these companies. It's quite likely that they are going to use the project to promote their products. As far as I can see, all these companies produce proprietary software or hardware.
Indeed, that doesnt look good. It is also written that companies "have their technology included in the Lab and used to demonstrate future classroom scenarios" ieeks. Especially since there is a trend towards smart/whiteboards (which use Windows as the OS).
What can we do to guarantee the presence of Free Software projects and companies in this project? Is there any European directive which recommends the use of Free Software in such situations?
I have to check that, but as far as I recall there is no real recommendation. One way to get involved is to get in touch with the Ministries in ones country and get some more information about that network. Usually the people involved in that FCL get their orders from the national level and are not just happy Europeans ;) Questions which might be worth to ask are whether teachers unions, civil society etci. are involved in the process, what's the role of the companies involved and the like. (Although some of that is already written on the website in a fancy code-of-conduct style...) Another option is to get in contact with Free-Software companies who work in the education field and point them towards the FCL. They might be interested in a continuing non-barrier access to the market.
I think that FSFE may take a stand and do some "lobbying" about this project. What do you think?
Of course! Do you like to get involved, too? If so, you could help a lot by summarizing the programme and the website :) You could answer questions like the goal of the programme the process the milestones the funding the setting (i.e. how the programme is integrated in the .eu landscape) the mindset of the stakeholders (i.e. what's their motivation) the involved parties / participants That would help others, including me, to contact the right people with relevant questions.
mfg Thomas Jensch
Il 11/12/2012 12:28, Thomas Jensch ha scritto:
What can we do to guarantee the presence of Free Software projects and
companies in this project? Is there any European directive which recommends the use of Free Software in such situations?
I have to check that, but as far as I recall there is no real recommendation.
ok
One way to get involved is to get in touch with the Ministries in ones country and get some more information about that network. Usually the people involved in that FCL get their orders from the national level and are not just happy Europeans;) Questions which might be worth to ask are whether teachers unions, civil society etci. are involved in the process, what's the role of the companies involved and the like. (Although some of that is already written on the website in a fancy code-of-conduct style...) Another option is to get in contact with Free-Software companies who work in the education field and point them towards the FCL. They might be interested in a continuing non-barrier access to the market.
Thanks for the hints, I'll suggest them to my friend.
I think that FSFE may take a stand and do some "lobbying" about this project. What do you think?
Of course! Do you like to get involved, too? If so, you could help a lot by summarizing the programme and the website:) You could answer questions like the goal of the programme the process the milestones the funding the setting (i.e. how the programme is integrated in the .eu landscape) the mindset of the stakeholders (i.e. what's their motivation) the involved parties / participants That would help others, including me, to contact the right people with relevant questions.
Probably I don't have time for that. I'll see what I can do during Christmas holidays...
Thanks, Federico
Hello,
2012/12/11 Thomas Jensch jensch@fsfeurope.org:
- Federico Bruni bruni@fsfe.org [051212-0111am]:
companies in this project? Is there any European directive which recommends the use of Free Software in such situations?
I have to check that, but as far as I recall there is no real recommendation.
I had a quick look and also couldn't find anything. There was the news in December that the EC postponed its guideline on ICT standardisation and procurement: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/news/ec-postpones-its-guideline-ict-standardisat...
But even if this guidline was in place, it only suggests that "open source may be considered" as far as I coud see by skimming through it.
Speaking of procurement, there is also the "Guideline on public procurement of Open Source Software": https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/studies/OSS-procurement-guid...
Hope this helps.
Greetings,
Guido