2011 04-04 (educon2011) emadrid grobles urjc new trends from libre software that may change...

Libre software and educationExperiences from libre software projects

Experiences beyond the libre software world

New Trends from Libre Softwarethat May Change Education

EDUCON 2011 - Advances in the eMadrid Excellence Network

Gregorio Robles, J. M. Gonzalez Barahona, J. Fernandez

[email protected]/LibreSoft, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos

Amman, Jordan, April 4th, 2011

Gregorio Robles, J. M. Gonzalez Barahona, J. Fernandez New Trends from Libre Software that May Change Education



c©2011 Gregorio Robles, Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona, Jorge Fernandez

Some rights reserved. This presentation is distributed under the“Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0” license, by Creative Commons, available at

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Contribution of Libre Software to *-Learning

Figure: Libre Software has contributed with products.




In this presentation...

We focus on procedural aspects that could beextrapolated from the libre software world to the

general educational sector.

(think of practices of creationand dissemination of knowledge)




Libre Software and e-learning

Main reason why developers join (and stay) in libre softwareprojects is because of learning

Actually, getting involved in a libre software project is alearning activity!

Based on constructivism

Understanding is applied to learning (remember keynote:knowledge, wisdom!)

Acquired knowledge is more than hard skills

Programming (and debugging)!But social, legal, organizational, communication and other softskills as well




Goals

To present some learning experiences from libre softwareprojects.

To present learning experiences based on the philosophy andpractices of libre software projects in educational settings

To have a brief discussion about them




Related experiences

Linux certifications

RedHat, SuSE, LPI...Many materialsBut in the end not very different from getting certified for anyother technology

Seneca’s (Canadian College) agreement with the MozillaFoundation

Public materials... but courses not open to outsidersIt is an adaptation of the traditional curriculum to new ways ofdeveloping




Experiences from libre software projects

How do libre software projects manage learning of theirparticipants?

Do they have systematic methods to enhance learning?

Do they have specific roles to promote learning?

...

Some experiences will be presented in the next slides...




MySQL University

Technical education program aimed at participants in thedevelopment and inner workings of MySQL

Weekly sessions (now, after Oracle bought Sun, unclear)

Sessions are open to the public and recorded including slidesand audio,

Materials available under a free Creative Commons license




GNOME Love

Initiative that aims to help people who want to startcontributing to the GNOME project,

Specific mailing list, an instant messaging channel(#gnome-love) on IRC and a web page with documentationfor beginners.

Encourages GNOME developers to mark simple bugs (orbeginners) in the bug tracking system




Learning Ubuntu

Umbrella for various educational initiatives within the Ubuntuproject.

Program of conferences similar to the one by MySQLUniversity (although just text thru IRC)

Professional team specifically for organizing these tasks, led bythe Ubuntu Community Manager.




Debian

Well defined process to be admitted as a new Debianpackage maintainer is a learning process, while at the sametime a selection process

Part of quality assurance efforts of Debian

maintainers of Debian are the members of the project andhave special rights

Guided by a mentor (a Debian maintainer)

Several steps from the knowledge and acceptance of thephilosophical guidelines of Debian, procedures or packagingactivities





Some organizations have tried to offer (formal and informal)educational activities that are

community-centered,open to anybodyand transversal to institutions

Some experiences will be shown in the next slides...




Google Summer of Code

Program of scholarships / internships funded by Googleduring the summer months

College students can perform remunerated work offered byparticipating organizations

Organizations offer mentors (who also get paid)

According to sources at Google, about 30% of students whoattend the GSoC program remain in the projects




openSE

Open Educational Software Framework For Computer ScienceEngineering

Initiative of institutions of higher education, libre softwareprojects and companies in various countries of Europe andAfrica

Provides educational materials focused on softwareengineering as well as resources and support so that studentscan carry out their own learning within the community of libresoftware

The novelty is that it systematically combines formal andinformal learning in an informal and unrestricted learningenvironment.




p2p University

Project carried out by volunteers that organizes coursesoutside institutions and gives students recognition for theirachievements

Course organizers are volunteers who propose an idea andreceive help from a group of experts and community membersto create a comprehensive study guide, including material andsocial structure for the course

Evaluation design in P2PU focuses on participants to assessand provide feedback to the work of others.




Summary

Solutions based on the libre software philosophy:

Learning is done in a community

There are sometimes roles, but these are dynamic and oftennot assigned

The learning process goes beyond the organization. Noaffiliation is required

There is a trend towards professionalization of those in chargeof making the community keep on learning

There is usually no accreditation. Recognition is givenby/inside the community




Summary (and II)

What of the previous characteristics can be found in the initiativespresented?

Figure: Summary of initiatives and characteristics.




Discussion

Will this way of learning be more frequent in

the future?

How will it impact education and institutions

(as we know them)?

...




Conclusions

Libre software has already had high impact on tools andcontent

A second wave of influence could come from procedures andnew organizational models

Community learning, informal learning, flexible mentoring andlearning outside the scope of institutions are some of theelements that should attract the attention of researchers andeducation institutions




New Trends from Libre Softwarethat May Change Education

EDUCON 2011 - Advances in the eMadrid Excellence Network

Gregorio Robles, J. M. Gonzalez Barahona, J. Fernandez

[email protected]/LibreSoft, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos

Amman, Jordan, April 4th, 2011


2011 04-04 (educon2011) emadrid grobles urjc new trends from libre software that may change...

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