Below are the comments by Richard Stallman on our rough draft.
-------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: [FSF-WG] Re: Update on the article about using free software in education Date: Mon, 01 Mar 2021 00:18:53 -0500 From: Richard Stallman rms@gnu.org Reply-To: rms@gnu.org, Private discussion list for Working Group of FSF India fsf-wg@mm.gnu.org.in To: Private discussion list for Working Group of FSF India fsf-wg@mm.gnu.org.in
[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]
censor them, and abuse them >
https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/proprietary.html. The name we use nowadays is https://gnu.org/malware/.
-Proprietary Software is a malware >
https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/proprietary.html
Likewise. Also, there should never be an indefinite article before "malware". It is uncountable.
For example, Apple > iPhone's proprietary operating system does
[all of these] > https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-call-it-the-swindle.html.
Nowadays all the major proprietary operating systems for the general public spy on the users. It's in https://gnu.org/malware/.
-It is an injustice to require students to sacrifice their freedom
to > proprietary software in pursuit of an education. Educational Institutes > have a moral responsibility to respect students' freedom.
I would delete the first sentence -- it is weak. The item is stronger without it. Can you see what I mean?
Furthermore, I would add "and teach students to appreciate it -- for their own future and their country's future."
-Educational institutes often expose students to privacy-invading technology without any real choice to opt out of it
"Opt out" implies it is a minor choice, a matter of convenience. Some people prefer garlic on their naan and some opt out of the garlic.
Surveillance is an injustice. I suggest the right word to use here is "avoid", or perhaps "escape".
https://www.eff.org/wp/school-issued-devices-and-student-privacy. Educational institutes should respect students' privacy.
A more powerful point, they must never help a company snoop on students.
-Proprietary software makes the institute dependent on the owner of
the > software, while free software makes them independent.
The student is "it", not "them".
Many instructors [require students to install > proprietary
proctoring software in their own > devices]
This is a sudden shift of topic from "teaching" to "proctoring". Both topics should be covered. I suggest making them separate items.
Instead of "proctoring", why not say "monitoring"?
Cloud storage - Nextcloud https://nextcloud.com/
"Cloud" is an incoherent term -- can you describe more clearly what job you're proposing a method to do?
[should be released under free/swatantra licenses >
only]https://www.stallman.org/articles/online-education.html. Two such
free licenses are CC-BY and CC-BY-SA. The GNU Free Documentation
License > (GFDL) https://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html can also be used for > educational works.
Would you please list the GNU FDL first?
A free software named Tux Paint
http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/TuxPaint > was used at VHSS Irimpanam school, Kerala where 11 and 12 years old You need a second comma after "Kerala". That is a fundamental rule of English punctuation: an explanatory phrase requires a pause before and after.
Readers will note the word "was". Did it stop using Tux Paint? If so, why?
I have following questions/suggestions on the draft:
1. In the line, "Many instructors [require students to install proprietary monitoring software in their own devices]https://www.thehindu.com/education/ground-zero-gre-and-the-network-of-aspirants-ghostwriters-and-coaching-institutes/article33532981.ece which is a very unjust practice in itself." , the URL does not serve as a good reference because- a. that URL says that the monitoring software is used in GRE exams when participants take the test from home and not exactly for a course exam in an institute; b. it is focused on a different issue-- fraudulent methods are being used in GRE exams for marks.
Therefore, I have not mentioned this reference and only wrote about the dangers of using proctoring software and that it is an injustice.
2. Snehal's head of department's statement that they use only free software in their department can be a different page rather than including in this article because shortening of the statement would lose some points. Let others see what software they use for different purposes. And then, at the starting summary of this article, we can say something like "Department of Scientific Computing, Modeling, and Simulation, Savitribai Phule Pune University uses exclusively free software for education <URL to Snehal's Department statement>. " I think Snehal can also send the statement to GNU to be published here https://www.gnu.org/education/edu-cases-india.html#content.
3. It is a common practice among educational institutes to host their mail servers on Google or Outlook. Should we add the dangers of this practice in the draft? Where should we add it? And, what suggestions can we give for emails? https://www.gnu.org/software/free-software-for-education.html suggests Kolab for emails. Should we add that? I don't know anything about Kolab, so I did not add that.
Pad link: https://pad.disroot.org/p/educationfreesoftware. Any comments/suggestions are welcome.
I have incorporated the comments and so the draft now looks like:
---- Title: Educational Institutes should use exclusively freedom-respecting software
We urge educational institutes and webinars to stop requiring students to use proprietary software, and to adopt free/swatantra software (free as in freedom), which is [readily available]https://www.gnu.org/software/free-software-for-education.html. [Remote education does not require giving up rights to freedom and privacy] https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/remote-education-does-not-require-giving-up-rights-to-freedom-and-privacy. Department of Scientific Computing, Modeling, and Simulation, Savitribai Phule Pune University uses exclusively free software for education <URL to Snehal's Department statement>.
A speech by Richard Stallman on why schools should use exclusively free software can be watched and downloaded from [here] https://audio-video.gnu.org/video/richard_stallman_speech-sina.com-2005-09.ogg.
What is free/swatantra software? Free/Swatantra software means that you, as a user, have four essential freedoms: (0) to run the program as you wish, (1) to study and change the source code so it does what you wish, (2) to redistribute exact copies, and (3) to redistribute copies of your modified versions. (See the [free software definition]https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html.) With these freedoms, the users (both individually and collectively) control the program and what it does for them. When users don't control the program, we call it a “nonfree” or “proprietary” program. Proprietary software is an injustice to the user because it puts its developer or owner in a position of power over its users https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-even-more-important.html. Proprietary Software is often malware https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/proprietary.html. For example, nowadays, all the major proprietary operating systems for the general public [spy on the users]https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/proprietary-surveillance.html.
Why should educational institutes use free software?
Any computer user should use free software for their own freedom but educational institutes have [additional reasons to insist only on free software]https://www.gnu.org/education/edu-schools.html.
Some reasons are listed below:
* Software should be free https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/shouldbefree.html.
* Proprietary Software Is Often Malware https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/proprietary.html
* Educational Institutes have a moral responsibility to respect students' freedom and teach students to appreciate it -- for their own future and their country's future.
* Educational institutes often expose students to privacy-invading technology without any real choice to escape from it https://www.eff.org/wp/school-issued-devices-and-student-privacy. Educational institutes should respect students' privacy. Free Software is controlled by its users and therefore it can protect them from surveillance.
* Students cannot learn from proprietary software because it is a secret, and it prohibits learning as well as sharing while free software encourages learning and sharing which align with the mission of the schools.
* Proprietary software makes the institute dependent on the owner of the software, while free software makes it independent.
Remote education In the pandemic time, we saw educational institutes switching to online mode for teaching. Unfortunately, a lot of them have chosen proprietary software to do the job. Many instructors and administrators have chosen [malicious non-free videoconferencing software]https://fsf.org.in/article/better-than-zoom/ such as Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams for teaching. We urge teachers to help their students in [resisting against proprietary videoconferencing platforms] https://www.gnu.org/education/teachers-help-students-resist-zoom.html. A lot of times, students are asked to join a WhatsApp group for important announcements which is an injustice to the student because WhatsApp is a nonfree program and it does not respect user's privacy. We suggest institutes to use
Schools are now [invading student's privacy] through cheating-detection systems. Requiring students to install a monitoring software in their own computers is an injustice. Monitoring software, by design, runs even when the owner of the computer tries to stop it from running long after the exam is finished and takes full control of the computer which subjects users to abuse https://twtext.com/article/1252225044861693954. We urge the institutes to take the exam on the institute's computers.
Free Software Recommendations
Here are some free software replacements that can used in education:
Operating system: GNU/Linux distros https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html
Online Classes- Jitsi, BigBlueButton. Check [this] https://fsf.org.in/article/better-than-zoom/ for more details.
Instant Messenger- Element, Quicksy or Conversations. Check [this] https://fsf.org.in/article/better-than-whatsapp/ for more details.
Uploading videos- [PeerTube] https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/PeerTube, GNU MediaGoblinhttps://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Mediagoblin.
E-learning platforms- [Moodle] https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Moodle.
Recording Lectures- [OBS]https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Obs-studio
Sharing notes, lecture videos etc. - [Nextcloud]https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Nextcloud, Lufi<upload.disroot.org>
Digital writing pad- Xournal https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Xournal
Recording lectures- [Open Broadcaster Software] https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Obs-studio.
Email- Institutes can self host their own server
The GNU website lists free software that can be used in schools and educational institutions of all levels https://www.gnu.org/software/free-software-for-education.html. The Free Software Foundation keeps a comprehensive database of educational software at the Free Software Directory https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Category/Education.
Freeduc-USB https://usb.freeduc.org/index-en.html is a bootable USB stick that contains useful applications for the classroom.
When an educational institute provides laptops to students, they should choose laptops which can run fully free software-- check [RYF laptops by FSF]https://ryf.fsf.org/products?category=1&vendor=All&sort_by=created&sort_order=DESC and [LibreTech] https://libretech.shop/. For other hardware which can run fully free software, check https://h-node.org/.
Educational resources should be 'free' as in freedom
In today's age, free sharing of scientific knowledge has become the [worst conceivable crime] https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/how-did-the-free-sharing-of-scientific-knowledge-and-culture-become-the-worst-crime-our-justice-systems-could-think-of/ one can think of. Scientific journals like Elsevier lock up academic research behind paywalls and prohibit sharing with others. Since, the academic research is funded by public money, it should be available free or cost as well as free in freedom. For arguments on how the principles of software freedom apply to academic papers, please check [this essay]https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/push-copyright-aside.html. Educational resources-- like videos, recorded lectures, academic papers [should be released under free/swatantra licenses only]https://www.stallman.org/articles/online-education.html. The GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) https://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html is a free license that can be used for educational works. Creative Commons has two free licenses: CC-BY and CC-BY-SA for this purpose. If you release your academic papers under a free license, it will give everyone an opportunity to learn from you. Some Free Learning Resources are mentioned [here] https://www.gnu.org/education/edu-free-learning-resources.html
Free Software adoption in Indian education
IT syllabus of class XI in Maharashtra now includes free software https://fsf.org.in/news/mh-schools-floss/. The state of Kerala migrated more than 2,600 public schools to free software https://www.itschool.gov.in/. In fact, Kerala is the only state in the world where IT education is imparted over a Free software operating system https://www.academia.edu/10236947/IT_at_SCHOOL_PROJECT_OF_KERALA_A_LANDMARK_IN_ICT_INITIATIVE_IN_GENERAL_EDUCATION .
A free software named Tux Paint http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/TuxPaint used at VHSS Irimpanam school, Kerala, where 11 and 12 years old students exercised the freedom to learn how the program works and modify the program, which demonstrates that even non programmers or children, can actually influence and improve information technology when software freedom is granted https://www.gnu.org/education/edu-software-tuxpaint.html. School-age children were able to effectively and quickly exercise software freedom with Tux Paint in the PC-in-the-Village Experiment, Goa http://www.digitalequalizer.org/kids.htm
Some of the educational institutions in India who are using exclusively Free Software:
* Ambedkar Community Computing Center (AC3) https://www.gnu.org/education/edu-cases-india-ambedkar.html
* Vocational Higher Secondary School Irimpanam (VHSS Irimpanam) https://www.gnu.org/education/edu-cases-india-irimpanam.html
* Department of Scientific Computing, Modeling, and Simulation, Savitribai Phule Pune University --- To add the department's head statement on their use of free software <URL to Snehal's Department statement>.
If you know of other institutes which use free software, please let us know, we would like to add them in this list. If you need help in switching your institute to free software, feel free to contact us, we would be very glad to help you.
Some Related Links: 1. Sign Free Software Foundation's petition to call on school administrators around the world to stop requiring students to run nonfree software https://my.fsf.org/give-students-userfreedom
2. Free software enables free science https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/free-software-enables-free-science/
3. Guri- a project for free software in education https://guri.hipatia.net/
4. Ways in which technology used in education puts students under surveillance https://ssd.eff.org/en/module/privacy-students
5. Schools are deploying massive surveillance on their students as if they are dissidents of an authoritarian regime https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/02/schools-are-pushing-boundaries-surveillance-technologies
6. Don’t Let Science Publisher Elsevier Hold Knowledge for Ransom https://www.eff.org/id/deeplinks/2019/10/dont-let-science-publisher-elsevier-hold-knowledge-ransom
----
Hi Ravi,
Sorry for the late reply. I have emailed to GNU about publishing the statement on their webpage. Let's hope that they accept, and then we would be able to provide a link to that page. Till then, how about including the statement as a part of the article but including it at the end of the article? Or if it is possible, can FSF India publish it under use cases on their webpage? I am new to this ecosystem so I am not sure how it works usually.
I am also going through the corrected draft. I think suggestions from RMS are helpful as always and you have done a great job writing and modifying the article. Perhaps it would be helpful to hold another meeting to discuss the corrected version after the deadline of 8th March.
Thanks and regards, SS
I have emailed to GNU about publishing the statement on their
webpage. Let's hope that they accept, and then we would be able to provide a link to that page.
Yes. That's good.
Till then, how about including the statement as a part of the article
but including it at the end of the article? Or if it is possible, can FSF India publish it under use cases on their webpage?
I think FSF India can publish it under use cases on their webpage. For that, in my opinion, your head needs to change FOSS to 'Free Software' in the statement. I think you can add in the statement on how you handle emails-- probably, you can write that you run your own server.
And please add the contact details in the end so that people can contact your department for help(as the statement said that you will be glad to help other institutes).
I am new to this ecosystem so I am not sure how it works usually.
We discuss it in the private mailing list for consensus.
I am also going through the corrected draft. I think suggestions from
RMS are helpful as always and you have done a great job writing and modifying the article.
I have incorporated the comments-> https://pad.disroot.org/p/educationfreesoftware.
Perhaps it would be helpful to hold another meeting to discuss the
corrected version after the deadline of 8th March.
Please propose a date for meeting after 10th March 2021.
Hi all,
I propose 12th March 9:30 pm as the meeting date to finalize this article.
Thanks and regards, SS
I propose 12th March 9:30 pm as the meeting date to finalize this
article.
12th March 9:30 PM is fine for me. Let us use the same meeting link as before: https://vc.autistici.org/FSFIeducationarticle.
I am seeing a strange change in the autistici website. They list all the meetings publicly so anyone can join any meeting. Worse, anybody can delete any meeting! Am I missing something?
I am seeing a strange change in the autistici website. They list all
the meetings publicly so anyone can join any meeting. Worse, anybody can delete any meeting! Am I missing something?
Thanks for reporting, Snehal. We totally overlooked that.
Please check whether Jitsi's central server https://meet.jit.si/ have the same problem.
We can host our meeting there if that is fine.
I usually host my lectures on the central server. I have never seen this there. I think autistici has customized the page design.
And so I have changed the meeting link to https://meet.jit.si/FSFIeducationarticle.
Date: 12-March-2021 Time: 21:30 IST
If anyone is not comfortable with this timing and would like to join us, please let us know.
https://meet.jit.si/FSFIeducationarticle.
Date: 12-March-2021 Time: 21:30 IST
A gentle reminder for today's meeting.
Dear All,
We had a meeting to discuss the article and the following is the final draft for publishing on our site. Pad link https://pad.disroot.org/p/educationfreesoftware .
---------- Title: Educational Institutes should use exclusively freedom-respecting software
We urge educational institutes and webinars to stop requiring students to use proprietary software, and to adopt free/swatantra software (free as in freedom), which is [readily available]https://www.gnu.org/software/free-software-for-education.html. Remote education does not require [giving up rights to freedom and privacy] https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/remote-education-does-not-require-giving-up-rights-to-freedom-and-privacy. For example, the Department of Scientific Computing, Modeling, and Simulation, Savitribai Phule Pune University uses exclusively free software for education https://fsf.org.in/case-study/unipune/ which shows that it is entirely possible to use exclusively free software in education.
A speech by Richard Stallman on why schools should use exclusively free software can be watched and downloaded from [here] https://audio-video.gnu.org/video/richard_stallman_speech-sina.com-2005-09.ogg.
What is Free/Swatantra Software?
Free/Swatantra software means that you, as a user, have four essential freedoms: (0) to run the program as you wish, (1) to study and change the source code so it does what you wish, (2) to redistribute exact copies, and (3) to redistribute copies of your modified versions. (See the [free software definition]https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html.) With these freedoms, the users (both individually and collectively) control the program and what it does for them. When users don't control the program, we call it a “nonfree” or “proprietary” program. Proprietary software is an injustice to the user because it puts its developer or owner in a position of power over its users https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-even-more-important.html. They use this power [to spy on the users, restrict them, censor them, and abuse them] https://gnu.org/malware/. For example, nowadays, all the major proprietary operating systems for the general public [spy on the users]https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/proprietary-surveillance.html.
Why should educational institutes use free software?
Any computer user should use free software for their own freedom, but educational institutes have [additional reasons to insist only on free software]https://www.gnu.org/education/edu-schools.html.
Some reasons are listed below:
- Software should [respect the user's freedom]https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/shouldbefree.html of its users .
- [Proprietary Software Is Often Malware]https://gnu.org/malware/.
- Educational Institutes have a moral responsibility to respect students' freedom and teach students to appreciate it -- for their own future and their country's future.
- Educational institutes often expose students to [privacy-invading technology]https://www.eff.org/wp/school-issued-devices-and-student-privacy without any real choice to escape from it. Educational institutes should respect students' privacy. Free Software is controlled by its users and therefore it can protect them from surveillance.
- Students cannot learn from proprietary software because it is secret, and it prohibits learning as well as sharing while free software encourages learning and sharing which align with the mission of the schools.
- Proprietary software makes the institute dependent on the owner of the software while free software allows the institute to be in control.
Free software can save schools money, but this is a secondary benefit. Savings are possible because free software gives schools, like other users, the freedom to copy and redistribute the software; the school system can give a copy to every school, and each school can install the program on all its computers, with no obligation to pay for doing so. Schools can also do necessary modifications as per their requirements without further cost.
Problems with commonly used proprietary tools for education
A lot of institutes rely on Google's Gmail and Microsoft's Outlook for their email communications. Offering Google or Outlook accounts is an injustice because: a. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple, and AOL are [surveillance systems]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_%28surveillance_program%29.
b. Gmail [makes psychological profiles]https://www.alternet.org/2013/12/google-using-gmail-build-psychological-profiles-hundreds-millions-people/?paging=off not only of Gmail users but of everyone who sends mail to Gmail users.
c. Microsoft Outlook is known to block incoming mails from other email service providers [without providing a reason]https://disroot.org/en/blog/microsoft_hostility. [Another link]https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/oemail-osend/outlookcom-is-blocking-all-incoming-mails-from/fe2790d9-4ab5-498b-a8f6-46dbfd3a09e4 .
Proprietary software is an injustice to the user and gives developer power over the users which leads to further injustices as we discuss in this section.
Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams are proprietary software generally used in live classes and webinars. All of them use their power over the users to collect personal and location data. Zoom [collects a lot of data]https://studentprivacymatters.org/what-you-need-to-know-about-zoom-for-education/ on students. Microsoft Teams and Google also [snoop on their users]https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/1/21244058/google-meet-microsoft-teams-webex-personal-data-collection-privacy-policy-concerns. We urge teachers to help their students in resisting against proprietary videoconferencing platforms; some ideas are [listed here] https://www.gnu.org/education/teachers-help-students-resist-zoom.html.
A lot of times, students are asked to join a WhatsApp group for important announcements which is an injustice to the student because WhatsApp is a nonfree program. Further, WhatsApp [does not respect user's privacy]https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlypage/2021/01/08/whatsapp-tells-users-share-your-data-with-facebook-or-well-deactivate-your-account/.
Google Classroom is another commonly used nonfree program which is an [assault on student's privacy] https://gomindsight.com/insights/blog/privacy-with-google-classroom-education-industry-news/. Google Forms are used for filling personal details which sends data to Google, [a surveillance company]https://stallman.org/google.html#surveillance known to track and profile users. Google Drive [mistreats users]https://www.vice.com/en/article/9kgwnp/porn-on-google-drive-error as well.
Chromebooks for schools [collect far more data on students than is necessary, and store it indefinitely]https://www.eff.org/wp/school-issued-devices-and-student-privacy.
Many exam websites, institute and webinar websites report all their visitors to Google by using the Google Analytics service, which [tells Google the IP address and the page that was visited]http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/434164/google_analytics_breaks_norwegian_privacy_laws_local_agency_said/. Many conferences/webinars host their site on Google and that site reports details of every visitor to Google.
G-Suite is another data collection tool which is used in education and needless to say it also collects a lot of data on each user: Search in [this link]https://web.archive.org/web/20170222113929/https://gsuite.google.com/faq/security/, for "Do you store multiple customers' information on the same server?", they clearly say "Yes, we store multiple customers’ information on the same serving infrastructure." This means G-Suite puts the students under surveillance and institutes should avoid it.
Further, educational institutes are [invading student's privacy]https://www.dw.com/en/anti-plagiarism-tools-a-new-age-of-truth-at-university/a-45475465 through cheating-detection systems. Requiring students to install a proprietary monitoring software in their own computers is an injustice. Monitoring software, by design, runs even when the owner of the computer tries to stop it from running long after the exam is finished and takes full control of the computer which [subjects users to abuse] https://twtext.com/article/1252225044861693954. These monitoring apps [collect a lot of data on students]https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/08/proctoring-apps-subject-students-unnecessary-surveillance such as: Recorded patterns of keystrokes, facial-recognition, microphones and cameras record students’ surroundings such as biometric data, full name, date of birth, address, phone number, scans of government-issued identity documents, educational institution affiliation, and student ID numbers, records of operating systems, make and model of the device, as well as device identification numbers, IP addresses, browser type and language settings, software on the device and their versions, ISP, records of URLs visited, and how long students remain on a particular site or webpage etc. The algorithms of these monitoring software could easily flag students who don’t have control over their surroundings as "suspicious" [which could further penalize them]https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/04/01/online-proctoring-college-exams-coronavirus/ . No student should be forced to make the choice to be put into surveillance continuously or to fail their course.
Free Software Recommendations If you are a parent, we urge you to talk to your child's school regarding the privacy concerns and raise awareness about free software. If you are a student, then you can form a group of students who are concerned about their privacy and freedom, and write collective letters to administration and teachers to raise awareness. You can learn from people who [successfully resisted]https://www.gnu.org/education/successful-resistance-against-nonfree-software.html#content the use of nonfree software in the institutes.
We list freedom-respecting software that can be used in education: Operating system: [GNU/Linux distros] https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html
Online Classes- Jitsi, BigBlueButton. Check [this] https://fsf.org.in/article/better-than-zoom/ for more details.
Instant Messenger- Element, Quicksy or Conversations. Check [this] https://fsf.org.in/article/better-than-whatsapp/ for more details.
Uploading videos- [PeerTube] https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/PeerTube
E-learning platforms- [Moodle] https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Moodle.
Recording Lectures- [OBS]https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Obs-studio
Sharing notes, lecture videos etc. - [Nextcloud]https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Nextcloud, Lufihttps://upload.disroot.org/
Digital writing pad- [Xournal] https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Xournal
Document editor: Libre-Office https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/LibreOffice
Email- 1. Institutes can self host their own server 2. [Tutanota's] https://tutanota.com software is freedom-respecting and you can install it in your own server or pay Tutanota for plan which suits your needs.
The GNU website lists free software that can be used in schools and educational institutions of all levels https://www.gnu.org/software/free-software-for-education.html. The Free Software Foundation keeps a comprehensive database of educational software at the Free Software Directory https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Category/Education.
Freeduc-USB https://usb.freeduc.org/index-en.html is a bootable USB stick that contains useful applications for the classroom.
When an educational institute provides laptops to students, they should choose laptops which can run fully free software-- check [RYF laptops by FSF]https://ryf.fsf.org/products?category=1 and [LibreTech] https://libretech.shop/. For other hardware which can run fully free software, check https://h-node.org/.
Educational resources should be 'free' as in freedom
Poster here: https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/appeal2020/spring/7-blackhole.png
In today's age, free sharing of scientific knowledge has become the [worst conceivable crime] https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/how-did-the-free-sharing-of-scientific-knowledge-and-culture-become-the-worst-crime-our-justice-systems-could-think-of/ one can think of. Scientific journals like Elsevier lock up academic research behind paywalls and prohibit sharing with others. Since, the academic research is funded by public money, it should be available free of cost as well as free in freedom. For arguments on how the principles of software freedom apply to academic papers, please check [this essay]https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/push-copyright-aside.html. Educational resources-- like videos, recorded lectures, academic papers [should be released under free/swatantra licenses only]https://www.stallman.org/articles/online-education.html. The GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) https://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html is a free license that can be used for educational works. Creative Commons has two free licenses: CC-BY and CC-BY-SA for this purpose. If you release your academic papers under a free license, it will give everyone an opportunity to learn from you. Some Free Learning Resources are mentioned [here] https://www.gnu.org/education/edu-free-learning-resources.html. We must not allow scientific knowledge to get locked.
Free Software adoption in Indian education IT syllabus of class XI in Maharashtra now includes free software https://fsf.org.in/news/mh-schools-floss/. The state of Kerala migrated more than 2,600 public schools to free software https://www.itschool.gov.in/. Unfortunately, Kerala is the only state in India where IT education is imparted over a Free software operating system https://www.academia.edu/10236947/IT_at_SCHOOL_PROJECT_OF_KERALA_A_LANDMARK_IN_ICT_INITIATIVE_IN_GENERAL_EDUCATION and other states should also take initiative in this direction. A free software named Tux Paint http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/TuxPaint used at VHSS Irimpanam school, Kerala, where 11 and 12 years old students exercised the freedom to learn how the program works and modify the program, which demonstrates that even non programmers or children, can actually influence and improve information technology when software freedom is granted https://www.gnu.org/education/edu-software-tuxpaint.html. School-age children were able to effectively and quickly exercise software freedom with Tux Paint in the PC-in-the-Village Experiment, Goa http://www.digitalequalizer.org/kids.htm
Some of the educational institutions in India that are using exclusively Free Software:
Ambedkar Community Computing Center (AC3) https://www.gnu.org/education/edu-cases-india-ambedkar.html
Vocational Higher Secondary School Irimpanam (VHSS Irimpanam) https://www.gnu.org/education/edu-cases-india-irimpanam.html
Department of Scientific Computing, Modeling, and Simulation, Savitribai Phule Pune University --- [Statement here]https://fsf.org.in/case-study/unipune/
If you know of other institutes which use free software, please let us know, we would like to add them in this list. If you need help in switching your institute to free software, feel free to [contact us] https://fsf.org.in/contact/, we would be very glad to help you.
Some Related Links: [Richard Stallman's speeches]https://audio-video.gnu.org/ to learn more about free software.
[Sign Free Software Foundation's petition]https://my.fsf.org/give-students-userfreedom to call on school administrators around the world to stop requiring students to run nonfree software.
[Free software enables free science] https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/free-software-enables-free-science/
[Guri]https://guri.hipatia.net/ - a project for free software in education
Ways in which technology used in education [puts students under surveillance]https://ssd.eff.org/en/module/privacy-students
Schools are [deploying massive surveillance on their students]https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/02/schools-are-pushing-boundaries-surveillance-technologies as if they are dissidents of an authoritarian regime
Join Students and Scholars In Speaking Out About the Effects of Mass Surveillance on Campus https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/05/join-students-and-scholars-speaking-out-about-effects-mass-surveillance-campus
How Much Surveillance Can Democracy Withstand? https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/surveillance-vs-democracy.html
[Don’t Let]https://www.eff.org/id/deeplinks/2019/10/dont-let-science-publisher-elsevier-hold-knowledge-ransom Science Publisher Elsevier Hold Knowledge for Ransom -------------------
Praveen had a comment on our final draft:
"I'm not sure if we should recommend tutanota. For self hosting there are many options like mail in a box, iredmail or setting up each components manually.
For end to end encryption, the only 100% guaranteed way is to do it in the client. So we should focus on pgp for encryption, it is a well established and widely supported standard, where as tutanota is using their own, which has not tested enough.
To make pgp easy, we have new apps and standards like pep and autocrypt which makes end to end encryption transparent and easy to use. All a user needs to do is use an app that supports these standards and key generation and sharing is handled transparently."
I am elaborating what Praveen and I discussed. Please correct me if I understood something wrong.
There are two issues here:
1. Institutes using free software in your own server so that they can have control over their email server.
2. Encryption of mails.
For point 1, we don't know if someone has actually used Tutanota's software for emails so we don't know how good that is.
The following point applies when we recommend institutes to buy Tutanota plans: Praveen points out that Tutanota's encryption scheme is new and not widely used. We don't know about any independent audits and implementations of this scheme. It maybe that it is good and better than PGP. But we cannot be sure unless some independent entity says that.
Also, Tutanota is encrypting emails from the server side. You can never be sure about the server-side encryption. The better thing to do is to encrypt mails in the client itself so that it is encrypted before it reaches the server. For example, PGP encryption can be done by Thunderbird, PEP and Autocrypt.
On the other hand, PGP encryption and IMAP is being used widely.
Therefore, in the view of these comments, we should remove Tutanota from our recommendation for emails unless we find some independent documents of their credibility.
I think we should suggest institutes to run their own mail server using Mail-in-a-Box, iRedMail, FreedomBox, as Praveen suggested. We can further recommend the participants of the email server to use PGP for encryption.
Thanks!
I am fine with removing Tutanota from the article.
On 2021, മാർച്ച് 4 3:14:46 PM IST, Snehal M Shekatkar snehal@inferred.co wrote:
I usually host my lectures on the central server. I have never seen this there. I think autistici has customized the page design.
I don't see any meetings when I go to http://vc.autistici.org
Are you seeing a history of the meetings you attended earlier? That is normal. No one else will see that. You can confirm it by opening it in a private window or in a different device.
Thanks Pravin. You are right! However, this is also somewhat peculiar given that there is no login option. So on what basis the meetings are stored? The browser history or ip or what?
Snehal, your head's statement is published here https://fsf.org.in/case-study/unipune/.
I think we can contact these colleges/computing center and publish their case study too:
1. Vocational Higher Secondary School Irimpanam https://www.gnu.org/education/edu-cases-india-irimpanam.html
2. Ambedkar Community Computing Center (AC3) https://www.gnu.org/education/edu-cases-india-ambedkar.html
Yes. Such statements would really motivate the other institutes to take stand once they are made aware about Free software.
Yes. Thank you Ravi.
So on what basis the meetings are stored? The browser history or ip
or what?
Seems to be browser history. Because I had the same IP address and when I deleted the browser history, the list of recent meetings was empty.
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Pirate Praveen -
Ravi Dwivedi -
Snehal M Shekatkar