Hi,
Can someone point me to a comprehensive collection of materials used for
training in Free Software in schools in Kerala? Any and all of these
would be appreciated:
- Teachers' training material
- Teachers' training curricula and time frames
- Ditto for the Train the Trainers programme
- School curricula on and using FS
- Accompanying textbooks, training guides, etc.
Anything else that is available apart from this would be great.
Thanks,
-- Raju
--
Raj Mathur raju(a)kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/
GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F
PsyTrance & Chill: http://schizoid.in/ || It is the mind that moves
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Microsoft-Yahoo-agree-on-ad-rb-909225241.html…
"SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp and Yahoo Inc have agreed to an
online search and advertising partnership, in an
attempt to rival Google Inc, that will be announced within 24 hours, a
source familiar with the situation said on Thursday."
Dear all,
We welcome all the members, sympathizers and critics of FSMK to the second
edition of our News Letter. This edition discusses different topics that
ranges from technical, philosophical, free software politics and activism in
depth and breadth.
Please find the News Letter at the Below Link.
http://fsmk.org/sites/default/files/FSMK%20Newsletter%20Volume%202.pdfhttp://fsmk.org/node/39
With warm regards,
Naveen Mudunuru
FSMK Editorial Board
--
regards
naveen
Be Free, Speak Free, Work Free.
Advocate "FREE SOFTWARE",
FREE as in FREE SPEECH, not as in FREE BEER
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rameez Thonnakkal <ssrameez(a)gmail.com>
Date: 2009/7/25
Subject: [Fsmk-discuss] FSMK Newsletter Volume 2
Hi All,
Presenting the second edition of FSMK News Letter.
FSMK News Letter Volume 2 <http://fsmk.org/node/39>
Thanks a lot for accepting the first news letter and letting us know your
valuables suggestions and criticisms. We have tried our best to improve
based on those inputs. Improvement is a continuous process and we
assure you the same with our current News Letter.
We discuss everything related to free software. It includes technology,
news, free-software politics, philosophy,etc.. We are sure that this is a
stepping stone to get well equipped on free software movement.
Through this News letter, Know about the Free Software Movement
Karnataka and Join the Movement...
We are expecting your valuable comments..
Write to us editor(a)fsmk.org.
Regards,
FSMK Editorial Board
_______________________________________________
fsmk-discuss mailing list
fsmk-discuss(a)lists.fsmk.in
http://lists.fsmk.in/listinfo.cgi/fsmk-discuss-fsmk.in
--
Vikram Vincent
+919448810822
http://swatantra.org/http://fsmk.org/
First they ignore you
Then they laugh at you
Then they they fight you
Then you win
- Gandhi Neat quote on the FSMK T-shirt! :)
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you,
then you win."
-- Mahatma Gandhi
With this message a few geeks at Free Software Movement Karnataka
(FSMK) have been working on popularizing the open source software in
the government schools and offices. "Karnataka Government decided to
use free software for 8th 9th and 10th standards as a part of their
ICT@Schools project(Information and Communication Technology). As of
now It is vendor controlled project (Educom, EVeron, etc are
implementing it) under BOOT (Build Operate Own & Transfer)scheme. For
making it more accessible to teachers & students(IT enabled learning),
we are initiating this training as a pilot project in bangalore. This
is organised by DSERT and a Consortium of Free Software Organisations
in Bangalore (FSUG Bangalore, Sampada, FSMK, ITfC, DeepRoot Linux,
IT4Change & Moving Republic are the organisations associated.)", said
Naveen Mudunuru, an active volunteer with FSMK.
1. A session on FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source Software) philosophy.
2. Basic usage of the desktop explaining the various hardware components.
3. Use of Open Office.
4. Educational games on the distro.
5. Use of Internet.
The team comprised of volunteers from various groups typically
software techies from various companies some of who have moved to
social sector for good. The hall was packed with almost every system
occupied with about 25 teachers. The teachers very pretty enthusiastic
about the training and sat patiently for the long sessions absorbing
as much as they could. One teacher in particular didn't mind delayed
lunch as they were in middle of something.
The first day was mostly basic stuff covering the different components
like mouse (why it is so called?), CPU, etc. Many teachers were
curious about typing and use of kannada. Ktouch, gtypist, gcompris,
etc were suggested to the them. The afternoon session Naveen
introduced the teachers to the concept of FLOSS. Naveen used the
analogy of a bike. When someone buys a bike (s)he expects to use it
the way (s)he wishes. If a neighbor is in need and comes ask for the
bike for some work (s)he is free to lend the bike which may not be the
cased with a product from Microsoft or Apple or such. If it has some
problem one would like to have a look at the bike himself or herself
first and only then goto a shop. Even if (s)he has to goto a shop the
person is free to go to a local shop and doesn't have to go to the
same vendor who sold the bike. This 'freedom' is not there in closed
source software. There was a mention of how Einstein was able to come
up with concepts like theory of relativity as Newton, who said, "If I
have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.",
didn't keep his knowledge to himself. The way to go ahead in
technology is to share and exchange knowledge. Reminds one of the
words from George Bernard Shaw -
"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples
then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea
and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will
have two ideas."
The second day was entirely spent on Open Office where equivalents of
Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint. People who were familiar with
the office suite asked how they could do certain things they did in
the MS counterparts. The sessions were exhaustive and covered most of
the things the teachers would need. The day ended in a presentation on
a one of the schools made by the Teacher from that school. Looked
pretty well done. The teachers were briefly introduced to the use of
Kannada - the idea was to encourage them to use English. The detailed
coverage on the same is planned in the subsequent sessions.
The third day was devoted to the Internet. The teachers were also
requested to work in groups to infuse in them idea of sharing and
helping each other which is the basis for most development in FLOSS.
The idea behind the sessions was to equip the teachers to help
themselves by looking for help on the net. They were introduced to
checking emails, google, wikipedia, youtbue, etc. An email was created
for each teacher and also a mailing list containing all of them for
future queries and discussions. The teachers expressed their heart
felt gratitude.
If this initiative interests you please get in touch with
Naveen: naveenmudunuru(a)gmail.com 998640 3928
Vikram: vincentvikram(a)gmail.com 94488 10822
Software _must_ be accessible to people who could use it to bring
about a positive change in their lives. Such programs are only making
this a reality by touching the needier sections.
-- Mayank Rungta
-- article released under creative commons
We,the FSMK(Free Software Movement Karnataka) volunteers cum trainers,
along with members from few other organizations trained Government
School teachers to use and get comfortable with Free Software,in a
step towards scaling a steep task of setting the binary knowledge
free. These training sessions happened on the 16th, 17th and 18th of
July,2009.
I was expecting reluctance,hesitation,mild levels of ego and confusion
from the participants...But all that emerged out of these teachers was
an extremely high level of enthusiasm, an equaling curiosity and
tireless efforts for the first two days...Witnessing this in person
and being a part all three days has been all together a new kind of an
experience....
We were able to break the dogma of The Cyberphobia (Fear of working
with computers) from these people the very first day....The joy they
subsequently found working on the basics which we taught them was just
heart warming.... The ultimate goal of this workshop has been making
the teachers self sufficient in handling computers for basic purposes,
so that the kids are benefited.
The second day was more about trying to make them feel more
independent. The interest and the curiosity levels in the teachers
remained still the same, while the extent of apprehension and
inhibitions from their side were mellowing down.
The third day was to introduce them to an entirely new world, as seen
by them, through Internet and the various possibilities using it like
mailing, searching, browsing useful sites, copying content from net,
file downloads etc... The Internet really hooked them on,making most
of them pledge that they would want to use it more even after the
sessions.
But,the kind of awe they were in, while undergoing these sessions puts
a big question about the IT revolution India is supposedly going
through...In a city where all the major IT players of the world have
at least one establishment is ridiculously unbalanced. Its own
teachers are literally scared to work with computers...
Blaming the Government is something which is eternal...And we've got
used to it...
The question is what each of us can do? I genuinely feel that we as a
literate community have a lot to do with a sense of sincere concern
towards the society we are a part of....
If you feel that you can do your part in bridging the divide, join us
at fsmk.org.
-
Raghavendra S
Volunteer
FSMK ( fsmk.org)
i do not know whether i am sharing a very old news or a new one , but could
not stop me sharing this link
http://www.dcmsme.gov.in/schemes/ipr.htm
with regards
renuka prasad
Hello,
As part of the MHRD funded open source mission at IITB, Asokan and I
are planning a 2 day Python workshop:
Topic: Programming with Python
Date: 25, 26th July 2009 (weekend)
Time: 1400 hrs to 1800 hrs
Venue: CDEEP seminar hall
Instructors: Asokan P and Prabhu Ramachandran
This is targeted at students of engineering who will be able to use
Python as their core language for scientific and engineering
computing. The course will be done at CDEEP and will be broadcast
live via EDUSAT and also webcast (http://www.cdeep.iitb.ac.in/).
Attendees are strongly encouraged to bring along laptops since the
instruction is entirely hands on. We will be able to provide some
extra laptops for use but the numbers will be limited.
Please send:
Kadambari Devarajan <kadambari.devarajan(a)gmail.com>
a confirmation email regarding your participation and she will get
back to you on what you need to install, prerequisites etc.
Please forward this to any others who may be interested.
regards,
--
Prabhu Ramachandran http://www.aero.iitb.ac.in/~prabhu