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
Dear Raju,
- Teachers' training material
- Teacher's hand book is available.
Teachers' training curricula and time frames
Ditto for the Train the Trainers programme
There is no formal curriculum or book. We conducted several different kinds of workshops.
- Introduction based on School textbook and teachers's handbook - Installation and Troubleshooting - Setting up school network - Training on software for IT enabled education.
- School curricula on and using FS
- Available from school stores.
- Accompanying textbooks, training guides, etc.
- Available from school stores.
Anything else that is available apart from this would be great.
Some experienced trainers ;)
If some one needs text book it is good time to get hold of that. Schools just started and books are being distributed. Teachers hand book I am not sure if we can get copies.
BTW, we recently started an effort to create a new curriculum. Lost momentum in between. If there is interest we can share some thoughts. We can improve on IT@School (Kerala).
regards arun
OK, I was under the impression that these materials were available under a FOSS-friendly licence for download, use and adaptation for other environments.
On Tuesday 07 Jul 2009, Arun M wrote:
Dear Raju,
- Teachers' training material
- Teacher's hand book is available.
Link please.
Teachers' training curricula and time frames
Ditto for the Train the Trainers programme
There is no formal curriculum or book. We conducted several different kinds of workshops.
- Introduction based on School textbook and teachers's handbook
- Installation and Troubleshooting
- Setting up school network
- Training on software for IT enabled education.
Links to whatever materials you developed/used would be useful.
- School curricula on and using FS
- Available from school stores.
No soft copies available?
- Accompanying textbooks, training guides, etc.
- Available from school stores.
Soft copies?
Anything else that is available apart from this would be great.
Some experienced trainers ;)
If some one needs text book it is good time to get hold of that. Schools just started and books are being distributed. Teachers hand book I am not sure if we can get copies.
BTW, we recently started an effort to create a new curriculum. Lost momentum in between. If there is interest we can share some thoughts. We can improve on IT@School (Kerala).
Sure, we can work together, but there are immediate problems to be solved too, looking at those at the moment.
Regards,
-- Raju
- School curricula on and using FS
- Available from school stores.
No soft copies available?
No :( We tried for it some time back. Our mistake. We forgot to 'free' the textbook.
BTW, we recently started an effort to create a new curriculum. Lost momentum in between. If there is interest we can share some thoughts. We can improve on IT@School (Kerala).
Sure, we can work together, but there are immediate problems to be solved too, looking at those at the moment.
SPACE is having a full set of text book. I dont remember whether it is english or malayalam. If you need it Vimal should be able to arrange for a photo copy.
regards arun
- School curricula on and using FS
Raj, I think there would be problem if you chose to adopt or recommend the *mode of educating* Free Software in Kerala. Nothing that I know here uses the opportunity to equip student community to get introduced to Free Software through its different Freedoms other than *Freedom Level 0*.
This is a fine trap that Kerala's IT@School project is led into, as of now, because all these learning exercises can be replaced by Freewares or Sharewares or other subsidised Proprietary software.
If these concerns are unfounded, can they be substantiated with evidence ? Guess Arun or Vimal may be able to clarify.
CK Raju Kharagpur
It is not that text book/curriculum doesnt talk abt other freedoms. But effective communication is not happening at school level on ideological aspects of free software.
There is scope for improvement. It would be good some one can design interesting activities for children which effectively communicate the different freedoms to children. Any way it is not an easy task to ensure that majority of 60,000 teachers effectively use it.
regards arun.
On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 9:36 AM, ck rajuck.thrissur@gmail.com wrote:
- School curricula on and using FS
Raj, I think there would be problem if you chose to adopt or recommend the *mode of educating* Free Software in Kerala. Nothing that I know here uses the opportunity to equip student community to get introduced to Free Software through its different Freedoms other than *Freedom Level 0*.
This is a fine trap that Kerala's IT@School project is led into, as of now, because all these learning exercises can be replaced by Freewares or Sharewares or other subsidised Proprietary software.
If these concerns are unfounded, can they be substantiated with evidence ? Guess Arun or Vimal may be able to clarify.
CK Raju Kharagpur
On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 10:08 AM, Arun Marun@gnu.org.in wrote:
It is not that text book/curriculum doesnt talk abt other freedoms. But effective communication is not happening at school level on ideological aspects of free software. There is scope for improvement. It would be good some one can design interesting activities for children which effectively communicate the different freedoms to children. Any way it is not an easy task to ensure that majority of 60,000 teachers effectively use it.
The IT@School project currently equips a student community to *use* Free Software under its IT-enabled curriculum. This amounts to exploiting Freedom Level 0 only. Limiting an education curriculum to this level is highly inadequate to prevent its retrograde movement back to proprietary software at a later stage.
However, incorporating exercises in the curriculum that must need the other existing levels of Freedoms for its implementation, calls for a different kind of orientation that must be imparted to teachers of varying disciplines. An education curriculum developed this way can never change its direction at a later stage. It should only be after such a loophole-plugged curriculum, that one can convincingly say that a student community is being *equipped* with the ideals of Free Software.
Regarding the modalities on the implementation of a system that exploits all the existing levels of Freedoms may not be as arduous or tough as is thought out to be. Teachers of our public education system have an astonishingly high acumen in coming out with exercises from their own disciplines. Perhaps, all that they need, may be an invitation !!!
CK Raju
On Wednesday 08 July 2009, Arun M wrote:
It is not that text book/curriculum doesnt talk abt other freedoms. But effective communication is not happening at school level on ideological aspects of free software.
There is scope for improvement. It would be good some one can design interesting activities for children which effectively communicate the different freedoms to children. Any way
Dear Arun. What we did in Italy (just for a blender course) was teaching the students to build a film you can find here: /docs.hipatia.net/films/blender_deu/michele_piccolo.mpg unfortunately is in Italian (i can do the subtitles) but as you can see the child learned to do the film , and at the same time about freedom, as you see the guy (michele) is going outside the screen searching freedom.
I think this aproach was very good for us. The group become freedom-fighter :)
warm regards juan
it is not an easy task to ensure that majority of 60,000 teachers effectively use it.
regards arun.
On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 9:36 AM, ck rajuck.thrissur@gmail.com wrote:
- School curricula on and using FS
Raj, I think there would be problem if you chose to adopt or recommend the *mode of educating* Free Software in Kerala. Nothing that I know here uses the opportunity to equip student community to get introduced to Free Software through its different Freedoms other than *Freedom Level 0*.
This is a fine trap that Kerala's IT@School project is led into, as of now, because all these learning exercises can be replaced by Freewares or Sharewares or other subsidised Proprietary software.
If these concerns are unfounded, can they be substantiated with evidence ? Guess Arun or Vimal may be able to clarify.
CK Raju Kharagpur
Fsf-friends mailing list Fsf-friends@mm.gnu.org.in http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends
On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 10:00 AM, Juan Carlos Gentile Fagundez jucar@hipatia.net wrote:
Dear Arun. What we did in Italy (just for a blender course) was teaching the students to build a film you can find here: /docs.hipatia.net/films/blender_deu/michele_piccolo.mpg unfortunately is in Italian (i can do the subtitles) but as you can see the child learned to do the film , and at the same time about freedom, as you see the guy (michele) is going outside the screen searching freedom.
http://docs.hipatia.net/films/blender_edu/michele_piccolo.mpg Thanks Juan. CK Raju
Juan, One should think of an experiment or exercise which makes use of the other levels of freedom thereby making it impossible for a non free environment to replicate. Replication should then get entangled in their non free preventive licences. In this example, it is possible to introduce a learner to make a movie and edit its contents using non free software.
On 10/14/09, Juan Carlos Gentile Fagundez jucar@hipatia.net wrote:
On Wednesday 08 July 2009, Arun M wrote:
It is not that text book/curriculum doesnt talk abt other freedoms. But effective communication is not happening at school level on ideological aspects of free software.
There is scope for improvement. It would be good some one can design interesting activities for children which effectively communicate the different freedoms to children. Any way
Dear Arun. What we did in Italy (just for a blender course) was teaching the students to build a film you can find here: /docs.hipatia.net/films/blender_deu/michele_piccolo.mpg unfortunately is in Italian (i can do the subtitles) but as you can see the child learned to do the film , and at the same time about freedom, as you see the guy (michele) is going outside the screen searching freedom.
I think this aproach was very good for us. The group become freedom-fighter :)
warm regards juan
it is not an easy task to ensure that majority of 60,000 teachers effectively use it.
regards arun.
On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 9:36 AM, ck rajuck.thrissur@gmail.com wrote:
> - School curricula on and using FS
Raj, I think there would be problem if you chose to adopt or recommend the *mode of educating* Free Software in Kerala. Nothing that I know here uses the opportunity to equip student community to get introduced to Free Software through its different Freedoms other than *Freedom Level 0*.
This is a fine trap that Kerala's IT@School project is led into, as of now, because all these learning exercises can be replaced by Freewares or Sharewares or other subsidised Proprietary software.
If these concerns are unfounded, can they be substantiated with evidence ? Guess Arun or Vimal may be able to clarify.
CK Raju Kharagpur
Fsf-friends mailing list Fsf-friends@mm.gnu.org.in http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends
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On Wednesday 08 Jul 2009, ck raju wrote:
- School curricula on and using FS
Raj, I think there would be problem if you chose to adopt or recommend the *mode of educating* Free Software in Kerala. Nothing that I know here uses the opportunity to equip student community to get introduced to Free Software through its different Freedoms other than *Freedom Level 0*.
Without getting into the details of whether the Kerala experiment is a total, partial or not at all a success from a free software point of view, all I wanted was soft copies of existing work that can be used for schools, for teachers and for train the trainers programmes under an open licence. If there are lacunae in the courseware we're quite open to filling them. However, without those basic tools the whole discussion is meaningless for me, at least from the specific requirement with which I approached the list -- all it means is that we need a new team to develop everything from scratch. Something someone said at the recent FOSSCOMM meeting in Delhi led me to understand that all the course (at all 3 levels) was available for download under an open licence.
Regards,
-- Raju
On Wed, 2009-07-08 at 17:21 +0530, Raj Mathur wrote:
Without getting into the details of whether the Kerala experiment is a total, partial or not at all a success from a free software point of view, all I wanted was soft copies of existing work that can be used for schools, for teachers and for train the trainers programmes under an open licence. If there are lacunae in the courseware we're quite open to filling them. However, without those basic tools the whole discussion is meaningless for me, at least from the specific requirement with which I approached the list -- all it means is that we need a new team to develop everything from scratch.
The IT textbooks for classes 8, 9, and 10 are available in English and the last one is available for download too. The teachers handbook is also available in English, I think. But all are available only as hard copies. If you can make do with them, it may be possible to arrange to get them for you. As for the content, I think the 10th class textbook has the best design. Though the licence is not printed, I am pretty sure that no one is going to be concerned if you copy and use the material.
Something someone said at the recent FOSSCOMM meeting in Delhi led me to understand that all the course (at all 3 levels) was available for download under an open licence.
Yes, I too was surprised to hear that. But since I have not been involved in the textbook writing process for a few years, I thought that he may have more recent information.
Best
On Wednesday 08 Jul 2009, ck raju wrote:
[snip] This is a fine trap that Kerala's IT@School project is led into, as of now, because all these learning exercises can be replaced by Freewares or Sharewares or other subsidised Proprietary software.
To take a completely heretical position, I'd rather have my child taught how to make a good-looking, readable document using MS Word than being taught the insides-out of OOo and still not being able to make a decent document.
OK, standing up against the wall to be shot now :)
Regards,
-- Raju
On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 5:34 PM, Raj Mathurraju@linux-delhi.org wrote:
taught the insides-out of OOo and still not being able to make a decent
"..Though Stallman didn't give a traditional reason for this, didn't ground his position in any particular philosophical or ethical theory, he was in fact a Dewey-ite. He was in fact saying what John Dewey had said at the beginning of the 20th Century, that the education and expansion of the human mind depends upon the opportunity to experiment with the world. That it is the ability to join forces with the material and immaterial knowledge surrounding us in the planet which makes our minds grow and develop..." http://ia331420.us.archive.org/1/items/EbenMoglenLectureEdinburghJune2007tex...
The opportunity to *experiment* with Free Software necessarily means using all its freedoms - to escape from accusation of merely "using" it. There may be plenty of areas like soliciting students to contribute to the graphics contents or to the localisation efforts, in the beginning and substantial hacks towards the end - most of which cannot be undertaken with non-free software and finally distributing or publishing them under GPL. Once teachers are exposed to these possibilities, they may be able to solicit opinions from their own student communities and come out with better findings.
[Neither Bengal's cops nor Chidambaram's cops are around to shoot you... breathe easy.. you don't look like a Chinese - ..aoist] CK Raju
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ck raju -
Juan Carlos Gentile Fagundez -
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