SchoolForge UK - some thoughts.....
First thanks to Chris for putting himself out there to announce Schoolforge UK to the Schoolforge world.
From my colleagues at Ultralab (Stephen Heppell's lot) I got the offer of us taking a 'hot seat' spot on 'Talking Heads' (the virtual community of school leaders). AFAIK head teachers of all schools are eligable to be members, so when we have more to show them ( i.e. after bringing all the hoped for resources together) I think that could be a great opportunity to deliver information and stimualate debate in a highly focussed way. It's not organised yet but any thoughts on what to include would be useful - if nothing else it is a little seed aroud which other ideas can grow.
Secondly I think the Wiki or website or whatever should be focussing as much on the idea of sharing knowledge and resources, and the philosopy of openness in education as it does on the technology of open source, or freely-distributed or whatever you want to call it software/solutions. I think it imperitive that Schoolforge UK is as inclusive and encouraging as possible - covering the philosophy that Stephen Heppel, Roger from SuSE and Diana Laurillard were talking about at the conference. Analogies with the 'scientific principle' are useful (standing on the shoulders of giants, networks of peer review etc) and I think strike a resonating chord with many more than those that just understand or are interested in the software. Get philosophical not evangelical!(in the words of Stephen Heppell). I'd also like to suggest a joint/combined/co-ordinated press release for Schoolforge UK to tie in with the conference one we're organising now at APU. I thought it would be useful to show the coming together at the conference and the springing forth of SchoolForge UK therefrom. Just a thought... What were we thinking of putting in the SchoolForge UK release? I'm not sure how many folks are using the list in the next week or so, but i'd like to apologise in advance for not replying to any responses as I'm on my hols until next Tuesday (22/4). Also I'd like to thank all those who have responded with case studies and encourage more to come forward into the light. James
Secondly I think the Wiki or website or whatever should be focussing as much on the idea of sharing knowledge and resources, and the philosopy of openness in education as it does on the technology of open source, or freely-distributed or whatever you want to call it software/solutions. I
I agree, but there are already a lot of places for non-software resources out there. That's not to say that we shouldn't have more, but I think it will be useful to harness the existing resources and act as a jumping-off point to other sites when appropriate. At the moment, those resource sites are islands, lacking any coherent way to travel between them (ICBW). That's a problem: I don't want to search 7 UK sites looking for lesson materials. Those sites all seem to want to help people make the most of their time, so they should be receptive to bridge-building to make things easier. The other problem with some of the resource sites is the restrictive copyright on the material. What is the point of an "All Rights Reserved" lesson plan, for example? Your students are not my students. These seem to be dying out, but we should try to persuade any that are still using total copyright restriction to relax it. Finally, some resources are only available in proprietary software formats. Where possible, it would be good to convert them to transparant formats and persuade resource sites to ask people to do that when uploading if possible. I guess that everyone on this list can see the benefits of doing that? All of the above will support the aim of bringing the "scientific method" to bear on these resources in many ways, on many levels. -- MJR http://mjr.towers.org.uk/ IM: slef@jabber.at This is my home web site. This for Jabber Messaging. How's my writing? Let me know via any of my contact details.
On Mon, 2003-04-14 at 08:55, MJ Ray wrote: <snip>
Finally, some resources are only available in proprietary software formats. Where possible, it would be good to convert them to transparant formats and persuade resource sites to ask people to do that when uploading if possible. I guess that everyone on this list can see the benefits of doing that?
Definitely a good move. Having all teaching resources available in standard open formats would be a major step forward. What would the best standard data format for the various common apps? Some are easy but others might cause problems - what should we use for M$ Publisher, for example. We could compile a list of data format alternatives, much like the free software alternatives list mentioned recently. eg APP Proprietary Open database access, SQL, SIMS etc csv documents word, amipro, wordperfect XML?,pdf? image bmp, gif etc png What does eveyone think? -- ---------------------------- Giles Nunn - ISP Officer Carms ICT Development Centre +44 1267 228277 ----------------------------
Hi All, The http://www.schoolforge.org.uk website is coming along a pace. This is a wiki which means that you are all invited to: - visit the website... - look under "How do I get involved?", click on the [Join us] link and... - join in by creating a link to your own page on that page and then.... - add your ideas and contributions to the site. Please feel free to edit everything you see. Over to everyone you... ===== rgds, Richard Rothwell -------------------------------------------------------------------- GNU and Wine are rirds. Rird is recursively defined. __________________________________________________ Yahoo! Plus For a better Internet experience http://www.yahoo.co.uk/btoffer
On Tue, 2003-04-15 at 12:39, Richard Rothwell wrote:
Hi All,
The http://www.schoolforge.org.uk website is coming along a pace. This is a wiki which means that you are all invited to: - visit the website...
You have to choose one of the links first and then choose HomePage then ...
- look under "How do I get involved?", click on the [Join us] link and... - join in by creating a link to your own page on that page and then.... - add your ideas and contributions to the site.
Please feel free to edit everything you see. Over to everyone you...
===== rgds, Richard Rothwell -------------------------------------------------------------------- GNU and Wine are rirds. Rird is recursively defined.
__________________________________________________ Yahoo! Plus For a better Internet experience http://www.yahoo.co.uk/btoffer
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-- ---------------------------- Giles Nunn - ISP Officer Carms ICT Development Centre +44 1267 228277 ----------------------------
participants (4)
-
Giles Nunn -
jamess＠rdiu.anglia.ac.uk -
MJ Ray -
Richard Rothwell