RE: [school-discuss] Becta feedback
Teachers in the UK are being expected to do less and less work by government. As your package does not fit neatly into the UK national curriculum (i.e. you haven't pre-defined for them what the package does in NC terms), they're not (with some notable exceptions) going to be interested. Given the position of BECTa,they really should take the time to evaluate these packages, but don't. Has anyone had something excepted? My contributions were also turned down. I will be raising the issue with BECTa, but an ex-BECTa employee now employed by RedHat may be of more assistance in this area, as I do not know who to target. Malcolm? I forwarded your exchange to a UK based list that may have people better placed to define gcompris in NC terms. Cheers Chris -----Original Message----- From: Bruno Coudoin To: Schoolforge Sent: 5/29/02 1:31 PM Subject: [school-discuss] Becta feedback I asked BECTA to include gcompris in their database. They refused and I don't understand why. Could somebody explain me why, below is the trace of our email exchange. Thanks in advance, Bruno. ----------------- Dear Bruno, Many thanks for your recent message regarding an entry on the Becta Educational Software Database. In order to meet the criteria of the Becta Educational Software Database, we do ask that any materials referenced through the service are not just relevant to subjects studied in the UK, but that they are also appropriate for the English National Curriculum. Therefore unfortunately we are unable to include this product on BESD. Regards Becta Educational Sofware Database Team
-----Original Message----- From: Bruno Coudoin [SMTP:bruno.coudoin@free.fr] Sent: 28 May 2002 14:07 To: besd Subject: RE: gcompris proposal
I am french and not a teacher neither part of the french
education
system so I can't give you any cross reference between gcompris
and
the British Curiculum. What I can tell you is that in france, gcompris is used in school for what is called Cycle 2 which is about 5, 6 and 7 years old.
Gcompris includes a large number of activities and you can also check by yourself how suitable it may be for your organisation.
For My official contact information, I am M. Bruno Coudoin, my personal adress is 6: Rue des Amandiers 31700 Blagnac France.
Thanks for your time evaluating gcompris.
Also, please consider that as a free software, gcompris can be improved by your organisation itself or by asking a third party software engineering company with no license cost. You can also ask me for changes and improvement but since it is a non paid project, it can take times.
Best Regards, Bruno.
Le mar 28/05/2002 à 11:53, besd a écrit : > > > Many thanks for your recent enquiry regarding the Becta Educational Software > Database (BESD - http://besd.becta.org.uk). > > BESD aims to provide an independent, comprehensive on-line database for > educational software for the schools market. The database complements the > roles of the National Grid for Learning (NGfL - http://www.ngfl.gov.uk) and > the Virtual Teacher Centre (VTC - http://vtc.ngfl.gov.uk), which provide a > signposting service to web based content and resources. BESD currently > provides a mechanism for teachers and support organisations to find > curriculum-based software which can be purchased on disk, CD ROM or DVD ROM, > or downloaded from the web. Subscription on-line services where internet > access is required for use are not included. Can you please inform us what > National Curriculum subjects your software covers, and supply us with full > contact details. > > Regards > > Becta Educational Software Database team > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Bruno Coudoin [SMTP:bruno.coudoin@free.fr] > > Sent: 27 May 2002 18:21 > > To: besd@becta.org.uk > > Subject: gcompris proposal > > > > > > I am the author of gcompris (http://ofset.sourceforge.net/gcompris) > > > > This is a freeware education application (Under the GPL License). > > > > Please, consider including it in your database. > > > > Thanks in advance, > > > > Bruno. > > > > >
As a teacher first, and a network administrator
second...
--- Chris Puttick
less work by government.
Ay, about time. Have a misread your intention, or is there a bit of "they don't work hard enough, those lazy bastards" in your tone? I, for one, am a bloody busy bloke. Although you do say there are some notable exceptions, I don't know a primary teacher who doesn't work hard. Don't get me wrong, I know some crap ones, but even they work hard! Government after government has expected teachers to do more. Every little regular two-hour task they pile at teachers, implies that they have two hours free. The Government seems to say that the workload should decrease, but I've seen little evidence that. Moan, moan, whinge whinge. Damn teachers. As your package does not fit neatly into
the UK national curriculum (i.e. you haven't pre-defined for them what the package does in NC terms), they're not (with some notable exceptions) going to be interested.
Absolutely. It's worth _so_ much more to a teacher if it's tied in neatly, and labelled clearly ie. This element of gcompris covers "blah blah blah" at Keystage 1. Not through idleness, but through trying to cut down to reasonable the ammount of work that's required to do the job. I think I work at a reasonable level. I don't think I do _too_ much. Given the position of BECTa,they really
should take the time to evaluate these packages, but don't.
Agreed. Becta's site says it's function is: --- "The strength of Becta is its ability to bridge educational and technological developments and communities. Becta also seeks to: *evaluate information and communications technology (ICT) practice *support existing applications of ICT *investigate emerging technologies and associated pedagogy. As the Government's lead agency on the use of ICT in education, Becta plays a crucial role in helping to maximise the benefits to all teachers and learners that using ICT can bring." --- It looks to me, at first glance, that there's some great ideas in gcompris. I'm surprised it didn't get a positive reaction. Well, perhaps I'm not surprised - that would be naive. Have you seen some of the RM MyWorld stuff? *Choke* Now, all RM have done is clearly tie it in to the National Curriculum. So, that's the secret. See the following to see what kids in English schools are up to: http://www.nc.uk.net/home.html http://www.standards.dfee.gov.uk/schemes/ You could try to find someone with some experience in Primary teaching to tie all this in for you. (No, not I, I'm afraid) Hope that may go at least some way in helping. -- Matt Johnson __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com
As one of the designers of the BESD system, I'm a little surprised by BECTa's response. BESD is publisher-maintained; you should be able to register as a software publisher and enter details of your software package directly into BESD, for review by BECTa. As a part of the data entry process, you will be expected to link your package to curriculum topics and Key Stages that it addresses. If you can't do that I'd expect BECTa to resist publishing your data, of course. My surprise is that BECTa didn't explain this to you. It is of course possible that gcompris is a type of educational software that doesn't fit BESD's model of the universe -- although software of general applicability *can* be represented in the database. So, perhaps you asked the wrong question? Try asking to register as a publisher? Bob G On Wed, 29 May 2002, Chris Puttick wrote:
Teachers in the UK are being expected to do less and less work by government. As your package does not fit neatly into the UK national curriculum (i.e. you haven't pre-defined for them what the package does in NC terms), they're not (with some notable exceptions) going to be interested. Given the position of BECTa,they really should take the time to evaluate these packages, but don't.
Has anyone had something excepted? My contributions were also turned down. I will be raising the issue with BECTa, but an ex-BECTa employee now employed by RedHat may be of more assistance in this area, as I do not know who to target. Malcolm?
I forwarded your exchange to a UK based list that may have people better placed to define gcompris in NC terms.
Cheers
Chris
-----Original Message----- From: Bruno Coudoin To: Schoolforge Sent: 5/29/02 1:31 PM Subject: [school-discuss] Becta feedback
I asked BECTA to include gcompris in their database. They refused and I don't understand why. Could somebody explain me why, below is the trace of our email exchange.
Thanks in advance, Bruno.
----------------- Dear Bruno,
Many thanks for your recent message regarding an entry on the Becta Educational Software Database.
In order to meet the criteria of the Becta Educational Software Database, we do ask that any materials referenced through the service are not just relevant to subjects studied in the UK, but that they are also appropriate for the English National Curriculum. Therefore unfortunately we are unable to include this product on BESD.
Regards
Becta Educational Sofware Database Team
-----Original Message----- From: Bruno Coudoin [SMTP:bruno.coudoin@free.fr] Sent: 28 May 2002 14:07 To: besd Subject: RE: gcompris proposal
I am french and not a teacher neither part of the french
education
system so I can't give you any cross reference between gcompris
and
the British Curiculum. What I can tell you is that in france, gcompris is used in school for what is called Cycle 2 which is about 5, 6 and 7 years old.
Gcompris includes a large number of activities and you can also check by yourself how suitable it may be for your organisation.
For My official contact information, I am M. Bruno Coudoin, my personal adress is 6: Rue des Amandiers 31700 Blagnac France.
Thanks for your time evaluating gcompris.
Also, please consider that as a free software, gcompris can be improved by your organisation itself or by asking a third party software engineering company with no license cost. You can also ask me for changes and improvement but since it is a non paid project, it can take times.
Best Regards, Bruno.
Le mar 28/05/2002 à 11:53, besd a écrit : > > > Many thanks for your recent enquiry regarding the Becta Educational Software > Database (BESD - http://besd.becta.org.uk). > > BESD aims to provide an independent, comprehensive on-line database for > educational software for the schools market. The database complements the > roles of the National Grid for Learning (NGfL - http://www.ngfl.gov.uk) and > the Virtual Teacher Centre (VTC - http://vtc.ngfl.gov.uk), which provide a > signposting service to web based content and resources. BESD currently > provides a mechanism for teachers and support organisations to find > curriculum-based software which can be purchased on disk, CD ROM or DVD ROM, > or downloaded from the web. Subscription on-line services where internet > access is required for use are not included. Can you please inform us what > National Curriculum subjects your software covers, and supply us with full > contact details. > > Regards > > Becta Educational Software Database team > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Bruno Coudoin [SMTP:bruno.coudoin@free.fr] > > Sent: 27 May 2002 18:21 > > To: besd@becta.org.uk > > Subject: gcompris proposal > > > > > > I am the author of gcompris (http://ofset.sourceforge.net/gcompris) > > > > This is a freeware education application (Under the GPL License). > > > > Please, consider including it in your database. > > > > Thanks in advance, > > > > Bruno. > > > > >
participants (3)
-
Chris Puttick -
Matt Johnson -
Robert J Gautier