Hope its ok to post some updates on the INGOT programme.
I was in Serbia/Montenegro last week setting up an INGOT Academy at the
Belgrade Linux Centre. They have contacts with other former Soviet Union
countries that are supported by the Open Society Institute funded by
George Soros. We hope to get them to fund a meeting/conference where we
can train assessors to set up INGOT Academies in many other Eastern
European countries so we will be truly International. I also have
someone in a college in New Zealand and someone else in Kentucky wanting
to set up Academies so the International dimension looks like its taking
off.
I have also registered the scheme with Curriculum On-line so INGOT
Academy subscriptions can be paid for using ELCs. I have put some
content on the web site www.theINGOTs.org (Which has had a complete
overhaul) for download to conform to the compliance rules for COL. As we
build up I'll put more there if we get the resources to commision people
to do the work. Of course this will be for free use so it might get
copied to other places such as schoolforge over time ;-). So if you want
to use your ELCs to support some FLOSS development, set up an INGOT
Academy :-)
We are also planning Infant INGOTs for 5-7 year olds due to demand from
some of the primary schools. This will be a cut down version of the
Bronze, with basic things like mouse control, basic operating of the
keyboard etc. We'll work it out with a couple of our primary school
clients and then make it available for everyone. At the other end of the
scale, I'm setting up a partnership with Birmingham University Computer
Science Department under the DTi Knowledge Transfer Partnership scheme
to develop the Platinum INGOT as an endorsement for entry to university
computer science courses involving practical experience in developing
open source code. This can develop into a model for learning computer
programming by contributing to the open source pool for prospective
university students.
Linspire has also provided us with their name as a supporter. For this
they get a link to their web site from the INGOT supporters page. Its
important for us to get industry support as it provides confidence and
internationally, is better than say QCA endorsement which really only
applies in England and Wales. I'm also talking to Sun. Maybe Novell?
Anyone interested in joining in, send me an E-mail.
--
Ian Lynch