On 4/12/06, Steve Hargadon <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On 4/11/06, Tom Hoffman <tom.hoffman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > Unfortunately, we have no education specific books to sell (am I > > forgetting something?) > > ISTE.org, the organization behind NECC, has asked me to put together a > book on Open Source in Education, for which I've been soliciting help > from the lists over the last few weeks. I think it's a unique > opportunity to determine what we want to say, and what people want to > hear. Oh yeah! Steve is clearly the furthest along in building his barnstorming evangelist resume ;-) > > Perhaps a more plausible plan is wooing some of the people who already > > have the keynote/pundit gigs locked in. David Thornburg is actually > > doing pretty much straight-up Linux advocacy in his talks now. Does > > anyone know him personally? > > I've been corresponding with him, and he has submitted a presentation > for our Open Source lab at NECC which I think we'll likely accept. Ah, you are on the ball, Steve. This is a big deal imho, it will the free software center a big boost in legitimacy, at least in some people's eyes. Thornburg has been around forever. > Some additional thoughts: > > 1. Mark Shuttleworth's sponsorship of labs in South Africa, I think, > has made a huge difference for interest in and acceptance of Open > Source in schools there. That would sure help here, and there is > plenty of need (think Gulf Coast). Foundation support is key. We're getting closer, consciousness is a lot higher now. One problem is that Foundation people and Corporate people will, by default, talk to each other (Mark Shuttleworth is a big exception here, too). We need to figure out how to get the Foundation people talking to the grassroots (one reason for a summit). I think they'll be amenable to it, but they don't know how to start the conversation. > 2. At the Ed Tech shows that I've coordinated Open Source labs for > (NECC and CUE), the huge draws have been Moodle, blogging, and > podcasting. That seems to be the door that is open right now. > 3. Just replacing proprietary software solutions is a limited vision > that is unexciting to most educators. Collaborative learning and -- I > think -- students participating in Open Source projects will likely be > the key to broader interest. If we are just replacing what works, > even if we are saving money, that's not a message that gets a lot of > attention. But when Open Source does something that can't be done > otherwise, then you'll see some excitement. In the long run, I think the big paradigm shift will be triggered by the need for low-cost 1-to-1 initiatives. That's 3 to 5 years out though, and there isn't much to be done by us in the meantime to speed that particular process except cheer on OLPC. --Tom
