SIGOSSEE Project News

Welcome to Newsletter 4

Welcome to the fourth edition of the Special Interest Group on Open Source Software for Education newsletter. The periodic newsletter is intended to provide information and a digest of the activities of the Special Interest Group and of the SIGOSSEE and JOIN projects.

Interest in the project remains high with speakers form the project attending many meetings and conferences throughout Europe. This newsletter provides details of some of the activities we are undertaking or are planning for the future. It also includes notice of the call for papers for our conference in November. Please go to the special conference web site now!

If you have an item you would like to include in the newsletter please send it to the editor, Graham Attwell, - graham @ theknownet.com or add an item on the news page of the web site – www.ossite.org.

Our web sites

Main site

www.ossite.org

Wiki

wiki.ossite.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

Conference

www.openconference.net/index.php?cf=3

Next meeting of the Special Interest Group

The next meeting of the Special Interest Group will be in Aarhus, Denmark on 6 and 7 of June 2005. The meeting is open to all members of the SIG and a warm welcome is extended to all those interested in the use of Open Source Software in education.

To continue reading the rest of the newsletter online, please click the 'continue reading' link below. If you prefer to read a printed pdf document, please use the links at the top of this entry to download or preview the pdf version.

Extended text for this entry:

The first day of the workshop will be devoted to the development of the projects and the SIG groups.

The draft agenda is as follows

9.30

Welcome to the workshop and review of the agenda

9.45

Presentation 1 – Standards and architectures for Open source Software (Knownet) followed by discussion

10.30

Coffee

10.45

Presentation 2 - User requirements and usability issues in the development of OSS (University of Limerick) followed by discussion

11.30

Ongoing work – short reports

1. the product directory
2. Keynotes sheets
3. videos
4. best practices
5. Dissemination

1300

Lunch

14.00

Project conference

14.30

Meetings of working groups

15.15

Planning of Swedish workshop

15.45

Coffee

16.15

Planning future projects

17.15

End of Day 1

The second day of the workshop will focus on major issues in the development of OSS for education and will feature short demonstrations of OSS software. The working language for the workshop will be English.

The preliminary agenda is as follows

9.30

Opening frontiers in learning - open source and pedagogy - Graham

Attwell

10.00

Why are standards important - Dai Griffith

10.30

How is Open Source software developed and managed – Alexandra Toedt

11.00

Coffee

11.20

How to use session – practical demonstrations of open Source applications

1. Blogs – Graham Attwell
2. Wikis – Raymond Elferink
3. Moodle – George Bekiaridis

12.30

Open session. Short demonstrations of applications / learning environments including:

1. SPEAK – Raymond Elferink
2. ELGG – Graham Attwell
3. NewMediaLab Flash platform – Soren Johansen

13.30

Debate - Do VLEs have a future - Graham Attwell versus and Alexandra Toedt

14.30

End of workshop and lunch

Full details of the workshop location, travel and hotel can be found on the sigossee web site – www.ossite.org.

For any queries about the organization of the workshop please contact Soren Johansen - johansen @ newmedialab.dk

Conference Open Source for education in Europe – Research and practice

The conference is jointly sponsored by SIGOSSEE, JOIN and the Open University of the Netherlands.

The conference will be held at the Open University of the Netherlands Educational Technology Expertise Centre, Heerlen, The Netherlands on November 14 - 15, 2005

Introduction

Open Source Software (OSS) is of increasing interest in education. It can provide better quality software, increased pedagogic choice, enhanced flexibility and new business and social models. Furthermore, the idea of Open Source is being extended into other areas including the production of e-learning materials.

This conference is organised by two European sponsored projects, SIGOSSEE and JOIN, which have been investigating the potential of Open Source and providing services for educational institutions wishing to implement Open Source products, together with the Open University of the Netherlands (OUNL) which has a long track record of innovation in e-learning.

The conference focuses on a number of major issues in Open Source in education in Europe including:

• Learning with Open Source
• Open standards for e-learning
• Sustainability strategies – managing open source
• Open content, issues and implications

The conference is open to all interested in Open Source in education including researchers, managers, teacher and trainers, policy makers and developers.

Call for Papers

Abstract Deadline:

July 14, 2005

Paper Deadline:

October 15, 2005

This conference, which uses Open Conference Systems developed by the Public Knowledge Project, enables participants to submit abstracts online at http://www.openconference.net/submit.php?cf=3.

Presentations can include:

• Single papers (abstract max of 150 words)
• Multiple paper sessions (overview max of 500 words)
• Practice Cases (abstract max of 150 words)
• Product Demonstrations (abstract max of 150 words)
• Hands-on Labs (abstract max of 250 words)

Conference Themes

Learning with open source

e-learning requires the development of new pedagogic approaches to teaching and learning. Open source has the potential to provide for pedagogic diversity and choice. Everyday applications such as web logs and wikis are increasingly being used for learning. Developers need to work together with teachers, trainer and learners in dev eloping new applications. This strand will examine different pedagogic approaches and consider their implications for the future of e-Learning.

This strand will include the following issues:

• Personal learning environments
• Social software and learning
• Collaborative development strategies
• Informal learning and its implications for future e-Learning applications

Open Standards for e-learning

Open standards are critical for developing interoperability of systems and architectures for e-learning. Open standards can allow the development of component architectures and allow the exchange of data between different applications. This facilitates the implementation of different pedagogic approaches. It also permits easy upgrading of systems. However even with open standards there remain problems in how the quality of e-learning software is measured and assured.

This strand will include the following issues:

• Developing and adopting open standards and specifications
• Tools and toolkits to support open standards
• Systems and frameworks for quality assurance

Sustainability strategies – managing open source

Sustainability is a major issue in e-learning. Opens source can potentially solve this question, through standards compliance and portability of data and through robust and cheap to implement architectures.

Nevertheless there are significant issues in migrating to open source – not least of which is support and maintenance.

New business models are emerging around Open Source, However there remain issues in how open source software can be supported and maintained.

This strand will include the following issues:

• Maintenance and support for open source software
• Migrating to open source software
• Developing institutional, local and regional strategies for open source
• Professional development for open source
• Models for supporting and maintaining Open source software

Open content – issues and implications

The idea of Open Source Software has been extended to embrace content development. New forms of licenses and the development of repositories are facilitating this development. Standards allows content to be repurposed and repackaged. However there remain many issues – legal, cultural, educational and technical.

This strand will include the following issues:

Legal issues

IPR and licensing

Technical issues

Repositories and peer to peer applications

Social issues

can teachers and trainers collaborate, what are the barriers to sharing

Conference format

Submissions may be made around the following formats.

1. Individual research papers

Individual research papers should be of between 5 and 7 pages in length.

For those papers accepted around 30 minutes will be made available at the conference for presentation and discussion.

Abstracts of 150 words should be submitted through the conference web site by 14 July.

All successful submitters will be informed by 31 July. Full papers should be submitted no later that October 15.

2. Multiple-paper sessions

Multiple-paper sessions are events of three to four presentations of research papers around a particular subject or theme.

Successful symposia will be allocated one hour slots in the programme.

Abstracts of 200 words on the theme of the symposia together with 100 word abstracts for each presentation should be submitted through the conference web site by 14 July.

All successful submitters will be informed by 31 July. Full papers should be submitted no later that October 15.

3. Practice Cases

Practice Cases are short contributions of no more than 3 pages describing a particular development or providing an insight into developing practice.

Around 30 minutes will be made available at the conference for presentation and discussion.

Abstracts of 150 words should be submitted through he conference web site by 14 July.

All successful submitters will be informed by 31 July. Full papers should be submitted no later that October 15.

4. Product Demonstrations

Developers of Open Source Software for Education are invited to demonstrate their product. Applicants will be asked for a short contribution of 2 pages describing their product.

Around 30 minutes will be made available at the conference for presentation and discussion.

Abstracts of 150 words should be submitted through he conference web site by 14 July.

All successful submitters will be informed by 31 July. Full papers should be submitted no later that October 15.

5. Hands-on Labs

Developers of Open Source Software for Education are invited to demonstrate their product in a workshop. Applicants will be asked for a short contribution of 2 pages describing their product.

Around 60 minutes will be made available at the conference for these workshops.

Abstracts of 150 words should be submitted through he conference web site by 14 July.

All successful submitters will be informed by 31 July. Full papers should be submitted no later that October 15.

Conference Fee

The conference fee is Euro 100 with early bird registrations being Euro 80. This price includes tea and coffee, lunches and a reception.

Publications

We are currently working on the production of a series of briefing documents –called Key issues. We have set up a wiki for collaborative writing on these topics http://wiki.ossite.org/index.php?title=Main_Page - The following list shows the range of topics we intend to cover and the authors responsible but feel free to add your own.

What is an LMS

Alexandra Toedt

How do I run microsoft on linux

Dai Griffiths

What are OSS security options

How do I substitute Microsoft Office with OSS (Open Office)?

Dai Griffith

How do I get OSS in my organisation

Dai Griffith

What is Sourceforge and what does it do

Raymond Elferink

What are standards and why are they important

Dai Griffith

How do open source software licences work

Alexandra Toedt

How do I get learning content which operates in OSS environments

Graham Attwell

What are the alternatives to running a Learning Management System

Graham Attwell

What skills and support do I needs to operate OSS for learning

Raymond Elferink

Is OSS really cheaper than proprietary software

Raymond Elferink

Graham Attwell is editing the series and Raycom are responsible for the design.

How you can help?

Go to the site – edit and add to existing publications or add your own. This is designed as an open publication series. Please feel free to add suggestions and to submit texts for publication in the series. The series is presently in English. We urgently need volunteers to translate the briefing series into different languages. For more details please contact Graham Attwell – graham @ theknownet.com. The publications are covered by the Creative Commons Licence.

Next workshop

Advance notice – the next SOGOSSEE workshop and seminar will be in Stockholm on 15-16 September 2005

Invite us

We have been somewhat overwhelmed with invitations to speak at meetings and conferences. But keep inviting us – we will do our very best to get someone to attend. To help cope with demand we have started up a new section on the SIGOSEE web site providing access to our presentations - www.ossite.org/collaborate/Presentations/downloadpresentations/. They are all licensed under Creative Commons – download the files – change them and reuse them and provide us with a copy ofr others to use.