SIGOSSEE Project News

The SIGOSSEE seminar in Sweden last week was brilliant.

Entitled Content for education in Europe: processes, platforms and standards, the seminar was organised by Peter Becker form the Interactive Institute and held at the impressive water side headquarters of the Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting (Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions who sponsored the event.

The aim of the meeting was to discuss open content, platforms and standards for Education in order to formulate a set of focus points for a continued national and European development work.

Technorati Tags: Open content, Open source

The symposium is based on the work in progress of three European research projects – all examining the use of open source software and open contents in education and training.OSS software is differentiated from conventional proprietary software in that:

• the source code is available to the end-user. Normally only the executable application and its required components are available;

• the source code can be modified by the end-user. In effect, and given the required skills, the end-user can tailor the software to their needs and circumstances;

• the licensing conditions are intended to facilitate continued re-use and wide availability of the software, in both commercial and non-commercial contexts;

• the cost of acquisition to the end-user is often minimal, and always considerably less than would be the case for equivalent proprietary systems. This is especially true where bespoke versions of an application or system are required.

OSS has particular relevance to the education and training sectors for a number of reasons:

• Often specific versions of educational software will be required to reflect particular course content or pedagogical approaches.

• A loose ‘community’ of educational institutes already exists which supports the exchange of ideas and concepts. Thus, the basis of an OSS community is already in place.

• In many cases, larger institutes already have the human resources capacity in-house (through their departments of informatics or computer science) to perform the necessary software modifications, testing and deployment.

• Educational institutes are under increasing pressure to find the lowest-cost solutions for effective course provision.

• Learners can be involved in improving OSS software making it possible to take an approach which sees education as the process of supporting learners in joining a community of practice.

• More generally, the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) in education provision is being recognised and explored.

However, despite much interest form the educational software community and from individual education institutes and providers, there is a lack of clear and unbiased advice and information over the advantages and disadvantages of OSS and how appropriate the adoption of OSS is for education and training and of policy advice and direction on the subject. The three projects – JOIN, SIGOSSEE and LeFo have formed a European Special Interest Group to investigate the major issues appertaining to the use of OSS for education and to provide an objective appraisal of the relevance and benefits of OSS. The projects bring together partners from 15 European countries whilst the Special Interest Group (SIG) has members from many countries with significant interest being shown from eastern Europe and the developing countries.

The SIG has developed a portal web site and is holding Open Days and seminars throughout Europe.; It is also developing a directory of Open Source software for education and training.

However the symposium will focus more closely on the research work which the projects are undertaking.

This includes investigating the context of OSS, especially in relation to open standards for software and data and examining major issues appertaining to the use of Open Source Software for education in Europe, in particular:

a) Standards and architectures for OSS

b) User requirements and usability issues in the development of OSS

c) Social, cultural and legal issues in OSS

d) Organization and management issues, sustainability and support infrastructural needs for OSS

e) Open content for education and training

Three of the presenters work for software companies actively involved in the development of OSS for education and training, the fourth is involved in research on the subject for a university.

Paper 1

What is the significance of Open Source Software for the education and training community?

Author: Graham Attwell, Knownet

OSS software is differentiated from conventional proprietary software in that:

• the source code is available to the end-user. Normally only the executable application and its required components are available;

• the source code can be modified by the end-user. In effect, and given the required skills, the end-user can tailor the software to their needs and circumstances;

• the licensing conditions are intended to facilitate continued re-use and wide availability of the software, in both commercial and non-commercial contexts;

• the cost of acquisition to the end-user is often minimal, and always considerably less than would be the case for equivalent proprietary systems. This is especially true where bespoke versions of an application or system are required.

OSS has particular relevance to the education and training sectors for a number of reasons:

• Often specific versions of educational software will be required to reflect particular course content or pedagogical approaches.

• A loose ‘community’ of educational institutes already exists which supports the exchange of ideas and concepts. Thus, the basis of an OSS community is already in place.

• In many cases, larger institutes already have the human resources capacity in-house (through their departments of informatics or computer science) to perform the necessary software modifications, testing and deployment.

• Educational institutes are under increasing pressure to find the lowest-cost solutions for effective course provision.

• Learners can be involved in improving OSS software making it possible to take an approach which sees education as the process of supporting learners in joining a community of practice.

• More generally, the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) in education provision is being recognised and explored.

However, despite much interest form the educational software community and from individual education institutes and providers, there is a lack of clear and unbiased advice and information over the advantages and disadvantages of OSS and how appropriate the adoption of OSS is for education and training and of policy advice and direction on the subject.

In this paper Graham Attwell will provide an introduction to the issues involved in the development of OSS and consider their overall implication for the education and training community.

Paper 2

Open Content: a new model for curriculum and content development in education and training?

Author: Mikhel Pilv, MIKSIKE

Education around the globe is undergoing dramatic changes - from "schoolhouse based" models to various forms of "network based" education. This paper illustrates how these changes affect educational publishing and support, particularly in public education, and provides evidence that the vision presented is not just a theory, but is currently underway.

Miksike LearningFolders has worked in Estonia with "open source" educational publishing and online support for regular schools since 1994. Miksike gives away more than 25 000 worksheets in HTML eWorksheets and offers a variety of collaborative learning services to facilitate learners in constructing their knowledge. During the January of 2004 Miksike servers in Estonian got 100 000 page views per schooldays.

The "Open source" educational publishing concept is developed further in transEuropean environment through a LearningFolders (LeFo) project supported by Socrates/Minerva.

The paper will examine the issues involved in the change to network based education and will consider the potentials and barriers to open content development.

Paper 3

Assessing the quality of Open Source Software – issues and analysis.

Author: Alexandra Toedt, University of Koeln

The European JOIN Project provide consultancy and support for organizations / institutions that want to employ open source Learning Management Systems. This includes topics ranging from the choice of a platform to didactics and organisational issues.

Employing open source software for e-learning saves expenses for any organisation intending to provide e-learning. On the other hand, employing open source software poses a risk since it is difficult to measure the quality and the future availability

of OS-LMS.

JOIN is developing a product / market overview of OS-LMS in Europe on www.ossite.org to analyse and assess the quality and sustainability of the products in terms of standard

conformity, support quality and the like. The paper will provide an overview of the first eight months of the work and will advance recommendations for universities, vocational schools, public administration and SMEs involved in education and training.

Paper 4 - Organisation and Management Issues, Sustainability and

Support and Infrastructural needs for OSS.

Author: Raymond Elfink, Raycom

Open Source Software (OSS) and Open Content (OC) bring with it a whole new range of organisational and management issues for both users and software developers.

To provide sustainability and support the developers of Open Source Software need new ways of managing their development cycle, including direct communication with their developer and education and training user community.

Educational organisations planning on deploying Open Source Software need assurance that the software will be maintained and supported long enough to earn back investments and to guarantee data integrity.

This means that these organisations will need to play an active part in the development cycle of the actual Software product by contributing to the discussion around the product, with other users and developers.

Software developers need to provide their developer and user community with a platform through which direct interaction between users and developers is possible.

In the creation of Open Source Software, the role of the software development company tends to be to facilitate a development platform and to work with education and training providers to steer the open development of the software, rather than being solely responsible for the whole product.

Special Interest Group in Open Source Software for Education in Europe

SIGOSSEE

Call for tender for evaluation

About the project

The Special Interest Group in Open Source Software for Education in Europe (SIGOSSEE) project, supported by the EU e-Learning action Plan has been established to investigate, inform and advise the education community on the uses and benefits of open source software and content.

Open Source is of growing interest to the education and training sectors for a number of reasons:

• Often specific versions of educational software will be required to reflect particular course content or pedagogical approaches.

• A loose ‘community’ of educational institutes already exists which supports the exchange of ideas and concepts. Thus, the basis of an OSS community is already in place.

• In many cases, larger institutes already have the human resources capacity in-house to perform the necessary software and content modifications, testing and deployment.

• Educational institutes are under increasing pressure to find the lowest-cost solutions for effective learning provision.

• Learners can be involved in improving OSS software and content making it possible to take an approach which sees education as the process of supporting learners in joining a community of practice.

• More generally, the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) in education provision is being recognised and explored.

However, there is a lack of clear and unbiased advice and information over the advantages and disadvantages of OSS and how appropriate the adoption of OSS is for education.

The SIG group is supported by the European Commission sponsored SIGOSEE and JOIN! Projects.

Activities and Services

The activities and services for the SIG include;

• The organisation of regional ‘open door’ days providing advice and guidance on open source

• Undertaking research into key issues impacting on the development and Implementation of Open Source in education

• The organisation of national and regional seminars

• The development of a catalogue of Open Source developments and software for education

• The development of a catalogue of examples of good practice

• The sharing of news and information about Open Source for education

• The management of a web space for discourse and exchange on Open Source and its uses in education.

Who is SIGOSE for?

The SIG is for anyone interested in the use of Open Source software and contents in education. Whilst the SIG is supported by two European projects it is open to members from any part of the world.

What can members do?

• Attend the Open Days, seminars and project meetings and conferences

• Contribute to on-line discussions

• Access news and information

• Join in the research activities

• Contribute to the Resource catalogues

• Build SIG OSE

What are our hopes?

We intend that The SIG becomes an sustainable organising centre for Open Source in education. Ultimately that depends on its members – in contributing and supporting activities and helping to shape the future direction and activities.

Tender

The call for tender is for evaluation of the project.

Specification

1. Formative evaluation

Whilst the evaluator will be expected to produce an interim and final evaluation report, the primary focus is on formative evaluation. The evaluation is intended to assist and steer the project coordinator and project partners in developing the project, to alert to any possible emergent problems and to advise on possible opportunities for developing the aims and work of the project.

2. Focus for the evaluation

One of the first tasks for the evaluator will be to develop and agree an evaluation plan. The following aspects should be taken into account in the plan:

• Effectiveness of the project partnership

• Development of the SIG group

• Communication processes within the project and within the SIG

• Further development and sustainability of project ideas and ambitions

• Effectiveness of project cooperation with other interested projects and organisations in Open Source Software for education

3. Project workshops

There will be regular project workshops during the lifespan of the project. The evaluator will be expected to attend at least three of these workshops. It would be an advantage if the evaluator were able to attend parts of other workshops through video conferencing.

3. Web site

The primary organising centre for the project is the web site – www.ossite.org. The evaluator will be expected to communicate through the site and to contribute to the site.

4. Period for the contract

The contract will be from June 1, 2004 to December 31 2005.

5. Time scales

The following time line is indicative:

a) Contract awarded – May 31 2004

b) Development of evaluation plan – June 30 2004

c) Interim evaluation report – December 15, 2004

d) Final evaluation report – December 15, 2005.

6. Funding

The indicative fee for this work is €14,000

7. Applications

Applications should be made in writing or by email to:

Mike Malloch, Knownet, 6 Menai View Terrace, Bangor LL572HF – email mike@theknownet.com

Applications should include:

1. Approach to the work

2. Previous relevant experience

3. Organisational description

4. CV of relevant staff

5. Equal Opportunties policy for organisation

6. Proposed budget

7. Deadline

Tenders should be submitted no later than 24 May 2004.

Changing modes of organization, technology and learning: open source software and content in education and training

Paper 1

What is the significance of Open Source Software for the education and training community?

Author: Graham Attwell, Knownet

In this paper Graham Attwell will provide an introduction to the issues involved in the development of OSS and consider their overall implication for the education and training community.

Paper 2

Open Content: a new model for curriculum and content development in education and training?

Author: Mikhel Pilv, MIKSIKE

The paper will examine the issues involved in the change to network based education and will consider the potentials and barriers to open content development.

Paper 3

Assessing the quality of Open Source Software – issues and analysis.

Author: Alexandra Toedt, University of Koeln

The paper will provide an overview of the first eight months of the work and will advance recommendations for universities, vocational schools, public administration and SMEs involved in education and training.

Paper 4 - Organisation and Management Issues, Sustainability and

Support and Infrastructural needs for OSS.

Author: Raymond Elfink, Raycom

In the creation of Open Source Software, the role of the software development company tends to be to facilitate a development platform and to work with education and training providers to steer the open development of the software, rather than being solely responsible for the whole product. This paper will look at the implications of changing forms of organisation.

Whilst this may not have caused much local attention, it did get picked

up by a number of the German language on-line news services. The result

has been a flood of enquiries from the German speaking world, both from

individuals wanting to join the Open Source Special Interest Group

(SIG) and from newspapers and other media representatives wanting

themselves to run features on education Open Source Software. Joachim

Dittrich, who leads the project for Bremen, has been kept busy over the

last month, responding to requests for interviews.

This does suggest that there is phenomenal interest in Open Source and

also a shortage of information.  It also shows the potential for

the SIGOSSEE and the associated JOIN project. However, it also shows

that the projects will have to stay clearly focused, given the present

limitations on resources.

A (loose) English language translation of the press release is provided below for other who may wish to adapt it for local use.

Open Source goes Education

Open Source Software poses growing competition for the big software

companies. Linux, for example, is taking a big market share from

Microsoft in server applications and is even overtaking them in public

administration, at least in Germany. There are similar

developments  in other areas with the growth of the information

society including the use open source for e-learning for the education

and training market.

At the Institute Technology and Education at the University of Bremen, Germany, experts

in information technology and education and training, practitioners and

scientist from nine European countries met in order to discuss the pros

and cons of software with freely available source code for education

and training applications.

At the start-up workshop of the EU-financed project "Special Interest

Group on Open Source Software in Education in Europe“ (SIGOSSEE), first

steps were taken to build an Special Interest Group (SIG) to

investigate and support the use of open source software in education.

The SIG group is open to anyone interested throughout the world.

Members of three other associated projects from Germany, Estonia and

Austria also attended the meeting.

The projects aims to provide impartial and comprehensive information on

open source software for education, and is looking at key issues

including standards and software architectures, user needs and

usability, social, cultural and legal issues and organisation and

sustainability.

To join the SIG and participate in discussions go to www.ossite.org .  The findings will be published on the web site.

.Areas for joint work discussed included:

- RSS feeds of content between web sites

- sharing of taxonomies for the respective project software catalogues,

- the possibility of OSS Watch joining in on one of your tri-monthly meetings in either Ireland or Spain.

- the possibility of OSS Watch participating in the next JOIN conference in Köln.

- an invitation for SIGOSEE to participate in the next OSS Watch event directly related to educational open source software.

The first dates to be announced are for the events in Cologne. These will be on:

Friday 30th April 2004

Friday 28th May 2004

Friday 25th June 2004

Friday 30th July 2004

Friday 27th August 2004

Friday 24th September 2004

Friday 29th October 2004

The Open Door Days will be held at Room no. 10, Gottfried-Keller-str. 6, 50931 Cologne.

For more details contact Alexandra Toedt on alexandra.toedt@uni-koeln.de

Please download the file draft_agenda_doc

Please download the file bremen_workshop_pack.doc.