Open-Source in Education - Links and Resources

A weblog on scholarly online publishing, open access, and library related technology

Author Name: Henk Ellermann

Open-Source-Softwareprojekt; ist mit dem Web-Server Apache bekannt geworden.

Das BerliOS-Projekt unterstützt die verschiedenen Beteiligten bei Produktion und Einsatz von Open Source Software. Das Projekt versteht sich als Mediator im Feld Open Source.

Portal zum Thema Open-Source-Software, bietet umfangreiches Informationsangebot vornehmlich in Englisch, teilweise in Deutsch und Spanisch.

Fragen & Antworten zu Open Source Software, Einführungstext in deutscher Sprache.

The aim of this active focus group is to track, evaluate and support the UK FE/HE sector's uptake and implementation of educational content interoperability standards. The SIG focuses primarily on the IMS Content Packaging, Simple Sequencing and Learning Design specifications, plus new IMS content-related developments. In addition the SIG monitors related specifications and standards produced by the following agencies: ADL (particularly the SCORM), IEEE, CEN/ISSS, BSI, ISO, AICC, ARIADNE and Prometeus.

The Educational Content SIG meets approximately every three or four months. Specific aspects of the relevant specifications are reviewed and tasks are actioned to implement and test particular features of the specifications. Where possible the activities of the SIG mirror the development schedule of the specifications.

The EC SIG is committed to a policy of open communication and wide scale dissemination. All the outputs of the SIG's activities, including evaluation reports and implementation guidelines, are made freely and widely available to all interested parties.

CONSEN European Economic Interest Group (EEIG)

CONSEN (EEIG) is a European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG), an alliance of, at the moment, three European companies who have agreed to act in partnership to secure and operate contract throughout Europe.

These three companies more one Associated are all the largest privately owned building support services organizations in their respective countries, and, through the EEIG, are able to operate contracts in all countries in Europe.

The Companies who make up CONSEN (EEIG) are MUFICATA, THINK-WISE and PER-SCITUM, more ALT-FACTOR as associated.

Each company has a similar structure and philosophy, and are able to cover most of Europe, through direct operations or subsidiary companies and interests.

The main objective of the CONSEN (EEIG) is to establish an ongoing and effective dialogue between CONSEN partners focused on the IST Research, Development and Innovation project proposals financed by the European Commission.

CONSEN is a non-profit organization. This reflects CONSEN partner’s commitment to maximize the Socio-Economic benefits of CONSEN activities.

The CONSEN (EEIG)s bridge acts as extension of the company internal organization, fostering cooperation and the transfer of technology and knowledge for pumping systemic innovation and reach the local and sectoral leadership.

CONSEN's mission is pomping innovation from the scintific world to companies, small and micro size specially. CONSEN facilitate them to acquire and put into practice new technologies, cooperate with research institutes to develop systems and application in response to industrial demand of creation of new markets, new business models and new profit centers.

The Key-Concept is to consider CONSEN (EEIG) as an EUROPEAN CLUSTER. The CONSEN cluster built with the clustering methodologies and best practices of our partners. This CONSEN IST Cluster concerns the OPEN SOURCE philosophy, technology, business and innovation, which is, by definition, an open door to the cooperation, to the partnership and so to the clustering.

CONSEN is a registered entity established to enable integration of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Industries and Organizations (SMEIO's) within European Information Society Technologies (IST) projects. CONSEN (EEIG) was formed under the Council Regulation (EEC) No 2137/85 of 25 July 1985 on the European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG). It is currently offering IST-firms and organizations a cooperative European Information environment directly attached to the Community legal order, participating in public contracts and programs COM(97) 434 final, Official Journal C 285, 20.09.1997.

CONSEN (EEIG) is accredited to work in each of the 25 EU states thereby benefiting from the support of regional and national community authorities. By pooling resources, activities and skills CONSEN offers partners a unique opportunity to optimize their experience and benefits.

As a group CONSEN represents a larger entity with collective revenues and complementary attributes. Consequently CONSEN can undertake negotiations with contractors and facilitate European IST projects and tenders. Results can be expected to reflect the benefits of cross national and community synergism. Income derived from CONSEN programs and projects will be apportioned among members for reinvestment in thematic innovation, enhancement of community services and optimizing results of common activities.

CONSEN‘s goals include converting Research, Technological Development and Innovation (RTD+I) actions to marketable products and services for community benefit. Hopefully these will have sustainable results and will promote transferable business opportunities. Such results will depend on the partners IST competencies, sharing resources, participation of committed constituencies throughout Europe and partners individual efforts. This will enable CONSEN to provide maximum socio-economic impact and create benefit for its members.

Although not profit motivated CONSEN activities will elicit added value to the members and their communities from joint research. Strategically by collaboration, integration and networking of the participating partners CONSEN will create a more powerful, cooperative and competitive Europe.

The initial groundwork of establishing CONSEN is completed. The last General Assembly was held during the IST-2004 event in Le Hague (November 2004).

Current activities are now focused on establishing a collaboration framework, engagement of new partners from different countries and formalizing commitments.

Two Specific support Action (SSA) projects promoted by CONSEN EU2FOSS and Accessibility2info were recently presented for the EU-FP6 IST-3 call.

CONSEN (EEIG) is an eligible partner for international activities outside the European sphere of activities. Suitable organizations and companies are welcome to communicate and associate with CONSEN activities.

CONSEN (EEIG) is a international, independent, non-political and non-profit organization opened for all Information Society entrepreneurs, experts, consultants, small organizations and companies who wish to create business and innovation within the IST market by research and technological development activities in a European level.

Portal der Open Source-Initiative des Landes NRW, bietet Informationen und Support zum Thema Open-Source-Software für e-Learning an Hochschulen.

Das Portal enthält Informationen, Tipps und Termine rund um e-learning.

Es ist zwar vorwiegend auf kommerzielle Produkte ausgerichtet, bietet aber wirklich aktuelle Informationen.

"Choosing and Using Open Source Software: A Primer for Nonprofits" describes what open source software is and what impact this type of software may have on the nonprofit sector.

It includes:

* several case-studies of nonprofits of various sizes that are using open source software,

* a process for evaluating whether or not open source is right for an organization,

* and useful resources and information.

Author Name: NOSI Author home page

A Comenius Projekt, that aims to develop learning content with open source software (mainly OpenOffice) with partners from Spain, Poland, Portugal, Slowakia and Germany. Homepage in German only.

Website des Open-Source-Projekts CommSy; entwickelt ein webbasiertes System zur Unterstützung von vernetzter Projektarbeit.

This is a very interesting site discussed during a meeting in Bremen.

Author Name: Graham Attwell

Open-Sorce-Projekt zu Verschlüsselungstechnologie, gefördert vom BMWA und BMI, bietet Softwaresource, Informationsmaterial und Links in deutscher Sprache.

Bietet vielfältiges Informationsmaterial und aktuelle Meldungen zum Thema Open-Source und Linux in deutscher Sprache.

Didactor is an open source E-learning environment, based on the learning objects methodology and it fulfills open and didactic standards. Educators can define and create pieces of knowledge and group them into separate objects. These objects are stored in a database and described with educational metadata. This structure allows educators to share objects and combine them to create lessons or courses. Didactor consists of over 20 didactic components, like e-portfolio, assessment, competence management, group discussion, chat etc

H. Häfele, K. Maier-Häfele, Die Open Source Lernplattform ILIAS, 2003.

H. Häfele, E-Learning Standards aus didaktischer Perspektive, 2002

Das Portal der EU zum Thema e-learning enthält Informationen zu Trends, Produkten und Projekten.

P. Baumgartner, H. Häfele, K. Maier-Häfele, Evaluation von LMS: Empfehlungen für den Schulbereich, 2003

FDIC, the American federal insurer of banks and possibly the most financially conservative institution in the world, has issued an guidance document on the risks of free and open source software. The sound bite is "The use of FOSS by financial institutions does not pose risks that are fundamentally different from those presented by the use of proprietary or self-developed software." This document is likely to be useful in educating those with a financial background (such as university administrators and accountants) about open source.

The First International Conference on Open Source Systems, Genova, July 11 - 15, 2005.

It would be great to see people there talking about and demonstrating education OSS.

M. Lang, Fre-elearning - eLearning-Plattformen mit Open Source Software - eine Übersicht, 2003. (PDF)

Bietet vielfältiges Informationsmaterial und aktuelle Meldungen rund ums Thema Open-Source, teilweise in deutscher Sprache.

The FSF Europe was launched on March 10th 2001 and supports all European aspects of Free Software; especially the GNU Project. We are actively supporting development of Free Software and furthering GNU-based Operating Systems such as GNU/Linux. Also, we provide an assistance centre for politicians, lawyers and journalists in order to secure the legal, political and social future of Free Software.

The FSF Europe was launched on March 10th 2001 and supports all European aspects of Free Software; especially the GNU Project. We are actively supporting development of Free Software and furthering GNU-based Operating Systems such as GNU/Linux. Also, we provide an assistance centre for politicians, lawyers and journalists in order to secure the legal, political and social future of Free Software.

Free Software in education: a guide for its justification and implementation by Xavier Amatriain, University of Pompeu Fabra

Author Name: Xavier Amatriain

The aim of this website is to provide information on activities conducted within European programmes and initiatives with the objective of raising awareness and understanding of free and open source software (F/OSS). Links to European activities related to open source and to some well-known websites on the subject are provided.

Author Name: dirk.van-rooy at cec.eu.int (EC, DG IS, unit D3, Soft.Tech.Distributed Systems) Author home page

Technological and socio-economic changes known as the "New Information Society/Economy" are re-introducing the notion of production, consumption and trade of goods and services without the direct or obvious involvement of money. Such "non-monetary/trans-monetary" economic activity is difficult to measure through usual monetary indicators. This project aims to remedy this situation by identifying and developing indicators of such activity through a case study of OS/FS: Open Source/Free Software.

Website des ILIAS-Projekts, welches die erfolgreiche Open-Source-Lernplattform ILIAS entwickelt. Bietet Softwaresource, Meldungen, Informationsmaterial, Zugang auf Demoinstallation und Forum in Deutsch und Englisch.

Das MMB Institut für Medien- und Kompetenzforschung führt Studien zur Entwicklung der Wissensgesellschaft und insbesondere zum Thema e-learning durch. Veröffentlichungen und Vorträge des Instituts haben eine durchweg hohe Qualität und Relevanz. Sehr empfehlenswert.

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Das ifrOSS präsentiert rechtswissenschaftliche Inhalte zum Thema Open Source Software und angrenzenden Bereichen wie etwa Open Content, Softwarelizenzrecht, Urheberrecht, Patentrecht, Vertragsrecht und Wettbewerbsrecht.

The International Open Source Network (IOSN) is an initiative of the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Asia Pacific Development Information Programme (APDIP) and is supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada.

Bietet umfangreiche Information zu den Themen Free Software, Open Source und Open Content; der Schwerpunkt liegt auf Portierungen von Open-Source-Software auf die Win32-Plattform.

Knowledge base for new technology and education

Das Kompetenzzentrum E-Learning des Landes Niedersachsen bietet vielfältige Informationen zum Thema e-learning. Das Angebot ist vorweigend auf kommerzielle Lösungen orientiert, enthält aber eine lesenswerte Bestandsaufnahme 2004 sowie ein Glossar zu e-learning.

P. Baumgartner, H. Häfele, K. Maier-Häfele, Learning Management Systeme: Ergebnisse einer empirischen Studie – Evaluationsdesign und Auswahlempfehlungen, 2002

The CEN/ISSS Learning Technology Workshop was launched in February 1999. Its main objectives are:

Encouraging participation in global initiatives in order to ensure that diverse European requirements are properly addressed by those global initiatives.

Creating specifications, agreements, guidelines or recommendations where appropriate.

Providing a forum for the development and implementation of requirements-driven Learning Technologies.

Carefully examining and taking into account the various effects on learning and training technology standards which are due to the diversity of cultural backgrounds and languages that exists within Europe.

Publicizing the Learning Technologies Workshop's activities and results to Relevant European projects, Technology developers and end users.

Providing a forum for discussion for European project initiatives.