2011 04-04 (educon2011) emadrid grobles urjc new trends from libre software that may change education

Libre software and education
Experiences from libre software projects
Experiences beyond the libre software world

New Trends from Libre Software
that May Change Education
EDUCON 2011 - Advances in the eMadrid Excellence Network

Gregorio Robles, J. M. Gonz´lez Barahona, J. Fern´ndez
a a

grex@gsyc.urjc.es
GSyC/LibreSoft, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos

Amman, Jordan, April 4th, 2011

a a New Trends from Libre Software that May Change Education


c 2011 Gregorio Robles, Jes´s M. Gonz´lez-Barahona, Jorge Fern´ndez
u a a

Some rights reserved. This presentation is distributed under the
“Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0” license, by Creative Commons, available at
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/



Contribution of Libre Software to *-Learning

Figure: Libre Software has contributed with products.



In this presentation...

We focus on procedural aspects that could be
extrapolated from the libre software world to the
general educational sector.

(think of practices of creation
and dissemination of knowledge)



Libre Software and e-learning

Main reason why developers join (and stay) in libre software
projects is because of learning
Actually, getting involved in a libre software project is a
learning activity!
Based on constructivism
Understanding is applied to learning (remember keynote:
knowledge, wisdom!)
Acquired knowledge is more than hard skills
Programming (and debugging)!
But social, legal, organizational, communication and other soft
skills as well



Goals

To present some learning experiences from libre software
projects.
To present learning experiences based on the philosophy and
practices of libre software projects in educational settings
To have a brief discussion about them



Related experiences

Linux certifications
RedHat, SuSE, LPI...
Many materials
But in the end not very different from getting certified for any
other technology
Seneca’s (Canadian College) agreement with the Mozilla
Foundation
Public materials
... but courses not open to outsiders
It is an adaptation of the traditional curriculum to new ways of
developing




How do libre software projects manage learning of their
participants?
Do they have systematic methods to enhance learning?
Do they have speciﬁc roles to promote learning?
...
Some experiences will be presented in the next slides...



MySQL University

Technical education program aimed at participants in the
development and inner workings of MySQL
Weekly sessions (now, after Oracle bought Sun, unclear)
Sessions are open to the public and recorded including slides
and audio,
Materials available under a free Creative Commons license



GNOME Love

Initiative that aims to help people who want to start
contributing to the GNOME project,
Speciﬁc mailing list, an instant messaging channel
(#gnome-love) on IRC and a web page with documentation
for beginners.
Encourages GNOME developers to mark simple bugs (or
beginners) in the bug tracking system



Learning Ubuntu

Umbrella for various educational initiatives within the Ubuntu
project.
Program of conferences similar to the one by MySQL
University (although just text thru IRC)
Professional team speciﬁcally for organizing these tasks, led by
the Ubuntu Community Manager.



Debian

Well deﬁned process to be admitted as a new Debian
package maintainer is a learning process, while at the same
time a selection process
Part of quality assurance eﬀorts of Debian
maintainers of Debian are the members of the project and
have special rights
Guided by a mentor (a Debian maintainer)
Several steps from the knowledge and acceptance of the
philosophical guidelines of Debian, procedures or packaging
activities




Some organizations have tried to oﬀer (formal and informal)
educational activities that are
community-centered,
open to anybody
and transversal to institutions
Some experiences will be shown in the next slides...



Google Summer of Code

Program of scholarships / internships funded by Google
during the summer months
College students can perform remunerated work oﬀered by
participating organizations
Organizations oﬀer mentors (who also get paid)
According to sources at Google, about 30% of students who
attend the GSoC program remain in the projects



openSE

Open Educational Software Framework For Computer Science
Engineering
Initiative of institutions of higher education, libre software
projects and companies in various countries of Europe and
Africa
Provides educational materials focused on software
engineering as well as resources and support so that students
can carry out their own learning within the community of libre
software
The novelty is that it systematically combines formal and
informal learning in an informal and unrestricted learning
environment.



p2p University

Project carried out by volunteers that organizes courses
outside institutions and gives students recognition for their
achievements
Course organizers are volunteers who propose an idea and
receive help from a group of experts and community members
to create a comprehensive study guide, including material and
social structure for the course
Evaluation design in P2PU focuses on participants to assess
and provide feedback to the work of others.



Summary

Solutions based on the libre software philosophy:
Learning is done in a community
There are sometimes roles, but these are dynamic and often
not assigned
The learning process goes beyond the organization. No
aﬃliation is required
There is a trend towards professionalization of those in charge
of making the community keep on learning
There is usually no accreditation. Recognition is given
by/inside the community



Summary (and II)

What of the previous characteristics can be found in the initiatives
presented?

Figure: Summary of initiatives and characteristics.



Discussion

Will this way of learning be more frequent in
the future?

How will it impact education and institutions
(as we know them)?

...


Conclusions

Libre software has already had high impact on tools and
content
A second wave of inﬂuence could come from procedures and
new organizational models
Community learning, informal learning, ﬂexible mentoring and
learning outside the scope of institutions are some of the
elements that should attract the attention of researchers and
education institutions


2011 04-04 (educon2011) emadrid grobles urjc new trends from libre software that may change education

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2011 04-04 (educon2011) emadrid grobles urjc new trends from libre software that may change education