TITLE: Why Foss in Education makes sense AUTHOR: Philip S Tellis % What this talk is not about - Educational tools under linux - Free educational tools - Cost benefits of using foss in schools % What this talk is about - Foss as a means of fostering education - Foss as a means of validating research - The fossification :P of education % The role of computers in education - Computer Education - Other Education - Academic related - Administrative % The role of computers in education - Instruction delivery - Instruction enabling - Administration % Instruction delivery - Throw information at the student until he knows it all - Don't let him go ahead unless he passes all tests - Throw data at the student and let him process it - Let the student derive information % Instruction delivery - Throw information at the student until he knows it all - Don't let him go ahead unless he passes all tests - Throw data at the student and let him process it - Let the student derive information % Instruction delivery - Throw information at the student until he knows it all - Don't let him go ahead unless he passes all tests - Throw data at the student and let him process it - Let the student derive information % Instruction delivery - Throw information at the student until he knows it all - Don't let him go ahead unless he passes all tests - Throw data at the student and let him process it - Let the student derive information % Instruction enabling - The computer as the laboratory - C programming can only be taught on a computer - Playing with Math and Science on the computer %
Do we want the computer to program the child or the child to program the computer?
% Language learning is natural - Natural languages are learnt through living - Learning is inherited from one's surroundings - Create virtual lands where the mother tongue is the topic to be learnt - Mathland, Physicsland, Poetryland % Language learning is natural - Natural languages are learnt through living - Learning is inherited from one's surroundings - Create virtual lands where the mother tongue is the topic to be learnt - Mathland, Physicsland, Poetryland % Language learning is natural - Natural languages are learnt through living - Learning is inherited from one's surroundings - Create virtual lands where the mother tongue is the topic to be learnt - Mathland, Physicsland, Poetryland % Language learning is natural - Natural languages are learnt through living - Learning is inherited from one's surroundings - Create virtual lands where the mother tongue is the topic to be learnt - Mathland, Physicsland, Poetryland % Debugging one's mistakes - Don't punish a child when he makes mistakes - Teach him to debug - Teach him to read other people's problems and debug them too % This is where Foss shines
FOSS is great for learning because the source code is available. Not just for reading, but for modification, and experimentation.
% Use FOSS tools instead of proprietary ones - Should we teach students specific tools or give them the ability to learn any tool? - Should we NOT teach the current popular tools? - Throw responsibility into the hands of students %
Popularity begets Obsolescence
% Academics and FOSS - Academia spreads knowledge by publishing papers, results and findings. - Foss is a solid implementation of these ideas - Foss allows one to build on another's knowledge - Foss allows verifiability - the basis of all scientific publishings % We need to foster this at the school level - Students of higher classes can build tools for lower classes - Students work in a virtual world for the topic they study - Programming expertise is not required, but domain expertise is built - Students learn by collaborating and studying others' implementations % Doing, teaching, collaborating - Learning is fostered by doing, teaching and collaborating - This is why Foss makes sense for education - We have plenty of examples in computer science and bioinformatics - Let's apply this to other fields too %
Education needs to be Free and Open
Education wants to be Free and Open
%
Education needs to be Free and Open
Education wants to be Free and Open
% Contact: - Philip S Tellis
philip.tellis AT gmail.com
http://bluesmoon.blogspot.com/2005/11/why-foss-in-education-makes-sense.html - Uses Eric A Meyer's S5 %