Recent News About Free Software in Education
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-01-28 00:27:47 UTC
- Modified: 2014-01-28 01:19:17 UTC
Summary: New examples of sharing and freedom (data and programs) benefiting education
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Catherine Dumas is a PhD student in the College of Computing and Information (CCI) at the University at Albany at the State University of New York (SUNY). She teaches two undergraduate courses, one in the Computer Science department and one in the Informatics Department.
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"It is a miracle that curiosity escapes formal education." These words by Albert Einstein reflect a lot about the current state of education. It also captures the need for overhauling the fabric of our school system. Society needs technology solutions that extract the best out of all the stakeholders in education—students, teachers, and parents. And we need enterprises that revolutionize the learning ecosystem. inBloom is one such company that utilizes and integrates massive amounts of data to change the landscape of the education sector.
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Imagine being a high school freshman walking down the halls of your new school on the very first day. You somehow make it to first period without becoming epically lost in the unfamiliar halls. Finally, the bell rings, signaling that you've officially made it through your first high school class. Taking a look at your schedule, you see your next class is Exploring Computer Science. You think: "Wow, computers! This should be fun!"
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Last year was a big year of open source learning for me. I had the pleasure of meeting a bunch of awesome people in the open source field, attending my first OSCon, and being a Community Moderator here on Opensource.com. I learned more than I can say last year, especially in education. Here, I'll share with you some my favorite (and super interesting) open source educational tools for teachers, students, parents, and others to use in 2014.
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The University of Washington (UW) has deployed Kuali Student, a student information system built on Kuali open source platform. The SIS includes modules for student academic planning as well as course and program development.
The institution selected rSmart to lead the implementation of the new SIS. The company develops enterprise-level open source software for colleges and universities.
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I never realized how much I rely on open source and public libraries until I started homeschooling last year. When I started to write for Opensource.com, my son was in school. He's nearly eight years old, but he's already been in both public and private schools and in both special needs and gifted programs. I've thus been on both sides of the educational spectrum. As a librarian, former teacher, and homeschooling mother, I am familiar with what formal schools can offer and what homeschooling and open source resources (programs, tools, etc.) can offer.
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As an educator, you don't expect violence in school or prepare yourself for the inevitability of it. Even violence like suicide is far from your mind. Teachers are not prepared for that. Neither are they trained to handle behaviors that can lead to horrific violence: murder as well as fighting, bullying, sexual assualt and harassment, and alcohol and drug use. Despite the heartbreak of violence among youth in school, there is something educators, teachers and administrators alike can do.
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My first memories of the idea that Americans actually needed education (and weren't born winners) were scenes of armed troops blocking students from school - or escorting them, it wasn't clear. Newsreels of Arkansas (it's pronounced what?) Governor Orval Faubus (seriously?) hit the screens in my little town about the same time as Blackboard Jungle (which I certainly wasn't allowed to see) and Jerry Lewis' Delicate Delinquent, which terrified me: Why would kids fight with knives? Somebody might get hurt. Years later, when I saw James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause and black children being bused across town, my overwhelming feeling was: Why are these people so awful to each other? A good question, we'll come back to it later after we have a look at the scene in Australia.
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Gregg Ferrie, the Director of Information Technology for a school in British Columbia, posted a behind the scenes look at deploying open source at his school on opensource.com. Gregg describes how his school uses Ubuntu on the server and desktops, and that 90% of his school has transitioned to open source. Importantly, Gregg explains how using open source software is fostering a new generation of innovators, ready for the workforce with a real technical education.
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At the school district where I am the director of information technology, over 90% of our information systems have been transitioned to open source software. Ubuntu is the server operating systems at the district office and schools, while the Ubuntu desktop is deployed for students, teachers, and administration through the use of diskless clients.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- New Series: A Deep Dive Into the Severe Corruption of the Open Source Initiative (OSI), Nowadays a Front Group and Lobbyist of Microsoft
- There's a lot to show
- Doing Free Software for a Living in an Era or a Time of Abundance of Code (and Fast Internet to Pass It Around Freely) or Writing When the Web is Attacked by LLM Slop
- Tailoring code to needs is the key
- The UEFI hype and Microsoft's lies
- By Sami Tikkanen
- New Video Clip of Richard Stallman's Latest Visit to and Talks in Italy
- Richard Stallman or RMS giving his latest talk last week
- For the First Time GNU/Linux is Measured at Over 4% in Europe (Not Counting ChromeOS/Chromebooks)
- Europe, on average, is now estimated to have GNU/Linux on 1 in 25 Web-connected laptops/desktops
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- Microsoft Windows Down to 8.5% in South Africa
- South Africa and Egypt are strategic in Africa
- After Fund-raising Campaign the Free Software Foundation Still Raises About $13,000 Per Week (Without Campaigning for New Donors/Members)
- Richard Stallman in the Board is not a liability
- Links 03/03/2025: 'Monetisation' Myth' and Microsoft's LLMs Helping Criminals
- Links for the day
- The New Series About the Open Source Initiative (OSI) and the Microsoft Entryism in OSI is Closely Related to the SLAPP Against Techrights
- Also based on the leading publication that they want removed
- Links 03/03/2025: Mass Layoffs in IBM China, Intel Still in Trouble
- Links for the day
- 3 Out of 4 in Cuba Use Linux to Access the Web
- Maybe change does come about...
- Links 02/03/2025: Day Off, POWER9, Console Challenge
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 02, 2025
- IRC logs for Sunday, March 02, 2025
- Microsoft Windows Falls to All-Time Low in Thailand
- We're seeing many all-time records like these so far in 2025
- Gemini Links 02/03/2025: Snowdrop Flower and Hostile Leaders
- Links for the day
- Links 02/03/2025: Microsoft Outlook Goes Offline, Foreign-Owned Social Control Media Interfering With Fair Elections
- Links for the day
- According to statCounter, Windows Falls Off a Cliff in Maharlika, GNU/Linux Surges to 5%
- But mobile is king
- Windows Used by Only One in Six Asians to Access the Web, According to statCounter
- maybe more governments in Asia should move away from Microsoft
- GNU/Linux Reaches 5% in Brazil, an All-Time High According to statCounter
- There are hundreds of millions of people in that country
- Google Already Dominates the Global South (via Android/Linux)
- If one puts aside Russia and east Europe, not many countries exist that still connect to the Web from Windows more than from Android
- GNU/Linux Widespread in Finland, Sweden, and Norway
- Sweden has many Chromebooks in schools3 nations
- Germany's Incoming Leader Said He'd Seek More Independence from the US, GNU/Linux Soars to 6%
- Last month it was 5%
- Over 2 Years of LLM Hype and Nothing to Show for It
- People still use search, not chatbots
- Apple's iOS Almost Bigger Than Windows Now (Internationally), Windows Falls to 22% According to statCounter
- Without Windows domination, there's not much left going for Microsoft
- Putin's Loyal DOGE
- We hereby crown Arvind Krishna "Putin's DOGE"
- The Media Barely Reported This (Late Friday): IBM Lays Off About 2,000 More Workers, Effective Hours Ago
- Maybe some diversity programs can help IBM recruit slaves or grossly-underpaid staff
- Microsoft Money Being Spent to Bully Techrights Only Legitimises Techrights
- The longer it goes on for, the greater the Streisand Effect
- Suing One's Way Out of Real Trouble Won't Work (It Merely Increases the Trouble)
- "Guns for hire" in London can only issue "legal" threats
- Microsoft Writing Articles About Microsoft, Using Microsoft LLMs
- Right now there are many articles about Microsoft Outlook being down completely
- Gemini Links 02/03/2025: OFFLFIRSOCH 2025 and Programming
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 01, 2025
- IRC logs for Saturday, March 01, 2025
- Another Day and Another LLM Slopfest From Madame Day at the Slopfarm LinuxSecurity.com
- Can't take a break, can she?
- Sucking Up to Fascists (Like IBM's Watson Sucked Up to Adolf Hitler in the 1930s) Did Not Help IBM
- IBM could stick to better principles, but instead it treats the Free software community and even its own staff like trash
- Links 01/03/2025: GB News Loses Over 100 Million Pounds, Zelensky Wins World's Sympathy
- Links for the day
- Getting Serial Sloppers to Knock the Habit of Plagiarism by LLM Slop
- All in all, the fewer the slop objects, the better
- As Prices Soar and Services Shut Down (Even YouTube Starts Demanding Money for the Original or a Tolerable Experience) It's Time to Explore the Real Alternatives
- https://inv.nadeko.net is the most viable instance of Invidious these days
- Gemini Links 01/03/2025: Amends and GNU/Linux
- Links for the day
- Links 01/03/2025: Scam Altman's Latest Excuse, Google Price Hikes
- Links for the day
- Justice Will Find Its Way at the End
- We deserve an award, not SLAPP, for what we've done
- March Already, Rumours of IBM Layoffs in Brazil
- Red Hat might be impacted too
- Links 01/03/2025: Squashing Software Patents, USPTO Facing Additional Cuts
- Links for the day
- Links 01/03/2025: UNM Gopher and Getting One's Pages on gemini://
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, February 28, 2025
- IRC logs for Friday, February 28, 2025