CodeWeek.EU - call for participation

Hello!

Post by Guido Arnold
We would like to encourage everybody to participate in one of the
existing events to make sure that Free Software will not remain
unknown to these kids. As they are already interested in coding, it
would be a shame if they wouldn't learn about Free Software, don't you
think?

My club here in Tampere will participate and the site koodikerho.fi
will heavily promote free and open software.
The club started 2 weeks ago and we have 13 children fron the 3rd
grade (9-year olds), they are progressing nicely and surprisingly the
majority is girls!

--
Otto Kek?l?inen [] otto at fsfe.org
Finnish Team Coordinator [][][] finland at fsfe.org
Free Software Foundation Europe || +358 44 566 2204

Guido Arnold

2014-09-26 16:53:50 UTC

Hello Otto,

My club here in Tampere will participate and the site koodikerho.fi
will heavily promote free and open software.

Great news! :)

Post by Otto KekÃ¤lÃ¤inen
The club started 2 weeks ago and we have 13 children fron the 3rd
grade (9-year olds), they are progressing nicely and surprisingly the
majority is girls!

Wow, that's even better news! As you write "surprisingly", does that
mean you won't tell us the secret how you did that?

Or is the education system and society in Finland just so awesome
that girls aren't subliminally told tech stuff is nothing for them?
I think I've got to visit you one day...

Anyhow, please keep us posted and share your experiences!

Greetings,

Guido
--
Guido Arnold Free Software Foundation Europe
http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido [] Edu team & German team
OpenPGP Key-ID: 0x51628D75 [][][] Get active!
XMPP: guido at jabber.fsfe.org || http://fsfe.org/support/?guido
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Giel van Schijndel

2014-09-27 09:31:06 UTC

Post by Guido Arnold
Hello Otto,

My club here in Tampere will participate and the site koodikerho.fi
will heavily promote free and open software.

Great news! :)

Post by Otto KekÃ¤lÃ¤inen
The club started 2 weeks ago and we have 13 children fron the 3rd
grade (9-year olds), they are progressing nicely and surprisingly the
majority is girls!

Given Otto's surprised I'd say it's more likely they haven't been told
often enough yet that tech stuff isn't for them.

@Otto: and in the interest of that I would suggest not to show your
surprise of how good they are whilst being girls. As a female classmate
in CS once told me that she thought the constant surprise about how good
she was (in spite of being a girl), was amongst the most off-putting
behaviours she got exposed to.
--
Met vriendelijke groet,
With kind regards,
Giel van Schijndel
--
"A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it."
-- Albert Einstein
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Otto Kekäläinen

2014-09-27 19:13:51 UTC

Hello,

Post by Otto KekÃ¤lÃ¤inen
The club started 2 weeks ago and we have 13 children fron the 3rd
grade (9-year olds), they are progressing nicely and surprisingly the
majority is girls!

Wow, that's even better news! As you write "surprisingly", does that
mean you won't tell us the secret how you did that?

The goal was to reach to children young enough that they haven't yet
"learned" the stereotypic role models that boys to tech and girls
don't. It was suprisingly easy to achieve. In the group there is no
trace of a sentiment that tech stuff or coding would be a boy thing.

Post by Guido Arnold
Or is the education system and society in Finland just so awesome
that girls aren't subliminally told tech stuff is nothing for them?
I think I've got to visit you one day...

You're welcome! Ryanair and other cheap airlines fly directly to
Tampere, so it is easy to come here :)

--
Otto Kek?l?inen [] otto at fsfe.org
Finnish Team Coordinator [][][] finland at fsfe.org
Free Software Foundation Europe || +358 44 566 2204

Daniel Pocock

2014-09-28 07:39:33 UTC

Post by Otto KekÃ¤lÃ¤inen
Hello,

Post by Otto KekÃ¤lÃ¤inen
The club started 2 weeks ago and we have 13 children fron the 3rd
grade (9-year olds), they are progressing nicely and surprisingly the
majority is girls!

Wow, that's even better news! As you write "surprisingly", does that
mean you won't tell us the secret how you did that?

Stereotypes aside, are there any recommendations about how to
communicate with children about the benefits of Free Software?

Laura Arjona Reina

2014-09-28 09:19:03 UTC

Post by Daniel Pocock

Post by Otto KekÃ¤lÃ¤inen
Hello,

Post by Otto KekÃ¤lÃ¤inen
The club started 2 weeks ago and we have 13 children fron the 3rd
grade (9-year olds), they are progressing nicely and surprisingly

the

Post by Otto KekÃ¤lÃ¤inen
majority is girls!

Wow, that's even better news! As you write "surprisingly", does that
mean you won't tell us the secret how you did that?

Stereotypes aside, are there any recommendations about how to
communicate with children about the benefits of Free Software?

I have a 5 years old son. Since he began to play games in the mobile/computer, I've said to him that there are programs that only the one that wrote them can change or fix, and other programs, the free software ones, which can be changed, translated or fixed by anybody that knows how to. So I can translate the free software ones to Spanish, for example, and other friends take out ads, or find a solution when the program hangs (children are good stress testers, they learn quickly that devices hang!) But with the ones that are not free, we cannot do it even if we know how, because the writer does not allow us. So if he wants anything he has to go to him or her (not to me) to ask for it.

Regards
Laura Arjona

Post by Daniel Pocock
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--
Enviado desde mi tel?fono con K-9 Mail.
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Guido Arnold

2014-10-01 00:23:05 UTC

Hello Daniel,

Post by Daniel Pocock
Stereotypes aside, are there any recommendations about how to
communicate with children about the benefits of Free Software?

I usually use the recipe analogy to explain Free Software to children
which works pretty well as far as I can tell.

- You are not restricted to make 'eatable' stuff -> e.g. salt dough,
cucumber mask, etc.
- If you have the recipe instead of (just) the end product, you can
learn a lot from it.
- If your guests liked the food, you are free to hand the recipe to
them if you wish.
- If you don't like basil, you can leave it out or substitute it with
something else like parsley.

And after the four freedoms, the analogy can go on:

You don't like to cook? Fine, hand the recipe to your personal chef de
cuisine (usually a parent ;) ).

Do you really want to eat canned food every day?

How do you know what's really in the can?

Sometimes I also point out to them that their parents probably tell
them that they need to learn to share (their candy with others or
whatnot) and that sharing is a good thing. Proprietary software
prohibits this.

And then I point out that with FS they _may_ share, but they don't
have to. At this point I hope they realize that _they_ are in charge:
Proprietary software prohibits sharing; parents demand sharing; FS gives
_them_ the choice -> empowers them.

And speaking of empowering: I made the experience that 'moving parts'
get them really excited. It doesn't have to be robots or drones, a
simple "eject" on the command line may make them freak out already,
especially when they do it per ssh on a remote machine (preferably in
the same room so they can see it).

As soon as they realize that their "commands" can change the physical
world (anywhere), they feel that they can do whatever they want (which
is true in a sense).

I love to see this excitement and am looking forward to more tips on
how to teach FS to children here!

Greetings,

Guido
--
Guido Arnold Free Software Foundation Europe
http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido [] Edu team & German team
OpenPGP Key-ID: 0x51628D75 [][][] Get active!
XMPP: guido at jabber.fsfe.org || http://fsfe.org/support/?guido
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Matthias Kirschner

2014-10-01 04:25:43 UTC

Hi Guido,

Post by Guido Arnold
I usually use the recipe analogy to explain Free Software to children
which works pretty well as far as I can tell.

I also often use this analogy.

[...]

Post by Guido Arnold
- If you don't like basil, you can leave it out or substitute it with
something else like parsley.

At this part if often add ?or if you are allergic against xy?.

Best Regards,
Matthias

PS: What about using this analogy on an education leaflet?

--
Matthias Kirschner - Vice President FSFE
Sch?nhauser Allee 6/7, 10119 Berlin, t +49-30-27595290
Weblog (blogs.fsfe.org/mk) - Contact (fsfe.org/about/kirschner)
Receive monthly Free Software news (fsfe.org/news/newsletter.html)
Your donation enables our work (fsfe.org/donate)

Kim Tucker

2014-10-02 20:50:31 UTC

<aside> For children new to software in a classroom situation learning to
program, one approach is not to (explicitly) and instead set fun
programming projects in an environment in which sharing (code and other
knowledge) is easy. They will share and help each other quite naturally -
internalising most of the benefits as they do. Later, when the topic of
"proprietary software" inevitably arises, you can explain that concept:
e.g. "... [sadly,] some people ... don't share as we do ..." and then
reflect on the benefits of libre software.</aside>

Post by Guido Arnold
Hello Daniel,

Post by Daniel Pocock
Stereotypes aside, are there any recommendations about how to
communicate with children about the benefits of Free Software?

I usually use the recipe analogy to explain Free Software to children
which works pretty well as far as I can tell.
- You are not restricted to make 'eatable' stuff -> e.g. salt dough,
cucumber mask, etc.
- If you have the recipe instead of (just) the end product, you can
learn a lot from it.
- If your guests liked the food, you are free to hand the recipe to
them if you wish.
- If you don't like basil, you can leave it out or substitute it with
something else like parsley.
You don't like to cook? Fine, hand the recipe to your personal chef de
cuisine (usually a parent ;) ).
Do you really want to eat canned food every day?
How do you know what's really in the can?
Sometimes I also point out to them that their parents probably tell
them that they need to learn to share (their candy with others or
whatnot) and that sharing is a good thing. Proprietary software
prohibits this.
And then I point out that with FS they _may_ share, but they don't
Proprietary software prohibits sharing; parents demand sharing; FS gives
_them_ the choice -> empowers them.
And speaking of empowering: I made the experience that 'moving parts'
get them really excited. It doesn't have to be robots or drones, a
simple "eject" on the command line may make them freak out already,
especially when they do it per ssh on a remote machine (preferably in
the same room so they can see it).
As soon as they realize that their "commands" can change the physical
world (anywhere), they feel that they can do whatever they want (which
is true in a sense).
I love to see this excitement and am looking forward to more tips on
how to teach FS to children here!
Greetings,
Guido
--
Guido Arnold Free Software Foundation Europe
http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido [] Edu team & German team
OpenPGP Key-ID: 0x51628D75 [][][] Get active!
XMPP: guido at jabber.fsfe.org || http://fsfe.org/support/?guido
_______________________________________________
Discussion mailing list
Discussion at fsfeurope.org
https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion

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Marko Dimjašević

2014-09-27 21:36:51 UTC

Hi all,

It's nice to hear about FS coding initiatives around Europe!

While I agree it's nice to get some of the codeweek.eu events
free-software-minded, I believe that the coding week wasn't meant to be
ethical in this way in the first place. Starting with the website (they
use proprietary stuff like google maps) that promotes the idea that
anyone and anything is welcome to join (including those promoting
proprietary software and the idea that kids should be
proprietary-software-dependent), trying to make look the event free
software-ish doesn't help much. I agree that whoever attends a free
software event in the coding week will benefit, but overall the week
with proprietary software events (e.g. [1]) will just make free software
look like a yet another legitimate option, thus completely bypassing the
very essence of the free software movement.

I see others might disagree, but things fail when not built on solid
grounds. The coding week doesn't seem to have solid grounds, at least
free-software-wise. The week is there because of competitiveness,
markets, leadership, entrepreneurship, and economy growth [2], and it's
not there to form a society based on the ideals of emancipation and
solidarity.
--
Cheers,
Marko
http://dimjasevic.net/marko

[1] http://events.codeweek.eu/view/130/ypsilon-developers/
[2] http://codeweek.eu/about/

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Matthias Kirschner

2014-09-29 09:03:23 UTC

That sounds very good! If you can afterwards blog about it, that would
be very nice!

Thanks,
Matthias

Andres Muniz Piniella

2014-09-28 07:35:16 UTC

Post by Guido Arnold
I hope you all had a nice Software Freedom Day last weekend! :) And
the next FS related event is already approaching...
From Oct 11 to 17, there will be events throughout Europe where kids
will learn to code [1].
You will notice that Free Software is not endorsed on the codeweek
webpage in any way or form. If Free Software is explained or even
mentioned is up to those who conduct the workshops. The good thing is
that most organizers will be grateful for any helping hand they can
get

Thanks for this! Coderdojo in my area are not aware I think. Sadly they
have an event on the 11th of october about the use of scratch and I am
not around. I have however promised to give them promotional material
fsf (and fsfe!).

--
Enviado dese mi Ubuntu de sobremesa

Bastien

2014-09-27 05:44:41 UTC