European Schoolnet and the Future Classroom Lab

[Federico Bruni]

Hi

a friend of mine is involved in an european project which promotes the
use of ICT in public schools:

http://fcl.eun.org/living-schools-lab
http://www.europeanschoolnet.org/

This project is coordinated by several Ministries of Education, but it's
also supported by some big ICT players, as you can see here:
http://fcl.eun.org/participate

My friend is concerned about the presence of these companies. It's quite
likely that they are going to use the project to promote their products.
As far as I can see, all these companies produce proprietary software
or hardware.

What can we do to guarantee the presence of Free Software projects and
companies in this project? Is there any European directive which
recommends the use of Free Software in such situations?

I think that FSFE may take a stand and do some "lobbying" about this
project. What do you think?

Thanks,
Federico

[Bastien]

I completely agreee. I was in the FLC for a visit during the media&
learning conference, and I noticed the "windows" effect .. the people
presenting technology was very nice and when we asked (also Edith
Ackermann was there) for a non proprietary learners response systems
they introuced http://www.socrative.com/

Agreed to -- and great to read that Edith is pushing for free ICT!

I conducted an interview of Walter Bender (http://www.sugarlabs.org)
for OLPC France a few years ago, and it captures the main ideas about
why free software is so important to learning:

http://olpc-france.org/wiki/index.php?title=Interview_Walter_Bender_au_SugarCamp

BG: And why free software? Are there any limitations attached to free
software, or just more potential? And what is the crumple zone idea
that you have?

WB: Okay. So, Sugar has to be free. It has to be free software,
software libre. We don't have the right word in English really, for
freedom. And the reason is because Sugar is about learning. And
learning fundamentally is not about receiving ideas, it's about
appropriating the ideas. Putting an idea to use. You can't do that
unless it's free software. And there is another aspect of free
software which is an aspect of culture, that is important to
learning. Free software is not just about sharing, free software is
also about critiquing. It's about engaging in a critical dialogue
about ideas. And that's fundamental to learning. And so without the
culture of free software, the learning is not as rich. So Sugar has to
be free software.

Now I'd like to make an analogy to the automotive industry. The
automotive industry used to make cars which are very rigid. And when
that rigid car would hit a tree, nothing would happen to the car. But
all the energy, the impact, would land on the passengers of the
car. So they would protect the car and not the passengers. But then
they realised that that's actually wrong. People are more important
than cars. And so they made this concept called the crumple zone where
instead of making the car rigid, they made the car flexible so the
energy would be absorbed by the car. The car would fail, not the
people. And we try to make that same analogy with Sugar and I think
it's inherent in free software as well. The idea of a crumple zone,
where we don't make everything locked down or rigid. That's an
impossible goal. There's always going to be problems. But instead of
imposing the problems on the user, on the child, on the learner we
make that be an opportunity for learning.

(Sorry for the long excerpt.)

I think they should focus more on cases of good uses of ICT also
for "low budget needs"

+1!

Best,

[Eleonora Pantò]

I completely agreee. I was in the FLC for a visit during the
media&learning conference, and I noticed the "windows" effect .. the
people presenting technology was very nice and when we asked (also Edith
Ackermann was there) for a non proprietary learners response systems
they introuced http://www.socrative.com/

I think they should focus more on cases of good uses of ICT also for
"low budget needs"

My best regards

Eleonora

Post by Federico Bruni
Hi
a friend of mine is involved in an european project which promotes the
http://fcl.eun.org/living-schools-lab
http://www.europeanschoolnet.org/
This project is coordinated by several Ministries of Education, but
http://fcl.eun.org/participate
My friend is concerned about the presence of these companies. It's
quite likely that they are going to use the project to promote their
products. As far as I can see, all these companies produce
proprietary software or hardware.
What can we do to guarantee the presence of Free Software projects and
companies in this project? Is there any European directive which
recommends the use of Free Software in such situations?
I think that FSFE may take a stand and do some "lobbying" about this
project. What do you think?
Thanks,
Federico
_______________________________________________
European "Free Software in Education" mailing list
https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-eu

--
Interactivity is a property of the technology, while participation is a
property of culture (H. Jenkins)
==========================================
*Eleonora Pant?*
Digital Contents and Media Manager
CSP - Innovazione nelle ICT s.c.a r.l. <http://www.csp.it>
Sede: Via Nizza, 150 - 10126 - Torino - Italy
*Ingresso: Via Alassio, 11/C *
tel. [phone] - cell [phone]
*skype/twitter: epanto <http://www.twitter.com/epanto>*
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[Federico Bruni]

Sorry for pushing and for double posting...
Can anyone point me to an European directive which encourages the use of
Free Software in public institutions?

Thanks in advance

Post by Federico Bruni
Hi
a friend of mine is involved in an european project which promotes the
http://fcl.eun.org/living-schools-lab
http://www.europeanschoolnet.org/
This project is coordinated by several Ministries of Education, but it's
http://fcl.eun.org/participate
My friend is concerned about the presence of these companies. It's quite
likely that they are going to use the project to promote their products.
As far as I can see, all these companies produce proprietary software or
hardware.
What can we do to guarantee the presence of Free Software projects and
companies in this project? Is there any European directive which
recommends the use of Free Software in such situations?
I think that FSFE may take a stand and do some "lobbying" about this
project. What do you think?
Thanks,
Federico

[Thomas Jensch]

Hello,

thanks for picking that up.

Post by Federico Bruni
My friend is concerned about the presence of these companies. It's quite
likely that they are going to use the project to promote their products.
As far as I can see, all these companies produce proprietary software or
hardware.

Indeed, that doesnt look good. It is also written that companies
"have their technology included in the Lab and used to
demonstrate future classroom scenarios"
ieeks. Especially since there is a trend towards smart/whiteboards
(which use Windows as the OS).

Post by Federico Bruni
What can we do to guarantee the presence of Free Software projects and
companies in this project? Is there any European directive which
recommends the use of Free Software in such situations?

I have to check that, but as far as I recall there is no real
recommendation.
One way to get involved is to get in touch with the Ministries in ones
country and get some more information about that network. Usually the
people involved in that FCL get their orders from the national level and
are not just happy Europeans ;)
Questions which might be worth to ask are whether teachers unions, civil
society etci. are involved in the process, what's the role of the
companies involved and the like. (Although some of that is already
written on the website in a fancy code-of-conduct style...)
Another option is to get in contact with Free-Software companies who
work in the education field and point them towards the FCL. They might
be interested in a continuing non-barrier access to the market.

Post by Federico Bruni
I think that FSFE may take a stand and do some "lobbying" about this
project. What do you think?

Of course! Do you like to get involved, too? If so, you could help a lot
by summarizing the programme and the website :) You could answer
questions like
the goal of the programme
the process
the milestones
the funding
the setting (i.e. how the programme is integrated in the .eu
landscape)
the mindset of the stakeholders (i.e. what's their motivation)
the involved parties / participants
That would help others, including me, to contact the right people with
relevant questions.

mfg
Thomas Jensch

[Federico Bruni]

Post by Thomas Jensch

Post by Federico Bruni
What can we do to guarantee the presence of Free Software projects and

Post by Federico Bruni
companies in this project? Is there any European directive which
recommends the use of Free Software in such situations?

I have to check that, but as far as I recall there is no real
recommendation.

ok

Post by Thomas Jensch
One way to get involved is to get in touch with the Ministries in ones
country and get some more information about that network. Usually the
people involved in that FCL get their orders from the national level and
are not just happy Europeans;)
Questions which might be worth to ask are whether teachers unions, civil
society etci. are involved in the process, what's the role of the
companies involved and the like. (Although some of that is already
written on the website in a fancy code-of-conduct style...)
Another option is to get in contact with Free-Software companies who
work in the education field and point them towards the FCL. They might
be interested in a continuing non-barrier access to the market.

Thanks for the hints, I'll suggest them to my friend.

Post by Thomas Jensch

Post by Federico Bruni

Post by Federico Bruni
I think that FSFE may take a stand and do some "lobbying" about this
project. What do you think?

Of course! Do you like to get involved, too? If so, you could help a lot
by summarizing the programme and the website:) You could answer
questions like
the goal of the programme
the process
the milestones
the funding
the setting (i.e. how the programme is integrated in the .eu
landscape)
the mindset of the stakeholders (i.e. what's their motivation)
the involved parties / participants
That would help others, including me, to contact the right people with
relevant questions.

Probably I don't have time for that.
I'll see what I can do during Christmas holidays...

Thanks,
Federico

[Guido Arnold]

Hello,

Post by Thomas Jensch

Post by Federico Bruni
companies in this project? Is there any European directive which
recommends the use of Free Software in such situations?

I have to check that, but as far as I recall there is no real
recommendation.

I had a quick look and also couldn't find anything. There was the news
in December that the
EC postponed its guideline on ICT standardisation and procurement:
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/news/ec-postpones-its-guideline-ict-standardisation-and-procurement

But even if this guidline was in place, it only suggests that "open
source may be considered" as far as I coud see by skimming through it.

Speaking of procurement, there is also the "Guideline on public
procurement of Open
Source Software":
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/studies/OSS-procurement-guideline-public-final-June2010-EUPL-FINAL.pdf

Hope this helps.

Greetings,

Guido