The document discusses FOSS (free and open source software) education and training. It outlines the definition of FOSS education, pertinent questions about digital literacy and knowledge sharing, and answers regarding basic computer literacy skills and building an open knowledge commons using FOSS tools. Challenges to FOSS education include lack of curriculum resources and conflicting paradigms. Ideas explored are catching students young with open software education, using widely available scientific applications to improve communities, and taking a participatory approach including teachers and communities to increase FOSS education adoption.

1. Northern Cape FOSS Focus Month FOSS (in) Education and Training James Njenga University of the Western Cape 23 August 2011

2. Outline Introduction – about the presenter

3. FOSS Education

4. Open Educational Resources (OERs)

5. Impact of FOSS Education and OERs

6. Ideas worth exploring

7. Pandey, I. P. 2006. Literate lives across the digital divide, Computers and Composition 23:246–257 while the digital/electronic media allow me to beat the limits of time and place, they also implicate me in a new divide of global scale, limiting my practices only to one side of the divide although my literate behaviors on the digital front simultaneously shape and are shaped by those that lie clearly outside its purview

9. FOSS Education (1) Definition Theory and practices about on the concepts of FOSS, how to use and develop FOSS.

10. Transmitting all the knowledge , skills and values we have accumulated about FOSS to the masses. Best teachers plant knowledge seeds that grow forever

11. FOSS education (2) Pertinent Questions: Are we having literacy across divides – in addition to digital literacy (divides)?

12. How can we adopt new literacies and adapt them to our literacies? Are all literacies adaptable ?

13. How do our digital literacies shape and are shaped by our contemporary literacies? What are we doing with/to our indigenous knowledge? ?

14. FOSS Education (3) Answers: Computer literacies using FOSS:- ability to use a computer to perform common tasks. Basics of operating system and office applications

15. Is there a predominant computing platform? Higher skills/literacies – programming Availability of source code

16. FOSS programming languages

17. FOSS development methodology

18. FOSS Education (4) Answers Building a knowledge commons We have accumulated a lot of knowledge, that if we use the open source model to sharing it, we can solve almost all immediate problems that we are faced with. Using FOSS tools in all this (digital literacies, high level computing skills, knowledge commons) Educational packages

19. FOSS Software developement

20. Knowledge repositories

21. Open Sourcing knowledge

22. FOSS Education (5) Computer literacy provides a way of learning new things. But how can it encompass other literacies?

23. Integration computer literacy into the school curriculum good, but would be more beneficial if it is adaptable for other literacies.

24. However, there are contexts we have to deal with: Poverty, poor infrastructure development, and in-adequacy for computing resources including expertise.

25. Why FOSS Education (1) Progressively lowering cost

26. Fostering freedom and openness

27. Improving on the reliability, performance and security

28. Why FOSS Education (2) Building long-term capacty required for development

29. Encouraging local innovations

30. Learning from together/from each other The Ubuntu spirit

31. Challenges Lack of appropriate curriculum Clearly defining curriculum Lack of (teaching) resources Providing appropriate resources

32. OER

33. Collaboration

34. Challenges (2) Conflicting paradigms and literacies/divides Acknowledging diversity, inclusiveness and participatory projects Inadequate (programming) skills Developing algorithmic thinking

35. Improving programiming skills

36. Mentored Internships

37. Open Education Resources Following from the FOSS Concept, these are materials that are freely and publicly available for teaching, learning and research (under an open licence).

39. Potential impacts of FOSS and OER Affordability -> economic advantage

40. Increased openness -> reduced complexity

41. Flexibility -> localisation, customisation

42. Scalability -> adaptability

43. Improved participation -> commons

44. Improved technology -> more developments

45. Educated mass -> learning by doing

46. Ideas worth exploring Catch them when they are young. Although Apple tried it and failed, Microsoft is now doing it in SA. Will it fail?

47. We need to start teaching our kids about open software: Teach them computing skills, not programs

48. Differentiate between training and gaining an education

49. Educate the young mind for complexities and sophistication of the problem-solutions for the future

50. Ideas worth exploring (2) Most widely scientific and security computer applications are open source software. These are applications that we can use to improve the conditions of our populace

51. All we need is the open source approach to issues

52. Ideas worth exploring (3) Walking with the teachers In most rural communities in Africa, teachers are highly regarded either because of the influence they have on the young minds, or because they are seen as anchors to knowledge.

53. Having them in the FOSS education movement will increase the interest in FOSS, FOSS education

54. Ideas worth exploring (4) Walking with the communities. A participatory, all-inclusive approach to FOSS education would get us a long way. Should be driven from the communities needs

55. But also, shaped by what we envisage the future to look like.

56. James Kariuki Njenga

57. Department of Information Systems

58. University of the Western Cape

59. Tel: 021 959 3243

60. Fax: 021 959 3522

61. Email: [email_address] , [email_address]

62. Twitter: @karitz

63. Skype: carice2