On April 29th, Saint Stephen's Armenian Elementary School is opening its doors to the community for a special event focusing on "Free & Open Source Software in K-12 Education." We are inviting teachers, IT personnel, and school administrators from Boston and nearby suburbs to come and see for themselves how FOSS can help them to meet all of their educational computing needs. They will be able to "test drive" Open Office.org and other apps in our 100% Linux computer lab, and to learn from local experts how to introduce FOSS in their own schools.
Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) is a unique approach to software development. A typical FOSS project is a shared enterprise involving unpaid volunteers as well as employees of IBM, Sun, Novell, and other significant players in the commercial sector. FOSS applications are not locked up as trade secrets, jealously guarded by their inventors. Instead, the human-readable "source code" is out in the open where it can be examined and improved upon by other programmers anywhere in the world. This has resulted in frequent releases, improved response to the needs of users, and the development of specific solutions to problems that have not yet caught the attention of the commercial software sector.
The philosophy behind FOSS is one of openness and collaboration. It encourages users to (1) ask lots of questions, (2) to find their own answers to these questions, and (3) to collaborate with others to find new solutions to old problems. FOSS is therefore an excellent match for the kind of learning environment that many of us would like to see in our schools--one that encourages and rewards open inquiry and collaboration.
The agenda for the April 29th event will be as follows:
4:00 Doors open
Guests invited to "test drive" Ubuntu, Open Office,
Tux Paint, Tux Typing, Stellarium, etc.
Local Open Source experts & educators
available for informal discussion
4:30 Introduction - Michael Selva (St Stephen's)
I will introduce invited guests & local experts,
and review our own experiences in
moving from Windows XP to Ubuntu Linux,
OpenOffice.org, and other FOSS applications
4:45 - Keynote address - Warren Luebkeman (RESARA)
5:15 - Question & Answer
5:30 - Guests continue to test drive, speak 1:1 with our keynote
speaker & other experts, and browse the literature table
6:00 - Concluding remarks by M Selva
Our Keynote presenter is Warren Luebkeman of RESARA, an open-source solution provider from Keene, NH. He will be describing his company's experience with implementing FOSS solutions in schools.
St. Stephen's is located in Watertown, 2 blocks from Mount Auburn Street & close to the Cambridge/Watertown line. It is accessible by public transit using #71 MBTA bus running between Harvard Square and Watertown Center. Ample parking is available on the street and in a private parking lot on Nichols Avenue. For a detailed map, please visit http://tinyurl.com/278q42
If you plan to attend, please RSVP via email to ms@ssaes.org, or by telephone at 617-605-7429.
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Note: We held a similar event last October which featured Mark Shuttleworth, the South African space traveller and the founder of the Ubuntu Linux distribution. You can read all about it at
http://baronselva.edublogs.org/2007/...gy-open-house/
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MICHAEL SELVA
Technology Specialist
Saint Stephen's Armenian Elementary School
47 Nichols Avenue, Watertown, MA
phone: 617-605-7429
email: ms@ssaes.org
blog: http://baronselva.edublogs.org/
map: http://tinyurl.com/278q42
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