This is the United States and if there is one thing that Americans hold near and dear to their heart it is their rights and the freedom to exercise those rights. Early on our hands were really tied when it came to software and how much of it we could change and share. As teachers when you find a great program you want to share it with other teachers. Sometimes just to show off :) and other times to demonstrate how they could use it too, but unless the program or software is some kind of free software you don’t have the ability to truly share it. This kind of sharing between teachers is what makes free software so wonderful for a school setting.
I think Moodle and Sakai would be great tools especially if the teacher's Alma Matter offered them. Teachers should always be willing to learn and try new things but we can get stuck in a rut if we aren’t exposed to new tools. If colleges are sharing their BlackBoard or WebCT pages with the general public we could check the discussion board or course documents of classes that we really enjoyed and took a lot from. As an example, in three years we could access Dave’s postings and get a glimpse of the latest and greatest things that are being shared with future teachers as potential classroom tools.
Creative Commons is another great tool for teachers to utilize, but the site itself also has potential to be a great teaching tool. Using Creative Commons provides a great opportunity to talk with students about copyright and explain when some things can be reused or changed and when some things can't. In this "we want it free" world its easy to forget the value of a dollar and to have a sense of entitlement to everything. Creative Commons can serve as the conversation starter for quick, but much needed copyright or patten lesson.
Since this chapter talked a lot about the pioneer of free software, Richard Stallman, I decided to look online to see what else was out there, and I was a bit surprised! Below is just a fun video of him singing a free software tune (he starts speaking in Spanish but the song is in English.)
There are also a couple of taped speeches and lectures. He’s a bit eccentric but he’s very interesting. I don’t recommend watching “Richard Stallman eats something off his foot,” it might just change the way you perceive the free software genius!
Warning... He sounds like an ill cat.
ReplyDeleteVery enlightening as usual. You have to get attention somehow ;).
ReplyDeleteTricia
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ReplyDeleteWhitney, Great job summarizing the chapter. I agree with you that free sharing is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteFor example- these blogs, are an excellent way for us to take our classroom conversations to the global level instead of being bound by the walls of Blackboard. Now, whether or not anyone but our class have actually read these remains to be seen, but, we all know in the back of our heads the possibility is certainly there. To most people looking at the options, if offered a free, global avenue, such as blogging, Moodle or Sakai compared to paying for Blackboard, it certainly, at least on paper, seems like a no-brainer!
~Jeff
Stallman is a real character. As one of the early proponents of the "information wants to be free" movement in the 70s, he was the antithesis of Bill Gates and Microsoft's model of paying for software. While the basic model of software has moved along to a pay-for-it system, the voices of Stallman and others keep open source software in the public consciousness and maintain it's availability for those of us who have need of free software, but don't have the resources to budget for Corporately-priced software applications.
ReplyDeleteMoodle is pretty good, not perfect though. I've been using it for 3 years now as my class page(s) and it does the job. Other teachers do more with it than I do (i.e. on-line quizzes, wiki's, blogs). I've chosen to use wikispaces and blogger instead of Moodle for those app's, however there have been some upgrades to Moodle recently and I'd like to use it for blogs and wiki's if it compares to the other programs.
ReplyDeleteOpen source is the way to go and the way of the future. It would be great if Microsoft jumped on board.
Matt,
ReplyDeleteI'll bet a lot has changed with Moodle over the past 3 years. As you know, the software is constantly being updated, so It may be worth another look to utilize the more advanced features.
Susan