Hi Ken, Thanks Ken for all these questions, I will try to answer below:
Thanks again, it is good to get a sense for the project you are envisioning and an appreciationfor the work that will go into it. So, as you are thinking about this endeavor, what would youhope to be its impact on education in developing countries?
Many developing countries focus on basic education and limit their financial support for higher education because this is not their priority. However, there is a growing demand for higher education in many universities.
E-learning is considered as a less expensive model compared to conventional face-to-face or distance education. The learning management systems (LMS) “ a software designed to provide a range of administrative and pedagogic services related to formal education settings (e.g. enrollment data, access to electronic course materials, faculty/student interaction, assessment) “ appears to be one of the main component of e-learning development in tertiary education worldwide. FOSS Education Solution would provide the sustainable elearning software components for free. But of course this is only one part of the overall HE picture. Please note that the FOSS model is sustainable because it avoids vendor lock-in and the source code is always available even if the company or author(s) disappears.
I know that this is an overly broad question, but I would like to get an idea of how the FOSSEducation Solution will improve education.
FOSS Education Solution will help universities and other tertiary institutions to introduce the use of ICTs and most particularly a sustainable e-learning environment at low cost. It will then be available for wider audiences of students, at different levels, and in different ways. It will support effective teaching and learning in all levels of education, as well as for in-service teacher education
Based on your posting and comments I understand that some of the important qualities include:
-Economic feasibility (affordability)
-Reduced complexity (coherent framework, open standards)
-Increased functionality (coherent framework, open standards, and increased number of tools in stack)
-Increased usefulness through flexibility (customizability, localization)
These strike me also as very important qualities. When achieved, what differences do you seethe FOSS Education Solution having, for example, in higher education in some key UNESCOpriority areas?
Taking into consideration the priority areas defined in UNESCO Draft Programme and Budget for 2008 - 2009, it is expected that FOSS Education Solution would have an impact on:
- Establishing new approaches to knowledge dissemination and utilization, particularly through new models of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) for life-long learning.
- Fostering the use of ICTs in teaching and learning, including the establishment of standards to strengthen ICT competences for teachers and the development of strategies and best practices for integrating free and open sources software and open education resources in learning processes.
- The implementation of WSIS Action Line C7 “E-learning”.
If that's not a big enough question, I am also wondering also if you have a general sense of what afew of the big dependencies are that have to be considered and addressed to realize the potentialimpact of the FOSS Education Solution?
A FOSS Education Solution is dependent from a robust IT infrastructure - Virtual Universities cannot afford to be offline. Institutions must be prepared to spend money to establish a reliable hardware setup, and continue to support the ongoing costs of repairs and updates to equipment.
It is also dependent from the availability of courseware content, i.e. Open Educational Resources. The solution should include flexible courseware design tools that should be easily understood by a fairly nontechnical audience.
University staff should acquire the necessary skills for using the tools provided in FOSS Education Solution.
That is, recognizing that education is embedded in a complex environment, what are some of thechallenges, technological and non-technological, that need to be considered and addressed thatwould enhance the impact of a FOSS Education Solution.
I think that a hands on approach should be used. Very good documentation that includes planning, guidelines and best practices documents should be part of the solution.
The challenges will also be about producing new releases and upgrading existing implementations. Creating a strong community of users and partnership networking would be important to enhance the impact of a FOSS Education Solution.
Best wishes, Jean-Claude
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