Re: teacher certification in ... free culture?

["David Nalley" <david nalley fedoraproject org>]

2008/8/19 Karsten 'quaid' Wade <kwade redhat com>:
> http://blog.nj.com/jerseyblogs/2008/08/going_google_talking_with_goog.html
>
> An interview with a New Jersey teacher who went to Google for a day to
> learn about bringing various modern social web tools in to the
> classroom.  I can imagine how cool it was.
>
> Not being there, I have to presume the focus was on the well-integrated
> tools that Google offers and not, for example, on the open source
> software underneath them.
>
> From a perspective of bringing more open source to educators, what are
> equivalents that Fedora could be doing here?
>
> Oh, and, uh, for less cash outlay.  :)
>

As a follow up on this I talked with a teacher or two. They drug me
down several rabbit trails - but finally I think I grabbed something
useful. You explain F/LOSS in a way that benefits them first - as your
introduction. One of the teachers I talked with pays a monthly or
yearly membership fee to several websites that provide educational
materials. From daily worksheets to what is essentially a datasheet.
So while there is nothing wrong with that - why not offer them
collaborative space somewhere - perhaps a small wiki instance and let
them build their own material collaboratively.

I'll admit I haven't though this out to its logical conclusion - but
once you get them to understand the concept it would appear to be
easier to communicate.