Despre OS, OER si eLearnTS in interviul din Checkpoint eLearning, cu o zi inainte de Software Freedom Day
09/14/07

Elena-Andreea
Liţă, Permanent Editor, Checkpoint eLearning,
a avut amabilitatea de a-mi adresa cateva intrebari referitoare la utilizarea
sistemelor Open Source, a resurselor educationale deschise in
invatamantul romanesc si la deschiderea mediului eLearnTS de la Timsoft
spre acestea.
Cu o zi inainte de Software Freedom Day, interviul a aparut sub titlul Open
Source in Romanian Education in sectiunea
European Projects -
Interviews din Checkpoint
eLearning, un cunoscut portal european de eLearning.
Timisoara
(RO), September 2007 – (by Elena Lita)
Open Source, a term proposed in 1998, refers to a set of principles and
practices that promote the access to the process of planning and
implementing various products and resources. The term is primarily used
in relation to software. A wider term is FLOSS (or FOSS) - Free Libre
Open Source Software. Carmen Holotescu, an instructor at the Automation
and Computer Science Faculty - Politehnica University of Timisoara, the
coordinator of the eLearning firm Timsoft, and the author of two
eLearning guides speaks about the use of Open Source in Education.
1. Why should OS be used for educational purposes?
Carmen
Holotescu: The main benefits of open
source software as
concluded by UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational
Planning
are adaptable functionality, lower overall costs, vendor independence
(increases choice, competition and transparency), adherence to open
standards, the software’s position as a public good,
interoperability,
and security.
The recommendations of the EU for educational policies are to avoid
lifelong vendor lock-in in educational systems by teaching students
skills rather than specific applications and by encouraging
participation in FLOSS-like communities. This adds value to the skills
learnt by students, such as a positive attitude towards information
technology that favours the ability to create and actively participate
and collaborate rather than just consume.
In Romania, the interest and the use of open source software by
teachers, pupils, and students is very important, but most initiatives
are personal. Many Linux and LAMP users are active in user groups,
building online communities with online support and discussions forums,
but also with periodic face-to-face meetings. Romanian Linux
distributions were developed by teams formed by young students.
A lot of workshops and conferences in which actors from educational
system participate take place, such as Linux and Virtual Learning
Environments at University Vasile
Goldis Arad (, which has convened five times editions),
Linux Open Alternative Days - LOAD , or
the International Conference eLiberatica organized by
Romanian Open Source Initiative.
2. Is OER a viable alternative at this moment?
Carmen
Holotescu: Open source software is
based on and uses
open formats, and for this, it is used to create Open Educational
Resources (OER). In Europe and worldwide, there many projects have been
developed that deal with OER that are the subject of numerous debates,
studies, policies, and educational priorities. The term Open
Educational Resources was adopted at the UNESCO Forum in 2002,
following the analysis of the impact that the Open Courseware projects
have had on higher education.
The Open Educational Resources include materials (content) for teaching
and learning: open courseware and open content projects, free courses,
learning objects directories, and educational journals. The OER are
generally characterised by the following attributes:
- the access to open materials - open content - is
free
for educational institutions and individual users;
- the content is licensed so that it may be reused
or
modified during
educational activities; to this end, the content observes open
standards and formats;
- educational applications are open-source - the
source
is available,
and it can be modified or adapted, or interfaces are made available -
APIs - that enable the creation of new applications.
Information
technologies make it possible for educators to access and
exchange online resources. Until a few years ago, most of the materials
created were protected, the authentification of the users’
identities
being needed. Nowadays, most of the resources are created and posted
freely on the Web using the collaborative systems available via Web
2.0. Just like the FLOSS enables the users to reuse or modify the
software, the OER allow users to adapt the materials and systems to
self-instructional and other learning environments.
But ultimately, the OER imply a fundamental change in the educational
process, favouring the focus on the student.
3. Is there any connection between eLearnTS and the OS
movement?
Carmen
Holotescu: The eLearnTS is an online
environment
developed by Timsoft that can be configured for online courses, for
training in companies, for online communities, or as a collaborative
platform for distributed teams. In our company, we use it to deliver
IT, management, training the eTrainers, online courses for
universities, firms, or for individual learners, and as collaborative
platforms for our European projects.
No matter what the subject of a course is, the learning community
formed by the participants and the facilitator builds a pool of useful
resources for future reflections, too: RSS feeds; blogs of the
facilitator, participants, and other practitioners; wikis with topics
related to the course; collections using collaborative bookmarking
systems; and localization of other open resources.
The platform is based on open technologies - LAMP (Linux, Apache,
MySQL, PHP), and collaborative exercises realized by the participants
frequently use Web 2.0 tools. We consider that each online course, each
new learning experience in which somebody takes part, should be
integrated into the continuous learning process in which the person is
involved.
Posted by Carmen at 06:45:40 pm into the following categories:
Proiecte la Timsoft,
Open Source / Content,
Notes in English
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