Re: [Fsfe-uk] Education Campaign?

[Alex Hudson]

On Tue, 2003-04-01 at 19:20, Marc Eberhard wrote:
> > That's interesting. I shall poke someone I know about this; I know people
> > in the Black Country adult/higher education scene.

Person has been poked.

They didn't know anything about any particular deal between LearnDirect
and libraries in the Black Country (not that they would necessarily
know), but it does fit with the idea of providing learning points. It
might be that they have organised something at that level - apparently,
LearnDirect are organised as a set of hubs, and this could be an
initiative of the west midlands hub.

> > I suppose the 'cheap GNU/Linux LearnDirect terminal' concept might have
> > some mileage though, although perhaps not if it's unable to access
> > all their courseware (they certainly won't update the courseware for us
> > or anyone else).
> 
> OK. We should still try to raise awareness. Maybe they are willing to amend
> their specs at least for future courses (newly developed ones). If we can
> convince them, that they're loosing or at least missing out on potential
> customers, that might help too.

Hmm, I'm not sure they'll find that too much of a convincing argument
I'm afraid. Pressing to ensure accessibility is definitely something
that we should do, though. I'm not sure what spec. they run in the
learning centres, but I seem to remember it varied a little bit. I don't
think they necessarily have a homogeny - for example, getting software
onto PCs in EasyInternet Cafes is notoriously difficult (they have a
worldwide agreement with HP, I think, and have a very reliable W32-based
system in place. To roll out new software requires muchos testing and
certification, etc..), because they all run the same spec. I believe
there isn't that level of standardisation at LD, so the testing isn't
quite as rigorous. 

There might be some synergy with the Netproject SODA stuff here too -
one of the things they are trying to do is tie a smartcard to a desktop,
so that when you put your card into a machine, everything reappears as
you left it. That would be very cool technology to have in a learning
centre. I'm not sure it's of the scale that would interest Netproject,
though, we're probably only talking hundreds of seats absolute max.
Also, I wouldn't be surprised if LD procure at a local level for cost
reasons. But that is purely speculation.

> > The tools are definitely available already, sans perhaps a decent Flash
> > editor/plugin system. University of Leeds are doing interesting work with
> > the "Bodington" (sp) courseware system, IIRC.
> 
> Do you happen to have a collection of URLs at hand?

http://www.bodington.org/index.html was the project I mentioned; there
was an article about it in the press a good while ago - I believe Oxford
Uni had shown some interest in it, or something. It's more about
delivery of learning materials, rather than design of learning materials
though - the actual authorware frameworks themselves are fairly lacking,
unfortunately.

> But serious: Time is the main issue on my side.

Same here  :/

> > I know there are systems like Socrates/Minerva which are aimed at funding
> > European projects (Minerva is particularly distance learning/ICT oriented):
> 
> I believe, there is also something in FP6. Georg could potentially know more
> details. Do you want to look into this?

Hmm, I did look at FP6 a while ago, and I don't remember there being
anything about learning (I thought it was more research oriented), but I
will check - I'm on the FSFE FP6 mailing list.

> > I also know we've discussed the EUCDL briefly at FSFE-level, and there are
> > people in other countries (particularly Italy, IIRC) that would pitch in.
> 
> That might help to attract EU funding, especially within FP6.

Definitely. It might also mean we can broaden the project out a little
bit. I think the first step will be to firm up the idea into an actual
proposal, and start hocking it around to see if anything bites. EUCDL
would be a good first target, because it's close to our current
expertise (i.e., PCs :), I'll try to find out who delivers it
nationally, and who validates it. I think there's an umbrella European
organisation, but there must also be national (and possibly regional)
networks in place to deliver the course.

Cheers,

Alex.

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