Universal Education by Adrian G. Mowrey (Scott Balneaves)

[David Van Assche]

Hi matt

On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 9:36 PM, matt jones <jamesjamiejones at aol.com> wrote:
> hi there -
> i work in a secondary school in the uk and we have a VLE, actually we have
> several. the main problems we have found are;
>
> another login and password (win network, mac network, e-mail, MIS, and a
> VLE) which is not good for staff that often cant use one system let alone 5
> or more. one that integrates across all would be fab but not lickly due to
> tie in's and support.

This is a problem that affects all user-based software, and developers
have been created several Single Sign On solutions. Open ID solves
this quite elegantly and most open source software is going in the
direction of supporting it. The Ubuntu wikis, for example, already
work with it, as does Launchpad. Moodle has the ability to use Open ID
and several other authentication mechanisms such as LDAP and AD
(glorified pay for LDAP)

> integration with other software. A VLE often needs to integrate with a MIS
> so changes in one system update globally.
>
> content - you near enough always have to pay for it. all content will change
> as different sylabusses come in and updates need to be made.. which cost
> money or time - which is money to a school.

right, this is unfortunately the hardest part, even though it should
be the easiest (lots of people are capable of and already have written
desirable content.) We need a standardised unified content format that
is used in ALL schools, so that it can be imported into the program of
choice with whatever plugin is necessary... I am still at a loss as to
why something like this has not happened yet.

> paper pushers in local councils who choose which software schools use. when
> they buy somthing for the bourogh the school have no choise but to use it
> really... the council buy it - it's free for the school... or the school
> buys something else. so again the paper pusher who makes that choice doesn't
> really... there is no 'real' choice.

I agree with this, but the content should not be limited by the
software in use... the content should fit into whatever software by
way of filters...

> moodle is free so thats one point done as to integration with AD/LDAP/lstp
> i'm not so sure. i no for deffo it wouldn't intergrate with 2 major MIS's as
> they wont release the lisencing for that without £££... as to content - a

If its not open source, it has no place in education, a hard view, but
the only one I can accept as a human being that believes knowledge
should be free and available to anyone.

> starting pack is a good idea to show teachers what can be done... so they
> know what they can effectivly achive and see the benifits before they spend
> time or £££ creating content or using content. often teachers like to mix
> and match with pre made and their own content.

Yep, a content repository is what is needed...

> i dunno how relevent this is but by 2010 every student and parent has to
> have a log in and access to their childs assessment, attendence ect... oh
> yeah forgot that... VLE's idealy need to be able to get that data too...
> they also need to have access to the student/staff work from servers
> aswell...

The open systems I know of, Open Admin, ClaSS (based on uk curriculum)
and School Tool can all integrate and share data with Moodle (or plan
to in the near future) Student/Staff work should be stored in Moodle
itself, or Moodle is just not being utilised properly...

> some VLE's around here are fronter, kelidos and spark. all 3 i believe you
> pay for. fronter and kelidos dont integrate too well at the mo, both closed
> source. dont know about spark.

Sad... when we have such amazing software like Moodle, which really is
by all standards one of the best examples of working open source in
education.

Kind Regards,
David Van Assche
www.nubae.com

> matt
>
> David Van Assche wrote:
>>
>> Moodle is a great and necessary application for schools, but it is
>> just a virtual learning environment, not a content repository, which
>> is the other coin of what I believe Adrian is talking about. For
>> schools, this is always an issue, and content is rarely shared, even
>> across Moodle distributions. Unfortunately knowledge isn't free yet,
>> and the attempts at building such content repositories are far from
>> perfect, though here are a few that are worth looking at. It is
>> important to note that what still hasn't happened is a common
>> formatting for all this material. As it stands what you get from one
>> source is entirely different than what one gets from another:
>>
>> www.curriki.org - funded in part by Sun
>> http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm - MIT's open
>> courseware, several other Unis also have this but it is Uni level...
>> http://www.wikiversity.org/
>> http://cnx.org/ - connexions is quite big and a good source of open
>> content
>> http://www.oercommons.org/
>>
>> And here you'll find loads more, mostly failed attempts at the same:
>>
>> http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Open_Source/Open_Content/
>>
>> Moodle has something called the DOOR plugin which is an open
>> repository that can be shared across moodle installations and
>> teachers... they upload and download content to this repo, in Moodle
>> format...
>>
>> Kind Regards,
>> David Van Assche
>> www.nubae.com
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 8:38 AM, Wylesk <wylesk at shtc.org.uk> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> I agree Moodle. There must be a lot there already - but not joined up.
>>> The only issue is making the interface suitable for all age and abilities.
>>> Keith Wyles
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: edubuntu-devel-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com
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>>> edubuntu-devel-request at lists.ubuntu.com
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>>>
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>>>
>>> Today's Topics:
>>>
>>>  1. Universal Education by Adrian G. Mowrey (Adrian G. Mowrey)
>>>  2. Re: Universal Education by Adrian G. Mowrey (Scott Balneaves)
>>>
>>>
>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> Message: 1
>>> Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:29:31 -0400
>>> From: "Adrian G. Mowrey" <adrian.mowrey at gmail.com>
>>> Subject: Universal Education by Adrian G. Mowrey
>>> To: "Edubuntu Development" <edubuntu-devel at lists.ubuntu.com>
>>> Message-ID:
>>>       <815fe1e90810150829j64401c10u2d26463c5c76c395 at mail.gmail.com>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>>>
>>> *Universal Education*
>>> (Ensure that all boys and girls complete a primary schooling)
>>>
>>> In my opinion, for primary schooling to be successful, primary schools
>>> around the world should be freely available to any student. This project
>>> will try its best to solve absolutely any problem that stops hundreds,
>>> thousands, hundred of thousands, or even millions of boys and girls
>>> around
>>> the world to completely finish a primary schooling because of the high
>>> costs. I believe that with the help of an information system (an
>>> application
>>> software or a system software) we can accomplish anything that relates to
>>> this project. To save money on the learning materials, we must create an
>>> International center that creates all of the learning materials
>>> electronically. The formats of the learning materials will be unique and
>>> very vast, and will also be very interactive (text, illustrations, games,
>>> audio-video recordings with examples from the real world of each subject
>>> that relates to primary schooling, etc.). This International center will
>>> be
>>> sponsored by any country throughout the world, and all of the learning
>>> materials will be freely offered to any student. All of the universal
>>> subjects (Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Geography, etc.) will be
>>> translated in every language (Romanian, Spanish, English, Hindi, etc.),
>>> and
>>> then distributed to all of the countries with the appropriate speaking
>>> language. We all know that the technology of every field evolves very
>>> fast,
>>> but until then we try to offer the same learning materials, and then when
>>> the changes occur, we'll just develop an update, instead of building new
>>> learning materials every time.
>>>
>>> To be able to successfully accomplish this goal, I would like to create a
>>> dynamic Web application that will contain all of the learning materials
>>> needed in primary schooling. All of the learning materials will be
>>> translated into the appropriate languages and published under each
>>> country's
>>> category with their spoken language. Most of us don't realize how
>>> important
>>> and useful these first steps of the primary schooling can be to the
>>> future
>>> of our children. This project's goal is about trying its best to make
>>> primary schooling available to any child no matter what country he or she
>>> makes part of. We all know that many of the possibilities are a lot lower
>>> in
>>> some countries than others, but if we have faith in ourselves, I don't
>>> see
>>> why we can't accomplish this. We already have what we need (the
>>> knowledge,
>>> the technology, etc); all that remains is to put the best information
>>> together, spread it throughout the world, and make it happen until the
>>> year
>>> of 2015 or even sooner than that, if possible. In my mind, we must take a
>>> step at a time. We need more things than just an application. We also
>>> need
>>> the hardware through which we can access this particular project. First
>>> of
>>> all, we have to make this project happen no matter what it takes. Second
>>> of
>>> all, we must develop an efficient, portable piece of equipment that will
>>> have the capability to access the Internet, so that our children can have
>>> access to it at any time throughout the day that they wish, wherever they
>>> are located (at home, at school, away from home or school, etc.),
>>> something
>>> like OLPC <http://www.laptop.org/en/laptop/start/index.shtml> (One Laptop
>>> per Child).
>>>
>>> I wrote this for Imagine Cup - Software Design, but since I'm not going
>>> to
>>> participate in the Imagine Cup - Software Design competition, I thought
>>> it's
>>> best to share with a project that relates to Education (Edubuntu). Thank
>>> you
>>> very much, and I hope this will solve the problem. I'm sure that there
>>> are
>>> plenty more things to add to this project, but that's certainly a start,
>>> and
>>> if there are others that have ideas, they can always add to this project
>>> and make it happen. Goodbye for now, and I will talk to you soon.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Sincerely,
>>>
>>> Adrian G. Mowrey
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>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> Message: 2
>>> Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:42:41 -0500
>>> From: Scott Balneaves <sbalneav at legalaid.mb.ca>
>>> Subject: Re: Universal Education by Adrian G. Mowrey
>>> To: edubuntu-devel at lists.ubuntu.com
>>> Message-ID: <20081015184241.GA11798 at legalaid.mb.ca>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>>>
>>> On Wed, Oct 15, 2008 at 11:29:31AM -0400, Adrian G. Mowrey wrote:
>>>
>>> <snip>
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> This project
>>>> will try its best to solve absolutely any problem that stops hundreds,
>>>> thousands, hundred of thousands, or even millions of boys and girls
>>>> around
>>>> the world to completely finish a primary schooling because of the high
>>>> costs.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Yikes!  Tall order :)
>>>
>>> <snip>
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> To save money on the learning materials, we must create an
>>>> International center that creates all of the learning materials
>>>> electronically.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Well, if you want to realize your dream, here's some practical things you
>>> might
>>> want to look at to get you started:
>>>
>>> 1) Help with translations within Ubuntu/Edubuntu.  Not all applications
>>> have
>>> reached 100% translation yet, and doing the translation's fairly easy.
>>>  Just
>>> get yourself a launchpad account, and start submitting strings (I think
>>> the
>>> "translate this application" link is still there for a lot of apps).
>>>
>>> 2) If you're looking to help with content, there's a few things you could
>>> do:
>>>  * The Edubuntu handbook could always use a makeover
>>>  * I don't know much about moodle, but maybe you could provide free
>>> content
>>>   (chem, geo, etc) for Moodle that people could use.
>>>  * Work on cleaning up/editing/translating pages on the wiki.
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> This International center will be
>>>> sponsored by any country throughout the world, and all of the learning
>>>> materials will be freely offered to any student.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I know the U.N. has student programs, maybe contact them.
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> All of the universal
>>>> subjects (Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Geography, etc.) will be
>>>> translated in every language (Romanian, Spanish, English, Hindi, etc.),
>>>> and
>>>> then distributed to all of the countries with the appropriate speaking
>>>> language.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Much of this is already implemented in Lauchpad.
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> To be able to successfully accomplish this goal, I would like to create
>>>> a
>>>> dynamic Web application that will contain all of the learning materials
>>>> needed in primary schooling.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Moodle seems to be what you're looking for here.
>>>
>>> Scott
>>>
>>> --
>>> Scott L. Balneaves | "There are many causes I am prepared to die for,
>>> Systems Department |  but no causes I am prepared to kill for."
>>> Legal Aid Manitoba |    -- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>
>