Teachers and Edubuntu and more

[Scott Balneaves]

On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 01:05:47PM -0600, David Groos wrote:

> I'm not sure who I'm quoting from the Edubuntu list, but in some heated
> discussion, someone said, "Edubuntu is not software, it's a Community!".

Sounds like one of my or LaserJock's mantras :)

>    1. The first issue is that teachers are mainly present in the community
>    as consumers of resources *in the current communication channels of the
>    community.* in other words, it is rare that programmers 'see' the
>    hundreds, the thousands of students in the classes who benefit from what
>    they have made!

This is, of course, one of the perennial problems of Free Software.  People
want a tool that they can use.  They don't want to become part of a "movement"
or a "community", they just want something that can help them teach.

This is certainly the niche that Commercial Software fills.  Companies have
money to hire people with educational experience on staff to help them design
the programs that they sell.  Teacher gives money, gets product, everything is
cool.

Except for the fact that these days, teachers don't have a lot of money.

Unfortunately (or we'd argue, fortunately) we operate differently.  We don't
need money, as most of us do this for enjoyment, or as part of other goals, or
out of the volunteering spirit.  However, we need the teachers to invest
something too: time.  Time to explain to us what they need, time to test what
we write, time to deploy it in the classroom.

Anything that we can do to convince educators to invest this time is a good
thing.

>    2. Additionally, the professional knowledge of teachers is not shared,
>    not developed in our community. How often do you see in the irc or
>    list-serves questions about how to focus students attention on learning the
>    main functionality of tuxtype, for example?

I think Frog and Owl at http://frogandowl.org/ (Plug for HedgeMage) is trying
to solve this problem.

>    1. a new irc eg "#edubuntu-in-action",

This one I'm not so sure of.  I'm certainly more than happy to try this and
see, but I'd want to be in both #edubuntu and #edubuntu-in-action.  I suspect
most teachers would also like, if they had the opportunity/time, to be in
contact with the edubuntu devs.  Which begs the question: if the people in
#edubuntu want to hear from #edubuntu-in-action, and the people in
#edubuntu-in-action want the help of the people in #edubuntu, why not all just
hang out in the same channel.

However, it doesn't cost anything to start another channel, so I personally
have no objection to having the two.

>    2. a list-serve for teaching in Edubuntu-empowered classrooms where
>    teaching challenges can be addressed,

I think we have this already, don't we?  The "ubuntu-education" list?

>    3. and an already existent community resource where lesson ideas can be
>    created, co-developed, and reused ie http://LeMill.net<http://lemill.net/>

Even better would be to develop some lessons underneath moodle, or the like,
and actually DISTRIBUTE this stuff on the edubuntu dvd.

> I recently saw a comment on #edubuntu: "I love publicly funded [software]
> development!"  I've also seen it said on the list-serves that, when major
> leadership of the Edubuntu community was provided by a financially-based
> enterprise (Canonical), the leadership and participation by volunteers
> atrophied.

No offense to Ollie, but he was really fighting a losing battle.  Impossible to
acheive and unrealistic goals were placed on him, and what we have today is,
quite frankly, largly due to Ollie's herculean efforts.

But even Hercules can't drain the ocean with a bucket, as no empty ocean-sized
hole exists to put the water, and when he "failed" to accomplish the, IMHO,
utterly unattainable goals that had been set for him, he was yanked from the
project.

The participation by volunteers didn't really atrophy, it simply took a while
to get started: we're really still only getting started.  For the longest while
(years, really) K12LTSP was a one-man show: Eric Harrison.  It will take
several years for edubuntu to establish itself as well.

Education isn't "sexy" like writing window managers that make your windows
dissapear in a puff of flame *cough*compiz*cough*. :)

> So, I've really got no idea how public software development
> monies could be positively infused into our community but at least the
> possibility is there.  As a teacher who is not more than 2 years away from
> also becoming an educational researcher, I see much possible synergy between
> researchers and the current Edubuntu community.

I think it would be quite easy, but I think you've got to be realistic about
outcomes.  Small amounts of cash for, say, bounties, or paying someone part
time to develop course content would go a long, long way.

> Should we seek to
> invite educational researchers into our community?  Any proposal such as
> this is fraught with the dangers and benefits of change.  What are the risks
> and what are the benefits as you see them?

Getting more teachers would be awesome.

Scott

-- 
Scott L. Balneaves | I don't have any solution,
Systems Department | but I certainly admire the problem.
Legal Aid Manitoba |     -- Ashleigh Brilliant