Open Source Opens Learning is the catch-phrase for the Opensource Summit on Education slated for December 1-4 this year in Scottsdale, Arizona

The Open Source Summit ... is designed to explore the concept of "open source" for clearer understanding and to discuss the impact of open source in education.

Individuals who are making decisions about campus applications — including Presidents, Deans, and CIOs — will benefit from the candid discussions about the possibilities that open source provides for the education institution and better learning outcomes.

As a backgrounder for those interested in the meaning of opensource in education Summit organizers offer a free PDF download of their whitepaper titled Why open source makes sense for education

I'd be happier if they planned to demonstrate the impact, perhaps through showcasing stellar deployments of free software in academic cost-consciousness, but I suppose one must start somewhere and after all, it is December and it is warm sunny no-snow Arizona ...

[ Source: Open Source Summit ]

I'd like to print a retraction: To all those kids who attended my Free Software seminar at the MacMaster SHAD Camp where we attempted to create our own personalized custom distribution of Knoppix/GNU, I want to say that I would no longer even attempt to make a SHAD-Branded special Linux in that way. Been there, done it, and life is just too short.

If asked again today, I'd say Go Morphix -- and embarrasingly the clue was sitting there on the Knoppix website all along, at the part where they say when you roll your own, why not pick another Knoppix derivative closer to what you need? and right there in the list, several times hidden behind other brandings like Gnoppix, the link you really need: Morphix.org

Morphix is a Knoppix derivative with a slightly different aim: They seek to be easily customized into whatever you really need, building from a modular base to create a truly custom GNU that's just what you need, whether that's a lightweight ICEWM distro for your old laptop, a new Gnome-base for a Gentoo, or a truly dedicated one application turn-key box based on Linux ... like maybe a kiosk based on Morphix-FireFox.  read more »

From Acadia University’s School of Education, a sober plea for increasing the use of free-software commons within our information technology in education, brought to our attention by way of a paper by Professor Gary Hepburn in the latest FirstMonday:

Schools are hindered by cost and flexibility problems as they try to obtain resources such as software and textbooks. Open source development processes are producing products that can address many of these problems and, as importantly, provide a better alignment with core educational values. Indeed, open source products potentially encourage the development of an educational commons.

Mind you, concepts like any alignments to core educational values are going to fly directly into the face of those Ministry of Education stewarts who have licensed the whole of K-12 edu-unawares from Disney, not to mention how this may also grate with those who'd rather use the classroom for sponsored indoctrinating of our children with copyright disinformation but nonetheless, at least Professor Hepburn is ringing the bell, even if administration is too busy fiddling to notice the alarm.

[ Source: Seeking an educational commons ]