Free Software Universities
More and more students are considering whether a university teaches computer science and software development using Free Software when deciding where they will study. Free Software means that students are free to study how the programs they use work and to learn how to adapt them for their own needs. Learning about Free Software can also help in studying software development ethics and professional practice. If you know of a Free-Software-oriented university then email webmasters@gnu.org to tell us about it so we can list it here.
Is Your School Committed To Free Software?
If your school is committed to Free Software then we want to hear from you so that we can list it here. Has your school migrated to GNU/Linux, or has your school adopted the firm policy of rejecting proprietary software? If so, contact <education@gnu.org> to let us know.
Free Software in Education
Free Software can be a valuable resource in education. Not only can it be technically or pedagogically superior to proprietary alternatives, but it can also promote the values of the GNU project in the schools:
- Freedom
- Cooperation
Today, many students and schools don't even know about Free Software or the great advantages it brings. At the same time, software knowledgeability is required for more and more tasks, and Free Software has a distinct advantage in this field. If you are one of those kept in the dark until now, please read some of the informational material we've put together here.
Here is some information we have collected about the relationship between the GNU project and education (you can see more relationships by reading the history of the GNU project). Please send your comments and suggestions about this information to GNU & Education mailing list <education@gnu.org>.
Why?
We're working closely with a new group, Free Software in Education, to produce these introductions. If you are not completely familiar with free software, learn why it's right for you!
Each distributable, easily chewable material, such as the Students bulletin posting, leads to an online portal, tailored to the particular group, at which the interested can find out more about what free software means, learn how to use it, and of course get it.
A GNU idea, the Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource, became Wikipedia. Learn about why we need such a resource, and why you should care about it.
Articles:
- Why schools should exclusively use free software, by Richard Stallman.
- Why give precedence to free software at school?, by Jean Peyratout.
How?
Even though the education demographic is relatively tech-savvy, it still needs help to learn free operating systems such as GNU. Students, teachers, and adminstrators have some tools at their disposal with which to learn.
Our advice is to simply install a free operating system, or find an existing installation, and learn how to use it simply by using it.
Mario Fux <foxman@lugo.ch> writes “TUX&GNU@school” for FSF Europe's education project. It reviews a piece of free education software in every issue.
Events
Some projects which promotes only free software and education are listed below. Please let us know of other educational events that follow the GNU Philosophy, by writing to GNU & Education list at <education@gnu.org>.
Who's using it?
There are some groups that maintain statistics of schools that use free software in several regions of the world:
- Germany, maintained by Andreas Rittershofer. An out-of-date mirror exists at linux-schulen.be.schule.de.
We want to present some stories of classrooms and courses where free software is being used. Whether your usage is creative or not, please share your story. If you do, please send it to <education@gnu.org>.
Advocacy
Before we can advocate free software on a local level, as the Free Software in Education project would like to do, we need to figure out how to do that. We are looking for articles in our area. If you know a good link about free software and education, please contact us.
Free Education Software
We maintain a list of free software and free software projects for education.
Other Groups and Projects
There are several groups and projects that are working with Free Software and Education. A few of them are listed below. If your project supports only free software and it is not listed here, please send an email to <education@gnu.org>.
- Free Learning Resources is about bringing the principles of free software to educational materials and otherwise general knowledge.
- Gleducar, a GNU at education Argentinian project.
- OFSET, The Organization for Free Software in Education and Teaching, promotes the use of free software in education. Take a look at Freeduc-cd, a live-cd for education setup by Ofset.
- Sugar Labs, which provides the Sugar Learning Environment, promoting sharing, collaborative learning, and reflection.
You can help us
If you know any educational project based on Free Software, please submit the project page and a brief description to <education@gnu.org>.
If you live in the UK and you want your schools to use Free Software then please help In writing your PM use this link: Write your PM. Please make sure to sign Early Day Motion.