Chapter 4: It's a Free Software World After All

HMID 6303 Current Trends & Issues in

Instructional TechnologyChapter 4: It’s a Free Software

World After All

From Curtis J. Bonk’s book entitled “The World is Open”

Summarised by: Khoo Chiew KeenOUM-MIDT, February 2010.

• What does this word mean to you?• Can you think of any examples which are

related to this word?• Would you offer something for nothing in

return?

By offering FREE services of course!

They offer:

• Free email accounts;

• Unlimited storage space;

• Free web searching.

Do you know how Google and Yahoo generate their revenue in billions of dollars?

• What about the word above? What does it mean?

• How would the word “free” and “open” affect education today?

Answer: You will find out as you browse the following slides….

What about education?

• How has technology affected education today? Read the article from the following links to get a brief

idea on how technology has impacted education.

The development of the Internet and its significance for education: http://originami.com/sp/milestones.htm

Milestones in education, 50 years of education: http://www.unesco.org/education/educprog/50y/brochure/mile.htm

Technology, Education and Resources

• The introduction of Web 2.0 applications.

• The Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) movement.

• The Free Software Foundation (FSF).• Learning Management System (LMS).• Open Educational Resources (OERs).• Creative Commons.

What is open source?• It refers to any computer software program whose source code is

free to use, modify, and redistribute – typically for its licensed users.

An open source product is:

“Is a software designed by a community of users or a consortium of organizations and institutions with a joint interest in the resulting product”.

Philosophy of open source software:

“…openness of computing code created in distributed or peer-to-peer collaborative development”.

The Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) movement

• Encompasses two movements: free software movement and open source movement.

• Free software movement focuses on the philosophical freedom it gives users.

• Open source movement focuses on the economies of peer-to-peer collaboration.

• Both movements adapt the ‘sharing’ culture as “nearly all software that is open source is free, and vice versa”.

• Prominent persons in the FOSS movement:Mitch KaporRichard StallmanLinus TorvaldsEric RaymondMartin Dougiamas

Free Software Foundation (FSF)

• Develops free and compatible replacements for propriety software. Vision: Dedicated to eliminating restrictions on copying, redistribution,

understanding and modification of software…

Goal: Develop and then distribute software using a “General Public License” (GPL).

“Free” = Freedom 0: The freedom to run the program as you wish. Freedom 1: The freedom to study the source code and change it to do what you wish. Freedom 2: The freedom to make copies and redistribute them to others. Freedom 3: The freedom to published modified versions.

Hacker Culture

What is it and how does it affect the development of free and open source software?

Read more about hackers here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_(computing)

This ‘culture’ had a firm belief in knowledge sharing and helping others, including the exploration of computer programming secrets and free access to computers and the availability of information about them.

Mitchell David Kapor

Former president of the Lotus Development Corporation.• President of the Open Source Applications Foundation.• Read more about Kapor and his contributions here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Kapor

Richard Stallman

Founder of the Free Software Foundation.

• Devoted to a vision of sharing.

• According to him, software is “a manifestation of human creativity and expression … and represented a key artifact of a community … to solve problems together for the common good”.

• Read more about Stallman and his contributions here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_stallman

Linus TorvaldsDeveloper of the first open source software

program Linux 0.01.

• What motivates him to develop open

source software:

“A sense of fun in doing what he loves: programming and contributing to the Internet community with usable products others could enjoy”.

• Read more about him and his contributions here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds

Sakai Project• Courseware platform or system that enables individuals or

institutions to place their courses on the Web.

• Features: • Document distribution;• A grade book;• Discussion;• Live chat;• Assignment uploads;• Online testing;• Wiki;• RSS reader.

Read More about the Sakai project here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakai_Project

Moodle• Also known as Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment.

• It is a free open source Learning Management System (LMS).

• This LMS is created by Martin Dougiamas, a WebCT administrator at Curtin University, Australia.

• Moodle is designed to help educators create courses online focusing on interaction and collaboration (social constructivism).

• Moodle supports many plug-ins such as:• Activities• Resource types • Question types• Data field types • Graphical themes • Authentication methods• Enrollment methods • Content filters• Wiki• Other third party plug-ins.

Questions to ponder …1. Both Sakai and Moodle seem to have similar features.

Nevertheless, they are two distinct educational systems. Are you aware of the difference between Sakai and Moodle?

2. Can you identify the benefits of courseware platform like Sakai and learning management system like Moodle? What do both systems offer?

Activity: Do some research and readings on the Web and discuss these two questions in our Ning portal.

Speaking of Ning …

Truth is … Not everyone favours courses and pre-

packaged content. It’s just plain boring for them …

People want to be more creative so as to decide what they want, create their own content and become contributors themselves. They also want interactivity.

But how?

The age of Drupal and Ning

• Drupal is an open source free content management system that enables a person to build his/her own personal and community homepages. http://drupal.org/about

• Ning is platform specially designed for social networking communities which allows developers to create OpenSocial gadgets and applications using technology developed by Google. http://www.ning.com/

• These applications have educational benefits and foster social interaction and knowledge sharing; for example Ning for Educators network binds the concept behind the WE-ALL-LEARN model.

• Ideas in many forms are shared and disseminated through various tools on the Web i.e., Sakai, Moodle, Drupal, Ning etc…

• So, where education is concerned, how can ideas be safe-guarded when online technologies are so advanced these days? The area of licensing and copyright of materials comes into focus now … and this is where Creative Commons come into the picture.

Creative Commons• It is a non-profit organisation established by Dr. Larry Lessig in year

2001.

• This organisation functions to expand access to online materials and also encourage creative use and remixing of these materials.

• Creative Commons offer different copyright designations to various online materials from audio, image, video, text and other data.

• These copyright designations help protect public and private universities as well as individuals from for-profit entities that may cheat their intellectual capital.

• Read more about Creative Commons here: http://creativecommons.org/

Open source and free software

• The digital age is upon us. We need access to up-to-date information, share our ideas and collaborate to learn and expand our capabilities in the Web where everything is digitised.

• With open source, free content and Creative Commons, more people will be encouraged to share their ideas and learn from each other.

• On the other hand, as the world becomes “smaller” and technologies customised to suit our needs, how would ethics evolve to ensure that the society remains rational?

This will be a good topic for discussion in our Ning portal.

Thank You.