Open Source teaching in Dutch schools

So now the Dutch have realised that it's a bad idea to only introduce their students to proprietary software. The Dutch green party Groen Links is concerned by the dominance of Microsoft, Oracle and Cisco in Dutch schools. Kees Vendrik and Tofik Dibi of GroenLinks have written to the Secretary of State for Economic Affairs and the Secretary of State for Education, Culture and Science asking how open source can be brought in to ICT training in Dutch schools.

The article and questions (in Dutch) can be found here and a translation via Google can be found here.

AQA does know about open source!

Although open source does not appear in any of AQA's teaching material, Optaros have helped AQA to deploy an Intranet solution using open source software.

The Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) was interested in creating a new Examiner Extranet platform to provide examiners and moderators with online access to exam papers and related documentation. The extranet would provide a simple way to obtain information more quickly, at a lower cost, and with a higher degree of security than AQA's standard paper processes.

Optaros worked in partnership with AQA to build the Examiner Extranet using open source components, including Alfresco JBoss Portal Server, EnterpriseDB and CAS Single Sign-On.

You can read the full case study here.

AQA and OCR, do they know about open source?

I recently started a job with a teaching resource provider, reviewing AQA and OCR ICT and Computing materials. I keep reading the word Microsoft but sadly I have yet to come across open source :(

FLOSS Weekly

FLOSS Weekly is a free and libre open source software focused podcast presented by Chris DiBona and Randal Schwartz. Most episodes feature the primary developer or developers of a particular open source software project. The show is an open discussion, with Laporte and Schwartz asking questions about the nature of the project. Typically, the interviewers will ask the guests about the history of the project, and its development model (such as which language it is written in, which revision control system is used, and what development environment the author uses). It's a great show, I recommend it.

"opened" BETA

Today I release a BETA of "opened", a look at Open Source in Education. There is still a long way to go, but I believe this provides a good framework for me to continue working.

I welcome good and bad comments :)