Introduction to Free and Open Source Software in Education - Free Open Educational Resource

I'm releasing my first Open Educational Resource today.

Introduction to Free and Open Source Software in Education

This is a two-week unit focused on the practical application of Free and Open Source software (F/OSS) in education. It is suitable for advanced undergraduate learners in K-12 teacher training programs. The unit is not intended to be an exhaustive review of F/OSS. Rather, the unit assumes no prior knowledge of F/OSS and is intended to act as an introduction and a guided exploration.

Upon completion of this unit, learners will be able to:

1. Describe F/OSS in their own words
2. Provide examples of how F/OSS can benefit education
3. Provide examples of F/OSS tools
4. Explain some of the barriers to F/OSS adoption
5. Describe how instructors might start using F/OSS

I've released the unit under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Generic License (CC BY-SA 2.5).

What prompted me to release this unit is twofold. On the one hand, I've decided to eat my own dog food. If I'm constantly advocating for open educational resources and the use of F/OSS in education, then I need to practice what I preach. On the other hand, as I was developing the two modules in this unit, I was disappointed at the paucity of resources that were readily available for introducing F/OSS for education to learners with little to no prior knowledge in this area.

Actually, there is also a third reason. I would hope that by releasing under a CC BY-SA license, if anyone does use these resources and makes improvements on them, the changes will be returned to me so that the community can benefit.

Edupunk's not dead

Time to dust off the old blog and do some spring cleaning. First things first - the blog needed a new name.

I haven't touched this blog in five years. Not because I didn't have anything to say. Just because I've been saying it elsewhere. In that time, I've finished my dissertation, completed a post-doctoral fellowship, and taken a position as an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii. Wrote some papers along the way (mandatory curriculum vitae).

I work in educational technology and special education. I'm an open source kind of guy. I hack hardware and software to build cool solutions to educational problems. I identify as an edupunk. There is plenty written on this topic, but a good place to start is at the Center for Edupunx.

I've been doing some cool things in the educational technology world that other educators might find to be of value. I've decided to change the focus of this blog from only focusing on open source virtual worlds to all of the various hacks and projects I'm working on. I'll be posting as I find time.