Free and Open Source Software in K - 12 Education
A K12 Virtual Open Source Conference!
OK, today I had one of those brainstorm ideas that made me sit up and wonder why I hadn't seen the possibilities before.
The talks at the K-12 Open Minds Conference were recorded this year, and a couple of weeks ago I posted the audio on the conference wiki. There were great sessions on Free and Open Source Software: Moodle, GIMP, OpenOffice.org, Python, and many more.
But it's just the audio recording, and depending on the placement of the mic and the voice level of the speakers, the quality varies quite a bit. So I got to thinking--most of the speakers had prepared slide presentations, and probably most of them could still give the same talk right now without much preparation. What if we used my Elluminate office and over the course of a couple of weeks recorded both the audio and the video, and then had a richer library for educators of the talks that were given?
Then I thought: why limit it to just those presentations that were given? What if we not only invited those who presented, but also invited anyone who couldn't make it to the conference and wanted to present? What if we held a virtual K-12 Open Source conference? I know, it's not rocket science, but it's still a dang good idea. We have the audience, we have the presenters--why wait?
By this time, my mind was reeling with the possibilities. An era of budget-cutting, which directly effects the ability for both presenters and audience to attend a physical event, means even more and more folks are going to be interested in Open Source... and need access to a good set of presentations from other educators. If the physical K12OpenMinds conference takes place in the Fall, maybe the virtual conference could take place each Spring.
Look for this in January or February on www.K12OpenSource.com. Oh, I love a good idea.
The talks at the K-12 Open Minds Conference were recorded this year, and a couple of weeks ago I posted the audio on the conference wiki. There were great sessions on Free and Open Source Software: Moodle, GIMP, OpenOffice.org, Python, and many more.
But it's just the audio recording, and depending on the placement of the mic and the voice level of the speakers, the quality varies quite a bit. So I got to thinking--most of the speakers had prepared slide presentations, and probably most of them could still give the same talk right now without much preparation. What if we used my Elluminate office and over the course of a couple of weeks recorded both the audio and the video, and then had a richer library for educators of the talks that were given?
Then I thought: why limit it to just those presentations that were given? What if we not only invited those who presented, but also invited anyone who couldn't make it to the conference and wanted to present? What if we held a virtual K-12 Open Source conference? I know, it's not rocket science, but it's still a dang good idea. We have the audience, we have the presenters--why wait?
By this time, my mind was reeling with the possibilities. An era of budget-cutting, which directly effects the ability for both presenters and audience to attend a physical event, means even more and more folks are going to be interested in Open Source... and need access to a good set of presentations from other educators. If the physical K12OpenMinds conference takes place in the Fall, maybe the virtual conference could take place each Spring.
Look for this in January or February on www.K12OpenSource.com. Oh, I love a good idea.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ron McDaniel on -
Steve,
That sounds like a great idea! I would only recommend maybe looking at DimDim, opensource alternative to Webex and Illuminate. DimDim can be found @ http://www.dimdim.com.
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Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on -
I need to try it out!
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Permalink Reply by Ron McDaniel on
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The recording feature may be not be available in the Open Source version, however one could use Camstudio, http://camstudio.org/.
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Permalink Reply by Miguel Guhlin on -
Steve, definitely go for it! I'm surprised we don't do more virtual conferences...oh yeah, it's hard work!
Looking forward to the K-12 Virtual Conference,
Miguel
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Permalink Reply by Kevin M. McGUire on -
Steve, We are interested. Have some great success stories to share.
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