11.1 Unesco's activities in foss for education, past, current and  (Page 5/6)

In the future, it may be envisaged to undertake an activity for (item 1) which was in fact my suggestion in the first posting.

UNESCO will also continue to facilitate awareness development and capacity building in Member States through the UNESCO FOSS Portal.

Best wishes, Jean-Claude

5. ken udas - july 3rd, 2007 at 4:44 am

Jean-Claude, Thanks again, it is good to get a sense for the project you are envisioning and an appreciation for the work that will go into it. So, as you are thinking about this endeavor, what would you hope to be its impact on education in developing countries? I know that this is an overly broad question, but I would like to get an idea of how the FOSS Education Solution will improve education. Based on your posting and comments I understand that some of the important qualities include:

• Economic feasibility (affordability)
• Reduced complexity (coherent framework, open standards)
• Increased functionality (coherent framework, open standards, and increased number of tools in stack)
• Increased usefulness through flexibility (customizability, localization)
• Please feel free to add to this list or correct any misinterpretations.

These strike me also as very important qualities. When achieved, what differences do you see the FOSS Education Solution having, for example, in higher education in some key UNESCO priority areas?

If that’s not a big enough question, I am also wondering also if you have a general sense of what a few of the big dependencies are that have to be considered and addressed to realize the potential impact of the FOSS Education Solution? That is, recognizing that education is embedded in a complex environment, what are some of the challenges, technological and non-technological, that need to be considered and addressed that would enhance the impact of a FOSS Education Solution? Or, put in the negative, what are some of the challenges that could reduce the impact if left unaddressed?

Cheers, Ken

6. jean-claude dauphin - july 4th, 2007 at 10:59 am

Hi Ken, Thanks Ken for all these questions, I will try to answer below:

Thanks again, it is good to get a sense for the project you are envisioning and an appreciation for the work that will go into it. So, as you are thinking about this endeavor, what would you hope to be its impact on education in developing countries?

Many developing countries focus on basic education and limit their financial support for higher education because this is not their priority. However, there is a growing demand for higher education in many universities.

E-learning is considered as a less expensive model compared to conventional face-to-face or distance education. The learning management systems (LMS) – a software designed to provide a range of administrative and pedagogic services related to formal education settings (e.g. enrollment data, access to electronic course materials, faculty/student interaction, assessment) – appears to be one of the main component of e-learning development in tertiary education worldwide. FOSS Education Solution would provide the sustainable e-learning software components for free. But of course this is only one part of the overall HE picture. Please note that the FOSS model is sustainable because it avoids vendor lock-in and the source code is always available even if the company or author(s) disappears.