Re: certification [was: Re: [Fsfe-uk] Intro and a request for information]

[Ian Lynch]

On Sun, 2004-11-14 at 14:18, Graham Seaman wrote:
> On Sun, 2004-11-14 at 13:04 +0000, Ian Lynch wrote:
> 
> > One of the reasons for inventing the INGOTs is that its a model that is
> > independent of particular proprietary tools and can be guaranteed to
> > work with FLOSS. Its also far less expensive to administer and is
> > accessible to primary school age children as well as adult beginners. It
> > is designed to be as compatible as possible with existing courses so we
> > are causing teachers the problem of fitting in yet another course when
> > waht we need to do is promote and recognise good practice in what they
> > are already doing.
> > 
> 
> But did you invent INGOTs because you had decided it would not be
> possible to push the ECDL administrators into accepting free-software
> (or software-neutral) based versions of the ECDL; or because you thought
> the ECDL was bad in principle (ie. it would be bad even if it was free
> software based); or because you wanted something independent, regardless
> of general recognition? Sorry, I don't know any of the history behind
> this, and the INGOTs site says nothing about how it relates to the ECDL.

Its a bit complicated. It really doesn't relate to ECDL other than its
an ICT certificate, but I'd say its better from a teacher's perspective
particularly for pre-16 age children. If you have the time to read
below, you will understad why. The motivation came from a few different
angles.

1. How do you develop a global business to help fund FLOSS projects
without a lot of start up capital and using a model that can generate
income without being dependent on proprietary software licensing?
Identify a market that has the funding and provide for that market. I
understand education so its the best market for me to exploit.

2. I help schools make applications to be specialist schools and they
have to set SMART targets in a 4 year plan to get additional funding.
There was no suitable IT certification for younger pupils affordable by
schools. ECDL is expensive and targeted on Post 16. INGOTs enable us to
set targets that we have some control over and that the DfES appear to
be happy with. Once built into their development plans the schools are
very likely to take up the scheme and pay the subscriptions with the
additional funding they receive.

3. Assessment for learning is an educational "in" thing at the moment
and the INGOT assessment model is fundamentally focussed on this rather
than assessment as a means of sorting sheep from goats. Really, no-one
much is going to get a job or a place in University because they have an
ECDL or a bronze INGOT so there is no real need for a lot of complex
exam bureaucracy. INGOTs are assessed against criteria by our trained
assessors, mostly just alongside their normal work. This means that
there is no need for special courses, just maybe some minor changes in
emphasis eg in all schools 11-14 aged kids are supposed to build a web
site. The Silver INGOT just requires they test it with 3 web browsers
and use a tool designed for the purpose rather than say MS Publisher. We
are providing credit for good practice that should exist but might not.

4. How do we get more people involved in the OpenOffice.org community?
Give credit for doing so by making it part of the accreditation so for
Gold they have to do 25 hours international community service by making
a meaningful contribution to the OOo project. eg Clip art, marketing,
QA, support, anything that's useful and they have an interest in. This
also fits government policy on vocational education, internationalism,
citizenship, enterprise and inclusion. So again very much easier to sell
into the market than "change all your computers to Linux" and it
prepares pupils at a younger age to participate.

5. In getting GNU/Linux into schools there are many barriers. Even
getting OOo in can be difficult on Windows. So let's lower the barriers
by providing something that they can do to learn about FLOSS with their
existing systems. OOo becomes an educational tool not a replacement for
MSO. But once it is in regular use as an educational tool many people
will thing twice about the next MSO upgrade. Once using OOo they are
more likely to migrate to other FLOSS products such as Firefox and
eventually Linux

6. So really INGOTs are not like ECDL much at all. Its a scheme probably
more similar to the Duke of Edinburgh Award and fundamentally designed
as a stratey to further Free Software. Its designed to appeal to grass
roots teachers on their professional terms by being low in admin.
bureaucracy, flexible and high in educational potential well beyond the
mechanistic operation of software. But it could be used for that if that
is what the teacher wanted to do. Most teachers care more about
education than Linux so let's get to them on their home turf.

So far we have around 17 Academies up and running with one in Serbia and
one in Romania. Its early days yet but we had the first two students
achieve Gold a couple of weeks ago. Details at
http://marketing.openoffice.org/education/schools/

I have interest in New Zealand and USA too. I just need the time to go
out there and do the training. I think we should have between 30-50
Academies by this time next year and the more that sign up, the more
revenue I'll have to develop the scheme so I thnk its going to work.
Target 100 for the following year and a big international push as then
we start to get the revenue needed to support it. We will then have
substantial amounts of money to put into educational resources based on
FLOSS and creative commons type licenses and at the same time increase
the number of people who know about Free Software.
-- 
Ian Lynch <address@hidden>
ZMS Ltd