Implementation and Educational advantages of local technologies development groups.
This paper resume three years of my life in Don Bosco University. First, it discusses about open source concepts and advantages of it in education. Then a proposal of methodology to implement local technologies development groups is given. Finally the benefits in a short term in education and social improvement are shown.
Keywords: Technical education, Social improvement, local technologies development, open source software, cooperative work.
1. About Open Source and GPL.
First at all, I have to say that this is not a very scientific paper. Like other open source community papers, I will try to define a specific way to do something, in this case, a methodology to implement local technologies development groups. I got many ideas from people in the open source software community.
In order to enter the topic, open source technologies ought to be defined. Open Source technologies in the easy way is the representation of technologies based on General Public License GPL (1).
GPL was develop and released by Free Software Foundation. The GPL fundamentals are based on seven liberties, basically enables people to share the software. This license apply for different kind of technologies in software and hardware.
The GPL was created with the vision of protect and avoid that many important technologies were use in commercial projects without sharing the source code(2).
The principal advantage of open source software ought to be enabled the programmers to share the source code of their applications with each others.
Technological Education ought to be priority for countries like El Salvador. Open Source enables us to use the source code from different kind of application to show the student how the things happen.
Economically, open source software is free for sharing, it is not necessary to pay for using, modify, or install it. The investment in commercial licenses can be use to buy more hardware and equipment.
We can now talk about software quality. The quality ought to be a relevant factor to learn or not about some computer programming language. Many people think that the word FREE in the term “Free software” is used to talk about free beer, but is not. Free means that the program has the source code and we can modify, share, improve or simply use it.
In fact many enterprises in El Salvador in different economic sectors are using open source software to support commercial or industrial process in different ways.
In the next part of the paper we will discuss about the importance and advantages of open source in education. Local technology development groups are groups of people working together in a open source project, can be software or hardware project. We will talk about LTDG (3) too.
2. Importance of Open Source in Education.
Open source generally improve the form of how the student learn and apply the knowledge in real world.
Bryan Pfaffenberger international member of open source community and columnist of Linux Journal talks about the adoption of GNU/LINUX as international standard for computing in higher education (see Pfaffenberger 2000).
The open source software has many advantages specially when you use it for education. Some advantages are listed here:
1.The teacher and the students know the source code of the application.
Know the source code means that you can add, edit or modify the program for improve it or simply for adapt it to your reality. The teacher can use the source to shows the students how to design or built a software application. Student can use the source like a guide for development software applications. In computer science it is a big deal.
2.The open source software help to develop the creativity in the student.
The creativity is develop when we interact with a computer software component directly. In the open source world the student is responsible for build in a software application manually (4), they know that is necessary to learn a lot in order to solve some problems or setup some particular software components.
Look up the next graphics:
The graphic show two different kinds of software (Not the only one classification). The Commercial Software generally uses the automatic way, this way is called automatic because the user do not need to do any special process, only use the wizard and this application will do the job. The automatic way is the best way for non expert users or users that really do not care about advance knowledge in computer sciences.
A student using commercial software only will move around the common knowledge zone, because they do not need to apply computer skills or knowledge, they are interested in use the software (Know the tool for do a job).
Pfaffenberger claims that literacy in closed or commercial source software is “the wrong type of computer literacy instruction” and does not actually benefit the economy (see Pfaffenberger 2000).
The computer science students ought to be motivated to get in the gap zone, that really means advance knowledge in this field. In open source technologies the users have to do manual process for setup applications. Manual process enable the students to interact with the source code and learn more about the real process that happen in the background.
Between more manual process the student have to do, more knowledge is coming into the brain database. Finally the student will do advance process (in software development context) in a natural way.
3.Cooperative learning is used to share information and knowledge.
Actually the Cooperative learning is a very important part of teaching methodologies. Open source software had use it since its creation. Most of the open source software applications had been develop using cooperative learning and cooperative development methodologies. The groups are formed by different kind of students, they work together for reach the same goals and objectives, the evaluation is individual but at the same time is in group, because usefulness or problems in the final product (a computer program) are too shared. The structure of open source software methodology is based on Eric Raymond paper, call “The cathedral and the bazaar”. Eric Raydmond describes in the paper cooperative development techniques (see Eric Raydmond 1998).
4.Technical advantages over commercial software.
Open source software has many technical advantages, stability, free from virus, multi platform, multiuser, etc. We really do not want to talk about it, remember, we are talking about LTDG.
3. Proposal to form LTDGs.
3.1 Defining the problem.
LTDGs ought to be formed by people with the same objectives and beliefs. In general we always want that students improve their knowledge (remember the gap zone). We really do not want to establish a international methodology for LTDGs, because this is so difficult, in firth world countries the social reality is different than third world countries so we cannot start in the same start point.
In El Salvador most of the student do not have a job when they finish the career. Many students never find a job in engineering or technician field of study. Only a few companies are hiring people to technical jobs, so the challenge to get a job is very hard. The methodology have to solve this kind of problems enable the “technical community” to start working in engineering and technician fields of study.
So the methodology is based in this Salvadorian reality. The methodology should enable the student to work in engineering field of study and have to reactivate the research and investigation in El Salvador. I&D in El Salvador ought to be started no matter if the project is only and adaptation of open source software to Salvadorian reality.
3.2 Defining the methodology.
In El Salvador many intents for establish a methodology to LTDGs have failed. Svlinux1 group is a good example. I was in this intent. Don Bosco University, Student communities for open source in University of El Salvador have failed too. We think if a national intent failed let alone Universities intents, but is not completely right. But not all is lost. I will use the failed intents to structure a new methodology for working in LTDGs.
I resume the methodology in the next diagram:
3.2.1 University department creation.
The University should create a new department, can be call local development and research. The main function of people in the department should be enable the faculty staff and student to work together in social improvement or commercial projects.
Everything start when the professors send an email to department people informing what kind of project the students can do. So the department interact between enterprises, schools, hospitals, etc and faculty staff, to work in a project. The projects are included in the teaching plan.
The department have to find economic support for projects too. The enterprises can help with money or equipment in a project, or pay an annual quantity with the condition of get anyone project and continue development inside the enterprise (see BSD License 1996).
The department is so important, it is the umbilical cord between “external society”(5) and faculty staff and students.
3.2.2 Faculty staff and student participation.
The participation of Faculty staff is very important because they are the project assessors. Sophomore students can help like project coordinators. Freshmen students can start working in projects like assistants. Students directly involve in the project can get a wage during the project is developing. The work in a project help the student to put in practice all knowledge obtained in classes. The professor will evaluate the work of students and the students can get academic credits. Alumni students can work too in projects or can be requested under project demand.
3.2.3 Development and research, academic and real work.
Development and research, academic and real work are referred to activities in Development that come from academic classes and have application to specific reality. Students ought to be motivated by professors to work in a development and research projects. Real work means look in the reality and try to solve problems in society. Open source methodology for development ought to be used in order to develop our own technology ( see Eric Raymond 1998).
3.2.4 Sponsors and University.
The sponsors are deferents institutions with a common interest, that is solve some problem using information technology. The university have to prepare a budget or investment in Development and Research and apply it to projects. Can be different kind of sponsoring. Sponsors can provide with money or equipment to support the projects, can provide money to support and specific project in witch they have special interest. Government or individual people can help too.
3.2.5 Economical and social projects development and community improvement.
Project have to be developed to enterprises or community. Economical project will be develop with enterprise sponsoring. Social project will help to improve community and have to be sponsored by University or government.
3.2.6 Community improvement and web site publication.
The final beneficiary of project should be the community. Help to improve the community have to be the primary goal. All projects and social attendance will be publish in the community portals. GNU project have a web site community free for all open source community (see savanna web site 2000).
3.2.7 Curriculum and study plans modification.
This is the main advantage of LTDGs, the curriculum modification. When professors and students are working together in order to reach a goal both of them will know what technologies are present in society. So professors can help in the curriculum revision contributing in study plans modification. Professors can help to add or remove topics in an specific subject study plan. So the loop between Research and Development, Social attendance and curricula will be close. Curriculum always be updated and fresh.
4. Benefits in education and social improvement.
About the topic Bryan Pfaffenberger says:
“I'm fully aware that moving to a Linux standard would pose new and difficult challenges for colleges and universities; for one thing, Linux isn't the easiest operating system to learn, and maintenance costs could soar as students meddle with system configurations and wind up with unbootable systems. Still, Linux distributors are working hard to make Linux easier to install and use (see Pfaffenberger 2000)”.
We know that learn GNU/Linux is not easy. I actually know teachers that have problems installing applications in a “Microsoft box” (7). Learn GNU/Linux is like fly a plane, We have a lot of buttons and handles. We have to be prepared for it, We have to read and practice. Learn computer literacy in a Microsoft box is like drive a car, We need a course too but in a lower level of difficulty.
The open source and its difficulty will help the students and teachers to increase their knowledge, I have the opportunity to see it. In a group of 30 in Local Area Network subject, four students have used open source. The four student are right now working in Internet service provider in a good job (good wage), the rest are not working yet.
The improvement of society is evident, the computer literacy in a society will ground faster if We use open source software. Extremadura had experience in open source implementation for education (see Linex Web Site). A good example of social improvement is La junta de extremadura web site.
5. Conclusion.
In conclusion, Open source technologies ought to be implemented like international standard in computer sciences in higher education. El Salvador have many outstanding students to develop local technologies. We have to start working int LTDGs a web site development is a good form to begin.
Foot Notes.
References.
- Raymond, Eric ( 1998 ) “The cathedral and the bazaar”, Available on-line at http://es.tldp.org/Otros/catedral-bazar/cathedral-es-paper-00.html.
- Pfaffenberger, Bryan ( 2000 ) “Linux in Higher Education: Open Source, Open Minds, Social Justice”, Linux Journal, Available on-line at http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/5071
- Santo Orcero, David ( 2000 ) “La crisis del software libre cientifico”, LUCAS, Available on-line at http://es.tldp.org/Presentaciones/200002hispalinux/conf-18/18-html/
- Microbotica S.L. ( 2000 ), “Proyecto de hardware abierto”, LUCAS, Available on-line at http://es.tldp.org/Presentaciones/200002hispalinux/conf-31/31-html/
- Free Software Foundation ( 2005 ), “Free software in Education”, GNU, Available on-line at http://www.gnu.org/education/education.html
- Free Software Foundation ( 2005 ), “Licenses”, GNU, Available on-line at http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/index_html
- Junta de extremadura ( 2005 ), “Linex Project”, Available on-line at http://www.linex.org/
- GNU Project ( 2005 ), “Savanna web portal”, GNU, Available on-line at http://savanna.gnu.org/
- IBM ( 2005 ), “Linux in education”, Available on-line at http://www-1.ibm.com/linux/viewaudience_3261.shtml
Juliux Netlander
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