[Ambassadors] The Education Strategy

[pablo at proyectofedora.org]

Hi all, worldwide..

Hello Everyone,
>>
>> I realize that some people have been confused, perplexed and perhaps
>> annoyed at the lack of information being disseminated about what is
>> going on
>> vis-a-vis some programs being planned in the educational realm.  After
>> my
>> brief comments at the NA ambassadors meeting a few weeks I would like to
>> outline what has been going on to provide some clarity as well a grounds
>> for
>> discussions for everything.  Let me start by saying that I apologize if
>> it
>> seemed like this was being done in secret, which it absolutely isn't,
>> its
>> just the choice was made to keep everything quiet until we could make
>> some
>> formal announcement in the coming months and that lead people to believe
>> we
>> were trying to cut people out of the process, which is not the case at
>> all.

It seems that i lost some mail before... :-)

>>
>> That being said, I am going to highlight some key pieces of strategy
>> which
>> for better or worse comprise our Fedora Education Strategy and feel free
>> to
>> comment on and/or disagree with any of these--thats why I'm putting this
>> out, to get everyone involved in the process:
>>
>> 1. Open Source Curriculum - We are working with a talented group of
>> people
>> to try and put together both a platform and set of course materials in
>> order
>> to teach people and students world wide how to program using modern
>> software
>> engineering methodologies and with a focus on Free and Open Software
>> tools
>> and philosophy.

Very Nice, but educational programs are very different in different
places. Here in Argentina
my chosen role, was promote Fedora on Digital break Access, something that
Red Hat in the region could not spread correctly. Absense of Red Hat
Educational Strategy ( in exception of Brazil ) generates "black holes" in
Digital Break reduction. Be only focused on only High School programs is
always let other parts alone. We cannot start a worldwide education
program around only few tips. Educational strategy must be concerned
around all aspects of education. We cannot start from a "all people are in
the university", in some places on earth, like here, no all the people has
this capability or access..

>> 3. Red Hat High 2.0 - Redefine RHH as a program working with the
>> country's
>> elite science and math high schools in order to get students
>> familiarized
>> with open source at the high school level.  This ties in with the Open
>> Curriculum.  We know there are a number of similar initiatives but none
>> which focus around getting students familiarized with open source.

Nice, but elitist...needed, but not enough....


>>
>> Thats basically that, I'm sure everyone will have more questions and
>> comments and suggestions, so let's get everyone involved in this.  What
>> do
>> you think?

Of course its a great idea, even thought i dont know who could think that
this gonna split ambassador program, but in one month, i will have the
evidences in REAL LIFE, that no only high school educational strategy is
the main target.

We must learn from the past around OLPC program. This program fails in
most of countries. Educatioal strategy was US centralized, and was not
focused on real needs of each country. Now, if we want to go to a global
educational strategy, all parts of the process must be considered.

Strategy implies, more than strategy, implies concense...

Regards
Pablo Barrera