CyberCamp 08

4 responses so far ↓

• 1    Richard G // Jun 11, 2008 at 4:22 pm

  Wow, I’m sorry I had to be in Boulder today and missed the chat from this session. I think I finally feel justified in my views that the SVVSD has made some terrible decisions in how they use technology. These snippets from the chat really made my day:

  11:56 codytalks : She is crazy to think of dreamweaver
  11:57 budtheteacher : @codytalks: Distrct policy at present requires her to use it.
  11:57 codytalks : district policy requires dreamweaver??
  11:57 budtheteacher : at present, yes.
  11:57 codytalks : Recommending from scratch here

  Also, you can see the results that can be obtained from using Joomla, which, by the way, is an open source application.

  Bud I don’t mean to put you on the spot, but this discussion really was telling:

  11:51 budtheteacher : Curtis is our district webmaster.
  11:51 budtheteacher : Hi, Dean.
  11:52 shareski : Dropped Dreamweaver
  11:52 budtheteacher : We’re not yet ready for that – although our district webmaster is working on a content management option.

  Obviously it is NOT normal to try to completely control district websites by putting strict limits on those that can contribute. It’s also a joke that we are REQUIRED to use Dreamweaver. Someday the SVVSD will hopefully wake up and realize that it is living in the past as far as it’s software adoption policies and web management goes.

  For someone who truly believes in writing compliant XHTML coupled with CSS (rather than screwing around with proprietary crap like Dreamweaver), the chat session had me drooling over other, more modern, districts. I’ve been sort of quiet throughout Cybercamp, but this session really stoked the fire. It should be required reading for anyone in charge of web technology decisions in the SVVSD.

  You don’t have to comment on this, or admit that you’ve read it.

• 2    Richard G // Jun 11, 2008 at 4:31 pm

  Oh, man, it continued (another quote from the chat):

  12:07 shareski : My experience with school websites and Dreamweaver is that one person is the webmaster and that’s it. When they leave or gets busy the school website suffers. Multiple contributors is essential

  [Cue: loud sound of applause and whistling....]

• 3    Bud Hunt // Jun 12, 2008 at 7:50 am

  Richard,

  You’re not putting us, or me, on the spot at all. I do wonder, though, if your comments are useful in moving the conversation forward, or if they just FEEL good to make. I did some further review after the presentation and believe I did make a misstatement – the district doesn’t REQUIRE the use of Dreamweaver – but it does provide a copy to each school for their use in building websites. I apologize for the misstatement and will add a note to the chat archive correcting this error. Boy – I hate it when I make a mistake, particularly when it leads to confusion and frustration.
  As we continue to move forward as a district, thoughtful and constructive examination of what we do, how we do it, and why we do it are all useful. I’d encourage you to take a look at the procedures document for webpages. (An intranet link – will only open within St. Vrain’s network.)

• 4    Richard G // Jun 12, 2008 at 10:56 am

  Bud,

  Don’t apologize! Heck, I apologize all the time because I tend to write abrasive things. I know at heart that you and I have put our students first, so if you could remember that about me it will help when I write something like I did. Sometimes I lack tact, I’ll admit.

  I can’t access that document from home, as I choose to not install the Citrix software onto my Linux OS, but will try to get up to school to read a copy of it.

  [Note: Bud, this post was at first rejected because of all the links in it. I have replaced all of them with hxxp, which will not work, but all you have to do is replace the xx with tt. and then they'll work just fine.]

  I wish our district will adopt an “open first” policy that says we will look for free and open source software alternative to consider before choosing costly, proprietary options. Brad Jolly brought this up at the Oct 2007 board meeting, when he recommended using the free OpenOffice.org suite–which can serve as a replacement for Microsoft Office. Google Docs was also mentioned. I would add many other options, like these, if we must continue to use Windows:

  hxxp://theopendisc.com/

  Clearly, this approach would help win over taxpayer’s support of our Mill Levy and Bond proposals.

  I know I may sound like an enemy or troublemaker on these issues, but that is not my intent. I have become involved with the open source community and am convinced that it is the future. Ironically, the slowest institutions to catch on appear to be schools–which have a long history of buying a LOT of expensive software.

  We are clearly making progress at the SVVSD–I’ll be the first to admit that. Moodle is open source and free. The blogging software we use is also free and open source. I see many of the links that people have posted on this page are open source, while others are not. I tend to push for open source for moral reasons. I’m more interested in the “free as in ‘free speech’” aspect then the “free as in ‘free beer’” part, but taxpayers will prefer the no-cost attribute. I’ve found the open source community to be populated by kind people that decide that software should be free. Many people, university faculty, hobby programmers, software engineers–but volunteers all–work together so that people have free options where there were no options before.

  Having the source code available makes it possible for the user to know exactly what is going on “under the hood.” In fact, we are even encouraged to open the hood and alter the software according to our own needs–something very different than the approach taken by proprietary companies that hide the code and prohibit any tampering. In fact, you don’t even own the program–you rent it, which is why I will not agree to the Citrix gateway EULA.

  I recently contacted DTS regarding some open source software that the district has been using for years–the Cute PDF writer that allows us to print to PDF files. Now, the Cute PDF writer itself is not open source–it’s just freeware–, but it uses the Ghostscript software which indeed is open source. We have been using that software free of charge for a long time in our district, which is fine. Here’s where it comes from:

  hxxp://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

  On that page, you will see where they state that they are using Ghostcript, which is open source and licensed under the GNU General Public License, which is about the most liberal license you can ever come across. There is a catch, however. Here’s the license:

  hxxp://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

  And here is the paragraph in particular:

  “To protect your rights, we need to prevent others from denying you these rights or asking you to surrender the rights. Therefore, you have certain responsibilities if you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it: responsibilities to respect the freedom of others.

  For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must pass on to the recipients the same freedoms that you received. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights.”

  Bingo. See, open source developers have no problem with schools using their software, in fact, they encourage it, even though they really get nothing in return. The one thing we must do, however, is make it clear that we are using open source software, provide a link to the source code, and provide the GNU license.

  Here’s a quote from the Moodle page:

  “We have a long list of developers who contribute towards the development of Moodle. Start with our developer information as well as the roadmap, the coding guide and CVS guide to access our source code. ”

  And here’s the very same GNU license, from the Moodle page:

  hxxp://docs.moodle.org/en/License

  Now if this doesn’t feel revolutionary, it should, because we’re living in a time where truly incredible software is being developed by open source communities. The only catch is that we have to play by the rules of the Copyleft license (and no, that is not a misprint).

  So is there a Brave New World of free, open source software that we could be taking advantage of? Yes! I just wish we would acknowledge where it’s coming from, so that our teachers would know how very different it is to be using Moodle versus using Dreamweaver….

  Moodle is possible because many who use it decide to contribute to it, rather than just be a “user”. Without those people, there would be no Moodle. And you don’t have to be proficient in coding PHP to help out. You can contribute in many ways, by writing tutorials, etc. The very least we can do, however, would be to have any teacher that uses it at least read these two pages:

  hxxp://docs.moodle.org/en/Top_10_Moodle_Myths

  hxxp://docs.moodle.org/en/Case_for_Moodle

  Ah, heck, throw in this one, too:

  hxxp://simpleict.com/becta.pdf

  I have many connections locally with open source volunteers. If you ever want them to put on an informative presentation, let me know.

  Thanks Bud,

  Richard

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