The 6th Annual Open Knowledge Conference (OKCon) takes place on 30th June - 1st July 2011 in Berlin. OKCon is a wide-ranging conference that brings together individuals and organizations from across the open knowledge spectrum for two days of presentations, workshops and exchange of ideas.
The Free Technology Academy and Shared QA in Free Educational Materials
- Thursday June 30th, 2011 - 19:00
- By Frans Mofers, Wouter Tebbens, Hanneke Potters and Lex Bijlsma
The emergence of Free Technologies such as Free Software and Open Standards has led to an increasing demand for skilled specialists, while few academic programmes exists to prepare people. The Free Technology Academy was set up to address this need. In this article we will in particular show the need for shared development and shared quality assurance. The authors sustain that lessons can be learnt from such shared efforts, which are particularly relevant for the advance of Open Educational Resources in general, their move from in-house produced and run educational objects towards peer produced materials and online learning networks. The FTA shows how this can be done in the field of Computer Science and invites interested participants to join the debate and participate in its multiple open futures.
Building a Common Master Curriculum on Free Technologies
- Thursday June 30th, 2011 - 19:30
- Workshop facilitated by Wouter Tebbens and David Jacovkis
While the need for skilled specialists in the area of Free Technologies is rising considerably in recent years, this fact is not very much reflected in most academic programmes in the domains of Computer Science, Software Engineering and Information Systems. A few full master programmes exist, but extending the current programmes requires investment and collaboration.
This workshop proposes to discuss about the foundations and particularities such common curriculum could entail. Building this in common promises several advantages, such as the reduction of costs by sharing its burden, connection to specialists in the field and real needs from learners. It also promises to facilitate the possibilities for mutual recognition, double or even joint degrees.
The Free Knowledge Institute will host this workshop and expects several participants to advance the discussion together and define concrete actions for realising missing bits.
Anyone with an interest in the development of Master Programmes in Free Software is welcome to participate. Concrete proposals for co-authoring of learning materials and collaboration from Higher Education institutions will be especially valuable for this session. Interested participants are requested to inform their participation by sending an email and/or join the working group in the FTA Community Portal.
See for more details about the workshop the FTA Campus Wiki