Hi!
The Italian Ministry of Education University and Research (MIUR) offers every year a series of obligatory written tests in order to evaluate the levels of student learning. Those tests are carried out by the National Institute for the Evaluation of Educational System (INVALSI)[1] from which it derives its name: "INVALSI tests". The INVALSI is subject to supervision by the MIUR and of course they should work in a neutral way towards the market of the software, but unfortunately it is not.
The INVALSI provides schools with an XLS file which contains macros to record the evaluation of the students. Of course this file doesn't work with Free Software and doing so the INVALSI force schools to use proprietary software.
Unfortunately the XLS file was provided to me by a school, but they asked to me to not spread it (for the moment). I posted a screencapture of the macro in action on proprietary software.
http://lugscandiano.org/index.php/File:Invalsi_non-free.png
I would like that the FSFE get active with the MIUR and the INVALSI to ask them to solve this problem of freedom. Of course I will be glad to get myself active to this campaign and I can ask for the cooperation of the LUG Scandiano, to which I belong, which in the past has been very active on the PDFreaders campaign. Maybe we could even ask for a support of the Italian Community of LibreOffice and perhaps also of The Document Foundation to give more weight to our eventual action.
Next weekend I will meet Italo Vignoli, from The Document Foundation, in an event dedicated to Libre Office organized by LUG Scandiano. If you think it might be useful I could talk to him about this idea.
Please let me know.
Ciao, Massimo
1. http://www.invalsi.it/invalsi/index.php
Hello Massimo,
Sorry for the awful late reply. I was too busy to follow this list and just saw your message below.
On Wed, May 15, 2013 at 11:09:55AM +0200, Massimo Barbieri wrote:
The Italian Ministry of Education University and Research (MIUR) offers every year a series of obligatory written tests in order to evaluate the levels of student learning. Those tests are carried out by the National
Is this mandatory nation-wide? Is there maybe a law or regulation that conflicts with this practice? We are having a similar case in the Netherlands: http://fsfe.org/campaigns/nledu/
The INVALSI provides schools with an XLS file which contains macros to record the evaluation of the students. Of course this file doesn't work with Free Software and doing so the INVALSI force schools to use proprietary software.
Since when are they doing this? Has anybody complained before?
I would like that the FSFE get active with the MIUR and the INVALSI to ask them to solve this problem of freedom. Of course I will be glad to
I will do what I can, but the main work will have to be done by people who speak Italian.
get myself active to this campaign and I can ask for the cooperation of the LUG Scandiano, to which I belong, which in the past has been very active on the PDFreaders campaign. Maybe we could even ask for a support of the Italian Community of LibreOffice and perhaps also of The Document Foundation to give more weight to our eventual action.
Great. The more allies we can get, the better. Have you done anything in this regard?
Next weekend I will meet Italo Vignoli, from The Document Foundation, in an event dedicated to Libre Office organized by LUG Scandiano. If you think it might be useful I could talk to him about this idea.
How did it go? Did you mention it during the meeting?
Sorry again for the late reply.
Greetings,
Guido