In response to the thead Fridays for Free Software ;)
I am going to try and share a few thoughts from my own experiences.
I tried to approach people such as digital unite in the UK, who are working to bridge the digital divide by developing digital skills.
They work on a set curriculum on how to use digital kit, use the Internet, use e-mail, social media etc, and this is set by people above them and funded by government.
The issue is that they teach proprietary software, but at the same time business is using this. There is little traction to move from that, and little incentive to move from that, despite the skills shortage for Linux admins for example.
These courses are pushing people towards Microsoft, and Facebook (which I refuse to use Facebook on privacy and ethical grounds)
There is however the learning machine who offer ingots (ITQ) using free and open source software, but unless the trainers are taught to use this
The problem, here and on user groups, is people don't exactly need training in say Libreoffice so don't ask for it, new users wanting to learn may not ask or if they do they get told MS Office is standard, we don't offer Libreoffice courses.
I am not sure what the solution is here.
Paul
Hi Paul, thanks for sharing your experiences!
Helping others to understand Free Software is an ongoing task and it needs wit and patience. :)
Am Freitag 03 Mai 2019 13:01:52 schrieb Paul Sutton:
I tried to approach people such as digital unite in the UK, who are working to bridge the digital divide by developing digital skills.
That is https://www.digitalunite.com/ I guess.
They work on a set curriculum on how to use digital kit, use the Internet, use e-mail, social media etc, and this is set by people above them and funded by government.
One of the next step can be to find out who has an influence about what is taught and then start reasoning with them. (There is quite a bit of evidence that teaching skill with and for Free Software products is better. Maybe some of this can be used to argu the point.)
Best Regards, Bernhard
Hi
On of the digital skills sites is https://www.learnmyway.com/ I think th e issue with these digital unite et al is lack of volunteers who are the digital champions with these skills to share them.
It needs education on open standards, but the argument is that everyone uses MS word, and closed software as it seen as 'standard'. Sites suchas learnmyway also cover how to use facebook, and make no mentionof privacy aware social media.
While we can make an argument to them for using open standards, we can perhaps spend our time teaching via the Internet,
Within the free software community there is some 'mentoring' such as within Debian, I have requested this as I need to learn packaging.
I also feel that here is also an emphasis, in our communities, on self learning, self research, having a go rather than simply asking (or in some cases demanding help). An expectation to search before asking.
If we perhaps offered something similar to debian-mentoring but for general free software, sign post people to similar help and within that discussion promote people like the learning machine, and once we have 'educated' our way, with the passion we have for this, as this has to come from the heart, and not from the fact you are being paid to do it.
End goal would perhaps be to teach people how to contribute in an effective way
All this can be done via e-mail, and may have the effect of producing people who then go to digitial unite , learn my way to either be digital champions with free software skills or ask for more help in these skills which will create the demand that way.
I need help with packaging, using tools like git, github, salsa.debian.org properly, local providers are not going to do this, until there is a demand.
What is also needed is recognition that these skills are useful, we in the community don't need a qualification to prove our skills, we learn and help each other and recognize each others skills.
Just a thought, I can try and convince people to offer training in libre office but one person won't make any difference.
Paul
On 06/05/2019 09:04, Bernhard E. Reiter wrote:
Hi Paul, thanks for sharing your experiences!
Helping others to understand Free Software is an ongoing task and it needs wit and patience. :)
Am Freitag 03 Mai 2019 13:01:52 schrieb Paul Sutton:
I tried to approach people such as digital unite in the UK, who are working to bridge the digital divide by developing digital skills.
That is https://www.digitalunite.com/ I guess.
They work on a set curriculum on how to use digital kit, use the Internet, use e-mail, social media etc, and this is set by people above them and funded by government.
One of the next step can be to find out who has an influence about what is taught and then start reasoning with them. (There is quite a bit of evidence that teaching skill with and for Free Software products is better. Maybe some of this can be used to argu the point.)
Best Regards, Bernhard
Discussion mailing list Discussion@lists.fsfe.org https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion
This mailing list is covered by the FSFE's Code of Conduct. All participants are kindly asked to be excellent to each other: https://fsfe.org/about/codeofconduct
Further to this, I think this morning (6/5/2019) on BBC breakfast there was an article with regard to a company, in Sheffield, UK who were so fed up with the lack of skills they are setting up their own training academy so they can develop the skills they need.
In light of this, would it be worth setting up something like fsfe-education, so that we can discuss, co-ordinate with other free software projects, Debian, Mint, document foundation, apache, gitlab, learning machine (ok they are a training provider), LPI, RedHat etc and many others and see if we can find a way to help people develop the skills that industry really want and value.
Perhaps also working with employers, and initiatives such as google summer of code, outreachy, (to promote to hard to reach and under-represented groups) and others they can help provide paid internships, where as, as projects we can give people a good grounding in how to contribute to development, be it writing, testing, reporting issues, documenting software. There is now Google Season of Documentation to do the latter.
What we also need to do is stand up for these skills, If I can type a report does it matter if I use, libreoffice, or LaTeX, and others use Docx (other that the latter being at the mercy of Microsoft in 5, 10 or 15 years time) Surely the content and how it is written is important.
Perhaps, if we go it alone, we as a community write free software as a collaborative effort, If we encourage people to contribute to free software it should be something you can put on your CV / Resume and have it count for something.
I am already on IRC for Debian and the Debian-users list so part of my contribution could be to just carry on as I am doing, helping people, answering questions etc.
I am dis-illusioned with part of Adult education not really providing the same opportunities as those offered to other age groups, in the UK there seems to be help for young people up to 25, help for over 50's but nothing for very very little for those in between, who maybe those leaving the forces, career changers, people returning after having had children and many others.
What we do needs to be open to ALL ages, do that and we become properly inclusive and leave others behind.
Just a thought,
Paul
On 06/05/2019 13:41, Paul Sutton wrote:
Hi
On of the digital skills sites is https://www.learnmyway.com/ I think th e issue with these digital unite et al is lack of volunteers who are the digital champions with these skills to share them.
It needs education on open standards, but the argument is that everyone uses MS word, and closed software as it seen as 'standard'. Sites suchas learnmyway also cover how to use facebook, and make no mentionof privacy aware social media.
While we can make an argument to them for using open standards, we can perhaps spend our time teaching via the Internet,
Within the free software community there is some 'mentoring' such as within Debian, I have requested this as I need to learn packaging.
I also feel that here is also an emphasis, in our communities, on self learning, self research, having a go rather than simply asking (or in some cases demanding help). An expectation to search before asking.
If we perhaps offered something similar to debian-mentoring but for general free software, sign post people to similar help and within that discussion promote people like the learning machine, and once we have 'educated' our way, with the passion we have for this, as this has to come from the heart, and not from the fact you are being paid to do it.
End goal would perhaps be to teach people how to contribute in an effective way
All this can be done via e-mail, and may have the effect of producing people who then go to digitial unite , learn my way to either be digital champions with free software skills or ask for more help in these skills which will create the demand that way.
I need help with packaging, using tools like git, github, salsa.debian.org properly, local providers are not going to do this, until there is a demand.
What is also needed is recognition that these skills are useful, we in the community don't need a qualification to prove our skills, we learn and help each other and recognize each others skills.
Just a thought, I can try and convince people to offer training in libre office but one person won't make any difference.
Paul
On 06/05/2019 09:04, Bernhard E. Reiter wrote:
Hi Paul, thanks for sharing your experiences!
Helping others to understand Free Software is an ongoing task and it needs wit and patience. :)
Am Freitag 03 Mai 2019 13:01:52 schrieb Paul Sutton:
I tried to approach people such as digital unite in the UK, who are working to bridge the digital divide by developing digital skills.
That is https://www.digitalunite.com/ I guess.
They work on a set curriculum on how to use digital kit, use the Internet, use e-mail, social media etc, and this is set by people above them and funded by government.
One of the next step can be to find out who has an influence about what is taught and then start reasoning with them. (There is quite a bit of evidence that teaching skill with and for Free Software products is better. Maybe some of this can be used to argu the point.)
Best Regards, Bernhard
Discussion mailing list Discussion@lists.fsfe.org https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion
This mailing list is covered by the FSFE's Code of Conduct. All participants are kindly asked to be excellent to each other: https://fsfe.org/about/codeofconduct
Hi Paul,
Am 6. Mai 2019 14:41:31 MESZ schrieb Paul Sutton zleap@zleap.net:
Just a thought, I can try and convince people to offer training in libre office but one person won't make any difference.
I strongly believe that one person can make a hugh difference.
I live in Hannover and I am thinking about to teach people LibreOffice. I don't have any concrete plans yet but I am thinking about a workshop with e.g. LibreOffice Base and how to build a DBMS for your community or something like that to manage members and finances. And I am just one person. ;-)
Best, Christian
Am Montag 06 Mai 2019 14:41:31 schrieb Paul Sutton:
On of the digital skills sites is https://www.learnmyway.com/ I think th e issue with these digital unite et al is lack of volunteers who are the digital champions with these skills to share them.
The question here is: Who decided on what is taught? Following a few links it seems that https://www.goodthingsfoundation.org/ is the organisation behind it.
I believe one approach can be to approach them with an argument why teaching Free Software is better for their goals. How to approach them depends on how they can be reached and are willing to discuss their point of view.
There are many advantages for teaching Free Software components. (Needless to repeat them here.) The question is: Which argument would convince them.
Best Regards, Bernhard