[TOS] Teaching the concept of Free Software

Alolita Sharma alolita.sharma at gmail.com
Tue Dec 1 23:33:48 UTC 2009


Greg,

I would say that free software ideals come first and last.  First, as a
*very* thin introduction
and a promise to get to it again later -- because at that point the
students really don't even know enough to get it.  And then last as the
coda.

I agree.

The reason that FOSS is potentially useful in the CS/CSEE classroom is
because it allows students to play in large codebases without needing
anyone's permission.  That is tremendously powerful to the aspiring
programmer.

+1

Show that power first.  Get the students to understand, and participate
in, the collaborative development model.  And then, when they start to
"get it", that's when the deeper questions come to the surface: what makes
this cooperative model possible?  What rights do people have to this thing
that they all share?  Once they're actually participating with other
people, these questions become pragmatic questions that matter.

It is important to emphasize learning by example. In my experience, students
who are hands-on with source code and associate success with collaboration
tend to have a deeper appreciation for the ideals of freedom, rights and
sharing. Teaching philosophy without the practical aspects of collaborative
software development doesn't lead to long-term contributors.

Best regards,
Alolita

--
Alolita Sharma
Open Source Initiative (OSI)

On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 2:03 PM, Greg DeKoenigsberg <gdk at redhat.com> wrote:

> On Tue, 1 Dec 2009, Stormy Peters wrote:
>
> > I mentioned TOS in my last weekly update and Richard Stallman asked if
> > people in this group are teaching the concepts of free software as well
> > as the open source model? (Free software, the movement and the ideals as
> > opposed to open source software.)
> >
> > Since many of the materials I've seen include a history that usually
> > mentions Richard, I'm thinking many of you do ... but I'd like to put
> > the question out there and introduce Richard to the group.
> >
> > I'm also sure that if people are interested in covering it in your
> > classes, we could find guest speakers from the community as well.
>
> Speaking from the perspective of the textbook effort -- a textbook
> intended, recall, for the complete neophyte -- I would say that free
> software ideals come first and last.  First, as a *very* thin introduction
> and a promise to get to it again later -- because at that point the
> students really don't even know enough to get it.  And then last as the
> coda.
>
> The reason that FOSS is potentially useful in the CS/CSEE classroom is
> because it allows students to play in large codebases without needing
> anyone's permission.  That is tremendously powerful to the aspiring
> programmer.
>
> Show that power first.  Get the students to understand, and participate
> in, the collaborative development model.  And then, when they start to
> "get it", that's when the deeper questions come to the surface: what makes
> this cooperative model possible?  What rights do people have to this thing
> that they all share?  Once they're actually participating with other
> people, these questions become pragmatic questions that matter.
>
> --g
>
> --
> Computer Science professors should be teaching open source.
> Help make it happen.   Visit http://teachingopensource.org.
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