[TOS] Creation of open source curriculum, open invitation

Matt Jadud matt at jadud.com
Wed Jul 2 16:41:42 UTC 2014


Hi Joseph,

I'm interested (in a way), but it sounds like you might have conflicting
goals.

1. A textbook is an artefact that brings a lot of words together. It is
"content." Books *sometimes* imply a curriculum.

2. A curriculum (or course, module, etc.) is a value-, goal-, and
objective-driven educational process specification that has many design
facets that are not easily enumerated as "content."

For example, I've had the opportunity to take part in workshops that engage
faculty in design processes that consider the course as a learning
experience that is more than content delivery. Dee Fink's work provides a
reasonable example of this kind of design process; here's an 8-pager that's
fairly concise:

http://www.wcu.edu/WebFiles/PDFs/facultycenter_SignificantLearning.pdf

So, without bike shedding, I think you need to decide what you want to do.
If you want to write a book, write a book. It's content. You'll organize
and engage in that process in a way that leads you to a book.

If you want to design an engaging, active learning experience for learners
that can be delivered as part of a classroom (or other) learning
experience, great. If you want to try and achieve the same thing as a MOOC,
kudos to you. These are all different design targets, however. (For
example, if you want this to serve an 9th grade world civ experience,
that's different from seeing it as part of the ACM curricular knowledge
area re: professionalism, or as a 3-hour workshop that might be delivered
during a monthly makerspace meeting.)

>From your initial note, it sounds like you want a book. If you want to
think about designing a workshop, or rich, reusable exercises/course
modules, I'd be willing to take part in/help inform the conversation/design
process.

Cheers,
Matt



On Wed, Jul 2, 2014 at 12:05 PM, Joseph B. Ottinger <jottinge at redhat.com>
wrote:

> Hello, all.
>
>
> My name is Joseph Ottinger. I'm an engineer at Red Hat, presently tasked
> with creating a curriculum for the purpose of providing students with an
> awareness of open source culture, tools, goals, and community.
>
> We are in the beginning stages of creating an open source project around
> the creation of this curriculum, and we would like to invite any interested
> parties to participate. We are passionate around the open source way, and
> think that creating this curriculum through a visible, open process will
> allow it to serve as a model for the concepts it is designed to teach.
>
> We have a general table of contents already, but it's very much only an
> initial concept; consider this an invitation to please help flesh it out
> and improve it, so that we can create the highest quality material
> possible; one of our primary goals is to take this open curriculum and have
> it published as a textbook. Any suggestions are welcomed, from actual
> topical concerns to additional resources to consider.
>
>
> The (current, proposed) table of contents looks like this:
>
>
> 1) Introduction
> 2) Open Source Fundamentals (what "open source" means)
> 3) Communities (defining "community," and interacting with it)
> 4) Legal Aspects
> 5) Principles (what makes "open source" open source)
> 6) Practices and Toolchains (the processes through which open source
> projects operate)
> 7) History and Evolution
> 8) When and Why to Make Something Open Source
> 9) Open Source Cultures (discussing the mores of the different types of
> open source communities)
>
>
> Thank you.
>
>
>
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