[TOS] Teaching Open Source -- connecting again

[Mel Chua]

Hi, Dora -- as promised, I'm sending this back along now in the hopes 
that you're a bit less hosed by millions of responses at this point. Do 
think it might be worth taking some time to talk, or email back and 
forth, to see if there are any overlaps or things it makes sense to 
collaborate on?

Cheers,

--Mel

cc: TOS mailing list

--- original email from 1/30 ---

Subject: Greetings to the GNU Education Project from the TOS community!

Hello, Dora --

My name is Mel Chua, and I'm one of the members of the Teaching Open 
Source community. Although the group name says "open source," we explain 
in the introduction that it's meant to encompass free/libre/open-source 
software and content in all its forms, it's mostly that "TFLOSSAC" is a 
little awkward to pronounce.

We're a little community of practice primarily composed of college-level 
faculty and others interested in getting students *contributing* to Free 
Software projects and communities as part of their coursework -- moving 
beyond simply using Free Software to actually making it, adding to it, 
giving back, and becoming active participants in the Free Software movement.

We come from all over the world, from all sorts of disciplines (from 
journalism to electrical engineering), and from all different sorts of 
schools (from small liberal arts colleges to huge public universities), 
and mostly keep in touch via a mailing list but occasionally meet up at 
academic conferences.

One of the things we've done for a while is teach a summer workshop for 
faculty (http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/POSSE) who are 
interested in designing their courses to include FOSS contribution as a 
component -- instead of working through a "pretend" textbook problem, 
why not have students contribute directly to a living, breathing project?

I'm writing independently (we don't have an elected leadership or 
anything, but I told the list I'd take the initiative to send this 
email) and therefore can only speak for myself, but I would love to hear 
more about your plans for the GNU Education project. I think the other 
folks at TOS would also be curious. And it may be that we have some 
common goals and projects that it might make sense to partner up on -- 
for instance, perhaps teaching those faculty workshops together.

Our mailing list is at 
http://lists.teachingopensource.org/mailman/listinfo/tos, which is the 
best place to follow the conversation and ask questions if you'd like to 
learn more about us. What's the best way for us to follow along with 
what you're doing?

Best,

--Mel