What we want
Last updated by: collierj (Jan Collier) on 11 November 2009 - 4:21pm
We invite you to share your ideas on how best to use this online community. We really want this community to work for you. This is where you can share anything eg what you think is working well, improvements that could be made, suggested topics, what you have found helpful in other communities .... We look forward to your contributions. The reply button is bottom right.
Parent group:
- If you're member of this group, log-in to post a reply
Jennifer, I am pleased that
Jennifer, I am pleased that I have given you food for thought.
Yes, clarification of the meaning of 'free software' takes some explanantion for those new to the term. The common shorthand is 'free as in free speech not free beer'.
It is nice to hear that ACE community members intent to freely share their works with each other. What copyright exists on these works that are being shared, remixed and redistributed? You also say that they are in "Word or other manipulable formats". I like to point out that a resource in the Word format (I presume you mean MSWord) is not available to everyone. The formats used for MS documents are proprietary, thus that particular software package needs to be used to ensure compatibiltiy. Thus, an imposition is being placed on the user - they have to buy a license to use the software that will read and manipulate the resource.
It is certainly true that products exist, such as OpenOffice, that will read and manipulate MS documents. However, it will never be 100% compatible because MS doesn't release the format so that other programmers can conform to it. This is one of the reasons I prefer the OpenDocument Format http://opendocument.xml.org, an ISO standard and openly available to all.
I am exploring now: Zoho, dimdim Stuff on the list: ShowDocument, DropBox, Doodle, Vyew, FengOffice I have checked the licensing of these
More suggestions welcome
Thanks for your input Victoria. Food for thought for us all, I'd say. First - your point about not being specifically asked for input - we invite all members of this community to please feel free to ask for any tools, etc to be expanded upon, for a session on how to use, etc, at any time. I think that intention is very clear in our postings so far.
Secondly - the concept of "free" in the way we have used it to date is the commonly understood "no financial cost". This wider use is new to me and is taking some getting my head around. It is an excellent topic for debate, and I hope we get some other perspectives here.
For what it's worth, from my perspective, this is already a common practise in ACE circles - most ACE practitioners I know freely share their forms, manuals, lesson plans, etc in Word or other manipulable formats and are relaxed about other people 'cutting and pasting' to make something that suits their personal needs and those of their programmes. I would suggest though that that would not then be called the (original) xyz course outline, etc. Most people too don't actually want, need or require attribution as we all acknowledge that the ideas, methods and resources we all use come from a very long line of ACE practitioners' ideas, reaching back before the 20th Century and across the world.
I look forward to further discussion.
I received an email today
I received an email today that has shifted me from lurking and reading to expressing myself. Part of the message invites members to vote for which online tools we want to learn more about. I quickly followed the link to see what was on offer. I was disappointed for two reasons.
First, the tools have been chosen without input from the community. I could have missed this. If so, please send me the link. Second, for me the tools do not reflect the true spirit of education because they are not free software, as defined by the free software foundation. I think educators, perhaps more than others, should seek out tools that allow anyone to learn how the tool itself works, to study it, change it and share it with others. Writing is not my best craft, WikiEducator has a tutorial on the topic, http://wikieducator.org/Wikieducator_tutorial/What_is_free_content.
Thank you Caryl for posting
Thank you Caryl for posting this topic/request. Your suggestion for collaboration online is the way to go, one template for ACE across New Zealand could be a realistic outcome. We believe this topic would be best discussed in a space of its own so have started at new thread. To follow or add discussions please click here
Enrolment Form
I have been puzzling over how to do the enrolment form in the new ACE enrivonment and have semi decided on the following:
Are you Maori?
Are you Pacific Island?
Was your first learning unsuccessful in
a) English?
b) Mathematics?
If you haven't been able to tick any of the above you will need to pay full fees for this course.
This answers TEC's question, is easy and simple for people to understand and not so embarrassing as having to say they have no school qualifications etc. Even I could tick (b)!
I would value other ACE peoples input P L E A S E
What is ACE?
I'm not joking! This job, as resources person for ACEnet, is exciting me in that I am finding out more and more as I search and as I speak to a range of people, BUT... I am becoming more and more confused as to what the "ACE" we are talking about actually means. As my background is mainly in school-based ACE, I know I approach everything from that perspective - and I'm learning to be more broad in my outlook - but I'd really be interested in what other people have to say about your view of what ACE is now and could be in the future. I have tried in vain to find a definitive description on the TEC website - "ACE" seems to be used, at present anyway, interchangeably with "tertiary education"
Just to stimulate some discussion, here are a few questions:
Does ACE mean everything to do with learning beyond secondary level? Formal or informal? And if so, what about the "community" component?
Is ACE community development rather than education? Where is the boundary? Is there one?
What about community health?
Now that schools-based ACE funding has been gutted and schools have been directed to provide only literacy and numeracy-based courses under TEC funding, is there a sub-category (as alluded to in ministerial press releases) of "hobby ACE"?
Should we categorise ACE further so it better understood, eg formal, non-formal, hobby, essential, unnecessary? (just kidding!)
I will await your responses with great interest - and some confusion that I hope will clear as more members of out ACEnet community discuss this. It would be very useful to have a succinct and specific definition for ACE across the board - is this possible, or even desirable?
Jennifer