Futuerlab do it again Social Software and learning report and potential of open source for education

Two right on reports on hot issues
Number one




Social software and learning
By Martin Owen, Lyndsay Grant, Steve Sayers and Keri Facer


This report explores the relationship between the emergence of social
software and the personalisation of education. It suggests that there
is a changing view of what education is for, with an emphasis on the
need for young people to develop the skills necessary for today's
evolving global knowledge economy. Alongside this development is the
rapid growth of social software, characterised as software that
supports group interaction, and by combining these two trends there is
significant potential to see a new approach to education.

The potential of open source approaches for education By Seb Bacon and Teresa Dillon Free, Libre, Open Source Software (FLOSS) refers to any software distributed under a licence that allows users to change or share the software source code. Futurelab’s interest in this area stems from the belief that FLOSS provides an example of peer-production which is driven by collaborative, social modes of interaction and knowledge exchange. This paper discusses some of the potential ways in which the approaches that characterise FLOSS might be applied in educational contexts. For both pieces of view online and PDF versions at http://www.futurelab.org.uk/research/opening_education.htm great stuff another thing to read !!!