[Discussion] Open source literacy?

Grant Bowman grantbow at partimus.org
Sat Jan 19 01:39:51 PST 2013


The American Radio Relay League in CT is an interesting organization I
joined after getting licensed by the FCC to experiment with radio. I
came across this page describing wireless technology literacy.

http://www.arrl.org/what-is-wireless-technology-literacy

A person who is wireless technology literate:
* Is aware of the many types, capabilities, and limitations of
wireless technology. ·
* Has the ability to select appropriate wireless technology to convey
the message. ·
* Has the ability to adapt and adjust wireless technology to meet
changing conditions to get the task accomplished.
* Has the ability to use wireless technology to enrich life experience.

I see parallels to what we would like to see in computer literacy.
After a student has access to a computer, wifi device or cellular data
device that provides access to the Internet, then what? Replacing the
word wireless with the words open source in the avove statement might
be a useful starting point for a discussion of goals we might strive
toward as we struggle to decide how we measure and talk about our work
and success in the future.

Another thought I tweeted about as @k6cbk is Randall Ross' @rrnwexec
idea that "Ubuntu is not just software." http://bit.ly/SWkUzP via
@planetubuntu This resonates for me though it begs a further
exploration of what we intend for computer literacy and specifically
Linux education.

Thoughts?

Grant


More information about the Discussion mailing list