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Edward Mokurai Cherlin
Columbus, IN
Generalist
Serial NGO Founder
Recent Activity
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Edward Mokurai signed the petition | -
Edward Mokurai signed the petition | -
Edward Mokurai signed the petition | -
Edward Mokurai commented on the article |Mokurai: I am suggesting that you teach them the essential software freedoms of the Free Software and Open Source movements, and the media freedoms of Creative Commons. How much of this are you doing?
Bruce Smith: The teaching that goes on at a Sudbury school is more spontaneous than this comment seems to suggest. That is, I could see it coming up in conversation if one of us knows about the movements you describe and finds them relevant; or a student might find out about them and ask someone to tell them more.
:So to answer your question, I don't know how often and in what depth these things come up in various Sudbury schools. We trust in freedom, responsibility, and the random way in which people encounter and explore what's important.
I'm offering to facilitate that discussion. I will of course ask around to find out more about Free Software and Creative Commons use in Sudbury schools, but everybody should know that I am available to explain what the movement for Software and Copyright Freedoms is about, and to put you into contact with those who can help you get started or help your students from novice to guru level.
See, for example,
o http://www.flossmanuals.net/
o http://earthtreasury.org/worknet/
o http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/ -
Edward Mokurai commented on the article |
Bruce Smith: Have you considered contacting individual schools and asking?
Certainly. I'm getting ready to contact many schools, now that I have something to show them on teaching concepts and skills of math and Computer Science. -
Edward Mokurai commented on the article |I don't believe in making moral decisions for other people. What do the Zimabweans say about food donations? What do they ask for?
How about letting them become legal refugees somewhere else, with proper financial support for feeding and housing them, and educating their children, and a usable communications system so that they can talk to the world about their plight? How about allowing them to immigrate to other countries legally? How about not stigmatizing them as the dirty, ugly, nasty and above all foreign poor who are trying to steal our jobs and destroy our culture if they do manage to get out? Would any of that go over well with them? Don't ask me. Ask them.
Or better still, what if they gave a dictatorship, and everybody left? What if there were nobody left to oppress? -
Edward Mokurai commented on the article |
If you are going to give students the freedom to choose how and what to learn, which I support entirely, you ought to give them the freedom to appropriate as much information as possible, which commercial software vendors and commercial publishers are going to great lengths to prevent. Not just the freedom to read a book, listen to music, to run a program, or watch a movie, but the freedom to modify, remix, and redistribute all of it in any way that suits them.
I am suggesting that you teach them the essential software freedoms of the Free Software and Open Source movements, and the media freedoms of Creative Commons. How much of this are you doing?
My organization, Earth Treasury, has a plan for the systematic creation of Free Digital Learning materials on every subject, for every age, and in as many languages as we can manage. Would your teachers, students, parents, etc. be interested in gettin involved?
We don't teach Computer Literacy, where students get into the computer lab for one or two periods a week, but cannot use computers in the classroom or for homework, and especially not on tests. We think that that is just like having one room full of books, paper, and pencils, and letting the children in there once or twice a week, but not allowing reading or writing inthe classroom or for homework. Who could believe that that would result in literacy?
We do one-to-one computing with One Laptop Per Child, where children own their computers and can use them for everything. We provide collaborative software, and don't treat working together as cheating, as conventional schools do. We encourage discovery and making things, and we have good results from schools that have tried the program in many countries, including the US. -
Edward Mokurai commented on the article |For those who would like to volunteer in Sri Lanka: http://www.sarvodaya.org/
For those who would like to volunteer elsewhere in the world:
http://www.wiserearth.org/
Don't forget the Peace Corps, Teachers Without Borders, and all the rest.
But volunteer at home, too. I helped build the one-room schoolhouse that my children first attended. I'm working on providing computers for schools and museums, and not just the hardware. I will be in there teaching students and teachers alike what these computers are capable of, and how to integrate them into the curriculum, now that it is practical for every child to have one.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Mokurai -
Edward Mokurai commented on the article |We at Earth Treasury and our partners in creating Free digital textbooks think we have the key to removing the stranglehold of Texas and California over textbook publishing in the US. When textbooks don't cost money, the bureaucracy surrounding their purchase will become irrelevant. When teachers and students can correct and improve textbooks without incurring costs for reprinting, no special interests can intervene. (Creationists will be free to write their own, but without the hope of imposing them on the rest of us, I doubt they will bother.)
See http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Creating_textbooks for the outline of the program, and those who have expressed interest in joining our efforts. -
Edward Mokurai signed the petition |
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