One of the main research topics at the LibreSoft group is the quantitative measurement of Free Software development patterns and characteristics in order to gain knowledge on the development process, mainly by studying the different agents that participate in it, the use of development and development-supporting tools and the methods used.

LibreSoft offers a Master Programme on Free Software that leads to an official Master Degree by the URJC with two editions, one in Galicia and, since this year, one in Madrid.

The leader of the research team and renowned Free Software hacker, Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona, explains:

“The FTA initiative allows us to share and build together with other universities working in similar fields. ‘Free Technology’ is a wide field where diverse approaches and perspectives can co-exist and complement each other. We want to collaborate with the FTA in order to enable that diversity.”

The URJC LibreSoft group will contribute courses like Quality Assessment of Free Software, one of its main research topics, to the FTA programme.

Apart from that, the LibreSoft group is involved in the taskforce for an International Master Programme in Free Software, where FTA partners cooperate to design a common curriculum.

FTA founding director Wouter Tebbens about LibreSoft/URJC:

“LibreSoft members have been contributing to the FTA in many ways for a long time. Several of their members are authors of FTA course books and Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona is a member of the Scientific Council from the beginning. We share the principles of cooperation, free software and free knowledge and it is a great honour and pleasure to work more closely together.”

LibreSoft researchers Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona, Joaquin Seoane Pascual and Gregorio Robles are the authors of the FTA course book “Introduction to Free Software”. Its development was coordinated by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and has been in use at that university for several years in Spanish and Catalan. It was later translated into English by the SELF Project and the FTA. The use of a copyleft license enabled this cooperation from scratch and continues to protect the freedoms of users and teachers around the world.

About the Free Technology Academy

A Consortium formed by the Open University of Catalonia (Spain), the Open University of the Netherlands and the University of Agder (Norway) and led by the Free Knowledge Institute (FKI), the FTA has received the support from the EC’s Lifelong Learning Programme to set up an international educational programme on Free Software. The courses are taught completely online in a virtual campus based on the Campus Project interoperability framework.

Following the Open Educational Resources movement, all learning materials are freely available through the Internet. The use of Free Software (also referred to as Open Source software or Libre Software) is rapidly expanding in governmental and private organisations. However, still only a limited number of ICT professionals, teachers and decision makers have sufficient knowledge and expertise in these new fields. The Free Technology Academy aims to address this gap by providing high level courses that fit into larger Master Programmes at the participating universities.

Registrations for the first term of the 2011 programme are still open!

You can register for these courses until January 3rd, don’t leave it for the last minute! Register now at https://ftacademy.org/registration-form

More information: http://www.ftacademy.org

Contact information: contact@ftacademy.org

About the University Rey Juan Carlos

The Rey Juan Carlos University (Spanish: Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, URJC) is a public university located in Madrid (Spain). It was created in 1996 and has the Latin motto Non nova, sed nove (“Not new things, but in a new way”). It is the most modern of the six public universities in the Autonomous Community of Madrid, provides teaching for some 25,000 students on four different campuses. The University’s commitment to teaching and research excellence and its collaboration with industry and business, combined with superb facilities and a marked international profile make the URJC a point of reference among Spain’s universities as they face the challenges of the 21st century. The URJC is fully committed to undertaking academic research as is evidenced by its own initiative to offer incentives to increase scientific output. The Centre for Innovation, Technology and Knowledge Transfer (CINTTEC) has been commissioned to manage and further technological development at the University, encouraging the transfer of science and technology to industry, while the Technology Support Centre (CAT) makes its facilities available to academic teaching staff, researchers and local firms.

Libresoft offers Software Engineering scientists the possibility not only of having a closer look at the product that is being created, but also of studying in detail the whole development process and its technical, social and economic consequences. The main research topic is the quantitative measurement of libre software development patterns and characteristics in order to gain knowledge on the process, mainly by studying the different agents that participate in it, the use of the different development and development-supporting tools as well as the methods that have been followed.

More information: http://master.libresoft.es/home

Source: Press Release

EDULEARN10 will be a unique International Forum for those who wish to present their projects and discuss the latest innovations and results in the field of New Technologies in Education, E-learning and methodologies applied to Education and Research.

This conference will be held at international level. The attendance of more than 500 delegates from 65 different countries is expected.

Two ISBN publications will be produced with all the accepted abstracts and papers. They will serve as a database of innovation projects in Education and New Learning Technologies.

In addition to the technical issues of the conference programme, the conference website provides you with tourist information on the city of Barcelona, unique for its cultural, artistic and historical richness, lovely surroundings and nice beaches of the well-known “Costa Brava”.

Source: iatd

As part of this work the ROLE project is investigating and evaluating the use of Personal Learning Environments.
The ROLE workshop will take place on Wednesday 7 July from 14:00 – 19.30 and is free for all conference participants. Further details may be found here.

Personal Learning Environments (PLE) include the tools, communities, and services that constitute the individual educational platforms learners use to direct their own learning and pursue educational goals. The idea of the PLE represents a shift away from the model in which students consume information through independent channels such as the library, a textbook, or an LMS, moving instead to a model where students draw connections from a growing matrix of resources that they select and organize. Because they emphasize relationships, PLEs can promote authentic learning by incorporating expert feedback into learning activities and resources. A PLE also puts students in charge of their own learning processes, challenging them to reflect on the tools and resources that help them learn best. By design, a PLE is created from self-direction, and therefore the responsibility for organization—and thereby for learning—rests with the learner. (7 things you should know about Personal Learning Environments, Educause 2009).

The PLE Conference is intended to produce a space for researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas, experience and research around the development and implementation of PLEs including the design of environments, sociological and educational issues and their effectiveness and desirability as (informal) learning spaces.

Whilst the conference includes a traditional research paper strand, we also encourage proposals for sessions in different formats including workshops, posters, debates, cafe sessions, hands on sessions and demonstrations. There will be a Spanish strand, so contributions in Spanish are also welcome!

We will also provide opportunities for unconferencing events, including the provision of spaces for informal meetings and discussions. Although the main conference takes place on 8th and 9th of July, there will be an informal launch event (with wine and tapas!) on the evening of Wednesday 7th.

As well as the face to face sessions, the conference will be supported by a variety of different online spaces. You can now join the PLE 2010 Crowdvine; and the YouTube group for the PLE conference at http://www.youtube.com/group/PLE2010CONF.

The YouTube group will also be used for the Mediacast Contest: a celebration of User Generated Content with awards for the best three mediacast productions on Personal Learning Environments.

Selected papers will be published by the International Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments.

The PLE Conference 2010 is supported by the i2CAT Foundation.

Source: The PLE Conference

EDEN invites the professional community of learning to contribute to its 2010 annual conference in Valencia Spain on 09-12 June 2010:

This year’s conference theme is: “Media inspiration for learning , What makes the impact ?”

The event will explore the diversified choice of media and it’s impact on Teachers’ and learners’ abilities since New social media culture has broaden human capacity and reshaped identity and community.

The diffusion of digital creative content and the increase of online and mobile platforms generates unprecedented opportunities for the world of learning since it provides changeable, participatory, and rapidly re-created information.

The opportunity offered by digital media and virtual reality leads to the development of new organic learning environments. A major challenge is how to turn these environments into instrumental knowledge.  And that’s what the conference is about:

Acting as the supporters of professional development of ODL Distance Learning and e-learning,  EDEN conferences have proven their potential to attract an essential pool of valuable contributions from leading practitioners and academics from all over the world.

Registration is available until 1 June 2010    more…

Below are the main Conference Themes:

Principles and Implications

* How can we use existing and emerging technologies to create added value for learning?
* Educational research and the new forms of learning – how can the gap be reduced?
* What are the new learning strategies and methodology/pedagogy changes provided by the new learning tools?
Methods

* Digital pedagogy and success factors in the new technology environment
* E-skills and the learning organisation: from digital literacy to knowledge management
* Blending and integrating – Combination of delivery modes in different settings
* How can the new media best upgrade distance learning? How can customized distance learning tools best support e-learning?
* How to promote the standardisation and professionalisation of the e-learning methods?

Innovative Media Applications and the Social Web

* Experience and experiments with the “hot technology” tools for learning
* Games based learning: development and application
What is the impact of open educational content and resources?
* Changing learning styles and identities during lifelong and life wide learning
* How do students effectively learn, build their relationships and participate in an educational social life?
* How does the social web transform learning culture and behaviour?

The European e-learning citizen’s practice

* Distance and e-learning in non-formal and informal learning situations
* Validation and accreditation of prior learning experience
Policy and practice: the e-learning experience on national, regional and institutional levels
* E-learning for the improvement of the uptake of lifelong learning in Europe
* European and international collaboration in media supported learning: results of EU programmes

Improving the efficiency of (e)-learning

* How to identify best practices in the new environments?
* How to ensure the effectiveness of the new learning tools, and their synergy with mainstream initiatives?
* How to measure collaborative learning efforts?
* E-learning effectiveness: evaluation and assessment
* E-learning from competitiveness, marketability and cost-effectiveness perspective

Keynote Speakers

- Martin Bean, Vice-Chancellor, The Open University, United Kingdom
- Martine Vidal, Chief Editor of the Journal “Distances et savoirs”, France
- George Siemens, Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute, Athabasca University, Canada
- Andy DiPaolo, Executive Director, Stanford Center for Professional Development, Senior Associate Dean, School of Engineering Stanford University, USA
- Ciaran McCormack, Creative Director, IADT: Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Ireland
- Bernard Luskin, Provost and CEO for global eLearning Programs, Touro College and Touro University, USA

The Exhibition Area will take place in the Hall 1 and the conferences will take place in different Halls of the South Convention and Cogress centre IFEMA.

The EXPOELEARNING will have a high educational conferences programme, in which it will deal with the new applications and point of view of e-Learning.

You certainly know all about e-Learning and the last technologies, but the question is: what will e-Learning bring to? Come and know the U-Learnig (Global Learning)

The e-Learning is our present time and also our future: simulations, digital contents, PDAs and mobile phones, virtual reality, serious games, TDT, etc.

The Best Speakers

This conference attracts the best Speakers with a big experience in public presentations and a good knowledge of the subjects proposed. Our Programme Committee will evaluate the candidates and will give the priority to the most innovative subjects, the originality and quality of the presentations.

Sessions Programme at EXPOELEARNING 2010

• INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM: works and opinion of JAVIER FERN?DEZ AGUADO.
• VIRTUAL CAMPUS: meeting point among University & e-Learning.
• MOODLEPARTY: all about Moodle and its main function into the companies (sponsor CV& A Consulting)
• EDUCAPARTY: practical activities and interchange of experiences among teachers, all about the use of ICT (Information and Comunication Technology).
• INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL CAMPUS:  high level programme, seminaries in English and other languages.
• MEETING AMONG PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
• FESTIVAL OF THE MULTIMEDIA AND EDUCATIONAL CINEMA
• CONGRESS OF DEBUGGED TRAINING
• E-LEARNING GLOBAL FORUM
• EMPLOYMENT FORUM: our way of fighting against the crisis, opportunities to find a new job.
• WORKSHOP: networking of a lot of entrepreneurial contacts between exhibitors and speakers and big opportunities to know companies interested in new products, courses, platforms, and services of e-Learning.

During the two day of EXPOELEAERNING, you will find:

• The best Speakers of national and international companies
• Professional experts of all the word
• Workshops, opportunities of negotiation with several important companies
• Exhibition Zone: Stands of products and services of the biggest companies

There will be companies of all Latin America, Europe and Asia.

INTED 2010 will be an International Forum for those who wish to present their projects and innovations in Education and Technology, having also the opportunity to discuss the main issues and results in the field of Education and Research. The general aim of the conference is to promote international collaboration in Education and Technology in all educational fields and disciplines. The attendance of more than 500 delegates from 70 different countries is expected.

The INTED 2010 will cover the following topics:

• General Issues

• Experiences in Education
• New Trends in the Higher Education Area
• International Projects
• Pedagogical & Didactical Innovations
• Research in Education
• Virtual Universities
• Technological Issues in Education
• Computer Supported Collaborative Work
• Educational Software and Serious Games
• Curriculum Design and Innovation
• Quality assurance in Education
• University-Industry Collaboration
• E-content Management and Development

Any person interested in education, technology and development may attend including: Academics, Researchers, Lifelong learning educators, Technical staff, Secondary, vocational, or tertiary educators, Professionals from the private and public sectors, Technologists and Scientifics, School counselors, principals and teachers, Education policy development representatives, General personnel from vocational sectors, Student counselors, Career/employment officers, Education advisers, Student Unions, Bridging program lecturers & support staff, Library personnel, International support and services staff and Open learning specialists.

The technical program of the conference is very rich and diverse. This event is not to be missed.