[okfn-discuss] FTA Educational Materials available!

Tue Jan 12 15:25:09 UTC 2010

Dear all,

We are pleased to announce that the first set of FTA educational
materials is available online! Please note that these are preliminary
versions of the materials. We expect to publish the final versions, with
only minor changes, in a couple of days. Please read below for more
information on the materials, as well as about the FTA materials in our
courses and learning methodology and about the FTA in general. Enjoy!

	Hinde ten Berge,
	on behalf of the Free Technology Academy

1. Educational materials available

The Free Technology Academy is proud to announce the online publication
of the first set of course books that correspond to the first two
modules of the FTA programme: "The concepts of Free Software and Open
Standards" and "The GNU/Linux Operating System".

The first book, "Introduction to Free Software", introduces the reader
to the main concepts behind Free Software: the history of the movement,
its philosophical background, the most important projects and
experiences, the motivations of community and developers. It was written
by Jesús M. González-Barahona, Joaquín Seoane Pascual and Gregorio
Robles and coordinated by Jordi Mas Hernández and David Megías Jiménez.
This book is a translation and updated version of the Spanish
"Introducción al Software Libre" and it was created using the SELF Platform.

This book is the main learning material for the FTA Module 1: "The
concepts of Free Software and Open Standards". You can collect a copy
from: http://ftacademy.org/materials/fsm/1#1

We have also published "GNU/Linux Advanced Administration", covering the
main knowledge and skills needed by GNU/Linux systems administrators.
This document, with more than 500 pages, was written by Josep Jorba
Esteve and Remo Suppi Boldrito with the former as coordinator. The list
of topics includes Unix history, migration and coexistence with non-free
systems, administrator tools, shell scripting, kernel configuration and
compilation, network administration, network services, data
administration and much more.

This book is the main learning material for the FTA Module 2: "The
GNU/Linux Operating System". You can collect a copy from:
http://ftacademy.org/materials/fsm/2#1

Both books are published under a free, copyleft license. You are
encouraged to use, translate, adapt and redistribute these materials.

2. FTA materials in our courses and learning methodology

The FTA learning materials are available to anyone without restrictions.
We publish them so anyone can use them for any purpose: self learning,
translation, research, use in other educational institutions or even
publishing with commercial purposes.

However, FTA courses are much more than these educational materials.
Enrolling in the online courses has several benefits, derived from a
full learning experience that involves a tutor and a study group formed
by other students. These are some of the advantages of FTA courses:

    * you are guided by the tutor through the most relevant sources and
materials in a 12 week course programme,
    * there are group discussions to reflect on the topics of the course
with other learners and the tutor,
    * there are individual and group exercises to consolidate your
knowledge,
    * the continuous assessment methodology enables ongoing assistance
and feedback,
    * from time to time, experts are invited to give a guest lecture
through video and discuss with FTA learners,
    * after passing the course you are entitled to an FTA Certificate,
recognised by the participating universities,
    * the FTA works to make professional opportunities available for its
alumni through a network of partners.

To know more about the FTA learning methodology, please see
http://ftacademy.org/methodology and about the FTA certificates, see
http://ftacademy.org/courses/recognition

This is the last week for registration, join this unique learning
experience! http://ftacademy.org/courses/programme

3. About the Free Technology Academy

A Consortium formed by the Open University of Catalonia (Spain), the
Open University of the Netherlands and 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 will
be taught completely online in a virtual campus based on the Campus
Project interoperability framework.

Following the Open Educational Resources movement, all learning
materials will be 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.

    * More information: http://www.ftacademy.org
    * Contact information: contact at ftacademy.org