[Opensource] Urgent / Important: Is "Computer Science" Science?

[Donna Benjamin]

Amazing.  I wrote this 5 years ago!

I'm baaaacccckkkk!!!!

So much has changed.

Where are you at?

Is OpenSource even vaguely relevant to today's school tech landscape?

Do you Moodle, Drupal, Wordpress, Joomla, Mahara, Koha,
Libre/OpenOffice, Inkscape, Audacity, GIMP...

Or did proprietary software win?

I've been out of the loop.

Seems "the cloud" became the big new shiny - and it is! And so much of
it is powered by opensource.

Computer science IS science.

And Digital Technologies are part of the Australian Curriculum.

So now what?

I went to valatechcamp last week, and heard a speaker from Aarnet
describe a gap... infrastructure literacy... do we really know how
information moves from A to B?

She described digital literacy, digital capability and digital specialty...

That seems useful to me.

Moving beyond "General Capability" toward Specialist knowledge and
skills sounds like the business we're in.

What do you think?

Also - do we have a slack chat somewhere?

- Donna

> Submissions regarding the Draft Senior Science Australian Curriculum
> close **tomorrow**.
> 
> This article in today's age made me think...
> http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/science-subject-comes-under-fire-20120718-22alp.html
> 
> Hang on - Where's computer science?  Oh that's right it doesn't exist in
> the brave new world of the new Australian Curriculum. It's a general
> capability (ICT) or a "Technology" along with design, woodworking,
> cooking and agriculture - in a strand called "Digital Technologies"
> 
> I've been to a couple of Google sponsored workshops advocating for the
> promotion and redevelopment of computer science in high school. #CS4HS
> 
> So I have some thoughts on this. Perhaps you do too?
> 
> You have less than 24 hours to make a submission with your thoughts.
> 
> The draft curriculum is here:
> http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/Info+Sheet+-+Draft+Senior
> +Secondary+Science+FINAL.pdf
> (and hopefully attached)
> 
> Email submissions to Science at acara.edu.au 
> 
> Make sure to use this cover sheet
> http://consultation.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Static/docs/Senior%
> 20Secondary/Senior%20Secondary%20feedback%20cover%20sheet.docx
> 
> docx ? Oh no. Ok. I will attempt to attach it converted to odt.  
> 
> More info here:
> http://consultation.australiancurriculum.edu.au/
> 
> please redistribute or agitate, as you see fit.
> 
> cheers
> Donna
> -- 
> Donna Benjamin - Executive Director
> Creative Contingencies - http://cc.com.au
> ph +61 3 9326 9985 - mob +61 418 310 414

-- 
Donna Benjamin
Project Lead

Catalyst IT Australia Pty Ltd
Melbourne, Australia
mobile: +61 418 310 414
phone: +61 3 9020 5761
email: donna at catalyst-au.net
web: https://www.catalyst-au.net