rough

toc

About Leonardo Programme
[|Leonardo da Vinci Programme] - Description of the programme [|Leonardo da Vinci Agencies] - list of national agencies [|Application Form] - link (application form in english)

About US
Inchicore College of Further Education, Dublin, Ireland. We are a further education college catering for over 800 students in the vocational sector. Full details of our college and courses may be found on the [|college website]

Proposed Title
Promoting the use of FLOSS in the VET sector.

Summary of Project
Because of the limited funding available for computers and software in the VET sector, it is imperative that such organisations achieve the best return on investment. One possible solution in the adoption of free/libre/open source software (FLOSS). In fact, it is a recommendation of the eEurope Action Plan. This project aims to establish current practice in relation to FLOSS in the VET sector, provide a guide to sourcing and implementing FLOSS in organisations in the VET sector, set up a central repository for FLOSS suitable for use in the VET and also to communicate our findings to the relevant stakeholders such as policy makers, teacher training establishments etc. Using FLOSS can save a huge amount of money in licencing fees. It could also allow schools/colleges to install software that they would otherwise not be able to justify spending money on e.g. Moodle, allowing such schools/collleges to increase the quality of their offerings to their students. This could also help to bridge the digital divide. Also, by using open source, students would be able to access to the same software at home, legally and without cost. The project aims to determine the extent to which open source software is used within the partner countries, the current attitudes towards it, the benefits and risks that using open source software can bring the vocational sector, identify barriers to adopting such software and collate examples of best practice for the implementation of such software. Also provide a guide to selecting the most appropriate FLOSS for your organisation. There is vast range of open source materials available, ranging from operating systems, to content management systems, to productivity tools, to open source texts, to subject specific applications. We intend to provide a guide to locating, evaluating, choosing and implementing such applications.

Overall aim:
 * 1) Conduct research to find out who is using FLOSS, for what and what their experiences have been to date. Find out if any National education bodies have become involved in promoting FLOSS and if so how.
 * 2) Provide a guide to sourcing and implementing FLOSS in organisations in the VET sector.
 * 3) Set up a central repository for FLOSS suitable for use in the VET sector.

Prospective Partners
Any schools/colleges within the VET sector. Both those who have started implementing FLOSS (and would like to share best practice) and those who would be interested in implementing FLOSS in the future.
 * Partners to date:**
 * [|Inchicore College of Further Education, Ireland]
 * [|Barnfield College, England]
 * [|Tallinn][|University, Estonia]
 * [|IBIS Consultants, England]

Contact
If you are interested in becoming a partner in this project please contact Patricia Donaghy at: pdonaghy AT inchicorecollege DOT org