The Wales-Wide Web

Belated International Workers Day greetings (no connection at home at the moment). thsi picture was taken on the demonstration in Bremen, Germany.

Technorati Tags: MayDay

An email from Riina Vuorikari - speaks for itself I think. The document is attached at the bottom of this post.

"To whom it may concern,

Please find attached the answer to the community consultation regarding patents in EU.

The concerns in this document represent the views of more than 400 e-learning practitioners, teachers, learners, parents, researchers, decision-makers, e-learning providers and developer who do not want to allow the future patent policy in Europe to threaten technology enhanced learning in European education, which has become a key element in providing education to prepare Europe to participate creatively, technologically and economically on a global level.

Our views do not only seek to improve innovation and competitiveness, growth and employment in the knowledge-based economy in Europe, but also to provide better education to all learners in Europe.

On behalf of more than 400 signed e-learning practitioners, (please see them on-line and read more about our on-going campaign)"

consultation_e_learn#1FA314.rtf

Technorati Tags: e-learning, patents

The name that strikes fear in the hearts of Europe's elite clubs: Bolton - Sport - Times Online:

Yesterday we were campaigning against software patents. today it is against the so called G14 'elite' group of European football clubs. You may think these are disconnected. I do not. It is all about powerful elites trying to dominate our society.

Unusual to find the UK times newspaper saying something I agree with

“The voice of the clubs,” is G14’s slogan, but it is as false as the claim to superiority. G14 is not the voice of Bolton or Bremen, nor even of Chelsea, kept out by this quivering elite for daring to challenge its monopoly. It is not the voice of the World Cup or of the champions of Europe. It is not the voice of anybody who cares for football or for the level playing field. It is the voice of lawyers, of faceless political manipulators, of shortsightedness and reckless self-interest.

Above all, it is the voice of frightened little men. Frightened that they are not good enough. And on this, for once, they are right.

Technorati Tags: football

Just got this email from Ray and Sara - been meaning to post about this for the last few days but the email says it all - sign the petition now!

Hi All,

In one way or other you share our interests in the field of e-learning, as a collegue or a friend, and that is why we are sending you this e-mail.

As partner in the SIGOSSEE EU funded project we were one of the organizers of the Conference on Open Source for Education. Research and Practice, which was held on November 14-15 2005 at the OUNL in Heerlen, The Netherlands. Information about the conference: http://www.openconference.net/

At that conference we brainstormed in one last session about a pre emptive position paper on no EU software patents for e-learning. One of the main issues is, as we see it, guaranteed access to information and knowledge for all.

Out of this came a petition which aims to alert European authorities and policy-makers to the dangers of software patents, and particularly to the negative impact they could have on e-learning that uses information and communication technologies (ICT) to enhance education. This petition will be sent to the European Commission as an input for the “Consultation on future patent policy in Europe” by March 31st. The petition will be distributed to other European and national decision-makers to raise awareness on the issue of EU-wide software patents and how they threaten to inhibit innovation among European e-learning developers and practitioners.

If you are a concerned teacher, learner, parent, researcher, decision-maker, e-learning practitioner, developer or citizen, read this petition on-line at:

http://www.noelearningpatents.info/

Consider signing it! Let others know about it.

We aim to raise awareness and gather as many signatures as possible by Thursday 30th March 2006.

Technorati Tags: no patent law, software patents

I am busy finishing off a project application for the EU Leonardo da Vinci programme. As usual I am totally fed up with the endless repetitive questioons, with trying to understand what the questions mean and what they are looking for and with trying to match something I want to do (and think is important) with the somewhat abstract categories that EU policy deliberations dictate.

OK - EU project procedures are somewhat strange. But it is not limited to the EU. And it is an important issue. Much of the innovation - at least in the use of ICT for learning and in vocational education and training - depends on project funding. In European universities 'core' funding is being constantly reduced. Project funding is no longer the icing on the cake but a integral and important part of any innovative research programme.

There must be better procedures for allocating this funding. In this respect I must praise the UK Higher Education JISC programme. JISC issue many calls for proposals. Most stipulate that proposals can be no longer than 10 - and in some cases - 6 pages. Having also worked as an evaluator for a JISC call, ten pages is perfectly adequate for conveying an idea and activity. There is an argument that if someone cannot explain clearly in ten pages what they want to do then they have not thought out the idea properly.

I suppose the length and complexity of EU proposals operates as some kind of filter. But I fear it serves to filter out many of the best and most innovative ideas.

Technorati Tags: European_projects

I am writing a proposal for the European Leonardo da Vinci programme which is why there are few posts of late. Proposal writing deadens the brain.

As you would expect there are endless documents to plough through - guides for proposers, administrative handbooks and so son. There is also something called "Labour Cost by profile per day, selection 2006 - Euro".

This provides the maximum allowable day rate per country.

It's pretty revealing stuff - given all the hot air about a social Europe.

The maximum for a a manager in Sweden is 480 Euro, in the UK 408 Euro. IN Romania it is 72 Euro and in Bulgaria just 28 euro. In ireland an administrative worker can claim 328 Euro - in estonia 30 and Bulgaria 13 Euro.

This is not right. How can we build communities of practice which include such gross inequalities?

Technorati Tags: European_projects, polictics of education

Time for a currency exchange from Guardian Unlimited: Newsblog:

Much sense from the Guardian economics editor. I'm not so sure his solution of scrapping the Euro is very practical. But it shows what is wrong. And getting rid of neoliberal economic policies would be a first step, as well as some kind of democratic control over the European Central bank.

I've been in six European countries in the last 10 days. Of course everyone is very happy hot to have to carry endless wedges of different currencies - although interestingly two of the countries I've been in - Estonia and Romania do not have the Euro. But - perhaps more than anyone else - those countries are suffering from the mindless neo-liberal policies - which if course are backed most enthusiastically by the Euro sceptic government of the UK. And people are not prepared to accept the crassness of the politicians telling us that if we vote against the Constitution we are voting against peace in Europe.

Just in case any ed-tech readers wonder what this rant has to do with them - part of the neo liberal policy is to attack open source software and impose draconian copyright legislation.

"At the time the euro was launched, opposition on the left came from three distinct groups. The Keynesians said a one-size-fits-all economy would be bad for jobs and growth. The greens said vesting power in an unelected remote central bank would cause a crisis of political legitimacy. The Marxists said that the single currency was a Trojan horse for neoliberal economic policies. All three predictions have proved to be 100% accurate."

One of the pre-occupations of `European policy makers in education and training is the mobility of students - and by extension the equivalence of qualifications. Over the last year the Commission has been driving through a policy reform - variously called the Copenhagen process or the Maastricht agreement.

This sets out a series of somewhat vague tools and instruments of reform of national education and training systems and a framework for the development of equivalent qualifications for occupational training in the different European Member States. In my view it is a ill judged venture on a number of levels. Firstly, rather than focus on improving learning, the policy framework is pre-occupied with the transparency of outcomes as a tool for mobility. A second preoccupation is with formal institutional systems - rather than recognising the many different ways and contexts for gaining and practicing occupational competence. Thirdly the approach is mechanistic - and fails to take account of the richness of teh different histories and cultures of learning in the different countries.

. And after the turbulence of the student protests against tuition fees it is good to see the Rector is trying to open a dialogue. All questions will be answered it says, by Prof Wilfried Miller, at the meeting on Wednesday.

But what is this at the bottom of the flyer? "Und nach der heissen Diskussion ein kuhles Becks."

Who says the Germans are behind in commercialising education?

Last week we were invited by The European Commission to Brussels for what they call a concertation meeting. The meeting brought together some 100 representatives of the European Minerva (http://minerva.euproject.net/) and eLearning Action Plan (http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/cha/c11050.htm) projects (Minerva is the e-learning strand of the Socrates education programme). Prior to the concertation meeting, which took place on Thursday and Friday, we were invited to a meeting with two other projects - JOIN and FILTER, which the project officer, Brian Holmes, felt were close in aims to our project - to explore the possibilities of working together.

Rather than write a traditional meeting report, I have written this account of the meetings in the form of a blog - or web log - entry. The main reason for this is that as always with such meetings many of the most interesting discussions took place outside the formal meeting and I wanted to capture those discussions for SIGOSEE (http://www.ossite.org) partners and members of the Special Interest Group (SIG).

Back on line after a three week break caused by a broken computer (after its car crash I talked about previously, the iBook kept going for another ten days, then expired quietly with a power management failure).

I write a monthly column for the Welsh socialist newspeper, Seren. Here is this months contribution.

A belated happy new years greetings. Its good to be back. Whilst I would really like to talk about football (courtesy of the winter mid season break, Werder Bremen have been top of the Bundesliga for the last five weeks!) there are an awful lot of politics going on at the moment.

For the last five months the students have been protesting against attempts to impose fees for courses. There have been strikes, occupations and numerous demonstrations with many of Germany's leading universities now on strike until the end of the semester in February.

I think the students are right. The fees may look minimal by UK standards but as students in England and Wales have found to their cost, its the principle that counts. Once the idea of fees is established then they can quickly be increased.

It is striking how the issue of student fees is so contentious throughout Europe. Ok, it could be explained by the influence of what are known here as 'old 68ers'; as the parents of the present generation of students. The press tries ot explain it as a "middle class revolt". I do not find either of these explanations convincing, even though they may contain a grain of truth. I think that at the heart of the protest lies far more important issues - the question of whether learning and by extension, knowledge, are a public right or a private good.

Putting it bluntly, what is going on throughout Europe is an attempt to privatise education, with market forces determining the level of fees and parental and student income depending the quantity and quality of education available. Forget all that nonsense form Blair and Schroeder about access - its just a smokescreen. The German government showed its true hand last week when the education minister published proposals to establish elite universities. Even the EU's leading education bureaucrat, Commissioner Vivienne Redding, was led tyo comment that Germany should sort out the basic problems with its education system before thinking about elite universities. Even more strangely, Bild am Sonntag, Germany's equivalent of News of the World, carried a full page interview with Redding!

It is not just university education that is effected. The European Commission has set in train a series of meetings between European education ministries through something known as the Copenhagen process with the overt aim of harmonising Europe's vocational education and training systems. Once more the real intent is to liberalise education and training provsion and open up the market for private training providers.

But privatising education is only part of the battle. The real fight is over knowledge. Before you rush to say the idea of private knowledge is stupid, think of how the idea of private water must have seemed a couple of hundred years ago. With capitalism ever more dependent on the knowledge and skills of employees as part of the process of producing surplus value and productivity, they desperately want to treat knowledge and skills as a commodity, to be exchanged on the market as any other. Witness the attempts to patent the human genome.

It is not all doom and gloom though. The emergence of open source software has shown the possibility of other collective models of development and licensing. At the same time the widespread use of file sharing programmes on the internet has shown that people are not prepared to pay rep-off prices for music . Music is a form of human expression, just like speech, and cannot be treated as just another commodity.

That's it for this months rant. As ever I would be delighted to hear back form any of you. Keep up the protests. But before I go I cannot resist telling you the latest German football story. Werder Bremen have asked FIFA to extend the half time break to allow fans more time to purchase and consume Wurst (sausages) and Bier (beer). That's one change I do support.