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FOSSED2009

VITA-Learn & The National Center for Open Source and Education

co-sponsored

FOSSVT - 2009

Vermont's Open Source and Education Conference

Friday, April 10th, 2009

Lake Morey Inn

Fairlee, VT

Registration 8:15-9:00 AM

Conference 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM

FOSSVT was fully subscribed.

Let this be the year you give a close look to whether Open Source should be a part of the technology mix in your classroom and server closet. As school budgets get tighter, the 'Free-as-in-no-cost' part of Open Source will continue to be important. But equally important are the 21st Century skills (teamwork, collaboration, real-world projects) that students gain through exposure to the world of Free and Open Source software.

Conference Program

Conference Schedule

What's New This Year:

  • Randy OrwinRandy OrwinOur Keynote speaker: Randy Orwin -
  • "The Road Less Traveled. One educators journey down the sometimes bumpy road of open source adoption." Randy Orwin will talk about the what, why and how of open source adoption in a suburban Seattle school district. He will address some of the successes and pitfalls of the processes involved and even toss in a few humorous stories along the way. Come join him on the "road less traveled" and find out that there are others out there fighting the same battles that you do every day. He is currently the Director of Technology with Bainbridge Island School District in Washington State. He is in his 9th year as technology director with Bainbridge Island. Randy has spent 22 years providing technology professional development for teachers, has a masters degree in Instructional Technology and holds numerous technology certifications. He is passionate about Open Source software and open content and his district currently saves approximately $125,000 per year by using Open Source Software.

  • Sugar-on-a-stick: Caroline Meeks and Walter Bender will be showing Sugar the new operating system designed for exploratory education and how you can have your whole educational environment boot from a flash drive. From the Sugarlabs website: "Sugar provides a simple yet powerful means of engaging young children in the world of learning that is opened up by computers and the Internet. With Sugar, even the youngest learner will quickly become proficient in using the computer as a tool to engage in authentic problem-solving. Sugar promotes sharing, collaborative learning, and reflection, developing skills that help them in all aspects of life."
  • Netbook Roundup: Following on last year's successful OLPC gathering, FOSSVT will include a Netbook Roundup. This will be a chance for Netbook owners to share their tips and tricks and for potential owners to come an try this hottest category of laptops. And someone will walk away with a new netbook that will be given away at the end of the conference.

Here are some of the presentations planned for this year:

  • For Teachers: - Nationally recognized OpenOffice expert Gabriel Gurley will be providing a comprehensive overview of OpenOffice use in an educational environment. - Stephanie Chase will be waxing eloquent about building communities around Open Source projects through her experience with the Vermont Organization of Koha Automated Libraries (vokal).
    - Michael Mino from the The Center for 21st Century Skills will be talking about using Moodle and ELGG to teach science and technology and to document their work in the integrated e-Portfolio.
  • For Technologists: - Bjorn Behrendt will be demonstrating backup using FOG (the FOSS alternative to Ghost) 
    - Niccolo Eneidi will dive into how to configure edubuntu in a blended environment - with highlights of how to use in a summer camp building “Frankensteined” computers, how to install it on netbooks and how to get it working with Smartboards.
    - Nick Sinnott-Armstrong, a high school student and Marion Bates, a district technology coordinator will go in-depth about their project using MySQL and Merb to build a student registration system for the schools March Intensive program.
  • Discussion & Hands-On Sessions: - Vermont's own Lucie deLaBruere and her students from St. Albans will show how to move "from the promise to the reality " of using FOSS tools in schools with minor tweaks that can turn Tux Paint, TypeFaster, and Open Office that can connect these open source applications to true curriculum tools. - Carolyn Meeks will be guiding people through the new Sugar world of collaboration and exploration.  The administrative and technology team of Essex town will be presenting on their move towards Open Source on a district level.

This year's FOSSVT is sold out.

For people wanting to come the night before, there are a block of rooms reserved at $85/ night. Just call the Lake Morey Resort (1-800-423-1211) and mention the Vermont Open Source Conference.

{Check out last year's FOSSVT gathering}