[Linux-aus] Grant Request: Open Edge - an open education forum

[Donna Benjamin]

Dear Linux Australia People
(cc'd to allies and lias lists)

Please consider and comment on the following Grant Request.
---------------------------------------------------------
Date of Request     Monday 6 July 2009

Project Name        Open Edge: Open Education Forum 2009
Project Website     http://open-edge.info
Event Date          Friday 9 October 2009
Venue               SCEGGS

Aim of Project      The Open Edge Forum aims to bring
                    together school leaders, practitioners 
                    and policy makers to discuss strategies 
                    for fostering open education in  
                    Australian schools.

Person Responsible  Donna Benjamin 
                    donna at cc.com.au 0418 310 414

Request             Sponsorship of an Open Education 
		    forum for Australian Schools
----------------------------------------------------------
In recent years Linux Australia has participated in a number of
education sector events: The Education Expo in Sydney over many years,
The Education Show in Melbourne in 2007 and the VITTA conference expo in
Melbourne in 2008.  Last year Linux Australia advertised Software
Freedom Day in a National newspaper for teachers.

I propose that this year Linux Australia considers sponsoring an open
education forum rather than spending funds on advertising for Software
Freedom Day, or buying a stand at an education show.

Such an event is currently being organised by myself, Associate
Professor Kathryn Moyle, and Ian Ralph who is involved in organising the
annual Association of Independent Schools of NSW IT Managers’
Conferences.

Our preliminary website is up here - http://open-edge.info/ 
The event will be held Friday 9 October, 2009 at SCEGGS.

This event follows on from the Open Education forum held by ASK-OSS at
MGSM last year, and will specifically target the needs and interests of
schools. It is somewhat inspired by the US based K12 Open Minds
conference http://www.k12openminds.org/ and a forum attended by Dr Moyle
in Portugal last year.

Information on last year's Open Education Workshop is here:
http://www.ask-oss.mq.edu.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=72&Itemid=2 

We hope to involve participants from around the world using web
conferencing technologies, and pre-recorded videos. We would also like
to invite some key international speakers to attend in person if funds
permit.

We seek $5000, being half of our total projected budget.

With the lack of an education mini-conf at this year's linux.conf.au,
and next year's conference being in New Zealand, the Australian Open
Source in Schools community has lost it's annual forum, and whilst it is
yet possible an education mini-conf may be organised for LCA2010, it is
not assured. It will also be beyond the means of most teachers and
education policy makers to attend, given many of them have little
interest in attending the rest of the conference.  There has been
ongoing discussion about whether it is time for the education linux 
mini-conf to spin off into its own event in order to attract 
more school practitioners. We believe this time has come.

The education sector is dominated by proprietary software vendors. But
they also invest heavily in the professional development of teachers.
Whilst Linux Australia obviously doesn't have anywhere near the same
level of resources at it's disposal, this is one small, targeted way to
directly support those educators and policy makers actively interested
in advancing adoption of Open Source Software in Schools.

We are hoping to raise up to $10k, with half of this coming from Linux
Australia, and the other half coming from other organisations with an
interest in advocating wider use of Open Technologies, Open teaching
methodologies and Open content in the Australian School System.
We are approaching Google, Red Hat, the Linux Foundation, OSIA members,
IBM, and Moodle.

Total Budget $10,000.00
Seeking commitment from Linux Australia of $5,000.00

SCEGGS has kindly offered to host the event, effectively providing us
with a free venue, and reducing our overall budget needs considerably.
We had also considered holding the event at the Macquarie Graduate
School of Management, so this represents sponsorship equivalent of
approximately $2,000.00

The bulk of expenses will be on catering, speaker travel and
accommodation for key international and inter-state speakers, and some
associated conference support costs.

We hope to make the event free for attendees, but are prepared to charge
a fee should we be unable to secure sufficient funding.

cheers
Donna

-- 
Donna Benjamin - Executive Director
Creative Contingencies - http://cc.com.au
ph +61 3 9326 9985 - mob +61 418 310 414
open source - facilitation - web services