Something i'd forgotten to include in the external links is the complete list of software available a site called 'sourceforge'. This is the major place online where open source communities meet and collaborate, where you can download copies of applications, and find out more information. The link goes to the 'software map' where you can choose 'education' or 'games' or whatever.

Incidentally, on the topic of games, who's read Mark Warschauer's review of James Gee's latest 'What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy' (Palgrave, 2003) .. Warschauer's is a great mailing list for language and literacy people if you're not aware already - more info here

Wired have an interesting article on current interest in video games for educational purposes - "Games teach systematic things much better than they teach facts," Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Henry Jenkins is quoted as saying. Naturally universities will find it hard to compete with the products that big gaming business can create.

"Open Umbrella" is an organisation geared toward supporting the use of open source, particularly in schools - some good links here, eg to 'linux in schools', and project Gutenberg - the project to put masses of out-of-copyright texts online eg Jane Austen & Bill Shakespeare.

Off topic for a minute .. @ Bartleby.com - The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy - now this text by Hirsch et al was controversial when it first came out, but i had no idea you could read it online for free. You'll find many other full texts here, including Columbia encyclopedia 2001 ed. (with bartleby's publicity of course).

"Welcome to the the world of Open Source at MIT!" [research papers online] - this one is obscure - if you happen to be researching anything 'open sourcey', here's a great academic resource: full of titles such as "An Introduction to Open Source Communities", "Free/Open Source Software Development Practices in the Computer Game Community".

Eric Adams and and Chris Freeman, in "Selecting Tools for Online Communities: Suggestions for Learning Technologists" - the latest Technology Source, explore the idea of how to select the most suitable technology when you aim to build a learning community. They suggest these questions for starters: [quote]

• Does the online community membership ever physically meet?
• How often do I need to be actively present online?
• How often are community members expected to participate online?
• How much bandwidth does most of the membership have access to?
• Do I need to share information? How much/what size? What file format?
• Is there a need for real-time interaction? Do these interactions need to be captured?
• How do I want to track membership participation and interaction quality?

[/quote]

oops, watch out, Free Software is not the same as Open Source - there are two distinct movements out there. This is amazing stuff - you can read all about the relationship between the two here. The "Free Software" movement believes that freedom to use software is an ethical issue, like freedom of speech, while the Open Source movement believes that it's more practical - a better way to develop software. Sound like splitting hairs? Well they share a common enemy - proprietary software!

This month, Newsweek lists "free software" as one of ten new inventions that will change the world, along with a foot-operated water pump which is proving popular in African drought-affected areas. The main feature of the magazine asserts that Linux is a platform set to mature and make its mark very soon.

Also just discovered that UNESCO has been researching learning environments including Moodle, Claroline, and FLE3. Also mentions some that have that crazy "scorm compliance" going on, whatever that is - a page full of acronyms, but very informative with it.

Well take a look at this! Thanks to the wonderful Pam Atkins for this link. If you're investigating Open Source software - web applications such as content management, learning environments, etc - you can now trial them before you install, at OpenSourceCMS.com. Brilliant! Takes the leg-work out of trialling new options.