Back from Cuba ..

Well the LERN Conference in Havana was very exciting, very hot, and filled with whispers of radical dissent. What a lovely flavour! 600 delegates full of good ideas.

Michael Apple's keynote was definitely the highlight, setting the tone for the rest of the conference. He railed against the rise of the ultra-conservatives, and urged us educators to get fighting.

Mary Kalantzis told us the reason for choosing Cuba - the country has very high indicators on all the UN tests for educational development. (A nation with very high literacy standards, Cuba has sent around 30,000 doctors to work in third world nations.)

The visitors from the USA had ignored their government's warning to avoid Cuba, so there was a sense of radical cheekiness at play. During the conference, Bush tightened the squeeze on Castro - US citizens may visit only their immediate family (not extended), and only once every three years. No other reason accepted for visiting.

(Michael was talking about his Research at the Beach.)

Software Freedom Day

August 28, 2004 will be the first annual Freedom Day for Software: more info here. A nice idea - to run a global grassroots marketing campaign.