Teachers in Romania are increasingly using Open Source software and Open Source based applications to create e-learning opportunities, says the Romanian IT company Timsoft. Its Open Source e-learning application is already being used by some seventeen schools.
The company is developing an e-learning application using only Open Source tools, such as the operating system GNU/Linux, the web server Apache, the database MySQL and the programming language PHP. The application is built in cooperation with the Politehnica University in Timisoara and the University of Helsinki.
The three aim to create an Open Source e-learning application to improve Romanian educational tools. The software allows teachers to produce, store and share their on-line courses. Students and teachers can participate in learning communities, managed by teachers.
The three organisations hope the project will also result in educational content, courses and projects that can be shared, using a Creative Commons license.
The Open Source tools should save teachers time and effort, says Carmen Halotescu, project coordinator at the Polytechnical University of Timisoara and director of Timsoft. As part of the approach, participants are encouraged to use blogs, wikis and social networks on the Internet to develop their own educational programmes, share results and experiences.
Open Source approach provides lowers the overall costs and makes schools independent from specific software vendors, she says in an interview published in September on Checkpoint, a web portal on e-learning. "It positions the software as a public good, increases interoperability and is safer (than proprietary software)."
The Romanian collaboration project is supported by the Unesco's Open Educational Resources Programme.
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Further information:
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Portal site Didactic (in Romanian)
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Keproject (in Romanian)