The Academy of Paris is using the open source Basthon software for Capytale - an online platform teaching digital skills to students in secondary school. Not only is the software open source, released under GPLv3, but the content shared on the platform is generally under the Creative Commons share-alike licence.
This initiative is part of French Ministry of Education's Digital Strategy for 2023-2027 and its support for the use of “digital commons,” which we reported on a few months ago. This strategy, which aims to equip students with digital skills, is the result of a 2020 consultation and has clear objectives for a renewed and adapted approach to digital education. Among these objectives, there is a strong emphasis on improving students' digital skills, aligning with European goals. The regional academies have already begun showcasing practical examples of how these objectives can be achieved.
Capytale is a digital educational service that facilitates the creation and sharing of coding activities between teachers and students. It provides a standardised working environment tailored for educational purposes, and a library of educational activities that can be shared among teachers. Importantly, Capytale is easily accessible through a simple web browser.
The Basthon software which underlies Capytale offers a wide range of coding activities including block-based programming, Python scripting, web development (including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript), database manipulation (SQL), and OCaml programming. The service offers diverse pedagogical opportunities, and for the 2023-2024 academic year, it has expanded its library to cover not only coding but also mathematics, hardware, physics, and chemistry.
An Open Approach to Education:
Accessing Capytale is straightforward, requiring no account creation. Students can access activities online using various devices such as computers, tablets, and smartphones, without the need for installation. The process involves teachers creating activities, generating unique activity codes, and then sharing these codes with their students. Students can work on these activities, while teachers can review and provide feedback.
Capytale activities support co-authoring, enabling teachers to collaborate on activity development. The platform also includes a library accessible exclusively to teachers, allowing them to choose whether to share their activities with other teachers who have access to Capytale.
In essence, Capytale serves as an excellent example of what open source can bring to education, encompassing both technical and organisational aspects. Everyone involved in Capytale can look at the internals of Basthon, install it on their own computers and contribute if they wish. Not only can the software be of benefit to other regions and countries, but the content created can form a common which is accessible to all. By creating a collaborative platform for enhancing digital skills, built upon existing solutions, and extending its reach to other regions in France, Capytale demonstrates the potential benefits of such collaborative efforts in the field of education.