Description

This report examines some of the pedagogic principles embodied in Free / Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) communities and briefly looks at case studies of FLOSS-like approaches in education.

It analyzes and evaluates the differences between Free / Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) communities as informal learning environments and on the other side formal educational settings

The report also point out ways on transferring those FLOSS principles to formal educational settings and looks at existing examples of eLearning delivery and examines why these do not provide the types of constructivist learning environments as observed in FLOSS communities.

This report is the second one in a series of three reports that are compiled as part of the FLOSSCom project. The first report looked at the learning environment of FLOSS communities and the third report, to be published in summer 2008, is aimed at providing case studies, scenarios and guidelines for teachers and decision-makers on how learning communities similar to the FLOSS communities can be embedded within formal educational environments.