The crucial topic of open source software proved the highlight of Wednesday's weekly online UK-Nigeria meeting.
Interestingly, the UK side were informed that Linux is a key part of the curriculum on the 'IT Essentials' Cisco course, run by Fantsuam staff.
It was explained to us that the first approach is to introduce the students to the basic concept of open source.
Kelechi told us that part of the students' installation module includes installing Linux as well as Windows. We also learned from John, a trainer, that most of Fantsuam's students are very familiar with Ubuntu.
We were extremely interested to learn that Kelechi is currently testing another open source e-learning platform called Dokeos. He explained that it is built on Php and uses mysql as database.
He is hopeful that this system will help him administer the students' exams and tests online. He also hopes that this may help to reduce the costs of materials and presumably administrative costs too.
Dadamac has recently set up an Open Source Special Interest Group where team members can learn more about the subject together.
The group is actually using Moodle to meet online! Dadamac UK has sucessfully been using Moodle for a few years now and hope to share their knowledge with the Nigerian team. It will also be an opportunity to jointly explore additional features of Moodle.
The Techi Team at Fantsuam are very resourceful, but they would welcome additional expert support and advice. If you have a little time to spare and are willing to share some of your knowledge with us please contact me and I'll put you in touch with appropriate people.
Rest assured that whatever we learn we will in turn pass on for the benefit of many more!