Teaching my MIT classes with only free/libre software • Hacker News Board

Re: Teaching my MIT classes with only free/libre software

#111

Post by md5person » Wed, Jun 10, 2020, 10:44 AM UTC

gspr wrote: post #57

md5person wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't an accurate analogy, is it? We're discussing an educational institution with power and authority (MIT), which promotes drinking "free coffee", whilst simultaneously portraying it as somehow morally superior to "coffee one has to pay for" to consume. Growing and selling coffee takes time, labour and effort - yet none of that is being reflected or accounted for when we choose to not pay for the coffee we con…

> promotes drinking "free coffee", whilst simultaneously portraying it as somehow morally superior to "coffee one has to pay for" to consume. The price does not enter into Sussman's argument. Maybe it could, given how students tend to be short on money and abhor paying for expensive textbooks, but it doesn't. > Growing and selling coffee takes time, labour and effort - yet none of that is being reflected or accounted…

> "In my coffee analogy, the promotion of the fair-trade alternative would be based on the fair-trade mechanism for ensuring the lower levels of the production chain receive a fairer share of the income. Whether or not the author pays less or more at the store is irrelevant to the argument."

But for there to be any form of income trickling down production chains, someone has to be willing to pay something for the services they consume. Is this controversial in any way?

Re: Teaching my MIT classes with only free/libre software

#112

Post by barking » Wed, Jun 10, 2020, 10:45 AM UTC

fsflover wrote: post #106

barking wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who wrote the Four freedoms and how does he put food on the table?

https://fsf.org

If you're just some guy who writes and updates a piece of software for a living, what do you do then?

Re: Teaching my MIT classes with only free/libre software

#113

Post by fsflover » Wed, Jun 10, 2020, 10:48 AM UTC

barking wrote: post #112

fsflover wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://fsf.org

If you're just some guy who writes and updates a piece of software for a living, what do you do then?

This is not a trivial question, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_models_for_open-sourc...

Re: Teaching my MIT classes with only free/libre software

#114

Post by bregma » Wed, Jun 10, 2020, 10:52 AM UTC

lelanthran wrote: post #84

pfortuny wrote: post #46

Great that his institution lets him run servers for his classrooms from “any” place. At my school, first thing: disconnect all your servers except for required lavoratory things. ...

"Lavoratory"? Makes me think of a bathroom with little beakers and vials every within :-)

You are expected maintain your social distance and use the lavoratory to wash your hands often.

Re: Teaching my MIT classes with only free/libre software

#115

Post by eulenteufel » Wed, Jun 10, 2020, 10:58 AM UTC

noobermin wrote: post #15

It honestly would be great for some competition, FOSS or not in the distance learning department. Blackboard and friends are horrendous, and as we know zoom has myriad problems. For a small group meeting I have each week that is now online, I've started using jitsi too.

My universities computer science, physics and math departments use Sakai [1] instead of the university blackboard and I quiet like it. It's FOSS and works well on mobile (in contrast to the universities blackboard system)

[1] https://github.com/sakaiproject/sakai

Re: Teaching my MIT classes with only free/libre software

#116

Post by phkahler » Wed, Jun 10, 2020, 10:59 AM UTC

neilv wrote: post #76

For a professor to use only FLOSS when teaching CS students about software engineering seems entirely appropriate to me, and a good on-principle exercise. Consider the goals of universal accessibility of education, reproducible systems research that can be built upon, allowing students to explore and improve systems, techie obligations to promote privacy and security in information systems, and simply setting an exam…

My approach in all area - work include - is to use FLOSS by default unless I can't for some reason. Usability is one reason, and as a developer it's good to observe the flaws that drive me to commercial software at times. Why would anyone not choose FLOSS by default?

Re: Teaching my MIT classes with only free/libre software

#117

Post by vertex-four » Wed, Jun 10, 2020, 11:01 AM UTC

barking wrote: post #112

fsflover wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://fsf.org

If you're just some guy who writes and updates a piece of software for a living, what do you do then?

You find people willing to pay for your work, not for a license. If your ongoing work is not worth anything, why should you be paid extra for work you did in the past?

Re: Teaching my MIT classes with only free/libre software

#118

Post by Conan_Kudo » Wed, Jun 10, 2020, 11:03 AM UTC

Phlogi wrote: post #47

marta_morena_24 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah right, because MIT is such a cheap school, it totally is required to use free software, because that is going to make a difference. Instead, MIT should make sure that students get their software and materials free of charge, not that the material or software itself is free (just because students on scholarships or alike may not have the money). They should use what is best for the students and not what is best t…

It's not about the price, it's about the freedom I assume. Having free of charge proprietary software for students is a different approach. I wouldn't call it unethical though.

Why wouldn't you? Using software that restricts your freedom to use, modify, and share in the pursuit of advancing the human understanding of the universe around us seems to be short-sighted. Free Software gives everyone the equal opportunity to leverage the same tools and practices to do research, development, and further our understanding of our world. In most cases, proprietary software does not.

Re: Teaching my MIT classes with only free/libre software

#119

Post by 6510 » Wed, Jun 10, 2020, 11:05 AM UTC

neilv wrote: post #76

For a professor to use only FLOSS when teaching CS students about software engineering seems entirely appropriate to me, and a good on-principle exercise. Consider the goals of universal accessibility of education, reproducible systems research that can be built upon, allowing students to explore and improve systems, techie obligations to promote privacy and security in information systems, and simply setting an exam…

Imagine the potential to contribute. (ignore the pun)

Re: Teaching my MIT classes with only free/libre software

#120

Post by fsloth » Wed, Jun 10, 2020, 11:06 AM UTC

fsckboy wrote: post #91

fsloth wrote: post #79

Don't take this so much as about ideology, than as a mode of pedagogical thought. Free software is decomposable to first principles, and it makes perfect sense to use it in a CS class. If this was some other domain like surgery or structural engineering, using free software would add no value to the process (since the domains are already so deep that the students anyway treat all software as black boxes since their o…

if one were teaching medicine in a third world context, free software would offer many benefits to their clinical practice of medicine.

Do you have concrete examples of this?