Free Technology Academy Opens its Doors

[Michel Bauwens]

https://ftacademy.org/announce/3

-------- Original Message --------
"The Free Technology Academy Opens its Doors!"
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1. Available courses

The Free Technology Academy opens its doors to students. The
registration process for the first 2 courses has already started. The
courses currently open are "The concepts of Free Software and Open
Standards" and "The GNU/Linux Operating System". These courses will
start on January 25th, 2010. The following sections will introduce you
to each of these modules.

-- Module 1: The concepts of Free Software and Open Standards

What is free software? What is a free license and what are its
implications? How is free software developed? How are free software
projects financed and what are the business models associated with
them? What motivates developers, especially volunteers, to become
involved in free software projects? Who are these developers? How are
their projects coordinated, and how is the software that they produce?
In short, what is the overall panorama of free software?

These are the sort of questions that we will try to answer in this course.
Because free software is increasing its presence in the media and in debates
among IT professionals, citizens in general are starting to talk about
it, but
it is still unknown for many people. And even those who are familiar
with it are
often aware of just some of its features, and mostly ignorant about others.

-- Module 2: The GNU/Linux Operating System

GNU/Linux systems have reached an important level of maturity, allowing to
integrate them in almost any kind of work environment, from a desktop
PC or a handheld device to the sever facilities of a big company.
This module covers the main aspects of the administration of GNU/Linux
systems. We will learn how to install, configure and maintain several
computer services, and how to optimise the available resources. The
activities that students will carry out in this module cover these
topics with a practical approach, applying them in real GNU/Linux systems.


2. Registration fees and special disccounts

For 2010, the standard tuition fee for a 5 ECTS course in the
FTA is defined as EUR 380. Scholarships can be requested for the first
courses according to the time of registration prior to the start of a
particular course:

* Pioneer registration: 50% discount for registrations until December
07th 2009.
* Early adopter registration: 25% discount for registrations until
December 31st
2009.
* Standard Registration without discount applies in all other cases.

The FTA charges tuition fees to cover only the marginal costs of
running the courses and tries to keep costs as low as reasonably
possible to make participation in its tutored courses accessible to
everyone. We are open to suggestions about alternative funding
sources that allow us to grant more and better scholarship opportunities.

Note that registrations are only valid once the registration form has
been correctly submitted and verified and the corresponding tuition
fee has been received at the FTA bank account. The registration period
ends one week before the start of a course or when the maximum
number of learners for a course has been reached.

Register now and get the special discount in the registration fee!
Go to https://ftacademy.org/registration-form to start the process.

To get more information about the FTA study programme
go to: http://ftacademy.org/courses/programme


3. About the Free Technology Academy

A Consortium formed by the Open University of Catalonia (Spain) and
the Open University of the Netherlands and led by the Free Knowledge
Institute (FKI), the FTA has received the support from the EC's Lifelong
Learning Programme to set up an international educational programme
on Free Software. The courses will be taught completely online in a virtual
campus based on the Campus Project interoperability framework.

Following the Open Educational Resources movement, all learning materials
will be freely available through the Internet. The use of Free Software
(also referred to as Open Source software or Libre Software) is rapidly
expanding in governmental and private organisations. However, still
only a limited number of IT professionals, teachers and decision makers
have sufficient knowledge and expertise in these new fields. The Free
Technology Academy aims to address this gap by providing high level
courses that fit into larger Master Programmes at the participating
universities.

* More information: http://www.ftacademy.org
* Contact information: [e-mail]