|
|
Participating organisations: |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A rapidly changing technical environment and the belief that well-trained professionals are one of the cornerstones of today's society is the primary motivation behind the TIMLOTO activities. TIMLOTO subscribes to the so-called 'Open Source' concept. This means that the lesson materials developed by the foundation are returned directly to the educational community. This also means that there is an ongoing process of improvement and at the same time the currciculum content is safeguarded. TIMLOTO is involved in: 1) Developing automotive science lesson material; in particular this covers:Method The teachers have formed a working group which meets ten times a year. New ideas are discussed, new products are developed and existing products are evaluated. Work-study visits to automotive-product suppliers are organized and professionals are invited in to assist the teachers by filling in any gaps in their knowledge. TIMLOTO sees this as a form of in-service teacher training with one unique detail - this type of training provides directly useable products for automotive science education. Free or 'Open Source' software is used as often as possible as a development tool. Finished products are spread as quickly as possible through the TIMLOTO-site. In this way, students can obtain up-to-date lesson materials without incurring any costs. Most of the TIMLOTO products fall under the Open Source License regulation. In brief, the Open Source Licence means that products can be freely copied and distributed. However, the source must be respected and acknowledged. Use for any type of commercial purpose is strictly prohibited. This means that while educational institutes are encouraged to use the site, putting Timloto material on their on 'local network' goes against the Timloto philosophy. Furthermore as stated above, in accordance with the Open Source regulations, it is also prohibited. Invitation TIMLOTO welcomes anyone who is interested in these activities to contact either the chairman of the TIMLOTO foundation or the co-ordinator of the teachers' working group. An application form for the TIMLOTO in-service training programme can be downloaded here. Chairman: Project coordinator: Webmaster: The TIMLOTO background. TIMLOTO has its origins in the TIM-group. This group was set up twenty years ago by a number of automotive science teachers who were interested in producing their own educational software. The results of those efforts can still be downloaded as MS-DOS programs from this site. In the mid-1990s the TIM-group lost momentum. However, early in 2000, the initiative was taken up again under the name TIMLOTO. The new working group was initially comprised of a dozen teachers who wanted to stay on top of a rapidly developing automotive science. They believed that this was possible through the development of their own lesson materials and an intensive exchange of knowledge with the automotive industry. In this manner, the gap between education and industry would be narrowed. In 2002, the TIMLOTO working group became the TIMLOTO Foundation with the goal of representing the interests of both the student as well as the teacher on a classroom level. Between 2002 and 2005, the TIMLOTO Foundation worked on the Educar Project commissioned by ID College in Gouda, The Netherlands. In this government sponsored project, a score of teachers collaborated in developing 'free' educational software. During this period, the Educar Project was TIMLOTO's largest source of income. At the end of 2005, the Educar Project was completed and government subsidy stopped. TIMLOTO was faced with the question of how to continue. In the 2005-2006 school year, eight training centres chose to support the foundation by allowing their teachers to participate. The foundation's board agreed to investigate the possibilities of sponsoring by schools and industry. The search for sponsorship is still ongoing. In the meantime, an enthusiastic group of teachers continues with the development of materials for automotive science education. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licention. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
