Is your school forcing you to use Zoom, Skype, or other proprietary videoconferencing software to learn or teach? We want to help you stand up for your rights! Sign and share our petition, and tell us about your school: https://u.fsf.org/34d
I've been refusing. Means I'm losing some work, but in a few cases I've managed to get some programs to change their policies for my classes. It's not much, yet I feel like it moves the needle.
@fsf "Making students depend on nonfree software to learn is not only harmful to them in the short-term,"... Not if the FOSS alternatives are not up to scratch. There's no denying zoom and Google classroom work pretty well, and despite my enthusiasm for privacy and FOSS, the pragmatic side of me also wants my kids to get taught. The fact they can use these services while on Linux is a major bonus, and they work in a web browser so we are not required to install proprietary sw.
@simon @fsf
To some extent I agree to pragmatism. On the other hand think in long term - you are wiring pattern to your kids way of thinking - it is OK to use a free service at a cost of selling your data and giving up privacy. 20+y ago when I was student me an my peers could not afford to pay for software, so piracy was striving and was an accepted norm. It was bad, I wish somebody was advocating FOSS alternatives then.
@simon The FOSS alternatives are up to scratch. I'd rather use BigBlueButton than Zoom in a class setting (don't know about Google classroom).
It is possible to have both at the same time: education and privacy/independence.
If not, we should fund FOSS projects with public money. We will all profit by doing so.
@fsf I was thinking: this is too extreme for me to sign. The banning of Element on the Google Play store urges me to reconsider.
@fsf
Similar initiative in Switzerland (now ended):
@fsf Not just schools but other places too, try to have meetings with anyone it is usually zoom, got it in a container (snap) otherwise it would not ever touch my system.