I could not care less about the status quo or influence. My goal is to improve learning in the world, including literacy, by an order of magnitude. It can be done, but not if intelligent people jump on ANY new bandwagon that appears. We need to focus our energies and insist on empirical information, not vague mostly emotional personal experiences and arguments. Only one in ten people in the world has internet access, and it is often marginal at best, No software on the current Internet will solve the massive problem of adult literacy
I will be happy to send the outline of my new book, and other information, to interested people. Please write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . It proposes to solve the 'education for all' problem with adaptive learning. Alfred Bork University of California, Irvine -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Taran Rampersad Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2005 10:15 AM To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group Subject: Re: [DDN] FW: [NIFL-HEALTH:4627] Adult Literacy education Wiki Alfred Bork wrote: >I see no evidence that this will help adult literacy in any large amount. At >best it is an unfounded hope. > > I could have fun with this and say that some hope is based on faith, but that's not really what this is about. Wikis have had a tangible influence throughout the world; the era preceding Wikis lacked said influence. >Every new idea is seen by some as a solution. > > And every new idea is seen by everyone as a challenge to the status quo. Whether people are against change or for change is really the issue. Take podcasting, as an example. It challenges the status quo. There are problems with it for the developing world; one is a matter of usability through access to bandwidth. That's a tangible problem. But is it worthwhile to address? Certainly. There are problems that need to be addressed, and even as I have played the part of devil's advocate about podcasting and mobcasting, it doesn't mean that it isn't a worthwhile thing to explore. In fact, it has to be explored to gain the evidence to substantiate either position - optimist or pessimist. And there are ways around the issue of bandwidth that have nothing to do with bandwidth. By identifying problems, they can be solved. So far, I have yet to see anything but spurious rejection about Wikis. Truth be told, I did not originally like Wikis. But the core of the Wiki is something that I do believe in - participation - so I played with it anyway. And I liked it - while there are things that I do not believe a Wiki should be used for, I will stand up for what they are good for. And they certainly are good for education - perhaps the role is limited in traditional institutions that are unwilling to adapt, but in time the gatekeepers will retire or die. Wikis have a place in the future, I have no doubt. As an autodidact, my interest in the present education system is fleeting - my interest in the future education system will affect the young people who I have grown to love, and who do not exist yet. My nieces, my nephews, and perhaps someday my children. When I discuss education, though I have taught at a few different levels, I do not discuss it by staring at my feet. I look to the horizon, and the news here is that the Wiki is no longer at the horizon. It's at our feet. Deal with it. Oddly enough, it was Ross Gardler's response to this that got me tracking the conversation back. I know Ross from the time he spent in Trinidad and Tobago, where he tried to institute such things at the University of the West Indies - and met with success. Where he and I did not see Wikis the same way a few years ago - slight differences between strong personalities - I hope that my criticisms were constructive, because if they contained phrases like 'unfounded hope' I would certainly be ashamed of myself. You live and you learn. At any rate, you live... When we talk about adult literacy, I wonder how many professors strive to better themselves at the same rate that they hope that their students learn. Maybe that's my personal problem with a lot of professors, perhaps that's a stereotype that I have with traditional education... Perhaps I suffered under professors who did not believe in trying new things. Ahh, but the ones who did... they failed here and there, but in sharing their failures with we lowly students, they taught us more than a canned curriculum can. I can name every instructor who did this. I cannot remember those that did not. Clinging to an education system which has grown larger buildings, more administration and consistently failed to keep pace with curriculum is a problem. Today we talk of the Wiki. Some criticize the Wiki as a tool, and yet they do so without basis - claiming a lack of basis as the evidence that they themselves lack. So all I ask is that they help gather the evidence. I'd love to see where the Wiki in education has failed. And so would people who use them. Heck, even my favorite CMS has a Wiki module I can install. And you know what? It's cool, and I have no use for it yet. But maybe someday I will. It's a tool in a toolbox that evolves in the dark while I'm not looking. I guess that's why I read random pages of the Wikipedia everyday. It's not the technology, it's the concept of it's use that really makes it worthwhile. If there is unfounded hope... that unfounded hope is in expecting the present system and only the tools of the last few centuries to get us to the future without trying anything new. That's unfounded hope, but it's backed by the same statistics that told NASA that a space shuttle wouldn't explode... because one had never exploded before. -- Taran Rampersad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxgazette.com http://www.a42.com http://www.worldchanging.com http://www.knowprose.com http://www.easylum.net "Criticize by creating." - Michelangelo _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
