Bob La Quey wrote:
On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 11:06 PM, Joshua Penix <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I don't think getting into the administrative front-office network is wise,
but Lan is starting down a good "who" track with his post about the
California public schools needing help due to restricted funding. Merge
that with Doug's "what" suggestion about an in-school online forum and I
think we're getting somewhere. Think harder about the "use" picture -
students and/or teachers having a digital communication tool that they
wouldn't otherwise have. Think instant messaging or voice messaging mixed
with a collaborative learning website. Maybe a streaming video server for
reviewing class lectures at leisure. I may be wildly off base, but this are
the general sorts of ideas I'm looking for. I don't want implementation
specifics... those come later. Yes, I can see FLOSS projects being central
to all of the above ideas, but that's just a natural function of "build
something digital in the year 2008 with the best bang for the buck."
Well, I would take a look at Moodle and where they stand in terms of
this stuff:
http://www.moodle.com
The problem isn't what or how. That isn't really an issue anymore. If
I want to do something on a computer, I can find someone to do it.
The issue is *content*.
Content is expensive to produce in terms of time.
For example, I asked about video recording my classes at SDSU. *Nobody*
could come up with a way to do that cheaply in terms of human time. The
computer end of things was easy; the initial human end was expensive.
Someone has to man a camera, edit the video, convert the format, etc.
The actual computer end of things is almost irrelevant.
This is crux of the problem in looking to help education, I think. What
everybody wants is an extra pair of human hands to do "X, Y or Z" which
makes their job easier. Unfortunately, that's actually the last thing
we want to do is provide "human hands". We want to provide technology
so that we *don't* have to provide human hands indefinitely.
I can't really think of much in general education where computer
technology makes things easier (computer science, I argue, is
different). What can a computer do in a classroom to reduce the
teacher's load? What does a good teacher do that a computer could augment?
If SDCS (or KPLUG) really want to make a difference, probably the thing
which would attract the most attention would be folks actually standing
up in front of groups and teaching. Most places are *ecstatic* to have
someone come in and talk who knows whats going on. However, this is
actually the last thing most people in the SDCS clubs really want to do.
-a
--
[email protected]
http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
