Claus: Sorry I missed this thread completely. Last year I had a paper that introduced using PNs in helping with teaching - I have used it successfully with visiting high school research students. Here are the details: S. Ramaswamy, R. Seker, S. Sudarsan, M. Itmi, A. Cabani, W. Alshabi, "Modeling and Simulation: The basis for education enrichment and software systems design", Jour. of Enterprise Info. Systems, 2(2): May 2008. pp. 177-199. --Srini. As teachers' we cannot draft or recruit talent, we have to find innovative ways to develop them -- Srini [3/7/05] Dr. Srini Ramaswamy, Professor & Chairperson Dept. of. Computer Science Dickinson Hall Suite 515 University of Arkansas at Little Rock 2801 S. University Avenue, Little Rock, AR 72204 Phone: (501)-569-8130 Fax: (501)-569-8144 Email: [email protected] / [email protected] URL: http://cpsc.ualr.edu/srini _____ From: Paula Mangas [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2008 5:20 PM To: Claus Reinke Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: (PN) Petri nets and school/children? (summary) Dear Claus Reinke, To be honest, I think that before talking to little child about petri-nets (or another mathematical model) the focus must be people a little bit older... A known fact: there is a lot of people, in universities, that don't understand and isn't interested on this subject... And I surely agree with the fact that it would help improve critical thinking at this level too :-) ... Things which can help to generalise the interest and use of this kind of subject: 1. A forum, like you said. Note that a forum and a mailing list isn't the same thing! As an example, this list is usually used to publish events and related news... a forum is a place to discuss and learn... And I garantee you that if a forum doesn't attract teachers it will surely attract students... 2. Online interactive tools to help understanding concepts; 3. Challenges and Contests, with apropriate material to self-development; 4. Good e-learning classes, with good pratical examples; 5. Games, where players must know what they are doing (using the theory). Best Regards, Paula Mangas On Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 2:53 PM, Claus Reinke <[email protected]> wrote: Nearly two weeks ago, I asked for references to usability studies of Petri nets for school-aged children, or any other Petri nets in school (pre-university schools, that is) related works: http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/cgi-bin/TGI/pnml/getpost?id=2008/11/440 6 The very small number of replies seems to confirm that this is a largely uncovered area of education research, although alternative explanations are possible. Even assuming that this list still reaches a large part of the Petri net research community, and that Petri nets are apparently used in some schools, it appears that school teachers have their own online communities, entirely separate from this list (is there any information on the range of interests covered by list subscribers here?). Also, they might lack the time/inclination/encouragement/support to publish their findings, or might record their experiences in local language only, without wider distribution. Researchers, on the other hand, might lack the contacts to local schools, or find it difficult to imagine that their children, long advanced from simple board games to multiplayer online dungeons, could be at all interested in something as simple as Petri nets? I would hope not, given work on team planning for robot agents, or game story plot modelling, among others!-) I would be interested in other explanations, but for now, it seems that there is either an unexpected hole in Petri nets research, or an unfortunate disconnect between research and education practitioners in this area. Please note also that my search was limited to online resources, as local university libraries in England tend to be unhelpful on the subject of Petri nets (thinking back to the shelves of Petri net publications in German libraries, a search in one of them might turn up relevant older references). Perhaps the topic could be emphasized in future events, and the "Education with Petri Nets" section on the Petri Nets World could be generalized from academia towards including schools (an unambigous standard keyword for publications relating to this subject would also help, as the ambiguity resulting from overloaded terms currently makes successful search near impossible). I'm not sure whether a Petri net education specific forum would attract teachers more than this list, given that nets can only be one of very many topics on their busy schedule. But a wiki dedicated to this subject, as part of the Petri Nets World, would allow them to share tools, experiences, best practice in a central place, more visible to the general Petri nets community (contacts with other groups of school children working on the same subject, or with researchers willing to offer teacher support, tool expertise, and inspirational encounters with real-life applications might also be popular). Thanks to all who have replied! Claus No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.9.17/1844 - Release Date: 12/11/2008 8:58 PM
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