Dear Paula and Claus,
I agree with suggestions of Paula, I think such tools would help in
promotion of Petri nets.
From my experience with the few tens of students that I had on this
subject so far I can say that they often prefer:
* studying individually - not using available lectures and practical
lessons in their full potential
* reading easy-to-understand texts - not scientific papers or theoretical
books with definitions and proofs (since we are application oriented)
* using online resources to paper books - even if I offer them a paper
book in maternal language, they rather go to simpler articles on Wikipedia
in English.
In this context the suggestion of Paula seems to be relevant - for our
university students at least. Maybe such resources exist out there on the
web of many universities. Is there a central place able to inform about
them?
Best regards,
Michal Zarnay
On Thu, 11 Dec 2008, Paula Mangas wrote:
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=2008/11/4406
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
----
[[ Petri Nets World: ]]
[[ http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/TGI/PetriNets/ ]]
[[ Mailing list FAQ: ]]
[[ http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/TGI/PetriNets/pnml/faq.html ]]
[[ Post messages/summary of replies: ]]
[[ [email protected] ]]
