Hi Mel and all: I'm thinking about setting up a course with p2pu this fall, as a kind of "get my feet wet" thing. Here's the most recent thing I wrote to them (below), submitted for your critique. :) Note, this basically ignores the CS side, but we've had a ton of progress on that separately -- the result will some very shiny new software for PlanetMath (alpha sometime next month).
Joe ..... Thanks for your *varied* feedback. As I've thought more about what I'd like to do with the course, I really think emphasizing the "DIY" aspect of things is the route I want to go. In other words, I intend to make it open to all topics and levels unless participants come up with a compelling reason to focus. The main "pedagogical" reasons for such radical openness are: * to give people one extra reason to take initiative in their own learning. One might say "I've always wanted to learn about P vs NP", another might say "I've always wanted to learn precalculus" -- both are overcoming a mental and emotional hurdle. I'm not suggesting that it's the *same* hurdle, but there are probably some similarities. In the same way that a writer's workshop can serve writers with different interests, this "DIY Math" workshop can serve mathematics learners with different interests by providing a place to share difficulties and successes. * to help people develop skills at co- or peer-to-peer teaching. Ultimately people have to do their own homework exercises and so on, but one can also learn a lot in mathematics by helping others. My "teaching philosophy" is that there are no stupid questions, even if there are a lot of dumb answers. Let's see if we can get better at answering questions together. Also, for my own "selfish" reasons... I'd like to work on developing a platform that serves mathematics learners at all levels. How does this scale (up or down)? Well, I'm not sure, and it seems like there's only one way to find out. :) On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 12:21 AM, Mel Chua <m...@redhat.com> wrote: > Resurrecting an old thread: > >> We briefly discussed the idea of a class related to PlanetMath. >> It's probably useful to clarify that there are two tracks to think >> about: >> >> (1) the mathematics side - producing useful content >> (2) the computing side - producing useful software >> >> As has always been the case at PlanetMath, iIdeally the people >> working on these two sides of the project would talk to each >> other. >> >> In a class setting, I think this might work out in the form of >> a class that was team-taught by someone in CS and someone >> in math. Not strictly necessary, but it would be cool. >> >> Any thoughts or ideas about what I'll need to do to move this >> forward? > > The first milestone is probably also the hardest one - find two faculty (one > math, one CS) willing to try teaching a class like that. Alternatively, you > could find a group of students who want to pursue it as a group independent > study, and some professors or TAs (depending on your institutional > requirements) to mentor it, and start drafting a syllabus. > > Basically, "what do I want this learning experience to be," and THEN "how > can I pitch this idea and position it within my institution so that it > counts for course credit?" > > --Mel > > PS: Cormac - hi! You may not remember me, but we met at Wikimania in Taipei > some years back, I took photos of your presentation on Wikiversity. Glad to > see you're still around the open education space! > _______________________________________________ tos mailing list tos@teachingopensource.org http://teachingopensource.org/mailman/listinfo/tos
