[IAEP] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Education_Team#Commentary

[Dennis Daniels]

Great in theory but I've used Moodle for over three years in public
and private schools.

Teachers did not go to Moodle until the admins told them to(public
school: hand tied/ private school: use Moodle or your fired). We had a
teacher who fought using electronic attendance for a year! And the
admin(public school) could do nothing about it.

There are over 6.4 million teachers in the US (2004 census)... the
number of Moodle users in the States?

Teachers will not do anything differently unless admins and parents
tell them to... and even then Unions will ride in and say, "That's not
in the contract." I've seen it, I've heard it.

To get change in the schools it is not going to come from the teachers.

If SUGAR is going to work then it's going to come from the 'lucky'
kids showing off their cool Sugar projects, parents hearing/seeing
about it, going to the admins/ school boards, demanding change or
taking their kids to 'better' schools.

with regards,
Dennis

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EOF



On Tue, Aug 4, 2009 at 15:22, David Farning<dfarning at sugarlabs.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 4, 2009 at 2:50 PM, Dennis Daniels<dennisgdaniels at gmail.com> wrote:
>> It was suggested that I post a link to my commentary about Sugar and
>> education to this list.
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Education_Team#Commentary
>>
>> A quick poll before I go on... how many actively participating
>> teachers on this list or the wiki? From what countries?
>> --------
>> The views expressed are my own and a byproduct of my energies to try
>> and get teachers to incorporate computers into their curriculum for
>> over four years. I built an LTSP lab sometime ago for my English
>> class(I'm a certified English teacher in California.)
>>
>> That lab was an eye-opener for me.Though admins and parents and
>> students loved what was happening in the class, the improved scores,
>> the better writing, higher order thinking etc...  _Not a single
>> teacher accepted my offer_ at my school, or any other!, to help them
>> get their own computer lab running.  Admins couldn't convince OR force
>> teachers to take what was free e.g. my offer to help build the LTSP
>> labs.
>>
>> Sugar will get very little traction in schools without a seriously
>> hard look at your biggest obstacle/opponent: the teachers.
>
> Moddle has a very effective method of dealing with reluctant teachers;
> they don't worry about them!  Moodle works very hard to insure that
> Moodle is effective even if only one teacher in a school uses it.
> Then, they let the kids do the selling:)  If 25 kids successfully used
> Moodle in the third grade, those 25 kids become 4th graders and bug
> their new teachers to use Moodle.
>
> david
>
>> I need help in getting Sugar to be cool for kids and the easiest way
>> _in my experience_ is to make it easy for kids to show off... make
>> screencasting a FUNCTIONING and EASY to USE tool that can be launched
>> from every activity.
>>
>> Please, if you're going to flame back, try to attack the argument (and
>> parts of it may be flawed) and not me.
>>
>> thanks,
>> Dennis
>> _______________________________________________
>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>
>