[Sugar-devel] Education on the XO

[Caroline Meeks]

Hi Tony,

I agree that content and activities that are delivered via Moodle should be
an important part of this project.  Have you done any research into what
content is currently available? Who do you think are our best partners for
creating and maintaining a collection of K-8 resources that can be accessed
via Moodle?  Curriki?  Merlot?  Which countries are ahead in this?

Thanks,
Caroline

On Sat, Jan 3, 2009 at 7:31 AM, Tony Anderson <tony_anderson at usa.net> wrote:

> Bryan has started a very interesting discussion about what is needed for
> the XO to support education. I would like to add my two cents worth.
>
> We are learning (gaining new experience) every day that we are alive.
> The traditional difference in education is that it is organized
> learning. Teaching a topic means to provide an organized tour of an area
> of knowledge covering what every student should know or be aware of.
>
> The XO's primary tool for education, as opposed to learning experiences,
> is Moodle. The problem is that Moodle for the XO is a tool which is
> ready and waiting to be used (all dressed up and no where to go).
>
> My vision is that there is a repository (website) which contains free
> (CC or similar) courses covering the core curriculum for K-8. The
> website needs to be supported by a community of developers (course
> creators) and moderators (folks who volunteer to assist teachers and
> students who are participating). This repository should also contain
> 'elective' courses following the model of Oregon's Saturday Academy
> (http://www.saturdayacademy.org/).
>
> A Moodle course is divided into sections (topics, weeks, ...). Each
> section has one or more 'activities' (a word which is very heavily
> overloaded). Essentially an 'activity' here is something the course
> creator asks the students to do or experience (e.g. read an exposition
> on the topic in a wiki page, listen to some music, create an e-toy
> project, answer some questions, ...). Moodle provides the teacher with a
> wealth of information on the progress of each student.
>
> This organization suggests that course developers could start a new
> course or add sections to an existing course or add activities to an
> existing section. It also suggests that teachers in a local community
> could 'cut and paste' a course from these elements, adding or modifying
> as needed.
>
> The moderators would be new element. In the case of the Saturday Academy
> courses, they could be the 'teacher' working with a 'cohort' of enrolled
> students, who could be anywhere in the world. In the case of 'core'
> courses, they could provide help to the classroom teacher as well as
> helping to mentor students at the invitation of the teacher. For
> example, a class in Rwanda studying English could ask a moderator who is
> a native English speaker to meet with them at a specified time to tell
> them a story or host a chat. The teacher could ask the moderator to
> review student submissions (recorded audio or written material) for
> appropriate pronunciation or use of the language.
>
> The primary problem with Moodle at the moment is that there are is not a
> body of grade school courses available to illustrate how to build them
> or to provoke the community to 'make it better'. Unfortunately, at the
> moment, many people in the community do not consider the schoolserver to
> be essential, existing Moodle courses are primarily aimed at the
> university or pre-university level, and most of these are behind
> proprietary walls.
>
> Tony
>
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-- 
Caroline Meeks
Solution Grove
Caroline at SolutionGrove.com

617-500-3488 - Office
505-213-3268 - Fax
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