[Sugar-devel] [Fwd: Re: Education on the XO]

[Tony Anderson]

Hi,

I don't know Merlot. There is a lot of good ingredients in the Connexion
site at Rice. Sadly, there is a tremendous body of good ingredients, but
all copyrighted. I think in many cases the copyright is not done to
restrict use of the materials, but because it is automatic. However,
that poses a major hurdle in using the material.

The question of partners is central (and the reason I raised the issue).
I would think Sugar Labs are an option. The Moodle organization is an
option. However, even there the only 'free' course example I could find
was the 'Features Demo'.

So far as I can tell, the countries are tied up trying to solve
immediate deployment problems. While there is a lot of good work being
done, it is not easily accessible as ingredients for course building.

I would appreciate any ideas you have on how to proceed.

Thanks,

Tony


Caroline Meeks wrote:
> 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 
> <mailto: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
> 
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