On Tuesday 17 April 2007 10:49, Greg Dekoenigsberg wrote: > On Tue, 17 Apr 2007, Eric Brown wrote: > > Speaking as a teacher, what I think is missing for other teachers is > > familiar resources they can use to do what they do. In Greg's > > original post, did those teachers just sit down and learn Moodle on > > their own? I kind of doubt it. > > As I understand it, they went to workshops that were sponsored by the > Indiana DOE. But again: in schools where a single classroom was equipped, > that class did not use the computers. But in schools where multiple > classrooms were equipped, the computers were wildly successful. You understand it correctly. If you like I can probably prod Huffman into joining the list. > Teaching effective use of Moodle (or maybe Sakai) is clearly one of the > requirements for a successful one-to-one computing initiative. > > > We say that we should be teaching word processing and spread sheets, not > > Microsoft Office, good luck finding such resources. Yes they are out > > there, but not in the places most educators normally look, such as the > > website of the big textbook publishers. With all this in mind, I think > > Red Hat, if they want to put company effort into making their product > > specifically, and open source generally, into the minds of educators is > > to promote things like: > > > > -publishing and selling textbooks that specifically teach word processing > > skills, not just Open Office or Word or Abi or whatever > > Let me ask this question: > > Why textbooks? Textbooks are expensive, relative to bits. If the goal is > to teach computer skills, why not make a computer-based curriculum the > primary method of teaching? That would be wonderful and fabulous. The bottom line is there needs to be content. The biggest complaint I've heard about moodle so far is, "I have to type it in?" > > - Have available, for extra cost or free, Moodle course material > > for any of these courses > > I'd say the Moodle curriculum should be the basis -- not the texts. > > > -Provide low cost, highly available training in Moodle (or any other > > open source classroom software deemed appropriate). > > I agree with this. Some combination of CBT-based training and local > knowledge. > > > This could even be done as a train the trainer type sessions where a > > teacher who attended the training could then go back and teach others. > > Which appears to be exactly how Indiana is doing it. Again, correct. But getting that initial person to buy in is a pain. Especially when other forces are driving them away from it for their own reasons/agenda. > > -help develop moodle material for other courses of popular textbooks. As > > a math teacher, I've attempted to do Algebra lessons for Moodle, but > > with equations and graphs, you have to create images for all that. I > > imagine the same issues would exist for physics or chemistry. > > Right. This is a clear issue: I'm seeing a divide between what's possible > for English / History / Social Studies and what's possible for Math / > Physics / Chemistry. Moodle seems to be more useful for the former > disciplines. Looks like NASA is working on some interesting stuff in the > latter, though. > > > I think the best approach would be indirect. Not promote the OS, but > > promote activities that would require or make desirable, open source. > > Yeah, I agree here as well. The nice thing is that the open source > alternative can be the "reference implementation" that just so happens to > be free. > > > That's my opinion. But as I like to say, I'm just a math teacher from > > Iowa. > > Math teachers seem to be underrepresented, so I'm glad to see your > participation. > > If you had your druthers, what software would exist to teach math? > > --g -- Chuck Norris is a hack. MacGyver could build a gun from a paperclip and shoot Chuck Norris, then build a Stargate from a toaster and hide the body on some planet with no food whatsoever for when Chuck Norris wakes up. Public Key available Here: http://www.bravegnuworld.com/~rjune/pubkey.asc _______________________________________________ Fedora-education-list mailing list Fedora-education-list@xxxxxxxxxx http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-education-list
