> -----Original Message----- > From: linux-audio-user-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:linux-audio- > user-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of RTaylor > Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2004 5:51 AM > To: A list for linux audio users > Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] (OT) > > Michael T Nelson <m_nels@xxxxxxx> wrote: > > > In retrospect, I'd have been better off finding a degree in Computer > > Science with Music Technology. But they don't do that at York, which is: > > I've always thought that Gnu {I suppose any organization with a > sufficiently large following and a decent reputation...} should do > something like this... all it would really require is a chartered tour of > several existent web pages, some test with which to judge yourself over > the course of a term and some sort of certification when the candidate > feels that they know enough to be qualified. > > Teaching could be done by intelligent, interactive websites from a > knowledge base with a few simplish functions... administering tests, > meteing out the next parts of the lesson plan... maybe a bit of very > specific advice once in a while... > > I can't think of a more comfortable way to go to school... you could > schedule stuff however you wanted, etc, etc... Hi, While I agree that a volume of knowledge regarding GNU/audio stuff is already available online, for a newcomer it is too fragmented and incoherent. Furthermore, even if a single unifying resource existed such as the one you suggested, due to ongoing development in this field, it would require a significant amount of work to keep it up-to-date (and imho keeping-up a well-composed prose that could be used for studying something that is constantly changing requires a lot more work than verbally explaining them). Finally, not everyone is prone to learning just by reading and they require additional stimuli via lectures, assignments, and hands-on work. Hence, I believe that relying only on the Web content for the general educational purposes would not carry very far. Sure, it would work for the minority (esp. those who have mathematical/programming mind and are capable of learning programming in a particular toolkit just by looking-up API's) but for the broader population it would end-up being nothing more than a reference. As far as Website content being able to offer you the pace of learning that fits your needs, this in practice never works as it is in human nature to postpone that which is the least urgent. This would inadvertently lead to non-systematic learning and therefore mixed results. School programs impose assignments onto students for reasons other than grading, most importantly to stimulate student to work hard in order to master the given material. Best wishes, Ivica Ico Bukvic, composer & multimedia sculptor http://meowing.ccm.uc.edu/~ico/ --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.788 / Virus Database: 533 - Release Date: 11/1/2004