On 10/27/06, Michael R. Irwin michael_irwin@verizon.net wrote:
Cormac Lawler wrote:
In my talks with the KDE developer people (who want to transfer and develop their entire set of training materials in/to Wikiversity), they suggested they might want to have some way of having a differential level of login for people who were learning and others who are helping others learn. However, I don't personally regard this as "inevitable" - I think we need to discuss this to see if it is desirable for what we're building.
I think it might be useful as long it is strictly under the control of the person logging in. Hopefully this capability can be delivered by adequate labeling of click trails so one can get where one wants/needs to be by following the labeled links.
regards, mirwin
That's a very useful comment, Michael. In fact, this is pretty much what the KDE people want - to outline "paths" that the learner would take to carry out specific tasks. They've painted it as a "structure on top of a web" - the "web" being the whole network of pages on relevant subjects (from core subjects to more peripheral ones), and the "structure" being a network of paths that people could take to learn various skills, whether it's supplemental course on basic skills in C++ combined with advanced PhP, or a clearly outlined path of "this is what you need to be able to do to become a KDE developer from scratch", or whatever.
There are two issues here - how to technically code this course structure capability - and whether or not it is desirable to have people labelled "teachers" and/or "learners".
Cormac
on 10/28/06 5:50 AM, Cormac Lawler at cormaggio@gmail.com wrote:
<major snip>
There are two issues here - how to technically code this course structure capability - and whether or not it is desirable to have people labelled "teachers" and/or "learners".
Question: what privileges/authority are to be conferred on people labelled as teachers? And in what context?
Another question: is it practical to push the collaborative model (everyone is equal, no one has status) into online learning? Especially when you're using coded routines to deliver the learning materials? Don't know.
I can foresee advantages in freezing course content from editing once it's put into delivery in an online learning context, while leaving the same course still available for edits by everyone not taking the course. One course, seen differently depending on how you log on.
Someone who logs into a particular online course could be (possibly should be) seen by the system as either a course facilitator (instructor, teaching assistant, etc.) or as a student, present to participate, not to re-wire the course.
There are advantages in having a label which designates status on particular pages (or areas) of the system. John could be seen by the system as a registered student in High Energy Physics, but a course organizer in the Poetry of John Donne. And having no particular status in all other areas.
Just exactly what teacher and student would mean in practical terms may well be different in each area. Different needs, all that stuff. I suspect this is the direction in which the system may evolve.
Morley Chalmers -- Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. -- Henry David Thoreau
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